At the Sharp End

At the Sharp End, Turning Point's latest campaign, focuses on the rising prevalence of blood borne viruses such as HIV and Hepatitis C among injecting drug users. Visit the At the Sharp End area for more information.

Connected Care

Connected Care brings together health and social care services as well as housing, education, employment to provide a wide range of support that covers both universal services and more targeted provision for those with specific needs.

What is Connected Care?

Bottling it Up: the effects of alcohol misuse on children, parents and families

We know from our work with service users that more needs to be done to highlight the damage caused by parental alcohol misuse. Find out more about our Bottling it Up campaign launched May 2006. 

The Crack Report (July 2005)

The Crack Report highlights the extent and growth of crack use in the UK and calls on government and drug treatment agencies to do more to develop services that better meet the complex needs of crack users.  Crack use is rising, and increasing numbers use crack alongside other substances such as heroin and alcohol.  There are twice as many crack users as heroin users amongst vulnerable young groups.  The report shows that treatment can be successful, but argues that government must invest more in treatment services to make them more widely available within the community and in the criminal justice system in.

The report’s key recommendations are

• That all treatment services need to be able to meet the needs of crack users.  The National Treatment Agency, responsible for overseeing drug treatment services should produce guidelines and model service descriptions setting out exactly what is expected
• There should be a training programme for drug treatment workers and related staff such as the police, probation officers, youth offending teams ensuring they are able to deal with crack misuse
• There should be further investment in crack-specific provision including residential services.  Drug Action Teams should produce plans for tackling crack in their local area

Turning Point and COCA (Conference on Crack and Cocaine) have worked together to produce guidelines for all treatment services to help them ensure they are really meeting the needs of service users.  These will be distributed to treatment agencies and professionals. 

Read the press release | The Crack Report | Protocols and Good Practice Guidelines for Working with Crack Users in Generic Substance Misuse Services

Hidden Lives (November 2004)

This report highlights the fact that despite real progress resulting from the White Paper Valuing People and commitments from Government to provide opportunities for the most excluded groups in society, many people with a learning disability still remain disadvantaged in their everyday lives.  

We want to see action taken so that people with a learning disability can have the same life chances as other people. In particular, Hidden Lives argues for:

• A Government campaign to end discrimination against people with a learning disability.
• A new Government-led programme specifically designed to support people who have high support needs into work.
• A Social Exclusion Unit study to examine new ways to enhance the inclusion of people with a learning disability.
• Day services which are better designed to support people with high support needs and enable people to be active in their local communities. 

Read the press release  | Hidden Lives report (783k) | Hidden lives easy read version (295k)

Meeting Complex Needs (October 2004)

Turning Point produced this joint report with IPPR into social care and complex needs.  It articulated how health and social services are not meeting people’s breadth and depth of needs and made recommendations for policy development, commissioning and delivery of services, including a new model of service delivery, connected care centres.

Key recommendations

• Connected Care Centres should be pioneered in deprived areas to provide bespoke social care services for people with complex needs
• Commissioners should be given the support and training to enable them to commission strategically
• Commissioners should be provided with better information about what each different service provider can offer.  They could then develop the best mix of agencies for their local need
• There should be a new kind of professional worker who acts as a ‘service navigator’ for those with complex needs.  This role would provide a single point of entry for service users into a highly complex network of health and social care services
• These changes need to be backed up by cultural changes, including co-working, and inter-professional training

Read the press release | Meeting Complex Needs report

Mainstreaming the Drugs Strategy (August 2004)

Turning Point produced this report in conjunction with twelve other agencies including the National Housing Federation, the Royal College of General Practitioners and the Local Government Association.  It sets out some of the current issues and challenges that face specialist and mainstream agencies in implementing the government's Drug Strategy.   

The report made several key recommendations

• Treatment should be commissioned strategically in combination with other services such as housing support, employment and education
• Developing local targets for partnership working between different agencies including housing associations, probation, youth services and prison.
• The promotion of common assessment tools that can identify all the person’s needs, preventing repeat assessments and ensuring people get access to the support they need.  This should go hand in hand with protocols for information sharing across all of the relevant agencies.
• Additional investment in relevant training and support for GPs, teachers, police officers and others in roles that would bring them into contact with substance misuse
• Developing a shared level of skills and knowledge across all professions that work with drug misusers. 
• Generic training in core knowledge, attitudes and skills around substance misuse plus an understanding of what local services exist and how to refer people on to them.

Read the press release | Mainstreaming the Drugs Strategy report

Routes into Treatment – Drugs and Crime (June 2004)

Turning Point’s report on drugs and crime made recommendations to improve the effectiveness, structure and delivery of Drug Treatment and Testing Orders (DTTOs) and a more effective union between the fast-track approach into the criminal justice system and the user-focused approach of community services.  

Key Findings

• Central government spending on treatment through the criminal justice system had overtaken its spending on community-based voluntary treatment
• In some ‘treatment blackspots’ people had committed crime to try to access treatment services.  DTTOs were effective if completed but too few people completed the orders
• DTTOs needed to be refined, allowing for a gateway period at the start of orders, better use of testing and better aftercare
• Magistrates need to be more involved throughout the course of an order and the pilot of specialist drug courts should be expanded
• DTTOs should be developed to better meet the needs of women, young people and those who have additional needs such as mental health problems

Read the press release | Routes into Treatment report (pdf)

Time to Move On (November 2003)

This report drew attention to the government’s delay in closing the remaining long stay hospitals and moving the 750 people with a learning disability who still lived in them back into the community.  Turning Point called on the Government to set a new target date and put in place arrangements to ensure that appropriate housing and support is made available for the remaining people.

Key findings

• There were still 750 people with a learning disability living in long stay institutions
• Government would miss its own target to close such institutions within two years
• A change fund of £15 million would meet the transitional costs of moving people into the community and establishing suitable housing

Read the press release | Time to Move On report

Getting It Right for Young People (September 2003)

This sets out our vision on young people and social care. The document defined six key principles that Turning Point believes should underpin a young person’s service and made recommendations for commissioners and government on what change is needed to deliver our vision.  The document contained examples from our services to illustrate our experience in delivering services for young people, how we integrate with other agencies and employ staff teams that work creatively and flexibly with young people.

Key findings are that young people's services must

• meet their whole needs
• be appropriate and accessible
• actively involve young people
• have trained and appropriate staff
• provide integrated and seamless services provision
• provide support for parents and carers

Read the press release | Getting It Right for Young People report

Waiting for Change (June 2003)

This profiled the delays that dependent drinkers face in accessing alcohol treatment services.  The report outlined the nature and extent of alcohol dependency and highlighted the gaps in the availability of alcohol treatment, the waiting times that people experienced and the impact this has on their lives.

• There are 3.8 million dependent drinkers in England and Wales
• Thirteen people die every day from alcohol misuse
• Sixty percent of those interviewed had experienced delays in accessing treatment
• Delays were up to a year and a half, with average delays of over three months

Read the press release | Waiting for Change report