Sixteen local areas in England have been short-listed as potential pilot sites for exploring the introduction of payment by results for drugs recovery.

Following an invitation to participate in December, 29 applications were received and a short-list drawn up of 16 partnerships (two of which are submitting a joint bid), reflecting a mix of different areas.  

Representatives from each area joined officials from the cross-government project team at a workshop last week.  The event was held to support local areas develop their bids for a second-stage application in advance of the final selection by Ministers on the pilot sites.  This was also an opportunity to raise questions and start to explore some of the challenging issues that the successful areas will face.

Anne Milton, the Minister for Public Health, opened the meeting by thanking the shortlisted partnerships for their willingness to take on what she acknowledged would be a "challenging area".

Outlining the government's commitment to building a community-based, recovery-focused system, the Minister assured partnerships that the government was keen to listen to them and learn from their passion, experience and knowledge.

"We've given the outline of the approach," she said. "But we need you, the people in this room, to shape the detail - to show us how it can and should work in practice."

The session was also attended by officials from the Department of Health, Home Office, Ministry of Justice, Department of Work and Pensions, Department for Education, and Cabinet Office.

The workshop highlighted a range of technical issues including tariff setting, metrics and the proposal for a Local Area Single Assessment and Referral System (LASARS). The government has acknowledged that payment by results for drug recovery is uncharted territory and it will need to work closely with local areas to shape the detail of the schemes.

Rosanna O'Connor, the NTA's Director of Delivery, thanked attendees for their interest and participation.  She said that the cross-government project team would be happy to respond to any further questions, and recommended that they made use of the NTA's local teams for support in putting full proposals together in time for the 3 March deadline.

In April the successful pilot sites will start work with the PbR project team to begin co-designing the detail of the pilots, with the aim that they are up and running from October 2011.

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