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Launch of National Alcohol Treatment Payment by Results Pilots

27th June 2011

Following the invitation to participate circulated to all DAAT partnerships earlier in the year, the Department of Health Alcohol Policy unit working in partnership with Spectrum Community Health are pleased to announce the chosen Alcohol Treatment Payment by Results pilot sites.

Rotherham, Middlesbrough, Nottingham and Wakefield have been selected and each site will have access to a programme of support to test out and feedback over the life of the pilot to inform the development of a Payment by Results (PbR) approach for specialist alcohol treatment services.

Pilot sites will meet for the first time at a launch event in July to be set on course to develop local approaches to delivering effective packages of care and supporting improved outcomes for their service users.

Higher risk drinkers and dependent drinkers represent a very high-risk group for alcohol-related hospital admissions. Providing evidenced based, effective treatment as well as increasing treatment opportunities for these groups may offer the most immediate opportunity to reduce alcohol-related harm. NICE has recently published guidelines on the treatment of alcohol problems and the pilot sites will test a comprehensive range of evidence-based interventions and packages of care to address these problems.

The aim of the PbR scheme is to provide a more transparent funding system for specialist alcohol services with clarity as to what care is being provided, how it is paid for and what outcomes are delivered.

At present there is limited understanding of the quality and quantity of care that is provided for people requiring specialist alcohol treatment services. A more transparent system with national currencies leading to local tariffs would drive efficiency and provide commissioners with crucial information to underpin and develop a recovery system for individuals with alcohol dependence.

The pilot phase of the project will run from July 2011 until the end of March 2012 and each pilot site will be involved in the preparation and field testing of nationally developed products, including:

• Nationally utilised Individual Needs Assessment tools
• National approach to classification for needs based clusters
• Best practice needs based packages of care
• Individual Outcome measure(s)
• Appropriate Minimum Data Set
• Costing of best practice packages of care
• National auditing process

The products are likely to be amended following feedback from the field, particularly in relation to their practical implementation, as the primary purpose of the pilot phase is to design an approach to PbR for Specialist Alcohol Services that is both understandable and implementable for both service providers and commissioners.

In addition to more refined products, other practical outputs from the pilot phase will include a guidance booklet and training programme covering all products involved with the introduction of an Alcohol PbR approach.