National Mission: annual report 2024-2025

3. Outcome 1: Fewer People develop Problem Drug Use

3.1 Overview

This outcome focusses on fewer people developing problem drug use, education and prevention, early access to support for emerging problem drug use and reducing the supply of harmful drugs.

Prevention is integral to tackling problem substance use. Effective prevention requires a whole-systems response, and our approach sits within the government’s wider commitment to address inequalities and the social determinants of health.

A comprehensive approach to early intervention for young people sits alongside our Whole Family Approach Framework (See Outcome 6) to support the delivery of The Promise by making significant change in the way services work with families. This is supported by an additional £6.5 million funding per year over the course of this parliament - £3.5 million directly to ADPs and £3 million for the Children and Families Fund.

3.2 Progress in 2024/25

3.2.1 Early Intervention and Prevention

Early Intervention

As committed in the cross-government plan, the Early Interventions for Children and Young People Working Group have focussed on developing support Standards for young people with emerging problematic drug or alcohol use.

The Standards are being developed using a co-design approach with young people. An independent specialist researcher was recruited to lead workshops with young people to determine what they think good support looks like.

These Standards are expected to be finalised in 2025 and will outline what young people aged 25 and under should expect when seeking help for a drug or alcohol problem. The Standards include a set of recommendations for action by local commissioners and local services to support the development of early interventions which meet the holistic needs of young people who are at risk of developing problem drug or alcohol use.

Adverse Childhood Experiences

We know that many people started their drug and alcohol use at an early age and that many had adverse childhood experiences. PHS reported in 2023/24 that for people starting specialist drug treatment in Scotland, the median age when people felt their drug use became problematic was 22 years old. The Early Intervention approaches being developed aim to help young people who are at risk of developing problem substance use.

We are investing in the expansion of the successful Routes model which supports young people affected by substance use. As part of the multi-year funding, in 2024/25 we provided £1.2 million to Scottish Families Affected by Alcohol and Drugs to support delivery of the ‘Grow Your Own Routes’ project. This supports local areas to develop their own Routes projects, supporting young people affected by family substance use in a holistic way to meet their own goals as well as introducing young people to others facing similar issues to them. In collaboration with the Whole Family Wellbeing Fund, we have expanded the successful Routes programme to six new areas of Scotland.

Prevention

We invested £1.5 million over financial years 2023-25 to expand Planet Youth in Scotland and will continue to invest in 2025-26. Planet Youth is an evidence based primary prevention model which empowers communities to support their young people to reduce the risk of substance use and harms. Local coalitions formed of parents, teachers and community members come together to review data collected from young people in their schools. This allows them to take action that will work for their specific circumstances. As of March 2025, Planet Youth is operating in 24 schools across 6 areas in Scotland. These are Argyll & Bute, Clackmannanshire, Dundee, Angus, Highland and West Dunbartonshire. Planet Youth will expand into more schools in the coming year, building on learning and local successes.

Together with Public Health Scotland and a range of sector stakeholders we have been developing the Consensus Approach to Substance Use Harm Prevention for Children and Young People. This will set out the co-ordinated delivery of a whole systems approach to substance use prevention going forward.

3.2.2 Whole Government approach: Education

A review of Personal and Social Education (PSE Review) was carried out in 2019. It recommended a number of new measures to provide schools with the resources and support to address issues facing young people today. Health and wellbeing is one of the three core areas that are the responsibility of all staff in the school.

The PSE Delivery and Implementation Group, in partnership with Education Scotland, has made significant progress across a number of recommendations, including: conducting a public consultation on updating the teaching guidance for Relationships, Sexual Health and Parenthood (RSHP); creating a toolkit of PSE resources for teachers; and advancing work on developing professional learning courses for teachers delivering PSE.

In addition, the curriculum is currently under review through the Curriculum Improvement Cycle, led by Education Scotland, which is designed to strengthen the curriculum to ensure it remains forward looking and supports more consistent teaching and learning experiences. The Scottish Government remains committed to working with key partners help strengthen our education system to support our children and young people to be better prepared for life after school. Further information and the timeline for Curriculum, Qualifications and Assessment reform was published in June 2025.

School Nurses are equipped to support school aged children and young people with concerns regarding substance misuse. The ‘Specialist school nursing: priority areas and pathways’ guidance includes ‘substance misuse’ as one of the ten priority areas a school nurse can support young people with. Scottish Government continues to promote the role of the school nurse and their strong focus on prevention, early intervention and support for the most vulnerable school-aged children and young people. Between 2019 and 2024 the Scottish Government invested over £34 million to support the recruitment and retention of over 216 additional school nurses. Funding has now been added to annual Health Board budgets to support retention of the school nurse workforce.

3.2.3 Whole Government approach: Tackling Child Poverty

Despite facing some of the most challenging fiscal circumstances in the history of devolution, across 2024-25, the Scottish Government continued to direct resources to those in greatest need and invest in key measures to drive progress toward eradicating child poverty in Scotland. The annual progress report on child poverty, published in June 2025, details progress made in implementing Best Start, Bright Futures, the Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan for 2022-26, and against the targets set by the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017.

Investing more than £1.4 billion in support benefitting children in low income families, we have continued to deliver our lifeline five family payments – with our Scottish Child Payment worth £26.70 per week per child last year – and strengthened support through the expansion of our ambitious Fairer Future Partnerships, Council Tax Debt advice pilot project and through delivery of a second round of our Child Poverty Practice Accelerator Fund. We also responded to the emerging needs of families, delivering £2.8 million of funding to cancel historic school meal debt and a £41 million package of measures to support households struggling with energy costs over the winter period.

We have also continued our work focused on delivering transformational change in the longer term. This included: continuing investment in our Whole Family Wellbeing Funding Programme, and setting out our future investment plans to build on our progress to transform holistic family support; expanding our Fairer Futures Partnerships into eight local authorities to test and improve how they deliver the services required to provide effective whole family support and tackle child poverty; and, to further build on our action to create holistic, joined-up support across services, we have continued developing our Getting It Right For Everyone approach.

Our action is making a real difference to families. On average, households with children in the poorest 10% of households are estimated to be £2,600 a year better off in 2025-26 as a result of Scottish Government policies. This value is projected to grow to an average of £3,700 a year by 2029-30. However, we are clear on the scale of the challenge faced and our next delivery plan, to be published by the end of March 2026, will set out action to drive further progress toward the 2030 targets.

3.2.4 Whole Government approach: Tackling supply of harmful drugs

Serious organised crime has a significant impact on individuals, communities and businesses across Scotland, and the Scottish Government and partners on the Serious Organised Crime Taskforce are fully committed to tackling serious organised crime and reducing the harm it causes.

Law enforcement partners continue their work to detect and disrupt organised crime groups who inflict misery across our communities. Police Scotland, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, and other partners have seen some excellent recent successes in that regard. Some examples over the last year includes £322,000 worth of heroin, cocaine and crack cocaine seized during a county lines intensification week, a recovery of cocaine worth £1.35million in Glasgow, £1.5million worth of cannabis in Peterhead and a seizure of Class A drugs worth £5.5million in Glasgow that included cocaine, heroin and ecstasy alongside a gun and ammunition.