Public Health England (PHE) have released a document outlining a 'minimum dataset' to support monitoring and evaluation of hospital based alcohol services.
Over the last decade, the increasing presence of Alcohol Care Teams (ACTs) or other specialist alcohol input has been integral to many areas' local alcohol strategies. Last year a PHE review into the level of provision found that nearly three-quarters of hospitals large enough to merit some level of specialist alcohol service did so.
However owing to the wide variation of provision and delivery model, as well challenges such uncertainty over commissioning responsibility, monitoring and evaluation has often been lacking. Issues over management support, short-term funding and a lack of ownership from key agencies were identified in a 2014 research report.
PHE have produced the resource to support monitoring and the ability to demonstrate value to commissioners or other interested parties in a consistent way. The return on investment from alcohol care teams can be between £3.50 and £3.85 per £1.00 according to PHE review. PHE say consistent data collection will support comparative evaluation between service models in order to improve effectiveness and sustainability. However PHE also highlight there is no requirement for local areas to collect the data.
PHE also released a conference report earlier in the year exploring the role of Alcohol Care Teams (ACTs) in London, with a more recent London ACT baseline survey report [doc] setting out further actions for the capital's provision.
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