Drug Interventions Programme
Required (initial & follow up) Assessment
Sections 9 and 10 of the Drugs Act 2005 allow the police to impose on any individual testing positive for specific class A drugs the requirement to attend and remain at two assessments.
Under the heading Required Assessment, the two assessments are called the initial and follow-up assessments. The Required Assessments create an opportunity for those testing positive to engage with treatment or other support, even if they do not go on to be charged with any offence. Police are expected to impose an initial assessment on all those testing positive. Failure to attend or remain for the duration of the assessment, without good cause, is a criminal offence. The requirement aims to get more people into appropriate treatment and support, not to criminalise them, by directing individuals into drug treatment organisations and assessing and working on their immediate and long term needs. The threat to prosecute for non attendance is to ensure that the policy remains credible and to encourage individuals to attend their assessments.
The purpose of the Required Assessment process is therefore to:
- provide a further opportunity for a drugs worker to attempt to engage with the individual, and to assess the individual’s drug dependency, offer help and support and direct them into appropriate treatment, and
if the drug worker thinks it is appropriate to draw up an initial care plan with the individual.
