Labour councillor criticises drug and alcohol service charity
Janine Howarth made some stinging criticisms of the service provided by the organisation contracted by the council to provide a service to drug users in trouble
The drugs and alcohol charity which is contracted by Swindon Borough Council to assist those with use and addiction issues has been severely criticised by a Labour councillor.
At a meeting of the adults’ health, care and housing overview committee there was a discussion of a report on the council’s drug abuse strategy which said: “There are transition and joint working issues with the criminal justice system, with poor uptake of court requirements for drug rehabilitation and alcohol treatment. Prison transfers are variable. Work is required at both a strategic and operational level to improve these issues and custody interactions.”
Labour’s spokesman on Housing Janine Howarth made some stinging criticisms of the service provided by Turning Point, the organisation contracted by the council to provide a service to drug users in trouble.
She said: “Turning Point have failed people pre, during and post pandemic.”
Coun Howarth said the charity did not maintain enough of a presence at magistrates’ court to provide the necessary service.
After the meeting, she added: “When it was CGL that oversaw this service they attended court twice a week and would work with everyone including solicitors to set up the best treatment required and then would oversee the order to its conclusion by sending reports to probation and courts. If they had the capacity they would even come down on a day they were not due to do an assessment.
“Turning Point took over from CGL and from the outset there were problems and the reason given, were the usual teething problems and staffing issues. It had not improved when the pandemic came and everything eventually moved to online but getting a meeting with them was difficult even online.
“Clients who did not have the means to meet online just went underground in the system. As things began to open back up and people could do face-to-face they were the last to embrace this.
“A lot of the clients by their very lifestyle are chaotic and not always on time but clients have been turned away for being late even if some of the time was left.”
Recently they have begun to come to court one day a week but this is not for the full day and sometimes it consists of only a couple of hours. Reports are poor and not readily available
“The clients are people who are expected to fail – we should not be failing them.”
But Turning Point’s regional head of operations Eoin Bolger said this criticism had not been repeated elsewhere: “We were surprised to hear the concerns raised given our positive relationships with partner organisations and regular positive feedback from Swindon Borough Council and the office of the Police and Crime Commissioner during contract monitoring meetings.
“However we will of course look into this further and take any corrective action required.”
Councillor Brian Ford, the borough council’s cabinet member for adults and health, said: “It is important to note that we have not received any concerns from our criminal justice partners about the issues raised by Coun Howarth at the meeting.
“We are looking into this issue further as part of our ongoing work with both Turning Point and our other partners to ensure we have high-quality services. Turning Point has an outstanding CQC rating and supports some of the most disadvantaged individuals in our community.”
A procurement process is underway for the contract held currently by Turning Point, but the council says no decisions on whether it will be renewed or awarded elsewhere have been made.