Dame Carol Black visits Gateshead to see drug strategy in action
Last week, Dame Carol Black visited Gateshead to find out more about our Local Combatting Drugs Partnership.
The Northumbria Partnership covers the same six local authority areas as the Northumbria Police force - Gateshead, Newcastle, Sunderland, South Tyneside, North Tyneside and Northumberland. It was formed to support the government's 10 year drug strategy, From Harm to Hope, which was developed in response to a comprehensive, independent review led by Dame Carol in 2021.
There are 3 key strands to this strategy:
- breaking drug supply chains
- delivering world class treatment and recovery
- achieving a generational shift in demand for drugs
Local authorities have also been allocated additional funding for drug and alcohol treatment and recovery services.
To see this work in action, Dame Carol visited the Gateshead Recovery Partnership to meet with staff and service users, Director of Public Health Alice Wiseman (Senior Responsible Officer for the Northumbria Partnership) and Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner Kim McGuinness (Partnership Chair). The integrated drug and alcohol service offers a range of support for adults in Gateshead, including prescribing services, detox support, structured rehabilitation and support with housing and employment.
Alice Wiseman said: "It was a real pleasure to welcome Dame Carol to Gateshead as her work has been instrumental in securing significant and much-needed government investment in tackling issues related to drugs and alcohol. She spoke at length with users of the service, who spoke highly of the support they'd received and were particularly positive about the involvement of individuals with similar lived experience.
The aim of the newly-formed Northumbria Combatting Drugs Partnership is to improve the integration of services and make it easier for organisations that span multiple localities, such as the police and probation service, to serve the areas they cover at a senior level. We already have a strong track record of working collaboratively with the partners involved in this work and I'm looking forward to seeing the difference we can make together for the people of Gateshead and elsewhere in the North East."
Read more on Dame Carol Black's independent review.
Pictured L-R: Julia Sharp - Public Health Programme Lead; Alice Wiseman - Director of Public Health; Lauren Comber - Head of Project ADDER; Adam Burnell - Humankind IPS Employment Specialist (Gateshead Recovery Partnership); Jade Glass, Change Grow Live Performance and Quality Lead (Gateshead Recovery Partnership); Dame Carol Black; Rachael Millar - Deputy Director, Combatting Drugs Unit; Will Haydock - Local Systems Lead Joint Drugs Unit.
Last week, Dame Carol Black visited Gateshead to find out more about our Local Combatting Drugs Partnership.
The Northumbria Partnership covers the same six local authority areas as the Northumbria Police force - Gateshead, Newcastle, Sunderland, South Tyneside, North Tyneside and Northumberland. It was formed to support the government's 10 year drug strategy, From Harm to Hope, which was developed in response to a comprehensive, independent review led by Dame Carol in 2021.
There are 3 key strands to this strategy:
- breaking drug supply chains
- delivering world class treatment and recovery
- achieving a generational shift in demand for drugs
Local authorities have also been allocated additional funding for drug and alcohol treatment and recovery services.
To see this work in action, Dame Carol visited the Gateshead Recovery Partnership to meet with staff and service users, Director of Public Health Alice Wiseman (Senior Responsible Officer for the Northumbria Partnership) and Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner Kim McGuinness (Partnership Chair). The integrated drug and alcohol service offers a range of support for adults in Gateshead, including prescribing services, detox support, structured rehabilitation and support with housing and employment.
Alice Wiseman said: "It was a real pleasure to welcome Dame Carol to Gateshead as her work has been instrumental in securing significant and much-needed government investment in tackling issues related to drugs and alcohol. She spoke at length with users of the service, who spoke highly of the support they'd received and were particularly positive about the involvement of individuals with similar lived experience.
The aim of the newly-formed Northumbria Combatting Drugs Partnership is to improve the integration of services and make it easier for organisations that span multiple localities, such as the police and probation service, to serve the areas they cover at a senior level. We already have a strong track record of working collaboratively with the partners involved in this work and I'm looking forward to seeing the difference we can make together for the people of Gateshead and elsewhere in the North East."
Read more on Dame Carol Black's independent review.
Pictured L-R: Julia Sharp - Public Health Programme Lead; Alice Wiseman - Director of Public Health; Lauren Comber - Head of Project ADDER; Adam Burnell - Humankind IPS Employment Specialist (Gateshead Recovery Partnership); Jade Glass, Change Grow Live Performance and Quality Lead (Gateshead Recovery Partnership); Dame Carol Black; Rachael Millar - Deputy Director, Combatting Drugs Unit; Will Haydock - Local Systems Lead Joint Drugs Unit.
