News & events
Back to Drug Interventions Programme (DIP) E-bulletinsDIP E-bulletin - April 2008
Welcome to the April 2008 edition of the monthly e-bulletin for the Drug Interventions Programme.
Appointment cards for clients going through Required Assessment
There is now a new appointment card for drug workers in police custody suites to give to clients who have to attend a Required Assessment interview.
Custody suites are being informed that they can now order the cards, which have been added to the DIP online ordering system for communications materials.
At the moment, people who test positive and who are required to attend an initial or follow-up assessment appointment are told verbally and in writing as part of the official paperwork. However, this is an area where there is sometimes attrition and some clients seem unaware that they are committing an offence if they fail to attend and remain at the interview.
The brightly coloured appointment card, created after consultation with client user groups in Southwark and Ealing, explains the legal requirement and gives an encouraging message about the interviews being an important route to getting help. On the reverse side is space for the appointment information.
Artwork and advice is available to local areas who customise the second side of the card with local information and print them locally rather than using the free stocks of the standard version. Any enquiries should be directed to dipinfo@coi.gsi.gov.uk
Invitation to submit DIP case studies
DIP recently published a round-up of evidence of DIP's impact, all submitted by local areas. This has been well received and the DIP communications team now want to create a fresh bank of evidence of changes to individual lives by gathering together local case studies.
There is a constant demand for these and the ones held centrally are now rather old and tired so a fresh stock of cases is needed, particularly those showing where some of the more recent interventions (i.e. since Tough Choices) have been a factor and those showing success in DIP intensive areas.
There is a new template to gather all the information that needed on each story. To obtain a copy, please e-mail gillianradcliffe@hotmail.com
Completed templates should ideally be returned by the end of the month though this is an ongoing effort so people can continue to submit new cases, using this template, at any time.
Latest list of DIP-funded police strategic leads
The DIP team in the Home Office have recently considered business cases from police forces for funded police strategic leads for the programme in 2008/9.
They have awarded funding in relation to the following leads:
Dave Ashworth dave.ashworth@nthwales.pnn.police.uk
Dave Boon dave.boon@gmp.police.uk
Debbie Walker d.j.walker@west-midlands.pnn.police.uk
Frances Williams frances.williams@south-wales.pnn.police.uk
Gary Ridgway* gary.ridgway@cambs.pnn.police.uk
Ian Coulton ian.coulton@leicestershire.pnn.police.uk
Ian Wilson ian.wilson@westyorkshire.pnn.police.uk
Kath Barber kath.barber@cleveland.pnn.police.uk
Mark Beedham mark.beedham@humberside.pnn.police.uk
Michael Smith michael.smith@northants.police.uk
Neil Stanworth neil.stanworth@gwent.pnn.police.uk
Ngaire Waine ngaire.j.waine@merseyside.pnn.police.uk
Nigel English nigel.english@nottinghamshire.pnn.police.uk
Peter Buckingham pete.buckingham@bedfordshire.pnn.police.uk
Sean McKenna sean.mckenna.7770@northumbria.pnn.police.uk
Shona Morrison shona.morrison@thamesvalley.pnn.police.uk
Steph Widdowson steph.widdowson@southyorks.pnn.police.uk
Steve Osborn steve.osborn@met.pnn.police.uk
Steve Stebbings steve.stebbings@lancashire.pnn.police.uk
Tim House tim.house@bristol.gov.uk
(* From May, DCI Gary Goose)
Engaging with black and minority ethnic communities
The University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN) have just published their report, What we learnt from engaging with black and minority ethnic communities, setting out the lessons learnt from the Drug Interventions Programme (DIP) Black and Minority Ethnic Community Engagement Programme (CEP).
It was commissioned by the Home Office and carried out by the Centre for Ethnicity and Health at UCLAN. The aim of the report is to share with people working in DIP services and more widely the learning gained through the programme. This will help enable them to put the principles of community engagement effectively into practice, in order to benefit black and minority ethnic offenders, providers and local communities.
Elsewhere, DIP has published data relating to ethnicity, age, and gender of clients. This is available to partners with access to DIRWEB. The reports are broken down at a national, regional and DAT level. DIP centrally will be looking at this data, and through the DIP Race Equality and Diversity Scrutiny Panel, in order to ensure that the Drug Interventions Programme (DIP):
- meets its statutory duty in regards to race equality and diversity
- supports the aims of The Home Office Overarching Race, Disability and Gender Equality Scheme to promote race equality and eliminate discrimination
- helps drive up overall performance on the ground and to identify and assist areas that are performing less well
The central team say they would also encourage all areas to use these 'dashboards' to ensure that Treatment Plans and Needs Assessments reflect the local diverse needs of the community.
2008/9 DIP Communications Strategy
The DIP Communications Strategy and Plan, the latest appendix to the original detailed document produced in March 2004, is available to view online.
It was produced by the DIP Strategic Communications Team and recently signed off by the senior management team. The document sets out the changing needs and priorities in DIP stakeholder communications over the year ahead.
Link to latest key messages
The latest key messages for DIP provide a “core script” to describe the various elements of the Programme and the key points that should be understood about them. This can be a useful resource when preparing report, briefings and other publications about DIP and it is reviewed and updated every two months. The April/May edition, which features updates on DIP-related Conditional Cautioning, is now on the website.
Ordering DIP communications materials online
We are aware that some people are having problems ordering materials online. We apologise for this and ask that you please be patient while we resolve these issues. If you have an urgent enquiry, please contact DIPoperationalprocessqueries@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk
