Annual Report 2013 / 14
Chair’s Report 2013 to 2014 has seen some of the biggest changes we have been through as an organisation for a long time. Margot Ferguson, our General Manager for 26 years decided it was time to retire and the Board and I set about the recruitment process. We were delighted to appoint Brian Pringle who came into post in September 2013.
As I write this, future funding and provision of our adult counselling and cannabis services remain uncertain as the current contract comes to an end in April 2015. There is a robust and welcome needs assessment currently underway, commissioned by our Alcohol and Drugs Partnership. The results of this, I’m sure, will shape service design for the next few years.
The future soon became uncertain with notice served on several WLDAS contracts in October 2013. The re-tendering process for these new contracts began in earnest at the start of December. Our Board, management and staff teams rose to the challenge, cancelling holidays and working over the Christmas period.
In addition to Margot retiring, we also said goodbye to Sharon Oxley, an able and well respected Advisor to the Board and Stuart Middleton our Financial Administrator. As well as Brian joining us we have also recruited 2 new members of staff - Julie Amphlett our Financial and Facilities Administrator and Rab Sneddon, on secondment from NHS Lothian.
This work was rewarded with us winning the two new contracts and securing all staff posts. These two new contracts are:
We have also strengthened our Board of Directors by making appointments at this AGM. Alyson Campbell, who is Director of Business at ASH Scotland, and Anne Craig who recently retired from West Lothian Council Education Services. I look forward to working with and learning from them over the coming year.
• The Moving On Service, designed to provide flexible and holistic recovery- orientated support and care to adult offenders and hard to reach vulnerable groups with substance misuse problems; • The Family Recovery Service, a joint working partnership with Circle Scotland designed to deliver accessible, quality services to Children, Young People and Families experiencing substance misuse problems in West Lothian.
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Paul Thomson Chair
General Manager’s Report Well it’s been a year since I came into post and what an exciting and busy year it’s been. We said goodbye to my predecessor, Margot Ferguson, and almost immediately were told that the change in remit of the Alcohol and Drug Partnership meant we were losing some of our tobacco funding. At the same time two of our contracts with the West Lothian Council ended, and as a result my first few months in the organisation were spent tendering for new contracts and supporting staff through the potential redundancies and extra pressures this brought for them. I am pleased to say we were successful with both tenders and March 2014 finished with the creation of our Moving On Service – supporting vulnerable adults and adult offenders with substance misuse issues, and the Family Recovery Service, run in partnership with Circle Scotland – supporting young people and families affected by substance misuse. I have continued a lot of the good work that Margot started such as getting the new website online (www.wldas.com), rebranding the organisation and improving our marketing. We do a lot of good work in the community and now we’re looking at how to let people know about it. We also developed a new funding strategy as well as starting the Service Users’ Advisory Group and securing new funding and services.
We have a new contract with NHS Lothian to pilot ASSIST, the smoking prevention intervention, in selected secondary schools throughout Lothian. This was particularly pleasing for me as I have been a long standing supporter of this evidenced based approach and pushed, along with others, to have it included in the current Scottish Government Tobacco Strategy, but I’ll tell you more about that next year! Finally, I would like to thank all the staff, Board, funders and partners for their help in delivering the range of high quality, life changing and often lifesaving services we provide, and for their assistance in helping me settle into my new role. The future funding picture is uncertain for us, as it is for many organisations across the Third Sector. I am confident that we can rise to this challenge by evolving, becoming increasingly more efficient, more innovative, and at the same time striving for better outcomes for our clients and the community of West Lothian. Brian Pringle General Manager
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Counselling, Support and Community Rehabilitation People with problems relating to alcohol or drugs can access our service by a variety of means. We take referrals from teachers and youth workers, health and social work professionals, prison and police staff, other Third Sector organisations, family members with the individual’s consent, and self-referral. We are increasingly getting referrals through our Breakaway Recovery Clinics which have proven to be popular with both professionals and clients. Our services are designed to reduce harm and support recovery. Our aim is to help people leave drugs and alcohol behind, and become active members of society where they can value themselves and be valued by others. We realise that some people are not ready or able to stop substance use when they come for support, and will need guidance and time to reduce the harms that substance misuse can cause. One cause of drug problems, which can often be overlooked, is prescribed drugs for physical and psychological reasons which can at times lead to problematic use, dependency and sometimes illicit drug use. We see this within our service on a regular basis and provide support to people who would not normally see themselves as drug users or attend a drug service. Stigma is still very real in our field and giving people a choice of where they can be seen is very important in maintaining anonymity and helping them engage. We see our clients in a variety of settings throughout West Lothian and aim to provide a service in each town to make access and engagement easier. We extended our coverage this year by providing a service in Fauldhouse. As well as seeing people within their community we provide support two evenings a week from our base in Livingston and once per week in St John’s Hospital. This is welcomed by our clients who are working, allowing them to access the service out of work hours.
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We provide support on an individual basis or via group work through SMART recovery groups and are extending our range to include a group for people with low mood and anxiety issues, which are common conditions for our clients. Our staff are trained in a range of counselling approaches, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and a range of behaviour change and support techniques. This, along with quality training, client satisfaction surveys, regular supervision, and robust data and outcome measuring tools ensures these services are of a continuing high quality helping us maintain our COSCA registration. Our Counselling and Support Team has a number of services within it so we can tailor our approach to the needs of the clients they aim to engage with and cater for.
Adult Counselling and Support Service We provide high quality counselling and support for adults who are experiencing problematic alcohol and drug use. We are recovery focused and we aim to work with people to help them gain control of their lives and their substance misuse. Many clients come through our doors with the mistaken idea that, as our title suggests, we only engage with the specific issues of substance problems in their lives. Through assessment, discussion and gaining trust, we often discover the substance problems are just one symptom of underlying problem issues - relationships, self-image, bereavement, homelessness, self-esteem, anxiety, debt, abuse – the list is a long one.
At WLDAS we pride ourselves in supporting our clients not only to gain control and conquer their substance issues but also to help them address their practical, emotional, physical or mental issues, often by helping to ‘plug in’ to the appropriate services. We strongly believe in the need for partnership working and often work in tandem with other services. Not all our work needs to be long term or involve supporting clients through longstanding psychosocial problems; sometimes these issues are more straightforward. An example of this was a middle aged man who referred himself on the advice of his doctor, having admitted he was drinking about 20 units of alcohol daily (10 cans of lager). Half way through his first session, he disclosed that he was living under the burden of a debt mountain, and couldn’t see his way through it. We were able, the same week, to plug him into Citizens’ Advice for a session and with the Council Advice Shop. Four weeks later, the debt was under control and the worry eased. Through support, listening and guidance his alcohol use was soon sorted, as the main reason for it had been addressed. Our Adult Counselling Service received 900 referrals in the past year. After assessment and referral to other agencies, more than half went on to engage with our service.
Breakaway Recovery Clinics We, along with the other partners which make up the West Lothian Addiction Care Partnership, continue to run the Breakaway Recovery Clinics, or Drop Ins as they have become more commonly known. These clinics are for anyone who has a drug or alcohol problem and would like some help. This part of the service is now well established and allows much faster access for the individual. As the name suggests people can turn up without an appointment and they will be seen by a member of staff from either the NHS Addiction Service, Social Work Addiction Team or ourselves. There is a drop in every week day and one evening in a selection of towns across West Lothian. These clinics aim to reduce referral time, helping clients access services when they are ready to and ensuring we identify and meet their needs as quickly as possible. Awareness of the Drop-In Clinics has greatly increased and people are being directed to them by GPs, hospital staff and other agencies. Clients are also recommending them to their friends, sometimes even bringing them along to the session with them.
ensuring they get the service that is best suited to them. The next day an allocation meeting takes place, attended by a staff member from all local services and the client will be contacted by the service that best meets their needs. This has driven down waiting lists for our service and helped us comply with the government’s HEAT target of engaging 90% of clients in treatment within 3 weeks. We are pleased that we have managed to regularly exceed this target. The Drop In at Howden Health Centre is particularly popular because of its central location and the wide range of services available when the clinic is open, including needle exchange, blood borne virus (BBV) testing and support, dental services and a Keep Well Clinic. Howden Health Centre is a very valuable resource for drug and alcohol services as well as our clients and we really value the support provided by all the staff and agencies there.
Through discussion with the client at the Drop-In Clinic we can identify their specific issues and priorities,
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Working with Offenders
Accident and Emergency
Our adult offenders work had two main components Arrest Referral and Prison Throughcare. Our offenders’ service saw 384 clients in the year 2013-14.
Our Accident & Emergency Worker, based at St John’s Hospital, received 287 referrals this year.
The Arrest Referral Service engaged with clients within the Custody Suite of Livingston Police Station attending on a Sunday night and every morning prior to court. The Prison Throughcare component engaged with prisoners on both admission and prior to liberation at HMP Addiewell and HMP Edinburgh. This service also saw West Lothian residents who were within HMP Low Moss, HMP Barlinnie, HMP Corton Vale and HMYOI Polmont. These services were designed to help offenders with substance misuse issues address their substance problem and reduce their offending. They played an important part in ensuring support structures were in place when leaving custody, helping clients reintegrate into the community. As well as providing high quality counselling, support and relapseprevention work, more practical input was provided to help engage with other services such as housing. Services for offenders and vulnerable adults were re-commissioned two thirds of the way through 201314. We were delighted to have won this contract and the staff from this area joined the team of our new Moving On Service. This service will engage with offenders in and out of prison and vulnerable adults. This service will provide a more wrapped around and comprehensive care package, building on the skills and experiences gained from our previous work and using them as solid foundations to develop new partnerships, access points and approaches. We will be proactive in engaging and supporting clients, giving them the best chance to address their substance misuse and offending behaviour, and supporting their recovery. The community integration support will be a core part of the service, assisting and maintaining positive change for our clients.
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The staff member who delivered this service attended the hospital every week day and picked up referrals from the staff. Changes to waiting time targets meant that most people after being seen were moved from the A & E Department to the Admission Ward which served it. This post provided brief advice, assessment and referred clients with substance problems to the most suitable service depending on their needs. Alcohol was by far the main problem encountered by clients who were seen by this service. Through this post we have good links with the doctors and nurses within A & E and the liaison psychiatrist. The work provided within the hospital was recommissioned two thirds of the way through 2013 and widened to focus on vulnerable adults in a new service combined with work around adult offenders with substance misuse. We were successful in securing that contract and the work that we carried out within Accident & Emergency will continue, in an enhanced and widened format, through the vulnerable adult element of our new Moving On Service. This will result in the work engaging with more of the hospital departments and staff as well as this new service providing ongoing support for people when they leave hospital, rather than referring them on to other services. We believe that this more comprehensive pathway, providing clients with vital continuity, will improve engagement rates and outcomes.
Cannabis Demand for this service continued to grow with 107 referrals, 74 of which engaged with the service. This service is open to young people and adults and receives referrals from education, social work, health, other drug agencies, self-referrals and a host of community based groups and Third Sector organisations. One of these services is Blackburn Local Employment Scheme (BLES), a training service for young people, which awarded Cheryl Irvine who carries out this work Partner of the Year.
Community Reintegration and Mentoring This project was established in July 2013 to complement the counselling service after a gap was identified for some of our clients. This service provides a tailored package of support, education, vocational training and employment opportunities that promotes social inclusion and recovery. During the first year there were 67 referrals with 48 completing assessment and engaging with the service. In March a review of the service was carried out by a Community Education student from Edinburgh University. Here are some of the findings: • The service gave clients a purpose in their life and something to look forward to, a reason to get up in the morning. • The keeping fit activities kept clients fit and active which in turn helped with their mental health. • Clients reported having a structure to their life due to the service. • Clients don’t feel so isolated, bored or lonely. • Clients mentioned that they had got their life back on track. • Informative and educational.
A number of the clients we see in this service have significant mental health issues, with cannabis often being used by the clients to self-medicate although, in the majority of cases, it is either causing or at least exacerbating the condition. Other common themes that are reported are clients using cannabis to manage anxiety, anger or sleep problems. Some clients want to stop using tobacco at the same time as cannabis and if required we link them in with NHS Lothian’s Stop Smoking Services. There is evidence of a cohort of chronic users across Europe who have been using stronger and hybridised grass on a daily basis since their teenage years and are now attending services with cannabis as their main problem substance. This is mirrored in West Lothian with clients in their late twenties and thirties being the average age group using the service. Further developments include a mobile phone app for Apple or android devices, funded by NHS Lothian, specific to cannabis users with advice and a tool to self-assess use. We hope that as well as increasing people’s awareness and knowledge of the effects of cannabis, it will encourage people to cut down or stop using cannabis and make them consider using our service. We have secured additional money from NHS Lothian for an additional 1 year post. This will be used to help meet the increased demand for client work, provide training for staff and to develop protocols and guidelines for stop smoking services in Lothian, helping them ask about cannabis, provide a brief intervention and/or refer to a specialist service.
• “Staff would bend over backwards to help you and stick by you thick and thin, as well as not looking down on you”. • Some mentioned that they preferred the one-to-one sessions as they felt uncomfortable with group work on offer from other organisations.
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Young People’s Counselling and Support Our young people’s counselling service has 3 main components - Back on Track, a service for young people experiencing alcohol or drug misuse problems; Cloud 9, our young people’s stop smoking service; and, as discussed elsewhere in this report, our unique Cannabis service for young people and adults dealing with dependency issues.
came from a variety of sources including education, social work, the justice system, parental and selfreferral. Staff took part in educational inputs at relevant youth agencies and events to help promote this service and support substance misuse and early intervention activities. Back on Track had 149 referrals resulting in 96 young people receiving support.
The Early and Effective Interventions Group and the Young People’s Mental Health Multiagency Screening group have both been helpful in ensuring that we get relevant referrals. We are active in both of these groups which discuss referrals from across West Lothian and ensure that the young person gets the opportunity to engage with the service that best meets their needs. These groups support partnership approaches whilst preventing the chances of too many services becoming involved.
There are a variety of different reasons why young people turn to alcohol and substance misuse but the pain, stress and uncertainty which results from family breakdown, separation and divorce continues to feature significantly.
Back On Track
This service came to an end in March 2014. The young people and staff involved in this service were transferred to our new service - the Family Recovery Service - which we deliver in partnership with Circle (Scotland).
This service provided counselling and support to young people experiencing drug and alcohol problems either through their own use or parental use. Referrals
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This service also engaged with young people from West Lothian who are in HMYOI Polmont to ensure that active engagement had happened so we could continue to provide support and counselling on their release.
Cloud 9
Family Support
This is the NHS funded, specialist stop smoking service for young people in West Lothian. Through this service we see young people who are referred through education, health and social work services, as well as a number of community organisations and, as with our other services, self-referrals. Cloud 9 had 87 referrals with 73 clients engaging with the service and 24 of these remaining tobacco free 4 weeks after quitting.
We provide dedicated family support in a variety of ways.
We see young people within schools, youth clubs and West Lothian College. The support is available on a one-to-one or group basis, depending on preference, numbers and the setting. This service is also available to some workplace groups. As well as providing evidenced based behavioural support, we can also help young people access pharmacotherapy such as Nicotine Replacement Therapy which helps increase their chance of successfully stopping. This service also supports awareness raising and prevention initiatives such as National No Smoking Day and the Social Norms campaign at West Lothian College. The Social Norms campaign aims to highlight that the vast majority of people do not smoke, and through this help prevent young people from starting smoking and encourage current smokers to stop. We also developed an App that can be used by Apple and android devices providing information on tobacco, tips and advice on stopping, and information on the support provided through Cloud 9 which we hope will generate quit attempts and referrals.
Adult Counselling Service This service provides support, counselling and guidance to members of families struggling to cope with a loved one who has a problem, whether they are engaged with services or not. Working with families who have been affected by drug and alcohol use is often complex but very worthwhile. This can often be the first time that they have spoken about it and appreciate the support, understanding and guidance they get. We also discuss with our clients, who are referred for their own drug or alcohol use, the importance and benefits of involving families where possible in their treatment. Obviously, in a lot of cases, this isn’t possible as often family issues play a significant part in why they use drugs. Where we can include families they are grateful for the input we give - answering their questions, increasing their knowledge and understanding of behaviours and treatments - and they appreciate being included in the treatment and recovery of their relation.
Young People One of the services we provided through our Back on Track service was to provide support to young people who are living with a family member with a substance misuse issue. For more information on this service see the Back on Track service.
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West Lothian Family Support Group We run the West Lothian Family Support group which meets on the 1st & 3rd Tuesday of the month in St. John’s Hospital in Livingston. This group helps families in so many ways, from the realisation that they are not the only family with these issues through to support and advice on what services are available for their family member. The support and help they receive from each other to deal with the fears and anxieties they have is invaluable - families have often voiced how difficult it is to talk to friends about the problems that they are going through due to the stigma that accompanies substance misuse. They also speak of the benefits of being somewhere where they are understood and not judged. At the first meeting each month we employ a therapist who provides a variety of massages aimed at reducing tension and assisting relaxation. This year, with the help of the Group members, we have produced a new leaflet for the service and written to each GP in West Lothian to tell them about this, encouraging them to inform families of the service and to also distribute the leaflets to those they think would benefit from the Family Support Group.
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The Group has also taken part in focus groups to help improve services within West Lothian and ensure service planners and providers are aware of the issues that affect families of substance misusers. Some members of the Family Support Group also actively participate in our Service Users’ Advisory Group and the West Lothian Service Improving Services Together Group. In partnership with Circle, West Lothian Young Carers, Carers of West Lothian, and Cyrenians we held a family support information stall at Livingston Centre. The aim of this was to make people aware that these services exist and can be easily accessed. The stall was a great success with lots of people engaging with us and taking away information. We felt it was so successful that we have already booked the venue for next year.
Service Users’ Advisory Group (SUAG) We value service users and identify ways of encouraging them to express their views and become involved in their care. As well as seeking comments and suggestions, conducting exit surveys and holding focus groups, we have encouraged participation in open days, events and contributions to reports. Following an initial proposal from a former service user, now on our Management Committee, we met and formed an outline plan and a commitment for the development of a Service User Advisory Group (SUAG). WLDAS and our service users are now clear that we want them to have a greater say and more involvement in the services provided and how they are delivered. This group is going from strength to strength. The varied skills and different experiences within this group, and their ideas, participation, commitment and motivation are of great value to the service. Despite, or possibly because of, the members having different views and coming from various backgrounds they have gelled well and are also proving to be very supportive of each other. The SUAG is representative of the client group accessing the various services throughout WLDAS. A benefit summed up well by one member in the following quote: “I can see a huge difference within the Group. Not only in a physical attendance sense but also in a friendship and educational sense. The Service Users’ and the Family Support Group seem more united to carry the group onward as a whole. We learn from each other.”
A recent meeting between SUAG and staff focused on a discussion of forming working groups of volunteers with a specific purpose. Ideas included peer research/ evaluation; peer telephone support at specific stages of change/recovery, e.g. going through detox or titration; promoting the service with appropriate and timely literature and interaction with external services and the wider community. They are motivated to develop some of these ideas further with assistance from an assigned member of staff and management team support with training and budget. One member of the group is offering his time and skills to assist anyone with basic computing who may be interested in getting involved. This member of SUAG is also keen to develop a newsletter to inform and feed back to service users. “As that assigned member of staff, seeing, feeling and hearing individuals coming together, having a voice and forming ideas and plans it is with excitement I look forward to the group’s future. Seeing change driven by service users for the benefit of all service users with support and encouragement from our staff is how WLDAS will continue to deliver a needs led service. A special thanks and appreciation to management and the SUAG for all their input in nurturing a positive working relationship encouraging Service User Involvement. From tiny acorns giant oaks grow!” (Anne Hanley)
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Tobacco Prevention and Education Tobacco Education We provide tobacco education within West Lothian Primary Schools. This is achieved through an interactive, group-educational programme to P6/7 pupils when they are studying health and wellbeing. It fits the criteria for and supports the delivery of Curriculum for Excellence and creates solid foundations on which to build our Smoke Free Homes and Zones work. It is estimated that over 2,160 primary school children within West Lothian have participated in the tobacco education programme in the last academic year. This work was funded through West Lothian Tobacco, Drugs and Alcohol Partnership (TADP). Unfortunately this funding was lost when the local planning group removed tobacco from its remit. WLDAS’ Board of Management agreed to fund this work for the remainder of the 2013-14 academic year and have committed to 2014-15 to allow time for new funds to be secured. This shows the value our organisation places on prevention work and the way we support the implementation of national strategy. Smoking prevention is a key action area in the Scottish Government’s current Tobacco Policy, with its aim of stopping young people taking up tobacco use and having a national prevalence figure of below 5% by 2034.
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Smoke Free Homes and Zones We continue to promote the Smoke Free Homes & Zones Initiative in primary schools within West Lothian through funding provided by NHS Lothian. A further 7 schools joined the initiative in the last academic year, bringing the total number of participating primary schools to 61. These schools will continue to be actively involved on a yearly basis by incorporating the Smoke Free Homes & Zones project into their tobacco education. Through raising awareness of the dangers and impact of second hand smoke to children 2,468 families within West Lothian have pledged to have a smoke free home and car. This, in turn, will improve children’s health and well-being. Overall 91% of West Lothian primary schools are actively involved in the Smoke Free Homes & Zones project. Scotland is the only country in the world which has set a target to reduce young people’s exposure to second hand tobacco smoke and we are proud to be a part of achieving this.
Drugs and Alcohol Education and Training
Education, prevention and staff training remains important to us even though, in days of reduced funding, it becomes harder to secure money for education. We delivered a variety of educational and professional training courses throughout West Lothian and supported prevention and awareness events hosted by many of our community partners. Our staff attended a variety of external training courses and conferences throughout the year.
events such as Mental Health Day, Oatridge College Information Day, and the homelessness event- Pamper Yourself Day. As we do every year, we took part in the three day Westdrive event in partnership with the Police and WL Council Education Department, which focusses on young drivers and safety, where we spoke about and demonstrated the effect and dangers that alcohol can have on your decisions, judgment, motor, and coordination skills.
Professional staff training included delivering Alcohol Brief Intervention training within West Lothian in partnership with NHS Lothian. This was multi-agency training aimed to increase people’s skills, knowledge and confidence to raise the issue of alcohol with their client group, equipping them to be able to carry out an evidenced informed and effective brief advice intervention to help reduce alcohol related problems.
Young people also took part in drug and alcohol sessions in the More Choices, More Chances and Skills Groups, where our inputs are built into the programme, as well as Street Heroes, Street League, and Offbeat Youth Club. We also supported schools with substance misuse education and awareness raising, delivering inputs and stalls in St. Kentigern’s Academy, St Margaret’s Academy, Broxburn Academy and Donaldson’s School.
Groups of staff who attended drug and alcohol training and education sessions included volunteers at Homestart, Pupil Support staff at St Margaret’s Academy, and Foster Carers. Through our excellent relationship with West Lothian College, we continued to provide training inputs to their Health and Fitness, Childcare, and Social Care courses, and these were well received. Our monthly Student Days continue to be popular with nursing students on placement in West Lothian. We also provide organisational visits for new staff who have come to the area, giving them an understanding of the services we provide. We continued to be involved in one day education and awareness raising days within workplaces and
We lost some of our funding for this work at the end of the year but secured funding through our Moving On Service and Family Recovery Service to develop and deliver educational packages around alcohol in primary schools and legal highs in secondary schools. This funding also allows us to continue to deliver the Alcohol Brief Intervention training with additional steps built in to help encourage its use and evaluate its impact. We are looking forward to implementing these new developments. We are keen to develop our professional training and education components, and can design and deliver bespoke training for your organisation and we are very keen to work with organisations who are looking to develop new approaches.
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Additional Services Blood Borne Virus Testing
Operation Floorwalk
Two staff members have been trained by staff from NHS Lothian so that we can offer dry blood spot testing for Hep A, B, C and HIV to our clients. This helps remove some of the barriers of testing, gets people who test positive into treatment quickly and allows us to educate our clients on how to prevent transmission and keep themselves and others safe. The treatment options available are better than ever and the quicker people who require a service can engage with it the better. Over the past year 42 amount of tests have been carried out.
With our partners in Police Scotland and West Lothian Youth Action Project we carried out four Floorwalk initiatives in a variety of towns and villages across West Lothian. This service element supports community safety and early intervention by police staff picking up any young people they find who are drinking underage and in public places, and bringing them to the local Police station. Here our staff will carry out an assessment and provide education where required as well as engage those who need it with support and counselling. A family member of each young person will come to the station to pick them up and talk any concerns through with the staff. From this we received 13 referrals to our Young People’s Service.
Needle Exchange (NEON) We support NHS Lothian Harm Reduction Service in three needle and injecting equipment sites in West Lothian. This service has noted a continued increase in dispensed needles and equipment for injecting Performance and Image Enhancing Drugs (PIED’s). The exchange now offers Dry Blood Spot Testing (DBST) for people who may have been exposed to Hepatitis A, B, C and H.I.V. This allows clients to be diagnosed and treated in a relatively short space of time. Naloxone is also available on the Exchange along with overdose first aid training. We have not seen, at this time, the same increase in clients injecting New Psychoactive Substances (NPS) or legal highs that Edinburgh and East Lothian seem to be experiencing, but we are ensuring that staff’s knowledge is up to speed and will report any changes we see back to our partners in the Alcohol and Drug Partnership.
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Student Education, Training and Placements WLDAS provides 2 training days for students per month. One is based in our premises and is open to any student enrolled on any course in West Lothian, or who is on placement in West Lothian. The other takes place in St. John’s Hospital and is for any health professional student on placement. Both these courses provide an introduction into substance misuse and covers cause, effects, interventions and an overview of the services available in West Lothian. These courses prove popular and evaluate very well. We also like to have students on placement with us. We believe that WLDAS offers an excellent learning opportunity and we also benefit from the new ideas, enthusiasm, questioning and suggestions which having students on placements brings. In this past year we had three students on placement, two of these were nursing students from Queen Margaret’s University and one a Community Education student from Edinburgh University.
Finance Summary
2014
2013
£
Other income
Grants
Total income for the year
Fundraising costs
Charitable activites
Governance costs
Total expenditure for the year
Net deficit / surplus for the year
£
6,964
10,549
829,776
880,147
836,740
890,696
1,017
1,626
834,820
845,306
10,269
7,274
846,106
854,206
-9,366
36,490
Restricted funds
237,626
335,323
Designated funds
29,827
34,354
Unrestricted funds
439,681
346,823
Total funds as at 31st March 2014
Reserves Breakdown
707,134
716,500
Figures audited by G O Thomson & Co, 13 Hope Street, Lanark, ML11 7NL Notes:
The net deficit for the year is due to the planned spending of funds received in previous years. Our unrestricted reserves equate to 5 months operating costs (2013: 5 months). This is in line with our reserves policy and with standard practice within the charity sector. We have planned to reinvest £63,000 from our unrestricted reserves back into direct service provision in 2014/2015 financial year. A breakdown of our reserves is shown below. A full copy of our Financial Statements are available on request.
75,929 Core Services Fund Adult Counselling Fund
116,921 439,681
Cannabis Worker Fund Designated Premises Fund
44,776
21,939 7,888
Designated Capital Fund General Funds
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Board of Management 2013 / 14 Chair Paul Thomson Vice Chair Gill Cottrell Treasurer Patricia Aniello
Advisers
Individual Members
Councillor Angela Moohan West Lothian Council
Sandy Milne Nicola McCloskey
Inspector Jocelyn O’Connor Lothian & Borders Police
Company Secretary
Sharon Oxley, Criminal Justice, West Lothian Council (retired Sept. 2013)
Margot Ferguson (retired Oct. 2013) Brian Pringle
Mark Johnston (Service User)
Staff Team 2013 / 14 Margot Ferguson (retired Oct. 2013) Brian Pringle Heather Watson
Administration
Young People’s Tobacco Prevention Worker Michelle Sutherland
Counselling and Support
Arrest Referral John Robertson
Prison Throughcare Mark Vance
Stuart Middleton (resigned Oct. 2013) Julie Amphlett (started Jan. 2014) Janette Kerr Michelle McGregor Diane Parker Claire Hughes Heather Logan
Fiona Brown Leonna Collins Anne Hanley Kevin Hanlon Stephen Jack Thomas Oswald Stephen Pender June Stahl
Education and Training
Back on Track
Kathleen Mathieson
Patricia Moran Fiona Brown
Keith Anderson Tommy Bewick Graeme Black Billy Bowes Abi Dunne Janet Gilfether Tony McGowan
Cannabis
Volunteers
Cheryl Irvine
Bob Murray Robert McLernon
Cloud Nine Lesley Brogan
West Lothian Drug and Alcohol Service The Almondbank Centre Shiel Walk, Craigshill Livingston EH54 5EH telephone 01506 430225 email enquiries@wldas.org visit our website at www.wldas.com Scottish Charity No SC005776 Company No. 212157
Accident and Emergency Scott Lockhart
Sessional Workers
Thank you Thanks to our funders and partners for their support throughout the year: West Lothian Council, West Lothian Alcohol and Drug Partnership, NHS Lothian, NHS Addictions Team, West Lothian Social Work Addictions Team, Cyrennians, Circle (Scotland) and all of the staff at the Almondbank Centre.
Design: Weesleekit
Management