Brighton and Hove Drug and Alcohol Strategy, 2024 - 2030

Foreword by Councillor Mitchie Alexander

Cabinet member for Communities, Equalities, Public Health & Adult Social Care.

"Brighton & Hove has high rates of drug deaths, I see daily the harms associated with drug and alcohol use and the impact on individuals and their friends, families, and communities.

"Drug and alcohol use can increase inequalities in health outcomes. It reduces the number of years we spend in good health. It exacerbates poor mental health. It can also lead to insecure housing, estrangement from family or friends, and employment issues.

"As a city council intent on advancing health equity, reducing the harms of drug and alcohol are a priority area for focusing our resources. This strategy is our multi-agency approach to reducing harms from drugs and alcohol use.

"This strategy brings together many partners and organisations including:

• the council’s housing, community safety and public health teams
• the NHS
• treatment and recovery services
• the police and probation services
• employment services
• children’s and adult services
• and the voluntary and community sector

"We’ve come together with people with direct experiences of drug use and harms, to develop this strategy. Our approach to reducing the harms from drugs and alcohol are 3-pronged. We aim to:

• provide safe, supportive, and stigma-free access to treatment and recovery services for people experiencing harms from drugs and or alcohol
• reduce the supply of illegal drugs into our city
• help address the primary causes of drug and alcohol use

"I am writing this foreword, as the Brighton & Hove City Council member with responsibility for Public Health, but it could just have easily been any or all of our partners in the collaboration we have here in Brighton & Hove.

"This strategy builds on the successful partnership working of the past 2 years. In that time we have:

• undertaken a needs assessment to understand our population better
• drilled down into the existing activity of all partners to help address the issues relating to drug and alcohol harms
• taken stock of our work and how we assess progress
• started to rebuild some of the services affected by previous funding cuts

"We will use this strategy and its objectives to inform detailed action plans across the system to continue improving the health and wellbeing outcomes for people affected by drug and alcohol harms across the city."