Decision details

Recovery from Alcohol and Drug Dependence Grants 2025/2026

Decision Maker: Cabinet Member for Health and Communities

Decision status: Recommendations approved

Is Key decision?: No

Is subject to call in?: Yes

Purpose:

To agree the award of grants up to a total of £0.200m for a period of one year to 5 organisations for recovery from alcohol and drug dependence and to agree the award of a grant up to £5,000 to fund the Growing Recovery in Derbyshire (GRID) website to ensure the website continues to be hosted and maintained by the designers for a period of two years.

Decision:

 

That the Cabinet Member for Health and Communities:

 

a)         Approve the grant award of a total of £0.142m, from 1 April 2025 until 31 March 2026 to four organisations from the Public Health Reserve, noting the full break down of allocations as outlined in paragraph 4.8 of the report.

 

b)         Approve the grant award of up to £5,000 from the Public Health Reserve to Derbyshire Addictions Advice Service (DAAS) to fund the ongoing development of the Growing in Recovery Derbyshire (GRID) website to ensure the website continues to be hosted and maintained for a period of two (2) years from 1 April 2025 until 31 March 2027.

 

c)          Approve the award of £0.185m of underspend from Year Three (3) of the Supplemental Substance Misuse Treatment and Recovery Grant (SSMTRG) in line with approval from the Office of Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID), noting the full breakdown of allocations as outlined in paragraph 4.13 of the report.

 

 

Reasons for the decision:

 The four organisations, outlined in paragraph 4.8, meet the criteria for the grant funding and the projects have demonstrated, that they can provide activities to support recovery in Derbyshire from 01 April 2025 until 31 March 2026.

 

Derbyshire Addictions Advice Service (DAAS) have previously been grant-funded to support the GRID website re-branding and re-design.  Approving this request will ensure that the website will continue to be hosted and maintained beyond March 2025 for a period of two (2) years and will ensure Derbyshire residents are provided with a resource with improved functionality which has been co-produced with people in recovery.

 

 In addition, regarding the interventions outlined in paragraph 4.13, SSMTRG funding is integral to maximising the capacity of the Council’s funded services and improving the quality of provision required by OHID. Swift and timely mobilisation and ability to fund innovative approaches is essential to maximise grant use allocated to the authority in 2024-25 as underspend cannot be carried over and any underspend would have to be returned to OHID and therefore not used to support outcomes for Derbyshire residents.

 

Alternative options considered:

Do nothing: This is not a preferred option as individuals in receipt of drug and alcohol treatment are more likely to recover if they can access supportive arrangements alongside treatment and provision across the County would be greatly reduced.  Also, this option would not be in line with the recent government 10-year policy ‘From Harm to Hope’, which recent updated guidance had a renewed focus on developing recovery opportunities.

 

Do something different: A second competitive process would not be a preferred option as these four projects, outlined in paragraph 4.8, have already scored highly and have been through a robust competitive grant process, which was originally for a 2-year period (2024-2026) and a second process would be duplication of the original process.  Also, this option would not be in line with the recent updated government 10-year policy ‘From Harm to Hope’ which recent updated guidance had a renewed focus on developing recovery opportunities.

 

In addition, regarding interventions outlined in paragraph 4.13, timely utilisation of the SSMTRG funding is integral to maximising the capacity of the Councils funded services and improving the quality of provision required by OHID. Swift mobilisation and ability to fund innovative approaches, is essential to maximise grant use as underspend cannot be carried over.

 

Publication date: 30/01/2025

Date of decision: 28/01/2025

Effective from: 07/02/2025

Accompanying Documents: