Residential rehabilitation recommendations: SG response

1. Introduction

Residential rehabilitation services play a vital role in Scotland's treatment and recovery system, supporting people with complex alcohol and drug use needs to achieve improved health outcomes and sustain long-term recovery. As part of our commitment to improving access to high-quality treatment and recovery services, the Scottish Government welcomes both the report of the Future of Residential Rehabilitation Working Group (FRRWG) Clinical Governance Subgroup Residential Rehabilitation Services: recommendations on clinical governance and the findings of the recent Public Health Scotland (PHS) Evaluation of the Scottish Government Residential Rehabilitation programme: Synthesis report. Together, these reports provide a comprehensive assessment of residential rehabilitation within Scotland's treatment and recovery system. The Clinical Governance Subgroup report identifies opportunities to strengthen oversight, regulation, clinical governance, workforce capability and service quality, while the Public Health Scotland evaluation highlights the importance of improving access, strengthening pathways into and from rehabilitation, embedding holistic and recovery-oriented support, and building the evidence base on outcomes and effectiveness.

The Scottish Government is grateful to the members of the Clinical Governance Subgroup, Public Health Scotland, the Future of Residential Rehabilitation Working Group, clinicians, providers, commissioners, researchers and those with lived and living experience who contributed to the development of both reports. Their expertise and insight have helped strengthen our understanding of the challenges, opportunities and future priorities for residential rehabilitation services in Scotland.

Many of the findings align with existing priorities across our alcohol and drug portfolio, including increasing access to treatment and recovery services, improving detoxification and stabilisation pathways, strengthening workforce capability, supporting long-term recovery, and ensuring services are delivered safely, effectively and in a person-centred way. The reports also reinforce the importance of robust monitoring, data collection and evaluation to support continuous improvement and better outcomes for individuals, families and communities.

We have carefully considered the recommendations from both reports and recognise that they are largely complementary. Taken together, they identify four key themes for future development: improving access and system capacity; strengthening quality, safety and clinical governance; embedding holistic recovery-oriented support; and enhancing monitoring, evidence and continuous improvement. This response sets out how the Scottish Government intends to take these recommendations forward in partnership with national and local stakeholders across Scotland.