Evaluation of the Scottish Government Residential Rehabilitation programme
Placements started from 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2023

About this release

This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) reports on the number of individuals who started a residential rehab placement in Scotland in financial years 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23. The purpose of this report is to help track progress towards the Scottish Government's target of 1,000 individuals publicly funded to go through residential rehab per year by 2026. This report will inform the PHS evaluation of the Scottish Government's Residential Rehabilitation programme.

This release is based on data directly submitted by residential rehab providers, to PHS in 2024 (for financial years 2021/22 and 2022/23) and to the Scottish Government in 2021 (for financial years 2019/20 and 2020/21).

This release allows for more accurate tracking of progress towards the 2026 target than the PHS Interim monitoring reports on statutory-funded residential rehabilitation placements, – the most recent of which is also published today. This is because the Interim monitoring reports, which are based on data submitted by Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADPs) and the Scottish Government: 

• Only cover some sources of public funding for placements
• Report on all placements approved for funding, including those not going ahead
• Provide data on the number of placements rather than the number of individuals.

Main points

In 2022/23:

• 1,670 individuals were recorded as having started a residential rehab placement in Scotland.
• 1,033 (62%) individuals started a placement which was publicly funded and 637 (38%) started a placement which was solely privately funded.
• 412 (25%) individuals ended their placement prior to the planned end date.

In 2019/20:

• 1,601 individuals were recorded as having started a residential rehab placement in Scotland.
• 542 (34%) individuals started a placement which was publicly funded and 887 (55%) started a placement which was self-funded or funded through health insurance. 121 (8%) started a placement which was funded by the residential rehab facilities themselves (118 placements) or by an external charity (3 placements). The funding source was unknown for the remaining 51 individuals (3%).

The data for 2022/23 cannot be directly compared to the data for 2019/20. This is because of differences between the data collection processes. More detail is provided in the Findings.

Background

Residential rehabilitation is a well-established intervention for the treatment of drug and alcohol problems and is recognised as an important option for some people requiring treatment. As part of the National Mission, the Scottish Government has committed to invest £100M for residential rehabilitation.