National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse to reallocate funding

The government’s drug treatment agency will redistribute funding from high-cost to low-cost areas to better reflect need, it announced today.

The National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse said it would use a new formula in allocating its £370 million pooled treatment budget in 2007-8.

Low-spending areas, which currently spend £882 per person in treatment on average, would receive sufficient funds to increase this to £1,134.

High-spending areas, where treatment currently costs £3,536 per person, will have resources cut to £3,370 per person.

The NTA said that the areas that will gain could not improve treatment without extra resources, while losers were receiving too much given levels of demand.