Our Strategy

What we do…

The Drug and Alcohol Strategy and Commissioning Team manage the commissioning of services for drug and alcohol users in Bolton. We follow an annual ‘commissioning cycle’ of assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation.

We assess the need for drug and alcohol services in Bolton, which involves looking at things like how many people are using drug or alcohol, what types of substances they are using, what health, social, and crime-related effects result from this use, and what kinds of services are most likely to help.

This is done on an annual basis to keep up-to-date with changes in drug use, people’s needs, evidence, and government policies. We also have to consider the amount of money available to provide drug and alcohol services, and how to make the best use of it.

Based on the factors we identify, we form a delivery plan outlining what we aim to achieve over the following year. We commission and work together with our service providers, and other partners and agencies (like the police, the probation service, other teams within the council, and public health services), to try to provide the best possible services for drug and alcohol users in Bolton. We then look at various sources of information to see how effective our services are, what works and what doesn’t work so well, and the cycle begins again.

To see some of our aims from our delivery plan for 2011/12, click 'Our Plans' on the menu to the left.