LATEST NEWS

ON 10th December 2025, the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England published the long-awaited Co-occurring mental health and substance use delivery framework: summary of actions . For the first time, England has a single, system-wide plan that treats drug and alcohol problems and mental ill-health as what they so often are: inseparable and interconnected . No more “you have to get clean/sober first before we can treat your depression”. No more bouncing between s

The Local Government Association (LGA) and the Ethical Marketing Campaign for Addiction Treatment (EMCAT) and Collective Voice have issued a strong and urgent call: end the practice of patient brokering in addiction services. Patient brokering involves paying referral fees or commissions to divert people into certain private rehab clinics - even when those clinics may not be the right clinical fit. It turns people in crisis into commodities, prioritising profit over their wel

For years, many commissioners, politicians and even some clinicians treated long-term residential rehab as an expensive luxury - something that belonged to the 1980s Minnesota Model era rather than a modern, “community-first” system. The new Clinical Guidelines for Alcohol Treatment, published on 28 November 2025, have just changed the conversation. Chapter 14 – Residential Treatment and Intensive Structured Day Programmes – is unequivocal: **long-term residential rehabilitat