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Tory party accuses government of complacency over alcohol issues

The Government has an ‘official policy of insouciance’ in relation to alcohol issues according to the Conservative Party’s Social Justice Policy Group, which has now published its interimreport on the state of the nation - Breakdown Britain.The Group accuses the Government of being guilty of a double inaction with regard to alcohol,with amassive under-provision of alcohol-related funding and treatment facilities in relation to the scale of the problem. It contends that the Government has ignored the body of research evidence showing that control of the population’s consumption is the most effective way to reduce harmful and/or hazardous use of alcohol and alcohol dependence – a body of evidence that is backed by themajority of specialist doctors.One of these doctors has described the Government of being guilty of ‘official insouciance’.

The Social Justice Policy Group (chaired by the Rt Hon Iain Duncan Smith MP) has been commissioned by the Party Leader, the Rt Hon David Cameron MP, to make policy recommendations to the Conservative Party on issues of social justice. Ian Duncan Smith states that the ‘report is about understanding the causes of Britain’s most acute social problems’ and he describes it as ‘the first stage in a process of developing policy proposals to stabilise and strengthen society, rather than punish those whose lives are products of the self same causes that have been ignored for too long’. The Policy Group will study the nature and extent of social breakdown and poverty in Britain today, together with the causes of poverty and policy solutions to social breakdown and exclusion. The group will look at a number of different factors,which contribute to poverty, and have identified five key ‘paths to poverty’:

  • family breakdown
  • educational failure
  • worklessness and economic
  • dependence
  • addictions
  • indebtedness.

This new report covers phases 1 and 2 of the study areas. The full Report is due to be completed within months and policy recommendations will be made to the Conservative Party in June 2007. The Group will also look at increasing the role of the voluntary sector in providing local, effective and lasting solutions for poverty.

The Group used a three pronged process of evidence gathering for the Report:

  • academic research,
  • anecdotal/qualitative data and
  • original random sampling.

The methodology involved extensive academic research including contributions from over 50 leading practitioners with many years of experience. There has also been extensive public consultation including a YouGov poll of over 40,000 people (also broken down according to the five relevant pathways to enable more focused analysis), direct consultation with over 800 individuals and organisations, online consultation via www.povertydebate.com and public hearings and visits to London, Birmingham, Glasgow, Brighton, Carlisle, Devon and Wolverhampton.

Policy confusion…

Chapter 3 ‘Addictions’ deals with what the report calls ‘ the Government’s confusing and contradictory drugs policy’, stating that ‘Government ‘treatment’ is almost always limited to harm reduction.’ The Policy Group is in the process of taking evidence from those involved with alcohol addiction to find out what type of service provision and treatment is likely to have the best outcomes.

The researchers state that ‘young adults are engaging in a new culture of intoxication’ and ‘national statistics for both children and adults are likely to be underestimates as the prime drug-using sub-groups – truants, excludees and children in care, the homeless and prisoners are not surveyed.’ The Report details the rise in addictive problems and outlines the health and social costs as well as the impact on children and on the cycle of deprivation, noting that ‘substance misuse appears to be as much a catalyst for family disruption and dysfunction as it is an outcome.’ The report finds that drug misuse is perpetuating social disadvantage and is associated with definable social groups and its impact is particularly severe for the least well off,who have the fewest resources to cope with addiction or to recover from it. It finds that young, predominantly single, under-educated and unemployed boys and young men are amongst the most badly affected and the most at risk.

Ineffective Drugs Policy

The Report concludes that the current structure of drugs policy is not targeted at those areas where drug and alcohol dependency are most concentrated and where children are most affected. It states that the Harm Reduction Strategy has pushed treatment in the wrong direction, preferring maintenance to recovery. Referring to this policy as ‘state-sponsored addiction’ the Policy Group maintain that this method has had minimal impact on re-offending figures and a non-existent impact on rehabilitation and recovery. They say that the current system is unsustainable and driven by the National Treatment Agency’s requirement to meet government targets. The current implementation of Drugs Treatment and Testing Orders was rolled out before its efficacy was proved and has damaged the perception of the treatment system in the eyes of both substance abuse workers and of those trying to access treatment.