In November 2019 I wrote a blog called ‘no apology for my outrage’ which announced the start of the closure process for a women’s residential treatment centre in London called Grace House.
In that blog I spoke of the systemic issues that were preventing women from accessing residential treatment in a service that had just been rated as outstanding by CQC. The service closed in early 2020.
5 years later almost to the month I started the consultation process for the National Specialist Family Service based in Sheffield. You may have seen the service featured in a 2017 documentary broadcast on BBC2. Sadly, that consultation was to close the service, the last remaining residential substance use treatment option for families.
In the intervening 5 years I have been highlighting what is wrong with the way we fund and access residential treatment in this country. And despite the Dame Carol Black review agreeing the system is broken and needs funding reform and despite firm commitments in the drug strategy to correct those failures. Nothing has changed.
So why are we facing the closure of the last remaining drug and alcohol treatment option for families?
There are three reasons
- The unnecessarily complicated process faced by families wanting to access the service, having to navigate multiple funding streams, that design-in barriers rather than creating opportunities for engagement and assessing clinical need.
- The huge reduction in residential rehab funding in recent years - despite the significant investment in the wider treatment sector no additional money has come into the residential treatment sector.
- The challenges women face in approaching social services for support is driven by stigmatising approaches and the genuine risk of their children being taken into care.
It is not because
- Women don’t want to access the service – not all mums who use drugs or alcohol want to access residential provision of course, but many do.
- The service isn’t of a high enough standard – it is rated outstanding by Ofsted for its childcare provision and achieves 85% completion rates.
- There isn’t an evidence base for residential treatment.
- It doesn’t deliver value for money – our most recent Social Return on Investment report shows that Phoenix’s service alone has saved £14 million for the state over the last 3 years.
When I had to close Grace House many people said to me afterwards – ‘I didn’t realise it was that bad if only you had come to us and asked for help’
Therefore, I have been asking government commissioners and the sector for help to save this service for the last 18 months because if we don’t
- Women and their children will have no residential treatment option in England
- Pregnant women who use drugs won’t have any 24/7 treatment option to support them through to the birth of their child and beyond
So what is the solution?
There are many alternative funding options but it will mean compromise and the current ‘gatekeepers’ of residential funding will need to change.
But the bottom line is this, as a sector we need to recognise the value of specialist treatment options for women and fund them appropriately and securely so
- Women can access them when they need them and aren’t shamed into the shadows
- More children aren’t unnecessarily removed from their families to face their childhood in the care system
- We don’t create more intergenerational trauma that ruins lives and has significant consequences for our health and social care system for years to come
Can you help?
If you’re able to support us to avoid the closure of the National Specialist Family Service based in Sheffield, please do get in touch by emailing [javascript protected email address]
