News & events
Back to Drug Interventions Programme (DIP) E-bulletinsDIP E-bulletin - July 2008
Welcome to the July 2008 edition of the monthly e-bulletin for the Drug Interventions Programme.
Drug Workers’ Forum broadens its horizons
The UK Drug Workers’ Forum is the new name for the former Criminal Justice Drug Workers’ Forum - a national body set up to bring together, support, inform and share best practice amongst workers in the field of drug service provision.
Membership, formerly exclusive for those involved in criminal justice, is now open to individuals and organisations from all sectors of the drugs service arena with the aim of:
- debating delivery of the National Drugs Strategy
- promoting and sharing best practice
- highlighting areas of training need and raising issues of concern
- providing worker support networks
- enabling two-way communication between government and ground level staff
- promoting collaboration amongst the different agencies involved in the treatment process
- assisting in client-centred performance improvement
The forum stages an annual national conference aimed at updating drug professionals on new developments and initiatives, as well as focusing on professional development of the individual workers. This year’s event will be in York on 14-15 October and includes presentations and workshops on:
- The Drug Interventions Programme
- The Integrated Offender Management Model for Drug Misusing Offenders
- Family Inclusion
- A European Perspective
- Working with Families
- Service Users Back into Work
- Rights for Drug Users
- The Frankfurt Experience
- Prison/Community Interface
In addition to the educational benefits, this annual event also provides excellent opportunity to network and share ideas and experience with other colleagues in this field.
For more information about forum membership or the National Annual Conference, please contact info@ukdrugworkersforum.org or telephone 01904 898069.
Faster drug testing process for police custody suites
Following a full OJEU procurement process, DIP has awarded its Oral Fluid (Screening) Contract to Cozart Bioscience Ltd – a subsidiary company of Concetano plc.
The contract will supply the 23 police force areas that conduct drug testing under the DIP programme with a new screening device called the Cozart DDS, which replaces the current Cozart Rapiscan machine. The new test will substantially cut the time taken for the police to conduct a drug test.
DIP will work with the 23 police forces and Cozart over the next three months to ensure a smooth transition and implementation of the new screening device.
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 reports, briefings and other publications about DIP and it is reviewed and updated every two months. The June/July edition is available now.
