Councillors warned that measures to tackle drug addiction in Warwickshire are unlikely to yield fast results

Warwickshire councillors have been warned that measures to tackle addiction to potent drugs such as heroin are unlikely to yield fast results.

The county's performance data showed that one in six people engaged in treatment for drug and alcohol abuse successfully completed a treatment programme in the financial year 2022-23.

The overall rate for those being treated in relation to opiates, non opiates, alcohol or opiates and alcohol sank to 16.73 per cent – a drop of 1.6 per cent – in the first three months of this calendar year. The target is 20.1 per cent, slightly more than one in five.

The council’s report said that “despite the overall dip, all treatment areas except (those for) opiates had improved”.

It added that data for each treatment category would be published separately from now on with “a new communication and marketing strategy for treatment” due to be launched while “grant funding is being used to bolster workforces”.

Opiates, including the illegal drug heroin and many strong prescription painkillers such as fentanyl and morphine, are highly addictive, leading the NHS to get rid of 450,000 prescriptions containing them over the past four years.

Elected councillors have access to live data for some performance areas and Councillor Ian Shenton (Con, Arden), speaking at this week’s meeting of the adult social care and health overview and scrutiny committee, said that rates of drug and alcohol problems and smoking were “increasing, not decreasing” in Warwickshire.

“The suggestion seems to be that all (treatment) areas apart from opiates are improving, which as an overall number (rather than a proportion) is getting worse. That suggests that (successful treatments for) opiates have fallen off the edge of a cliff,” he said.

“I notice the actions are about marketing. I am wondering whether the problem lies with a lack of engagement with the programme or is there something else we should be aware of.”

Dr Shade Agboola, Warwickshire’s director of public health said: “This has been an ongoing problem but there is evidence that it is starting to improve now.

“We completed a needs assessment in October 2022 to identify what the areas of priority should be and this included increasing the number of clients that are treated, particularly opiate service users.

“We receive a substance misuse grant annually and funding has been used to increase the number of clients that go into treatment.

“Our providers have been able to use this to increase the number of service users prescribed a particular medication called Buvidal and the feedback suggests that people have remained engaged with treatment.

“There is evidence, and it is the service forecast, that we will start to see an improvement but these things take time. I suggest we will start to see a reversal of the trends.”

Cllr Shenton asked for an estimated timescale with Dr Agboola replying: “It would be difficult for me to say an exact timeframe but I know that the measures we have put in place will result in improvement.”