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Alcohol and drug clinics fear for the future

A survey of alcohol and drug services shows a majority fear they will lose state funding after the community care shake-up in April.

The money, which clinics say the government promised to ring-fence, will now be given to local authorities to oversee. Drug and alcohol services believe that it may then be spent by other hard-pressed priority services.

Most of the 91 agencies in the survey, which was carried out by Alcohol Concern, receive more than half of their funding from the government. They say that most of the funding will be cut in April, and that they will become unviable almost immediately afterwards, with many redundancies being necessary before June. At least a quarter predict redundancies even before April, clearly anticipating a funding shortfall.

The Alcohol Recovery Project, backed by many leading drug and alcohol charities, believes the government has acted illegally by reneging on its 1990 promise to ring-fence funding. It initiated judicial review proceedings to force the government to ring-fence funding for residential projects, but in February the High Court ruled in the government’s favour.

The ARP, which has four centres in London, had budgeted to spend £250,000 on building developments. The government has said it has around £2.1m for alcohol services, but ARP say this is a top-up grant and is separate from the estimated £20m needed annually for drug and alcohol agencies.