Jonathan Ashworth (Shadow health secretary) UK.

The Guardian has reported that more than half of the local authorities in England have cut their budgets for alcohol and drug treatment, even though admissions to hospital for problems related to addiction are soaring, say MPs.

Liam Byrne, the chair of the cross-party parliamentary group for children of alcoholics, and Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, have both spoken of the trauma of growing up with an alcoholic father. They are among a number of MPS who are challenging the cuts.

The data comes from a freedom of information (FoI) request by Byrne to local authorities, which are responsible for drug and alcohol treatment in their areas while stuggling to provide recources with huge cuts to budgets.

Bryne commented “Every child of an alcoholic comes to learn the brutal hard way that we can’t change things for our parents, but we can change things for our children,”.

This data has been indicating that alcohol-related hospital admissions are up by 13%, which constitutes 39,000 more in 2018 than in 2009. This is occuring alongside alcohol treatment budgets being cut by 4%.

You can read more here.

The Drive Project launched in April 2016 and is being piloted in three areas across England and Wales from 2016-2019. It is being developed and run as part of a partnership between Respect, SafeLives, and Social Finance in collaboration with the PCCs, local authorities, and service providers, and delivered by DVIP (division of Richmond Fellowship), Hampton Trust, Safer Merthyr Tydfil, and the Change Project.

Drive targets the perpetrators of domestic abuse and improves outcomes for victims and children. The key objectives are to: reduce the number of serial perpetrators of domestic abuse; reduce the number of repeat and new victims; reduce the harm caused to victims and children; intervene earlier to safeguard families living with high-harm domestic abuse.

The University of Bristol, acting as independent evaluators for the pilot, have now reported on their second year findings from Drive. The aim of the University’s first year’s feasibility study was to determine whether the intervention could be safely delivered and ensure that sufficient data could be captured to enable evaluation. The Year 2 evaluation is an interim report assessing outcome findings to date and developing a deeper understanding of the model. The Year 3 evaluation, which is currently underway and due at the end of 2019, will focus on a full evaluation, over the three-year pilot period, of outcomes, process, and cost-benefit analysis.

Indicative findings are continuing to be positive, demonstrating that Drive is reducing harm to victims and children by targeting perpetrators of domestic abuse.

Please click here to read the executive summary that highlights these key findings.