Purpose

The Cabinet Member:  

 

 

1.    
Approved a variation of the Council’s Integrated
Drug and Alcohol Treatment Service contract with Change Grow Live
Limited to incorporate additionalgrant funding received from the Office of
Health Improvement and Disparities for Rough Sleeper Drug and
Alcohol Treatment for contract year 2023/24 and 2024/25. The
contract variation value shall be £707,126.00 in contract
year 23/24 and £734,803.00 in contract year 24/25.  The
total value of the contract variation shall be
£1,441,929.00.  

2.    
Authorised the Council to
enter into a contract
variation with the provider, Change Grow Live Limited, for the
contract years2023/24 and
2024/25. 
 

Reasons for the decision

The main reason for the recommendation is to approve
the funding for 23/24and
24/25 to enable a
continuation of the Rough Sleeper Drug and Alcohol Treatment
Service. Health and
Wellbeing Strategy outcomes supported by this service include
reducing the impact of harmful drinking and alcohol dependence
especially for those in the lowest income bracket, reducing poverty
through moving off the street and accessing housing and/or
improving housing outcomes.  

 

Continuing the funding will help achieve the
government’s ambition of reducing and eliminatingrough sleeping and addressing one of the
underlying causes which is substance
misuse.  
 

Alternative options considered

When the project was developed a range of alternative models
were considered which could have for example invested the funding
via a housing provider or the Councils existing Rough Sleepers
Team. These options though were ruled out for the following
reasons: 
 
This service is required to provide specialist drug and alcohol
treatment and CGL is the only commissioned provider in Peterborough
delivering this.
 
The monitoring requirements set out by OHID require quarterly
returns which include details of treatment progress, CGL as the
treatment provider already has the necessary IT infrastructure to
deliver this and other providers are unlikely to be able to invest
the time and resources required to develop this.
 
Prior to the funding being awarded by central government the
Council was already funding a Specialist Drug and Alcohol Treatment
post within the CGL service in recognition that this is specialist
work requiring the treatment oversight which CGL can offer.
 
For those rough sleepers who are not yet ready to engage in
treatment, harm reduction needle and syringe provision needs to be
offered and Blood Borne Virus testing, these are interventions
which CGL as a Specialist Drug and Alcohol Treatment Provider is
best placed to deliver
 
The CGL Team works in close partnership with the Councils Rough
Sleeper Team undertaking joint outreach and co-locates with local
housing providers to help access and support the rough sleeper/at
risk of rough sleeper client group.