It has been a rollercoaster year for drug treatment, and I would like to thank the thousands of drug workers across England for their continuing commitment to providing high quality, evidence-based services to a record number of clients in challenging circumstances.

Your hard work and dedication on behalf of a vulnerable and often misunderstood population is much appreciated, and the efforts of the treatment field have not gone unnoticed as the coalition government sought to put its distinctive stamp on drug policy. 

We now have a clear direction of travel for the future, set out in a new Drug Strategy and buttressed by reforms in the NHS and public health that will dramatically change the landscape in which drug treatment is delivered from 2012 onwards.  

The role of the National Treatment Agency is to manage the transition to a system where services are commissioned locally by Directors of Public Health, employed by local authorities but accountable to a new national service, Public Health England.

During this interim period the NTA has been mandated to lead the development of a recovery-oriented drug treatment system, and undertake a public consultation on a new national framework to replace Models of Care which will be launched shortly.

In the meantime the Drug Strategy also confirmed that from April 2011 the Department of Health (DH) will assume responsibility for funding all drug treatment in prison and the community, together with a significant part of the programme to ensure drug-related offenders get access to treatment.

This represents a welcome extension to the principle originally enshrined in the Pooled Treatment Budget (PTB), and a major step towards achieving “one pot for one purpose” in drug treatment funding. It also provides a golden opportunity to ensure that all individuals in treatment (especially offenders) benefit from co-ordinated support along the full course of their recovery journey.

As a result, we now know that £501.7m will be available in 2011-12 to support community drug treatment in England. The core of the package remains the PTB, whose value has remained broadly stable in recent years, enabling commissioners to plan ahead with confidence.

The remaining £95m is slightly less than the £105m provided by the Drug Interventions Programme last year. However when combined with a PTB that has remained flat in cash terms at £406.7m, the total represents a modest decrease of only 1.6 per cent.

This is a substantial commitment by central government at a time when all budgets are being squeezed and many publicly-funded programmes are being significantly reduced. It represents a more generous settlement for drug treatment than many might have anticipated in the current economic climate.

Most importantly, I believe the sum is sufficient to enable the field to deliver the aspirations set out in the Drug Strategy and continue to make progress in 2011-12 towards a recovery-focussed treatment system.

The biggest threat to those ambitions is the potential for local disinvestment. With the impending abolition of Primary Care Trusts and severe budgetary pressures on local authorities, there is legitimate concern across the treatment field that the extra funding currently provided from local sources will be squeezed.  I believe this would be a grave mistake, and is not what the government wants.

The recent public health white paper made clear that reducing drug use, and enabling people to overcome dependency, recover fully and contribute to society, will be a key priority for the new public health service. To that end, NTA local teams will be working with partnerships to ensure sufficient resources are available in each local area to deliver the treatment aims and recovery outcomes of the Drug Strategy. 

This renewed emphasis on recovery is by no means a repudiation of what drug treatment has achieved. We still need to get people into treatment when they need it, and ensure they stay in long enough to overcome dependency and start rebuilding their lives. What we need to do now is build on those foundations with a new emphasis on helping clients leave treatment safely and reintegrate into society.

We know the direction of travel, and we have the money. Our challenge for the year ahead is to work together across the treatment field to deliver the enhanced services that our clients want and need and deserve. With your support, I have no doubt that we can succeed.