National Mission on Drugs: annual report 2025 to 2026

6. Outcome 5: Quality of life is improved for people who experience multiple disadvantages

6.1 Overview

Many people affected by substance use experience multiple disadvantages and require support from a wide range of services to ensure these are addressed in a joined up and person-centred way.

The MAT Standards emphasise the importance of taking a person-centred approach. This includes access to independent advocacy and support for housing, welfare, and income needs; that all people receive mental health care at the point of MAT delivery in an integrated way; and trauma-informed principles underpin all care and support provided by specialist services.

6.2 Progress in 2025/26

6.2.1 Whole Government approach: Housing

Work to scale up Housing First provision across Scotland has continued, with a focus on providing settled, mainstream accommodation for individuals experiencing homelessness who face substance use issues and other complex needs. Housing First is a key component of Scotland’s approach to ending homelessness and a critical contributor to the National Mission, supporting recovery through stable housing alongside flexible, person-centred support. Delivery is now established across 26 local authorities.

In 2025/26, £8 million was allocated to local authorities to support rapid rehousing, including Housing First provision. This was complemented by a further £4 million of targeted investment through the Housing Emergency Action Plan. This funding from across government reflects the importance of housing as a foundation for improving outcomes, including for people affected by substance use.

Housing remains a key aspect of the wider circle of support section in the new Strategic Plan, with a commitment to continue to promote a joined up and person-centred approach across all services.

6.2.2 Mental Health

Following the publication of the National Mental Health and Substance Use Protocol in September 2024, we continued to work with Healthcare Improvement Scotland throughout 2025/26 to support areas across the country to develop and implement their own local protocols, supporting areas to set strong local foundations, empower the workforce and embed clear lines of accountability.

Our Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy takes a whole system, prevention-focused approach, recognising the importance of community-based support in improving wellbeing. It aims to address the underlying causes of poor mental health and reduce the need for clinical interventions. Recognising the links between substance use, mental health and suicide, our joint strategies on Suicide Prevention and Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy aim to challenge and reduce the impact of the causes of poor mental health and increased risk of suicide. A new Suicide Prevention Action Plan was published in 2026, with substance use remaining a key area of action.

6.2.3 Whole Government approach: Justice

Our Vision for Justice is for a safe, just and resilient Scotland. This cross-government approach acknowledges that there are frequent interactions with criminal justice by people who use drugs and there is a relationship between people having a drug-related death and prior contact with the criminal justice system.

National Strategy for Community Justice

While prison will always be necessary for those who commit the most serious offences or who pose a risk of significant harm to others, in many cases community-based interventions and sentences can be more effective than custody in reducing reoffending and improving rehabilitation. The National Strategy for Community Justice sets out the Scottish Government’s aims and priority actions for community justice in Scotland and seeks to address the underlying causes of offending behaviour, such as drug and alcohol dependence. In the past year, two updates to the strategy’s delivery plan have been published, covering up to the end of December 2025.

2025 also saw the launch of the new national voluntary throughcare service, Upside, which supports people with a short-term custody sentence or on remand to rebuild their life following their release from prison. Upside offers person-centred support across a range of issues and helps individuals access the services they need, including support to tackle substance use.

Review of Community Sentencing

The Independent Sentencing and Penal Policy Commission was established in February 2025 to consider how imprisonment and community-based interventions were used in Scotland and to ensure that it had a sustainable prison population.

The Commission’s final report, published on the 6 February 2026, features 73 recommendations covering a broad range of topics at each key stage in the justice journey including prevention, alternatives to court proceedings, bail and remand, custodial sentences, community sentencing, rehabilitation and release from custody.

Recommendation 6.5 is to “Evolve the Drug Treatment and Testing Order model into a Substance Misuse Treatment Order, enabling courts to address both drug and alcohol-related offending. This integrated approach would better reflect the realities of addiction in Scotland, provide more holistic support, and improve outcomes for individuals and communities.”

Future work to enhance community sentencing will consider sentencing options for people who use substances and explore the most effective ways to support individuals involved in drug- and alcohol-related offending.

Prison to Rehab Pathway

The Prison to Rehab pathway, launched in 2020, supports people in custody who would benefit from abstinence-based treatment to access residential rehabilitation on release from prison. The pathway is designed to support individuals whose alcohol or drug use has contributed to their offending.

During 2025/26, work progressed with key stakeholders to refresh the Prison to Rehab protocol, reflecting learning from delivery, including an increased focus on whole system pathways and continuity of care. The updated Prison to Rehab Protocol was published in August 2025, clarifying multiagency roles and places greater emphasis on early identification, preparation for release and continuity of care following treatment.

Public Health Scotland published their eleventh Interim Monitoring Report on Residential Rehabilitation Funded Placements, on 1 July 2025 which includes numbers on Prison to Rehab placements.

Prison Recovery Team

The Scottish Recovery Consortium (SRC) continued their work to embed a person-centred recovery focused approach across Scotland’s prisons, benefitting prisoners, families, and staff. The support provided continues into the transition and resettlement back into the community.

From March 2025, the SRC Prison Recovery Development Team expanded to three staff members, with the two Prison Recovery Development Officers delivering the Recovery from Within project across the SPS estate.

During the same period, the SRC partnered with all of Scotland’s prison establishments to map alcohol and drug recovery activity and deliver learning and awareness sessions, helping to strengthen understanding of recovery among staff and residents.

This approach has supported the development and offering of recovery pathways for residents whilst in prison and on liberation linking them in with the prison to residential rehabilitation pathway as well as Lived Experience Recovery Organisations (LERO’S) and Recovery Communities in their home area.

In 2025, every Scottish Prison Service establishment was represented at the national recovery walk that aims to make recovery from substance use visible and accessible to more people across Scotland.

Through structured recovery pathways, individuals have developed the skills and confidence to support their own recovery and that of others, both in custody and following liberation. The case study below highlights some of this work at HMP Greenock.

Case Study: HMP Greenock

Since May 2025, the SRC has been working with a cohort of individuals from the mainstream population at HMP Greenock to support the development of a recovery community and to expand participation in the learnings. Eight residents began the learning pathway with Recovery Essentials, with seven subsequently progressing to Peer Support Training.

In December, five individuals progressed to My Recovery and Me training, which brought together and consolidated the learning completed across the pathway.

Completing the training provided the group with a tangible resource they can take ownership of going forward, creating opportunities to develop and facilitate their own recovery activity that is fully peer-led and centred on lived experience. Three of the five individuals who completed the full pathway have now been liberated, returning to their home community. They have all engaged with recovery communities in their local areas and continue to prioritise their own recovery.

The two individuals who are still in HMP Greenock now facilitate My Recovery and Me training during their weekly peer support sessions. Due to the structure and focus provided group numbers continue to increase. This has also generated additional interest from a further cohort keen to engage with these recovery pathways.