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Value for Money

If you have any queries regarding any of these PHE products, then please contact HealthEconomics@phe.gov.uk.

The 2016-17 Social Return on Investment (SROI) of Adult Alcohol and Drug Interventions

The SROI tool provides local estimates of the benefits resulting from investment in structured treatment for drugs and alcohol dependency. The tool reflects that benefits occur when people are in treatment and they continue for those who recover from their dependency. Social and economic benefits are broken down into crime, health, social care and Quality Adjusted Life Year improvements for people who received treatment in 2016-17. Areas will also be able to additional estimates of benefits based on local intelligence and data gathering.

SPOT the differences between PHE economic tools

PHE produces several tools to help commissioners understand and inform their spending. Different tools are useful for different purposes and it’s important to know which one to use to get the most out of them.

For example, the Spend and Outcome Tool (SPOT) is for use by Health and Wellbeing boards and councillors, providing a high-level overview of spend and outcomes. It does not estimate value for money (VfM) or return on investment (ROI). Public health teams are therefore strongly advised to consider and present SPOT analysis alongside evidence from the alcohol and drugs VfM tools (namely the Commissioning Tool) and with the evidence that investment in treatment is associated with immediate and long-term savings to the public purse, for example, every £1 spent on drug treatment saves £2.50 (Davies et al. 2009).

Below is a factsheet summarising the differences of the SPOT and the Commissioning Tool.

SPOT factsheet 05-07-2016

The 2016-17 Adult Alcohol and Drug Treatment Commissioning Tool

The Tool comprises an improved Cost Calculator and cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) to support areas in estimating local spend on treatment interventions and cost-effectiveness. The Tool also includes prevalence data for alcohol and opiate users, estimates of met need and a future scenario planning function. Local Authorities are encouraged to use the Commissioning Tool to consider how well they are meeting local treatment needs, as well as to identify potential ways of improving local cost-effectiveness and to inform the planning of service provision going forward.

We would be grateful if updates to spend data could be sent to us via the submit buttons included in the tool. Spend data submitted to PHE will not be distributed further or used for any other purposes.

Parental alcohol and drug use: understanding the problem

This toolkit has been developed for commissioners of alcohol and drug services and will also be useful to commissioners of children and family services. It helps commissioners to understand the extent of problem parental alcohol and drug use in their area and how this can impact on children aged between 0 and 18 in the same household.

It has been developed to support local authorities to:

  • identify problematic parental alcohol and drug use as early as possible
  • ensure that the services they commission have sufficient capacity and resources to support parents and children affected by problem parental alcohol and drug use
  • identify and commission interventions to reduce harm and promote recovery for parents who misuse alcohol and drugs and also to reduce and prevent harm to their children
  • address the effects of adverse childhood experiences and to safeguard children

The tool used the findings from a rapid evidence review carried out by Newcastle University which assessed the prevalence of parents’ non-dependent alcohol and drug use and the impact on their children, and evaluated interventions for parents and children in these circumstances. More information, and a copy of the evidence review, is available on this Newcastle University blog.

Follow link to access the Problem parental alcohol and drug use toolkit.