MINISTERS will announce radical changes to streamline the way anti-drink and drug services are delivered in Scotland later today in an attempt to improve the country's appalling record on addiction.
The current 22 Alcohol and Drug Action Teams will be scrapped and replaced with a new structure, designed to fit in with the aims of the Scottish Government and the operations of health boards and local authorities.
A total of 32 new "partnerships
" will be set up, one for each local authority area. Each one will have to follow the overall strategy set out by the government and liaise closely with councils and health boards.
The changes will be unveiled at a "drugs summit" in Edinburgh today, hosted by the Community Safety Minister Fergus Ewing.
Annabel Goldie, the Scottish Conservative Leader, claimed credit for bringing the summit about, arguing that it was only because of Tory pressure in the run-up to last year's budget vote that secured the Scottish Government's agreement for a new approach to drug policy.
But she insisted that the summit had to mark a watershed in Scotland's dangerous relationship with drink and drugs.
She said: "The fact that this summit is happening at all is directly due to the Scottish Conservatives."
And she added: "This week must mark a turning point in Scotland's fightback against addiction. The well intentioned rhetoric of the last year must be turned into reality."
Politicians on all sides of the chamber agree that Scotland's record on drink and drugs is woeful, with an estimated 60,000 children living with drug-addicted parents and 65,000 living with alcohol-addicted parents.
A total of 500 children were being treated themselves for alcohol or drug addiction last year, statistics Miss Goldie described as "unbelievably sickening".
It was in this context that the Scottish Government devised a new drugs' strategy, at the heart of which was a shake-up for the way drug services are delivered locally.
A government report supported the principle of local drug and drink action teams but criticised the existing Alcohol and Drug Action Teams for not working closely enough with councils and health boards.
Mr Ewing will sign up to the new structure on behalf of the Scottish Government today. Shona Robison, the health minister, will sign on behalf of the Scottish Health Service and Councillor Ronnie McColl, the Cosla health spokesman, will sign for Scotland's local authorities.
A senior Scottish Government source insisted that there was no question of funding being cut for the new bodies and he stressed that funding for drug treatment was going up, by 13 per cent over three years.
TOWARDS PARTNERSHIPTHERE are currently 22 Alcohol and Drug Action Teams in Scotland.
They are to be replaced with 32 new "partnership" bodies, liaising more closely with local authorities and health boards and following the Scottish Government's anti-addiction strategy.
The path to this change started in 2007 with a review of the ADATs. It called for "greater clarity and consistency" in their role.
Then, in March this year, a report by an expert review group recommended that local anti-addiction bodies be linked in to councils, health boards and the Scottish Government. Today's conference marks the culmination of that process.
