Leicestershire Substance Misuse Strategic Team (SMST)
Leicestershire Substance Misuse Strategic Team (SMST) is a Partnership of the following agencies:
- Health Services
- Children & Young People’s Services
- Adult Social Care Services
- District & Borough Councils
- Probation Service
- Police
- Prisons
Leicestershire County Council is part of this partnership and also hosts the SMST team for Leicestershire. The Substance Misuse Strategic Team (SMST) are responsible for overseeing the delivery of the National Drug Strategy at a local level across Leicestershire and Rutland. The National Drug Strategy 2010 "Reducing Demand, Restricting Supply, Building Recovery" aims to reduce the harm that drugs cause to society, to communities, individuals and their families and comprises of three strands;
- Reducing demand - creating an environment where the vast majority of people who have never taken drugs continue to resist any pressures to do so, and making it easier for those that do to stop
- Restricting supply - drugs cost the UK £15.4 billion each year. The aim is to ensure the UK is an unattractive destination for drug traffickers by attacking their profits and driving up their risks
- Building recovery in communities - working with people who want to take the necessary steps to tackle their dependency on drugs and alcohol, and will offer a route out of dependence by putting the goal of recovery at the heart of all that we do.
The overarching aims are to:
- Reduce illicit and other harmful drug use; and
- Increase the numbers recovering from their dependence.
Through these aims, we will be accountable to the public for a Drug Strategy that has strong and safe communities at its heart.
The SMST vision is that all service users in Leicestershire and Rutland have fair and equitable access to drug and alcohol treatment services which meet their needs, encourage recovery and social re-integration and are able to reduce the harms caused by substance misuse to the individuals, those affected by their misuse and the wider community.
SMST commission non-criminal justice and criminal justice services to deliver treatment across Leicestershire & Rutland.
More information on the work of the SMST and plans for Leicestershire can be found on the SMST website www.drugs.org.uk or by contacting SMST at info@drugs.org.uk
The council provides information, advice, care and support, and has a duty to protect people from harm, neglect and abuse, please click here for further information on Social Care and Health
Page Last Updated: 11 November 2011
