The Government provide specific resources for drug treatment in the form of the pooled drug treatment budget (PTB), administered by the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse, which combined with local mainstream funding results in substantial investment in local drug treatment funding.
The PTB is allocated to local drug partnerships and figures for the Hertfordshire Drug and Alcohol Team are as follows:
Funding (£) 2005-06 4,120,026 2006-07 4,933,918 2007-08 5,025,733 2008-09 4,961,579 2009-10 4,976,990
The projected PTB allocation for 2010-11 is £4,704,952. However, the exact allocation is dependent on partnership performance and will not be confirmed until January 2010. Figures for 2011-12 are not yet available.
Until 2008-09 PTB was allocated against a basket of indicators of social and economic deprivation known to reflect drug use as the best available proxy of treatment need.
Differences in performance between drug partnerships in getting people into treatment were resulting in unjustifiable variations in the size of the central contribution to the costs of each person’s treatment.
2009-10 is the second year of a process which seeks to produce a fairer allocation system which more accurately matches need, activity and resources.
The new process is based on three elements:
25 per cent. of the allocation is based on the indicators underpinning the previous formula to reflect the differential cost of responding to different levels of complex need such as homelessness, mental heath, family breakdown and unemployment;
75 per cent. is based on activity in the treatment system with areas being allocated a set amount per person treated effectively; and
The final element is an area cost adjustment figure to reflect the varying costs of delivering services in different parts of the country.
To promote an orderly alteration to service planning, the change is being introduced over three years.