Transcript Ayrshire and Arran Alcohol and Drug Action Team

Irene Campbell
Ayrshire and Arran
Alcohol and Drug Action Team
Stigma – Education, training and
employment …
• Local perspective
• National perspective
• Welfare reforms – Green Paper
Stigma – Education, training and
employment …………
• Local perspective – Ayrshire and Arran
Employability Framework 2007
• Provided information on range of local
options: employability, benefits and New
Deal programmes
Local - Ayrshire and Arran
Unemployment figures
• 86.5% (March 2007) of clients (drugs)
engaging with local Addiction Services
were unemployed
• 74% (March 2007) of clients (alcohol)
were unemployed
National – unemployment figures
• Unemployment rate among people
entering drug treatment is 70%
• National (UK) average 5.5% (July 2008)
Employability – National
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Workforce Plus
New Futures Fund
Fairer Scotland Fund
Employability programmes
Progress 2 Work
Pathways to Work
Voluntary Organisations
Local Colleges
Employers
Stigma - Employability barriers
• Attitudes of others e.g. employers,
colleagues
• Health issues – e.g. Hepatitis C
• Homelessness
• Methadone programme
UK Benefits System
• Complex
• 3 main benefits – Jobseekers Allowance
(JSA), Incapacity Benefit (IB) & Income
Support (IS)
• Other benefits – Disability Living
Allowance, Industrial Injuries Disablement
Benefit & Bereavement Benefit
• Working Tax Credits
Future Benefits System
• Employment Support Allowance replaces
Incapacity Benefit & Income Support (paid
on grounds of incapacity) - from 27
October 2008
• Simplification of benefits system in coming
years
No one written off: reforming
welfare to reward responsibility
• “expecting problem drug users on benefits
to take appropriate steps – such as drug
treatment or employment provision – that
support a return to work
No one written off – reforming
welfare to reward responsibility
• Estimate – 240,000 people in England on
benefits dependent on opiates or crack cocaine
• Estimate - up to 100,000 problem drug users on
benefits are not in drug treatment
• Links to key objectives in Home Office Drug
Strategy
• First priority – to ensure that “we can effectively
identify problem drug users in the benefits
system
No one written off – reforming
welfare to reward responsibility
• 400 people on JSA recorded as having a
drug problem – less than 0.5% of total JSA
claimants
• 2% recorded on IB
• Estimate – 7% of all JSA & IB recipients
are problem drug users
New approach to identification –
proposals
• Proposals to legislate to enable sharing of
information between Jobcentre Plus (JCP) and
the police, probation services and prisons
• Explore options to share information between
Prison Service and JCP to fast-track support for
identified problem drug users
• Inviting views – merits of changing benefit rules
to require all applicants for benefit to declare
whether they are addicted to heroin or crack
cocaine
Proposals - new approach
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Requirement to see a drug treatment provider
Specialist Employment Adviser
Draw up a rehabilitation Plan
Possible introduction of Treatment Allowance
whilst an individual stabilises their condition
• Drug Co-ordinators within JCP
Welfare Reforms – is a consistent UK
approach possible?
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Health – devolved
Social Security – reserved
No link to the Road to Recovery
……Explore in consultation with the Scottish
Executive (sic)…..