Preventing Harm, Promoting Recovery: Scotland's Alcohol & Drugs Strategic Plan 2026 – 2035

Annex B: Commitments

Human rights-based approach

1. We will continue to embed the Charter of Rights through:

1. Identifying and maximising opportunities to increase visibility of the Charter and promote rights-based approaches across the public sector.
2. Utilising the FAIR approach alongside the Panel Principles and the AAAQ framework to embed the Charter within key frameworks, including the National Service Specification, the revised Partnership Delivery Framework for ADPs, and future national standards and quality assurance processes for substance use services.
3. Ensuring the ethos of the Charter is reflected in relevant grant processes and procurement frameworks for future funding programmes.
4. Building oversight of the Charter’s implementation into governance structures for alcohol and drugs, ensuring clear accountability for progress and delivery.

2. We will continue to empower people and families with lived and living experience of substance use harms through:

1. Supporting initiatives that enable meaningful and sustained engagement, including recovery communities and living experience empowerment work.
2. Ensuring meaningful participation in the design, delivery and monitoring of services through local and national governance structures.
3. Strengthening the consistent offer and integration of independent advocacy within care pathways, in line with MAT Standard 8, so that people are aware of and able to exercise their rights.

3. We will continue to take action to tackle stigma through:

1. Building on interventions such as the Knowledge and Skills Framework and Pathways to Employment to challenge stigma and recognise the value of people with lived experience in the workplace.
2. Continuing to support initiatives that challenge stigma in services by promoting compassionate, rights-based approaches and amplifying the voices of people with lived experience.
3. Supporting service providers to identify, interrogate and amend policies and procedures that inadvertently or otherwise result in stigmatising practices.
4. Exploring alignment with wider campaigns to tackle broader elements of stigma in services.

4. We will embed the human rights principle of non-discrimination and equality across service delivery through:

1. Utilising and improving data and service feedback to identify inequalities, inform decisionmaking, and continuously improve service equity and outcomes.
2. Embedding a gendered approach in the design and delivery of policies, and services to address the distinct challenges faced by women and men.
3. Maximising opportunities through the design and implementation of our funding approach to meet equality needs.

Prevention & early intervention

5. We will continue to reduce population level alcohol harms through:

1. Implementing an alcohol harm prevention action plan to be published later in 2026, which will target the attractiveness, affordability and availability of alcohol – with appropriate engagement undertaken with stakeholders, including in clinical and public health sectors and in business and industry, on the impact and effect of potential actions.

6. We will continue to support the healthy development of children and young people through:

1. Embedding appropriate support and advice on the risks of alcohol and drug use during pregnancy across preconception care, maternity services and early childhood services such as health visiting and the Family Nurse Partnership.
2. Supporting community-based prevention activities through effective collaboration between ADPs, Community Planning Partnerships and local partners.
3. Supporting the development of age and stage appropriate alcohol and drug education and prevention resources – as part of the wider curriculum review.
4. Supporting the implementation of national guidance to aid education authorities to update local policies for responding to substance use in school settings.

7. We will continue to pursue targeted prevention measures through:

1. Supporting targeted initiatives for communities at higher risk of developing substance use issues.
2. Supporting local areas to embed a whole family approach and family-inclusive practice, in line with the ‘Families Affected by Drug and Alcohol Use in Scotland Framework’.

8. We will continue to support early intervention measures through:

1. Supporting services to implement the Standards for Young People Accessing Treatment or Support for Alcohol or Drugs.
2. Raising awareness of and targeting support around high risk life-course events.
3. Learning from the recommendations of the 2024 ABI review by PHS and implementing these where appropriate, including by expanding ABIs into a wider range of settings and developing tools to support conversations.

Harm reduction

9. We will continue to promote harm reduction services and build and expand upon assertive outreach work through:

1. Supporting the provision of tailored harm reduction information, advice and support.
2. Clarifying the need for assertive outreach within alcohol and drug services as noted in the National Service Specification and in the development of standards of support for all drugs and alcohol treatment (covered in the Treatment and Care Chapter).

10. We will continue to optimise processes and strengthen capabilities, to ensure that our surveillance and early warning systems are responsive to emerging threats through:

1. Continuous improvement of data collection and analysis.
2. A co-ordinated approach to local and national incident management.
3. Enhancing dissemination of intelligence on emerging harms.

11. We will continue to ensure naloxone access keeps up with changing demand in the context of emerging drug trends through:

1. Providing national guidance to clarify legal practices, recent legislative changes, and dosage protocols.
2. Interventions aimed at promoting carriage and recommended use of naloxone in response to changing drug supply and behaviours.
3. Further expanding distribution, such as through pharmacies, community venues, the nighttime economy and encouraging innovative new approaches such as applications showing where naloxone is available locally.
4. Enhancing research and data collection methods, in alignment with the recommendations from the Naloxone Reporting Short-Life Working Group, convened by PHS.

12. We will continue to support initiatives that reduce harms from injecting through:

1. Working to eliminate HIV transmission and hepatitis C as a public health concern, including through delivery of new targets to increase annual testing in recovery services and prisons.
2. Exploring, and responding to, the reasons for the recent decline in hepatitis B vaccination amongst people who inject drugs.
3. Continuing provision of clinical harm reduction care for people who inject drugs including injecting equipment provision services.
4. Continuing to collect data on injecting equipment provision and injecting harms, with ongoing review to ensure services are appropriately targeted.
5. Exploring the provision of safer inhalation devices and the potential for safer inhalation spaces in safer drug consumption facilities.

13. We will continue to support established and innovative drug harm reduction measures through:

1. Supporting more local areas to develop proposals for safer drug consumption facilities where appropriate.
2. Exploring options to expand access to drug checking, including alternative delivery models such as mobile units or postal services.
3. Exploring opportunities to utilise new innovations such as wearable devices to monitor heart/breath rates.
4. Supporting continued research on harm reduction measures including drugs to reverse benzodiazepine overdoses.

14. We will continue to support initiatives to reduce alcohol related harms through:

1. Promoting the recommended harm reduction initiatives in the Clinical Guidelines for Alcohol Treatment.
2. Promoting earlier detection of liver disease through wider use of fibrosis and liver function testing, broader rollout of the iLFT pathway, and increased use of non invasive mobile liver scanning.
3. Reviewing the residential Managed Alcohol Programme pilot to investigate the effectiveness of programmes supporting controlled alcohol intake.

Treatment & care

15. We will work to establish an overarching system for improved quality of services through:

1. Supporting successful take up of the National Service Specification.
2. Improving treatment pathways in alcohol and drug services and connections to primary, acute and specialist settings.
3. Continuing to embed the MAT standards.
4. Working with stakeholders to develop standards of support for all drugs and alcohol treatment.
5. Continuing to develop and improve DAISy to become the primary monitoring and reporting tool for treatment services.
6. Working with HIS, Care Inspectorate and other partners to prepare for external scrutiny against the standards.

16. We will increase focus on alcohol services and care in community and specialist treatment services through:

1. Promoting the use of Clinical Guidelines for Alcohol Treatment which cover the full range of treatments.
2. Commissioning a national needs assessment for alcohol treatment and care services.
3. Working with health boards to improve multi-agency alcohol-specific support for people in acute settings and considering an expansion of the formal Alcohol Care Team model.
4. Ensuring longer-term support and care is in place in acute settings, such as for alcohol related brain damage.

17. We will adapt to changing trends through:

1. Continuing to learn from surveillance on alcohol and drug trends and supporting services to adapt to new and emerging threats.
2. Continuing to support OAT as a protective treatment for opiate dependency.
3. Supporting ADPs to develop and publicise treatment and care options for benzodiazepines, cocaine, and other non-opiates.
4. Supporting research into treatment options for problem use of benzodiazepines, cocaine, synthetic opioids and other emerging substances of concern.

18. We will reduce barriers for those seeking residential services through:

1. Maintaining the target of 1000 publicly funded residential rehabilitation placements per year as a minimum for Scottish residents, and keeping this under review to ensure it aligns with need and system capacity.
2. Increasing access to residential detox services and improving direct pathways from detox to residential rehabilitation and beyond to community based care.
3. Conducting a feasibility study to explore ways to expand access to other services such as stabilisation, crisis care, and long-term support for specialist conditions such as alcohol related brain damage.

19. We will continue to support wider communities of care through:

1. Embedding the whole family approach and family-inclusive practice, in line with the ‘Families Affected by Drug and Alcohol Use in Scotland Framework’.
2. Supporting the role of, and making better links from services to, recovery communities and mutual aid.

Wider circle of support

20. We will continue to promote a joined up and person-centred approach across all services through:

1. Improving coordinated support for people facing severe and multiple disadvantage.
2. Collaborating with the National Public Protection Leadership Group to address the interconnectedness of risk across protection areas to better support individuals and families at risk of harm.

21. We will continue to support work to address co-occurring substance and mental health issues through:

1. Enabling local areas to implement and embed protocols for people with co-occurring mental health and substance use issues.
2. Building on work to improve unplanned and urgent mental health care to support the needs of people with co-occurring mental health and substance use issues.

22. We will work to ensure that the wider health system is accessible and responsive to the needs of people affected by substance use through:

1. Exploring and addressing the specific needs of people who use substances within wider healthcare improvement work - including primary care, acute and specialist services.
2. Embedding good practice on supporting women who use substances and their babies during the perinatal period.

23. We will continue to ensure that welfare services are responsive to the needs of people affected by substance use through:

1. Supporting the expansion of Housing First provision and exploring the role of other housing options for people experiencing substance use and homelessness, including supported housing and access to recovery housing.
2. Ensuring that alcohol and drug services are involved in the development and implementation of the new duties to prevent homelessness.
3. Continuing to support people with lived and living experience into work, by embedding the Employability Toolkits and Guiding Principles to ensure appropriate support.

24. We will continue to promote a public health approach to justice through:

1. Exploring ways to expand the use of community-based early interventions, problem solving courts and community sentences for people whose offending is linked to alcohol and drug use.
2. Reviewing the current use of community interventions including CPOs, Drug Testing and Treatment Orders and structured deferred sentences to assess whether they can be used to better address the underlying causes of offending behaviour, including alcohol and drug use.
3. Embedding recovery programmes across the prison estate to support people in prison and their families, with a focus on sustaining support during the transition and resettlement back into the community.
4. Improving awareness and access to residential rehabilitation on release from prison and expanding this pathway across the wider justice system.
5. Developing National Throughcare Standards and coordinated release planning, to ensure consistent, person-centred support for everyone leaving prison custody.

Delivering in partnership

25. We will continue to strengthen local accountability for delivery through:

1. Embedding and keeping under ongoing review, the Partnership Delivery Framework to ensure that it remains fit for purpose in providing all partners with a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities.
2. Facilitating improved communication and engagement amongst ADPs and other stakeholders.
3. Supporting enhanced capacity and consistency across ADP chairs and officers, whilst protecting the autonomy and flexibility of local planning and decision-making.
4. Improving transparency of local, regional and national planning for alcohol and drugs services.
5. Providing enhanced national guidance on the consistent and effective conduct of local alcohol-related and drug-related death reviews.

26. We will continue to invest in voluntary sector partners through:

1. A refreshed Alcohol and Drugs fund to support local and community organisations, providing multi-year funding.
2. Developing a multi-year funding framework for third sector organisations working at the national level.
3. Working with ADPs to build strategic alignment between government-led funding frameworks and local strategic plans.

27. We will continue to support the workforce through:

1. Continuing to promote the Knowledge and Skills Framework and the Learning Directory across all services.
2. Continuing to support people with lived and living experience into the workforce, by embedding the Employability Toolkits and Guiding Principles to ensure appropriate support.
3. Reviewing progress against the Workforce Action Plan and identifying areas requiring further support.
4. Ensuring workforce development supports implementation of the Charter of Rights and promotes trauma-informed, rights-based practice.
5. Promoting available training and support in trauma-informed approaches available through the National Trauma Transformation Programme, and on gender-based violence and substance use.

28. We will ensure proportionate and robust joint governance and advisory arrangements at a national level through:

1. Refreshing and refining advisory structures.
2. Connecting and aligning with joint governance of the Service Renewal Framework and Population Health Framework.
3. Ensuring the representation of people with lived and living experience in governance structures.

29. We will continue to support the improvement of data, research and evidence through:

1. Developing a data and evidence roadmap to align with the priorities in this Plan, respond to emerging public health concerns, and improve performance management.
2. Maintaining a focus on independent evaluation, ensuring it remains embedded in future policy development and delivery.
3. Continuing to support knowledge sharing and research, including academic, clinical and peer research.
4. Continuing to collaborate with the SG Chief Scientist Office and UK Office for Life Sciences to explore and support the development of innovative treatment technologies.