Continued improvements to drug treatment services highlighted in new benchmarking report

Public Health Scotland (PHS) has today published a benchmarking report on the progress Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADP) in Scotland have made to meet the Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) standards in 2024/25. MAT refers to the use of medication, such as prescription opioids, together with psychological and social support, in the treatment and care of individuals who experience problems with their substance use.

The ten MAT standards were instigated by the Scottish Government’s Drug Deaths Taskforce in May 2021 and provided a framework of 10 evidence-based, measurable standards of care to both increase the number of people receiving effective treatments and enable people to benefit from specialist services support for as long as they need it.

The report documents continued progress in the implementation and embedding of MAT standards one through to five from all ADPs. This reflects ongoing improvements in the accessibility and choice of treatments for people with problematic drug use in the last 12 months. Substantial progress for the more challenging goals set out in MAT standards six to 10 is also reported. This demonstrates that ADPs have engaged well with efforts to ensure that services are psychologically and trauma informed, as well as tailored to their own local population needs.

John Mooney, Consultant in Public Health at PHS, said:

“The continued progress in implementing the Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) standards is a testimony to the enthusiasm and dedication of Scotland’s Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADPs) in working with many stakeholders.

“These have included clinical colleagues, third sector partners, and most critically, people with lived and living experience, all working collaboratively to ensure that the ongoing implementation during 2024/25 has been underpinned by a human-rights based ethos. This will also help to embed these same principles in the ongoing sustainability of any service improvements.

“For the forthcoming year, Public Health Scotland will support ADPs as they continue to make improvements and embed the MAT standards to the justice sector and other non-community settings such as acute care. We must also ensure that MAT standards are adapted to the rapidly evolving drug use landscape, in which opioid drugs are supplemented or replaced by their more lethal synthetic equivalents.”

Read the benchmarking report for 2024/25

Read more about the Scottish Government’s National Mission on Drugs