Drug Misusers (Hansard, 20 February 1985)

§ Mr. Younger

In April 1984 I announced that £1.5 million was being made available over a period of three years to provide financial support for local initiatives concerned with the treatment and rehabilitation of drug misusers. Some 13 projects were accepted for grant.

I now consider that it would be appropriate to provide additional funds to secure an expansion of these services, and offers of grant totalling over £500,000 over a four-year period have been made to the sponsoring bodies in respect of the following six projects.

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Sponsors	Project	Cost in First Year £
Tayside Health Board	Transfer of drug misuse project from Ninewells Hospital to a day centre in Dundee	28,000
Strathclyde Regional Council Social Work Department	Detached worker with drug misusers, Gorbals, Glasgow	11,500
West Lothian Council of Social Service	Information, education and counselling service based in Livingston	42,000
Drug Problem Resource Group	Residential centre at Kilmahew House, Cardross for rehabilitation of drug misusers	40,000
	Appointment of two social workers	22,000

The variety in the schemes being supported has been extended by the inclusion of two projects providing residential facilities. Grants will be payable over a three year period, after which we would expect successful projects to be funded locally. A sum of £100,000 is also being set aside in each of the next three financial years to provide grants under the provisions of section 10 of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 for drug misuse projects sponsored by voluntary bodies, from which £22,000 has already been offered to the Drug Problem Resource Group.

The total planned expenditure by the Scottish Office in support of projects to assist drug misusers will now amount to around £2 million during the period from 1984–85 to 1987 –88. This expenditure will make a significant contribution in the provision of services to assist drug misusers.