To ask the Minister of Health (i) for their assessment of the need for an Executive-wide strategy on tackling drugs; and (ii) to detail any plans they have to develop such a strategy.

(i) Following full public consultation and Executive approval, I launched Preventing Harm, Empowering Recovery – A Strategic Framework to Tackle the Harm from Substance Use (2021-31) in September 2021 as Northern Ireland's new 10-year Substance Use Strategy. While health-led, this is an Executive-wide strategy which was co-produced as a specific commitment arising from the New Decade New Approach agreement and was prioritised in response to that commitment and also as a key element of the Executive’s overarching Programme for Government. It also has direct links with the Executive’s strategic framework for public health Making Life Better and with the Mental Health Strategy 2021-31.

(ii) As part of the delivery of the strategy’s outcomes, I tasked the Public Health Agency and the Strategic Planning & Performance Group to co-produce a new outcomes-focused strategic service delivery plan to replace the current Alcohol & Drug Services Commissioning Framework, covering all tiers of service provision. This new Substance Use Strategic Commissioning & Implementation Plan will:

•ensure that the population of NI have access to a continuum of service with clear pathways and step-up/step-down provision;

•ensure equal access to community detoxification for alcohol and other drugs across NI;

•ensure that all services are delivered in line with the UK-wide “Drug Misuse and Dependence: Guidelines on Clinical Management” and NICE Guidelines;

•provide support to address the wider physical, mental health, and wellbeing needs of those in treatment, including housing, education, employment, personal finance, healthcare e.g. should be supported to stop smoking and address other physical health conditions; and

•recognise the importance of co-production and strengthen joint working between the community/voluntary sector, service users and peers, and the Health & Social Care Sector.

Two other priority pieces of work are also due to report shortly – a Population Needs-Based Assessment of Substance Use and related services in the Western Health & Social Care Trust area, and an Independent Review of Inpatient Tier 4 Detoxification & Residential Rehabilitation Services across Northern Ireland. The recommendations from both reports have helped to inform the final Strategic Commissioning & Implementation Plan, and it is the intention that all future funding decisions around substance use related services will be based on this new commissioning framework. To date an additional £750,000 has been invested recurrently in the Strategy’s implementation. The full delivery of the strategy will be dependent on additional funding being made available going forward.