Source: http://docplayer.net/2455667-Understanding-the-costs-and-savings-to-public-services-of-different-treatment-pathways-for-clients-dependent-on-opiates.html
Timestamp: 2018-03-23 01:58:34
Document Index: 543746392

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 1', 'art 1', 'art 2', 'art 2', 'art 3', 'art 4', 'art 5', 'art 5', 'art 6', 'art 6', 'art 7', 'art 7', 'art 8', 'art 8', 'art 9', 'art 9', 'art 10', 'art 10', 'art 11', 'art 11', 'art 12', 'art 12', 'art 13', 'art 13', 'arts 3']

Understanding the Costs and Savings to Public Services of Different Treatment Pathways for Clients Dependent on Opiates - PDF
Download "Understanding the Costs and Savings to Public Services of Different Treatment Pathways for Clients Dependent on Opiates"
1 Understanding the Costs and Savings to Public Services of Different Treatment Pathways for Clients Dependent on Opiates January 2015
2 DWP ad hoc research report no. 17 A report of research carried out by the Department for Work and Pensions, with Public Health England contributions on analysis and drafting. Crown copyright You may re-use this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU,or This document/publication is also available on our website at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/research-reports If you would like to know more about DWP research, please First published ISBN Views expressed in this report are not necessarily those of the Department for Work and Pensions or any other Government Department.
3 Executive Summary This paper presents a summary of analysis that considered the costs and savings to public services that might be generated from those receiving treatment for opiate dependence. It considered seven areas: the treatment itself, welfare payments, housing benefit (HB), employment (for potential taxable income), health, drug-related offending and prison. The analysis used anonymous data shares between the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), Public Health England (PHE) and the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to track two cohorts of opiate clients who started a new treatment episode during 2009/10 through to 31 st March The first cohort consisted of clients that went through the five most common treatment pathways where residential treatment was a component part, and the second that went through the five most common community only based treatment pathways. Indicative estimates of both costs and savings accrued in and between treatment, and after exiting treatment until 31 st March 2012, are presented alongside annualised costs and savings after exiting treatment. Indicative analysis suggests opiate clients on pathways with a residential component generally had better outcomes in terms of positive completions than those on community only pathways. For example the rate of positive outcomes for very high complexity clients on treatment pathways with a residential component was around three times that of similar clients on community only pathways (though only around 1.5 times higher for low complexity clients). However, the average cost of treatment on a residential pathway was much higher. The analysis looked at whether wider government services might see bigger savings as a result of putting clients with opiate dependencies down residential pathways as opposed to community only pathways. This indicative analysis estimated, that for the higher complexity clients, there may be some savings (although many will not be cashable) from HB, drug-related offending, health, and employment, but these did not fully offset the higher cost of residential pathways over the three year period considered. If savings continued, it is estimated that it would take approximately 12 years for savings from residential pathways to offset the additional initial three-year treatment costs, relative to the equivalent for community only pathways. It is important to note, however, that whilst data in several of the areas discussed in the paper has improved considerably in recent years, partly as a result of data shares, there remain significant gaps. The limitations of this analysis are discussed in more detail later in the report, but a key conclusion is that the data is currently insufficient to draw comparative conclusions about cashable savings between pathways. Results are heavily dependent on assumptions made. However, the value of drug treatment overall and its benefit to individuals, communities and societies, is not in question. 1
4 Contents Page Chapter 1: Methodology and Limitations 1.1 Methodological overview Analytical limitations 4 Chapter 2: Contextual Background 6 Chapter 3: Analysis of Costs and Benefits 3.1Treatment Welfare Housing Benefit Employment Health Drug-related Offending Prison 20 Chapter 4: Summary of Findings 4.1 Three-year net costs and non-cashable savings across all complexities and pathways Three-year net costs and non-cashable savings for very high complexity clients Annualised net costs and non-cashable savings for very high complexity clients Net costs and non-cashable savings for very high complexity clients under bold assumptions 26 Chapter 5: Conclusion 27 Annex A: Further detailed tables Annex B: Methodology notes Annex C: Methodology of extreme sensitivity analysis Annex D: Comparability of clients on community and residential treatment pathways Annex E: Glossary 2
5 1. Methodology and Limitations 1. This section provides an overview of the analysis methodology, and a summary of its main caveats. A full description of the methodology used for analysis of each public service is provided in Annex B. 1.1 Methodological Overview 2. Analysis focused on clients who started a new treatment episode for the misuse of opiates during 2009/10. This cohort was chosen to ensure the period of study reflects the focus on recovery that followed the Government s 2010 Drug Strategy, while allowing for the most time possible time to track clients so any differences in outcomes could be observed. 3. The analysis looked at the costs and savings of public services in the two years before treatment begins, and compared this to the costs and savings of the same services from the point that treatment starts up to the 31 st March 2012, with the aim of the analysis to compare treatment pathways that have a residential component and those that only occur in the community. The assumption was made that behaviour before treatment would have continued without treatment, and so differences between costs before and after treatment can be attributed to the treatment pathway. Whilst this is obviously a very strong assumption, as the analysis aim was to compare pathways with a residential component and community only pathways, the reader should focus on the difference between costs or savings for the two pathways rather than the absolute numbers. 4. Given the multitude of treatment pathway options for each client, analysis focused on the five most common treatment pathways (further explained in Chapter 2) consisting of treatment entirely in a community setting (described henceforth as community pathway) and the five most common pathways including a residential component (described henceforth as residential pathway). In total, these 10 pathways account for 88% of all drug treatment journeys. Only a small proportion (2.5%) of clients in our total cohort received residential treatment. 5. Clients on residential pathways tend to present more challenges than those on community pathways, affecting the likelihood of success and future socio-economic outcomes. Analysis controlled for personal characteristics as far as possible by comparing groups displaying similar treatment complexity levels on entering treatment (an explanation of complexity levels can be found in Chapter 2). It should be noted this analysis cannot control for all personal factors (e.g. motivation or prescription, such as receiving a treatment requirement as part of a court order), environmental (e.g. family and other external support) and other factors (for instance age and re-offending history) likely to influence a client s treatment outcome. In much of this report the narrative focuses on very high complexity clients, because it is less common for lower complexity clients to access residential pathways. 6. Analysis followed these clients up to 31st March 2012, capturing their different treatment lengths, positive treatment outcomes (defined in Chapter 2) and relapse rates and what this means for costs and savings to public services, such as: the treatment itself, welfare payments, HB, employment (for potential taxable income), health, drug-related offending and prison. 7. To test the sensitivity of this analysis, additional estimates on those in the cohort with a very high complexity level are presented in Table 6 in Chapter 4. This sensitivity analysis sought to test what could be achieved under a more extreme set of assumptions (outlined in Annex C) and whether this had any impact on our indicative findings for illustrative purposes only. 3
6 8. This approach does not attempt to provide an absolute cost benefit analysis of each drug treatment pathway. This is because there are many costs and savings that have not been included in the analysis. Instead, it makes a relative comparison of cost effectiveness on different treatment pathways, given clients of in many ways similar characteristics, which does not require consideration of what outcomes would have occurred anyway, without treatment. Presentation 9. The report attempts to directly compare the costs and savings of residential and community pathways, in order to consider whether public services might see bigger savings as a result of putting clients with opiate dependencies down residential pathways as opposed to community pathways. This direct comparison is only possible if the same number of clients on each pathway are compared, and the same complexity combination. Therefore this analysis is presented as if 100 people were going through each pathway at each complexity level, based on per client estimates from the analysis cohorts. 10. This analysis is summarised in Chapter 4, where indicative average net additional costs and noncashable savings for these clients are compared: a) accrued in and between treatment; b) after exiting treatment until 31 st March 2012; c) annualised after exiting treatment, from 1 st April Throughout Chapter 3 and in Tables 3, 4 and 6 in Chapter 4, indicative estimates are presented of costs and savings accrued from the point the client enters treatment in 2009/10, to 31 st March Estimates are provided for the total treatment spend, and where applicable the total prison costs following the last exit from treatment. Costs and savings are set out for welfare, HB, employment, health, and drug-related offending. The estimates for these five public services are comprised of two separate estimates, both relative to the approximated costs in these public services during the two years before entering treatment: estimated savings accrued whilst in and in-between treatment from 2009/10 to 31 st March 2012, and; where applicable, estimated savings accrued after the last treatment exit until 31 st March In Table 5 of Chapter 4, savings after treatment are presented on an annualised basis. These can be used to estimate the number of years it may take to recoup the costs associated with residential pathways relative to the equivalent for community pathways. This approach assumes that costs do not continue beyond 31 st March 2012, and that savings can be extrapolated by assuming that they continue at an annualised figure set at the same rate as they did in the time after exiting treatment up to 31 st March These are strong assumptions and should be taken as broad indications only. 1.2 Analytical Limitations There are a number of significant caveats to this analysis that mean no comparative conclusions on the relative cost effectiveness of treatment pathways should be made. 13. There is a limit to the extent residential and community pathways can be compared. The treatment pathways clients follow reflect, in part, a clinical judgement about the most appropriate intervention for them, as well as other factors such as available treatment infrastructure and budgets. Clients were not randomly allocated, and this introduces the risk of a considerable sample bias. It 4
7 cannot be assumed that the outcomes shown would be replicated on a different or larger cohort. Nor can it be assumed that the needs of the cohort who went through the higher cost residential pathways could have been met more cost effectively by a community treatment pathway. It is not possible to control for selection bias. Although the analysis seeks to control for clients complexity when making comparisons, taking account of factors such as number of times previously in treatment, homelessness and injecting status, it was not possible to control for all personal, environmental and institutional factors relevant to their outcomes, including those which may influence risk of offending such as age and previous offending history. Testing outlined in Annex D suggests that whilst these complexity groups perform reasonably well as a control, nonetheless they will still have some limitations. 14. Some wider costs and savings are not captured. This analysis is not able to capture a number of wider costs and potential savings. This includes homelessness, looked after children and other health costs (e.g. presentations at A & E) 1. This analysis only considers drug-related offending 2. Since other offences may have been committed by this cohort, for these people costs to the criminal justice system will still occur. Some offenders may also have been sent to prison for other reasons not related to a new offence, for example for breach of a community sentence or a licence condition, and in this case no prison bed is saved. In addition, no attempt has been made to capture costs and savings outside of government, for example the costs of crime to persons and communities, or the costs to families of an opiate user s behaviour. 15. There is a limited ability to capture longer term savings. It is likely that by only tracking opiate clients who enter treatment during 2009/10 up to 31st March 2012, not all of the savings associated with treatment are counted. This might be because savings are likely to continue to some degree in future years e.g. there are likely to be on-going benefits from reduced treatment re-presentations and cessation of drug use and the associated behaviours. Or it may be that positive drug treatment is a pre-condition to tackling other barriers to genuine life change so the impact is not seen in the short-term. For example, positive treatment may then allow a former addict to address a skills need enabling them to find work; or to then address on-going physical or mental health problems which may render them unfit for work. In Table 6 of Chapter 4, annualised savings for the time after exiting treatment (from 1st April 2012) are presented. To extrapolate the analysis in this way and produce annual estimates for 2012/13 and beyond, it has been assumed that net savings continue at the rates they have shown during 2009/10 to 31st March 2012, for clients that have exited treatment, and that prison and treatment costs do not continue past 31st March Many savings will not be cashable. Savings are not always cashable, in particular those related to offending and prison. For instance, the saving of one prison bed does not mean that the costs of that bed can be realised- cashable savings 1 The Drug Treatment Outcome Research Study (DTORS), a longitudinal study exploring the outcomes of drug treatment in England, presented a 31% reduction in health and social care costs and also presented benefits in relation to Looked After Children ( 1,095 average saving) and being housed (less than a third had housing problems at baseline reducing to less than a fifth at the end of the study). 2 Drug-related offences are not easy to quantify, but are defined here as those offences included as trigger offences in the Drug Interventions Programme (DIP), for which a drug test can be carried out on arrest or charge as specified. 5
8 are only achievable by removing large numbers of prison places, which in turn would see reduced staff costs, or closing courts. 17. There are statistical concerns with the analysis, such as high uncertainty. Numbers on residential pathways are small, particularly for higher complexity claimants. Only a small proportion (2.5%) of clients in this cohort received residential treatment. This means small differences observed may reflect simple chance rather than genuine differences in performance. 18. Additional sensitivity analysis uses extreme assumptions Analysis presented in Table 6 of Chapter 4, uses assumptions that maximise savings resulting from residential pathways and minimise those resulting from community pathways. This analysis is presented to test the sensitivity of analysis present only for illustrative purposes and cannot be considered as realistic or attainable. 2. Contextual Background Treatment Pathways 19. Between 1 st April 2009 and 31 st March 2012, there were six possible categories for adult treatment interventions available in NDTMS (National Drug Treatment Monitoring System): inpatient detoxification (IP), prescribing (either specialist or GP), structured intensive psychosocial interventions (psychosocial), structured day programmes (SDP), residential rehabilitation and other structured interventions (OSI). For the purpose of this analysis each client was assigned to a treatment pathway based on the combination of interventions received from the start of their earliest new treatment journey in 2009/10 through to 31 st March Grouping into pathways in this way creates 33 possible combinations, 16 of which contain treatment in a residential setting and 17 of which do not. As this would prove unwieldy to analyse, analysis only considered the five most common which include a residential component and the five most common pathways without. 21. Of the original 54,712 opiate users selected for analysis, 88% are in the five most common treatment pathways. Table 1 below presents the breakdown. 6
9 Table 1: The 5 most common community and residential pathways used in this analysis N % 5 most common community pathways 47, % Prescribing, Key Working and Low Level Psychosocial Intervention 28, % Prescribing, Intensive Psychosocial 9, % Prescribing, Structured Day Programme 3, % Other Structured Interventions only 2, % Intensive Psychosocial Intervention Only 2, % 5 most common pathways with a residential component 1, % Residential Rehabilitation, Key Working and low level psychosocial (partly in the community) % Inpatient Detoxification, Prescribing, Residential Rehabilitation % Prescribing, Residential Rehabilitation % Inpatient Detoxification Prescribing, Intensive Psychosocial, Residential Rehabilitation % Prescribing, Intensive Psychosocial, Residential Rehabilitation % Total 48, % Notes: Source: NDTMS, PHE Measuring a positive treatment outcome A client was considered to have had a positive treatment outcome if they: Were discharged from the treatment system with a code of treatment completed free of dependency and not using heroin or crack cocaine Remained out of treatment and did not come into contact with the criminal justice system for a drug-related offence in the same local area until 31 st March 2012 Remained out of treatment anywhere in England for the next 12 months following their completion from the treatment system. If the person positively completed treatment less than 12 months before 31 st March 2012 then they were followed up into the next financial year to ensure they had not re-presented to treatment or the criminal justice system for at least 12 months. 23. Clients were categorised as having an other exit if they had left the treatment system by 31 st March 2012, but did not fulfil the criteria for a positive treatment outcome above. For instance, those clients who were transferred to custody were classified as having an other exit. 24. Any clients who remained in the treatment system on 31 st March 2012 were classified as still in treatment. 3 It should be noted that this means that the positive treatment rates shown in this paper may differ from success rates reported in other analysis. Other rates may differ according to the client group considered (e.g. all drug users or opiate users only), the definition of success, and period in which clients have been tracked. This definition is not the same as the PHOF- nor is it used in routine Public Health England reporting on treatment. 7
10 Complexity 25. Clients on residential pathways are likely to be different to those on community pathways, both systematically and in ways that will also affect their treatment and socio-economic outcomes. The analysis sought to control for personal characteristics as much as possible by comparing groups that displayed similar levels of complexity on entering treatment. 26. Clients were assigned to one of five complexity groups based on their presenting characteristics when they first started in the cohort. This process identified the variables collected within NDTMS that have a significant impact on the likelihood of a client achieving a positive treatment outcome or not. A score was assigned to each factor depending on the weighting they have in terms of predicting outcomes, for example if they were injecting daily at the start of treatment this would have a value of As people in the drug treatment field use these weights, whole number scores were assigned to the variables thereby making them user friendly. Variables received a higher score if they made abstinence, employment, or completing treatment more difficult. Variables associated with reducing risk were assigned negative scores that would lower the person s total complexity score. The NDTMS variables and scoring system used to determine a client s complexity are presented in Table 2 below. 28. Complexity assignment was based on an existing methodology developed for use in the Department of Health s Payment by Results pilots. The five groups used are very low, low, medium, high and very high. However, very few opiate users are in the very low group, so this group was excluded in the final analysis. Each client has the same complexity throughout the analysis, assigned on their first entry to treatment during 2009/10, even if they start a new treatment journey at a later point. 8
11 Table 2: Client s complexity Category name New client Opiate use - daily 15 Opiate user - non-daily 14 Opiate user (no TOP) 13 Previous unplanned episodes (2 or more) Injector daily Previous unplanned episode (1) Current injector (no TOP) Hazardous drinker Injector - non-daily Cannabis days Crack 1-6 days Crack 7-28 days Housing problem Referral from Criminal Justice 3 Amphetamines 7-28 days Crack user (no TOP) Amphetamines 1-6 days Cannabis 1-19 days Physical health score >=12 Psychological health score >=11 In education 1-28 days Cocaine 1-3 days Cocaine 4-28 days In work 1-28 days Pregnant Notes: Source: NDTMS, PHE Additional testing of the use of complexity levels in this analysis is provided in Annex D. This suggested that by comparing clients of a similar complexity there are minimal measurable differences between those undergoing treatment in a residential rehabilitation setting, and those following community-based treatment pathways. However, some differences may exist in relation to factors that we cannot measure so easily, for example clients motivation levels, past work histories and educational background. 9
12 3. Analysis of Costs and Benefits 3.1 Treatment 30. Indicative estimates shown in Chart 1 suggest that across all complexities, opiate clients on the top five residential pathways had higher rates of positive treatment outcomes. The rate of positive treatment outcomes for very high complexity clients on residential treatment pathways (16%) was just under three times that of similar clients on community pathways (6%). However, for both residential and community pathways greater complexity reduced the likelihood of a positive treatment outcome. Chart 1: Percentage of clients with a positive treatment outcome by 31 st March 2012, by complexity and pathway Notes: Figures rounded to the nearest %. Source: NDTMS, PHE While findings are based on a hypothetical 100 people on each complexity, the confidence intervals presented relate to observed numbers to more accurately capture the differences in outcomes for people on a community vs. residential pathway. 31. Although residential pathways had higher rates of positive outcomes compared to community pathways, these clients are estimated to have marginally lower average lengths of time in treatment. This is a consistent pattern seen across the range of client complexities. For example over the three year period analysed, very high complexity clients on residential pathways spent an average of approximately 1.49 years in treatment, compared to approximately 1.57 years in treatment for those on community pathways. See Annex B, section B.1 for more information on time in treatment. Treatment Costs 32. In spite of shorter treatment duration, Chart 2 shows that treatment for clients on residential pathways was more expensive than for those on community pathways. For example, the average total cost of 10
13 Residential Community Only treatment provided to a very high complexity client over the course of the three years on residential pathways stands at approximately 25,000 about five times the average cost of community pathways, at around 6,000. Chart 2: Estimates of total treatment costs for 100 clients, by complexity and pathway 3,000,000 2,500,000 2,549,000 2,285,000 2,595,000 2,531,000 2,000,000 1,500,000 1,000, , , , , ,000 0 Low Medium High Very High Complexity 5 Most Common Residential Pathways 5 Most Common Community Only Pathways Notes: Figures rounded to the nearest 1,000. Figures may not sum because of this rounding. Source: NDTMS, PHE 33. The rest of this report considers the costs and savings of six areas of government services that might generate additional savings which could be used to offset treatment costs. 3.2 Welfare 34. Analysis of clients with a positive treatment outcome, on both residential and community pathways, shows that clients of a higher complexity were more likely to spend a greater proportion of time in receipt of one of the main DWP working age benefits The proportion of time that clients with a positive treatment outcome spent in receipt of one of the main DWP working-age benefits tended to increase whilst clients were in treatment, compared with the proportion of time spent in receipt of a benefit before entering treatment. This pattern was seen across all complexities, and for clients following both residential and community pathways. This may be partly due to the improved stability in clients lives which improves their ability to make and maintain a benefit claim. 4 Job Seeker s Allowance (JSA), Employment Support Allowance (ESA), Incapacity Benefit (IB), Income Support (IS), Disability Living Allowance (DLA) 11
14 36. Once a client exited treatment the proportion of time spent in receipt of one of the main DWP workingage benefits reduced compared to in treatment levels but it tended to reduce to a greater extent for clients on a community based pathway. Charts B2 and B3 in Annex B also estimated that this reduction was- in general- greater for clients who exit but without a positive treatment outcome. Chart 3: Percentage of time spent on an out-of-work benefit for clients with a positive treatment outcome by 31 st March 2012 for the most common 5 residential pathways. Notes: Figures rounded to the nearest %. Source: Anonymous data match of DWP National Benefit Database (NBD) and PHE s NDTMS While findings are based on a hypothetical 100 people on each complexity, the confidence intervals presented relate to observed numbers to more accurately capture the differences in outcomes for people on a community vs. residential pathway. 12
15 Chart 4: Percentage of time spent on an out-of-work benefit for clients with a positive treatment outcome by 31 st March 2012 for the most common 5 community pathways. Notes: Figures rounded to the nearest %. Source: Anonymous data match of DWP s NBD and PHE s NDTMS While findings are based on a hypothetical 100 people on each complexity, the confidence intervals presented relate to observed numbers to more accurately capture the differences in outcomes for people on a community vs. residential pathway. 37. For the very high complexity cohort with a positive treatment outcome, on average they received more in welfare payments during and following treatment than they had in the two years before they entered treatment. Chart 5 below shows that clients with a positive treatment outcome on residential pathways were also more likely to be in receipt of more expensive incapacity benefits compared to those with a positive treatment outcome from a community pathway. These benefits also have limited conditionality compared to JSA so we would expect clients to stay on benefits for longer. 13
16 Chart 5: Breakdown by benefit type of the time spent in receipt of an out-of-work benefit, following a positive treatment outcome, for all complexities IB Only 13% IS Only 3% JSA 15% IB Only 11% IS Only 10% JSA 28% IB and IS 19% ESA 49% IB and IS 28% ESA 23% 5 most common residential pathways 5 most common community only pathways Notes: Figures rounded to the nearest %. Source: Anonymous data match of DWP s NBD and PHE s NDTMS 38. Chart 6 below summarises analysis of differences in both time spent on benefits, and welfare expenditure, over the three year analysis period, displaying that welfare costs increased over the three years for clients on both residential and community pathways compared to the two years prior to these clients entering treatment. However, this increase in costs was greater for those on residential pathways. This is understandable given that clients on residential pathways were largely estimated to have spent more time on benefits after a positive treatment outcome, and on more expensive benefits. 14
17 Chart 6: Net welfare costs up to 31 st March 2012 if 100 clients were sent down each pathway compared to the pre-treatment baseline by complexity level Notes: Figures rounded to the nearest 1,000. Figures may not sum because of this rounding. Source: Anonymous data match of DWP s NBD and PHE s NDTMS 3.3 Housing Benefit (HB) 39. Information about HB entitlement for this cohort is not available from the DWP- PHE data share. As a result it has not been possible to produce figures from a single source where all the variables of interest are captured. Instead analysis estimates what HB expenditure might be expected to be, based on the limited information which is available, and on a number of assumptions. A detailed explanation of the methodology used for this analysis can be found in section B.3 of Annex B. 40. There is no DWP data on the different treatment pathways any clients on HB may be on. However, for those in residential rehabilitation, the amount of HB depends on the nature of their accommodation, and whether the client is still liable to pay rent at their usual address. Some clients may receive: a. More HB than prior to entering treatment, if where they are living during and after treatment falls into certain categories of supported housing; b. The same amount of HB if they continue to rent their usual home and meet the conditions associated with temporary absence; c. No HB if they are no longer renting their previous accommodation, or if they do not meet the conditions for receiving HB whilst temporarily absent from their home. 41. Numbers of clients falling into each of these categories is not known. However, by: Using limited DWP data, the proportions of claimants with a treatment marker who were also in receipt of HB before, during and in-between treatment, and after treatment were estimated. These proportions 15
18 Residential Community Only were applied to average weekly HB awards (for all HB claimants) to estimate HB spending on those going through rehabilitation. Assuming that those on community pathways continued to receive the same daily HB amount whilst in and in-between treatment as they did before entering treatment. Also assuming that those on residential pathways received a lower daily HB amount whilst in treatment as they did before entering treatment, and that 20% of those flagged as in treatment on the DWP data used for matching to HB claims, were on residential pathways. 42. It was estimated, over the three years of analysis, that there were greater HB savings from clients on residential pathways compared to their equivalents on community pathways. Therefore, as Chart 7 demonstrates, indicative estimates suggest HB savings may partly offset the higher treatment costs of residential pathways. Chart 7: Net HB non-cashable savings up to 31 st March 2012 if 100 clients were sent down each pathway compared to the pre-treatment baseline by complexity level 350, , , , , , , , ,000 53, ,000 50,000 51,000 44,000 35,000 0 Low Medium High Very High 5 Most Common Residential Pathways Complexity 5 Most Common Community Only Pathways Notes: Figures rounded to the nearest 1,000. Figures may not sum because of this rounding. Source: Estimated using DWP administrative data. 43. Part of the cost of residential pathways reflects an accommodation cost which will replace some HB spending, depending on the circumstances of the client. Chart 8 below as far as we can estimate sought to demonstrate the combined cost of both treatment and HB. 44. It shows that even when focussing on the very high complexity clients, when HB costs were considered in conjunction with treatment costs residential pathways were still 2.4 times more expensive than community pathways. 16
19 Chart 8: Combining indicative HB costs with treatment costs for very high complexity clients HB Costs: 0.4m Treatment Costs: 2.5m Residential Pathways HB Costs: 0.6m Treatment Costs: 0.6m Community Pathways Source: Figures rounded to the nearest 100,000. Figures may not sum because of this rounding. Source: Estimated using DWP administrative data and NDTMS. 3.4 Employment 45. Employment records for this cohort were not available from the DWP- PHE data share, but inferences about employment could be made from benefit receipt. Estimates of the total impact to the exchequer of clients moving into employment were based on the number of days a client was not entitled to an out-of-work benefit and the number of days, according to P45 records (employment above the national insurance contribution NICs - threshold), that drug and alcohol dependent claimants spent in employment. 46. These estimated savings reflect increased tax or national insurance contribution revenue. Welfare spending savings as people move off benefits has already been accounted for in section 3.2 on Welfare. 47. The best estimate is that the number of clients in employment above the National Insurance Contributions threshold on either pathway was small, and that any savings from moving into employment were likely to be negligible over the period in question (See also Chart B4 in section B.4 of Annex B). This analysis only considered a maximum of three years, and many clients in the cohort would have only recently left treatment. Looking over a longer period of time it is possible that the impact of employment might become more significant. 48. Whilst little is known about employment outcomes for clients leaving treatment, for those in treatment PHE figures suggest that six months into their treatment the percentage of clients in employment only increased by 3 percentage points 5. However, these figures include a wider spectrum of clients (for example, all clients irrespective of their level of complexity, and their substance of dependence). 5 3 percentage point change is based on TOP data published by PHE in the 2012/13 Drug Treatment Annual Report, where a change from 18% of clients working at the point where they entered treatment, to 21% after six months in treatment was reported. It includes some clients who were reviewed prior to 6 months. 17
20 3.5 Health 49. It was not possible to obtain a health dataset to match to the treatment dataset for this cohort. To model health savings, the health and social care improvements observed during DTORS (Drug Treatment Outcomes Research Study) were used, which are several years out of date. DTORS only presented costs for before treatment and during treatment (3-5 months and one year after starting treatment). This means that there are no costs for people who go on to leave treatment with either a positive, or other treatment exit, outcome, which will considerably underestimate the savings to the health system for those in the former group. 50. As displayed in Chart 9, estimated net health and social care savings for 100 very high complexity clients on a community pathway, are approximately 22,000 more than for 100 very high complexity clients on a residential pathway, though by looking only at in treatment benefit this is likely to underestimate the savings of the residential pathway. Chart 9: Net non-cashable health savings up to 31 st March 2012 if 100 clients were sent down each pathway compared to the pre-treatment baseline by complexity level Source: Figures rounded to the nearest 1,000. Figures may not sum because of this rounding. Source: DTORS 51. Another limitation is that the DTORS costs and savings are based on average clients in treatment: it is likely that very high complexity opiate users will have much higher pre-treatment costs and therefore higher overall savings. A more robust analysis would require Hospital Episodes Statistics data to be anonymously matched to the treatment data. 18
21 3.6 Drug-Related Offending 52. Data on the changing drug-related offending behaviour during and after treatment in this indicative analysis has been produced using an anonymous match of information from the NDTMS and the PNC (Police National Computer). While attempts have been made to control for client complexity in respect of treatment outcomes, it has not been possible to include some key factors usually associated with reoffending such as age and previous offending history. It is not known if individuals on the different pathways differed in these key characteristics, which may have influenced their offending behaviour. This will mean that there will be significant limitations in being able to accurately compare outcomes between the two groups. 53. Similarly as it was not possible to provide a counterfactual, i.e. what change in offending levels would have happened anyway for each cohort if the clients had not accessed treatment, we could only compare the levels of offending prior to treatment, to that during and after for those that had treatment. 54. It should be noted that all the savings reported for offending are savings made to the government and are not necessarily cashable. They do not include the wider societal savings to people and communities, which would be significantly larger. 55. As shown in Chart 10 below, there was little difference in the proportion of known offenders (with a drug-related offence) on the two pathways, and as the complexity level increases, as does the proportion of known offenders, with almost 60% of clients in the very high complexity group on residential pathways being recorded as having a drug-related conviction on PNC. Chart 10: Proportion of known offenders (with drug offences) by complexity and pathway Notes: Figures rounded to the nearest %. Source: Anonymous data match of PNC data and PHE s NDTMS While findings are based on a hypothetical 100 people on each complexity, the confidence intervals presented relate to observed numbers to more accurately capture the differences in outcomes for people on a community vs. residential pathway. 19
22 Residential Community Only 56. Clients that had a positive treatment outcome, and those clients still in treatment at the end of the cohort period (31 st March 2012), generally saw the largest reductions in drug-related offending as recorded on the data match. 57. On average, drug-related offending savings for clients on residential pathways were nearly twice as high as for their counterparts on community pathways; this may be because during the time in residential treatment (an average of six months) they may have had less opportunity to be able to commit crimes. 58. Overall Chart 11 below shows that larger-drug related offending savings were seen with clients on residential pathways. This may be due to the higher rates of positive treatment outcomes seen in this group. Chart 11: Net costs and non-cashable savings of offending up to 31 st March 2012 if 100 clients were sent down each pathway compared to the pre-treatment baseline by complexity level 800, , , , , , , , ,000 56, , , , , , ,000-6, ,000 Low Medium High Very High 5 Most Common Residential Pathways Complexity 5 Most Common Community Only Pathways Source: Figures rounded to the nearest 1,000. Figures may not sum because of this rounding. Source: Anonymous data match of PNC data and PHE s NDTMS 3.7 Prison 59. While it was not possible to match NDTMS data to prison data to get an accurate indication of the proportion of clients that left treatment due to spending time in custody and the duration of the sentence, NDTMS does record the reasons why individuals have exited the treatment system. One of these discharge reasons records where clients have been sent to prison. Using this to identify the number of people that went to prison, as well as the average time spent in prison for this client group, it was then possible to estimate the prison costs on the two pathways. 20
23 Residential Community Only 60. NDTMS does not give the reasons why people have been sent to prison. Offenders may be sent to prison for reasons not related to a new offence, for example for breach of a community sentence or a licence condition (e.g. not residing where required), and in this case no prison bed is saved as a result of drug treatment. 61. This analysis has assumed that everyone who is sent to prison has received a new custodial sentence, when this is unlikely to be the case for a number of people. On average, people with a custodial sentence spend 71 days in custody and 55 days receiving opioid substitution therapy (OST); therefore daily costs of prison and prescribing are estimated to be 95 and 6 respectively. The average stay in custody for reasons other than a new custodial sentence, or the time spent on OST, is not known and so these costs have not been included. 62. Chart 12 displays that estimated prison costs following the last exit were significantly less for those clients that had a residential component to their treatment pathway. The estimated prison costs of clients in the very high complexity group for those on a residential pathway were 49,000 compared to an estimated 103,000 for those on community pathways. Chart 12: Prison costs following last exit from treatment for 100 clients, by complexity and pathway 120, ,000 85, ,000 80,000 64,000 60,000 47,000 49,000 40,000 20,000 6,000 31,000 23,000 0 Low Medium High Very High Complexity 5 Most Common Residential Pathways 5 Most Common Community Only Pathways Source: Figures rounded to the nearest 1,000. Figures may not sum because of this rounding. Source: Estimated from NDTMS and MoJ administrative data 63. These differences are explained by the differential rates of clients leaving the treatment system into custody as can be seen from Chart 13 below. 21
24 Chart 13: Proportion of clients for whom the last exit from the treatment system was recorded as prison or transferred into custody, by complexity and pathway Notes: Figures rounded to the nearest %. Source: NDTMS While findings are based on a hypothetical 100 people on each complexity, the confidence intervals presented relate to observed numbers to more accurately capture the differences in outcomes for people on a community vs. residential pathway. 4. Summary of findings 64. This section brings together the costs and savings across all of the areas considered in this paper. 4.1 Three-year net costs and non-cashable savings across all complexities and pathways 65. As outlined in section 3.1 of Chapter 3, for all complexities the rate of positive treatment outcomes was greater for residential compared to community pathways. However, their overall total costs were greater. 66. Table 3 below shows the costs and savings over the three years that the data is available for based on 100 clients on each pathway. The savings reported are those made to the exchequer (although not cashable), and exclude wider societal savings. For high and very high complexities the total savings for residential pathways were estimated to be greater than those for community pathways (for high complexity around 1.0 million in residential pathways compared to around 0.4 million in community pathways), whereas for low and medium complexities, the total savings for residential pathways were estimated to be lower than those for community pathways. For high and very high complexity levels, 22
25 despite overall total savings being estimated as greater for residential pathways, these savings were not large enough to offset the additional costs of residential treatment. Table 3: Indicative estimates of three-year (2009 to 31 st March 2012) costs and non-cashable savings to government if 100 clients were sent down each pathway at each complexity level. Three Year Costs Three Year Estimates of Savings Total Costs Pathway Complexity Treatment Prison Welfare Housing Benefit Employment Health Offending Total Savings Overall Savings Low - 2,549,000-6,000-2,555, , ,000-9, , , ,000-2,448,000 Medium - 2,285,000-23,000-2,308, , ,000-4, ,000-6, ,000-2,033,000 Residential High - 2,595,000-47,000-2,642, , ,000-5, , , ,000-1,699,000 Very High - 2,531,000-49,000-2,580, , ,000-5, , , ,000-1,778,000 Low - 464,000-31, ,000-76,000 53,000-2, ,000 56, , ,000 Medium - 487,000-64, ,000-85,000 51,000-2, , , , ,000 Community High - 517,000-85, ,000-72,000 44,000-3, , , , ,000 Very High - 560, , ,700-39,000 34,000-2, , , , ,000 Notes: Figures rounded to the nearest 1,000. Figures may not sum because of this rounding. Overall Savings are total costs and total savings combined Includes savings to the exchequer (although not cashable) and excludes wider societal savings. This does not include any discounting, so does not include a NPV 23
26 4.2 Three-year net costs and non-cashable savings for very high complexity clients 67. Based on results in Table 3 above and Table 4 below: a. For 100 clients of very high complexity on community pathways, from the point at which a client entered treatment in 2009 to 31 st March 2012, total costs (for both treatment and prison) were estimated at 0.7 million, resulting in around 6 positive treatment outcomes. Across all 100 clients approximately 0.5 million of savings were generated (which are not necessarily cashable). This means that overall for 100 clients costs were around 0.1 million higher than the direct savings to the exchequer. b. For 100 clients of very high complexity on residential pathways, from the point at which a client entered treatment in 2009 to 31 st March 2012, total costs were estimated at 2.6 million, resulting in around 16 positive treatment outcomes. Across all 100 clients approximately 0.8 million of savings were generated (which are not necessarily cashable). This means that overall for 100 clients costs were around 1.8 million higher than the direct savings to the exchequer. 68. Therefore, for 100 very high complexity clients, the net cost to the public sector of putting 100 high complexity clients through residential pathways was around 1.6 million higher than it would be through community pathways over the 3 year period. This suggests that over this short period the savings to government of sending clients down residential pathways do not outweigh the costs, and the analysis would have to potentially look beyond 31 st March 2012 before this is the case. 69. Table 4 extends Table 3 to show how, for very high complexity, the estimates above are composed from those clients who had a positive treatment outcome, clients who otherwise exited, and those who at 31 st March 2012 were still in treatment. 70. For both pathways, the table indicates that those with positive treatment outcomes contributed much more on average per person in savings than those who exit for other reasons or remain in treatment. 24
27 Table 4: Indicative estimates of three-year (2009 to 31 st March 2012) costs and savings to government if 100 clients were sent down each pathway, for very high complexity only Pathw ay Complexity Outcome Freq Residential Very High Community Very High Positive Treatment Outcome ,000-8, ,000-20,000 41,000-1,000 30, , , ,000 Other Exit 44-1,107,000-21,000-1,128,000-81, ,000-2,000 57, , , ,000 Still in Treatment 40-1,015,000-20,000-1,035,000-30, ,000-2,000 43, , , ,000 Total 100-2,531,000-49,000-2,580, , ,000-5, , , ,000-1,778,000 Positive Treatment Outcome 6-34,000-6,000-40,000-5,000 4,000-11,000 38,000 49,000 9,000 Other Exit ,000-45, ,000 9,000 30,000-71,000 33, , ,000 Still in Treatment 50 Three Year Costs Treatment Prison Total Costs Welfare - 280,000-51, ,000-44,000 - Housing Benefit Employment Health Offending Total Savings Overall Savings - 2,000 70, , ,000-4,000 Total , , ,000-39,000 34,000-2, , , , ,000 Residential Overall Savings - Community Overall Savings Three Year Savings - 1,635,000 Notes: Figures rounded to the nearest 1,000. Figures may not sum because of this rounding. '-' indicates between and Overall Savings are total costs and total savings combined Includes savings to the exchequer (although not cashable) and excludes wider societal savings. This does not include any discounting, so does not include a NPV 4.3 Annualised net costs and non-cashable savings for very high complexity clients 71. In order to look at potential savings beyond the three years (from entering treatment in 2009/10 to 31 st March 2012), annualised estimates of net costs and non-cashable savings were produced. Focussing just on the very high complexity clients, where Tables 3 and 4 have shown that there are greater savings estimated for residential pathways than for community pathways, Table 5 below demonstrates that when assuming: a. Savings continue at the same rate each year after a client has left treatment (which is in reality unlikely); b. That there are no additional costs of treatment or prison after 31 st March 2012 (which is in reality unlikely); c. Annual savings are estimated (again relative to the two years before entering treatment) for each of the five outcome domains. For 100 very high complexity clients on a community pathway, non-cashable savings of around 0.5m per year would be generated from 1 st April For 100 very high complexity clients on a residential pathway, non-cashable savings of around 0.7m per year would be generated from 1 st April
28 Therefore, it is indicatively estimated that 100 clients on residential pathways would generate about 0.2m more in non-cashable savings than 100 clients on a community pathways per year from 1 st April Hence, considering Table 4, the difference in overall savings between residential and community pathways across the first three years (until 31 st March 2012) is estimated at - 1.6m for 100 very high complexity clients - under the assumptions above it would take approximately just under 9 years from 31 st March 2012 to recoup the additional costs of residential based pathways. 73. This means that overall the analysis suggests that it would take 12 years from the point the clients enter treatment for 100 very high complexity clients on residential pathways to be cost effective relative to 100 very high complexity clients on community pathways. Over a 12 year period it is very unlikely that a client would not relapse or commit a further offence, thereby making the indicated savings unrealistic. Table 5: Indicative estimates of annualised net costs and non-cashable savings to government in the year after the end of the cohort period i.e. April 1st 2012 to March 31 st Pathw ay Complexity Welfare Payments Annualised Estimates of Savings Housing Benefit Employment Health Offending Total Residential Very High - 39,000 36,000-1,000 90, , ,000 Community Very High 23,000 30,000 1,000 78, , ,000 Residential Total - Community Only Total 184,000 Notes: Figures rounded to the nearest 1,000. Figures may not sum because of this rounding. Overall Savings are total costs and total savings combined Includes savings to the exchequer (although not cashable) and excludes wider societal savings. This does not include any discounting, so does not include a NPV 4.4 Net costs and non-cashable savings for very high complexity clients under bold assumptions 74. The analysis so far contains a range of assumptions and limited data which has meant that it is not possible to capture all costs and savings. To test the sensitivity of the analysis and for illustrative purposes only, the analysis presented in Table 6 below uses bold assumptions, e.g. no clients who were in residential treatment received HB whilst they were resident, which maximise savings resulting from residential pathways and minimise those resulting from community pathways (for a detailed description see Annex C). This cannot be considered as something that is necessarily attainable. 75. As shown in Table 6, this sensitivity analysis estimates that: a. Community pathways cost approximately 0.7 million and generate approximately 0.5 million in savings, meaning that overall for 100 very high complexity clients on community pathways, under these bold assumptions, costs were around 0.1 million greater than savings. 26
29 b. Residential pathways cost approximately 2.6 million and generate approximately 1.3 million in savings, meaning that overall for 100 very high complexity clients on residential pathways, under these bold assumptions, costs were around 1.3 million greater than savings. 76. Therefore, for 100 very high complexity clients under these bold assumptions, the net cost to the public sector of putting 100 high complexity clients through residential pathways was around 1.2 million higher than it would be through community pathways over the 3 year period. This suggests that even considering this extreme scenario, over this short period the benefits to government of sending clients down residential pathways do not outweigh the costs. Table 6: Indicative estimates of three-year (2009 to 31 st March 2012) savings to government if 100 clients were sent down each complexity level and pathway- bold scenario and very high complexity. Pathw ay Three Year Costs Total Treatment Prison Welfare Complexity Costs Housing Benefit Three Year Savings Employment Health Offending Total Savings Overall Savings Residential Very High - 2,526,000-49,000-2,575, , ,000 91, , ,000 1,288,000-1,286,000 Community Very High - 560, , ,000-41,000 - Residential Overall Savings - Community Overall Savings 28, , , , ,000-1,153,000 Notes: Figures rounded to the nearest 1,000. Figures may not sum because of this rounding. '-' indicates between and Overall Savings are total costs and total savings combined Includes savings to the exchequer (although not cashable) and excludes wider societal savings. This does not include any discounting, so does not include a NPV 77. Annualised estimates have also been calculated for this bold scenario (see Annex A, Table A3 for details). They estimate that from 1 st April 2012, assuming that savings after exiting treatment continue at the same rates, and that costs do not continue, the annual saving from 100 very high complexity clients on community pathways, is around 0.3 million, and the annual saving for 100 very high complexity clients on residential pathways is around 0.9 million, resulting in a difference of 0.6 million in savings per year. Therefore under these bold assumptions it would take approximately 2 years from 31 st March 2012 to recoup the additional costs of residential pathways, suggesting that it would take approximately 5 years from the point the clients enter treatment for 100 very high complexity clients on residential pathways to be cost effective relative to 100 very high complexity clients on community pathways. Even over a 5 year period it is still very unlikely that a client would not relapse or commit a further offence, thereby making the indicated savings unrealistic. 5. Conclusion 78. Whilst indicative analysis of clients on residential pathways showed higher rates of positive treatment outcomes (for example the rate of positive outcomes for very high complexity clients on residential treatment pathways were around three times that of similar clients on community pathways, though only 1.5 times greater for low complexity clients), on average the cost of residential pathways was five times that of community pathways irrespective of the complexity level of clients. 27
30 79. Data is currently insufficient to draw any conclusions about savings between pathways and many of these savings would not be cashable. 80. However, indicative findings from this relative analysis of costs and savings suggests it is highly unlikely that the higher cost of residential pathways would be offset by greater welfare, HB, employment, health, drug-related offending or prison savings to the exchequer, relative to those savings generated by equivalent clients following community pathways. 81. The value of drug treatment overall, the need for a mixed economy of provision that is commissioned against the evidence base and the duty care clinicians have to refer to the treatment most clinically appropriate for an individual, bearing in mind their preference and availability of services, is not in question. 28
31 Understanding the Savings to Public Services of Different Treatment Pathways for Clients Dependent on Opiates: Annexes A-E Annex A: Further detailed tables Annex B: Methodology notes Annex C: Methodology of extreme sensitivity analysis Annex D: Comparability of clients on community and residential treatment pathways Annex E: Glossary 29
32 Annex A: Further detailed tables Table A1: Indicative estimates of three-year (1 st April 2009 to 31 st March 2012) savings to government if 100 clients were sent down each complexity level and pathway. This table is a more detailed version of table 3 in Chapter 4 of the main report. Three Year Costs Total Costs Three Year Savings Welfare Housing Benefit Employment Health Drug Related Offending Accrued after Accrued in Accrued after Accrued in Accrued after Accrued in Accrued after Accrued in Accrued after Accrued in the treatment the treatment the treatment the treatment the treatment last treatment and last treatment and last treatment and last treatment and last treatment and inbetw een journey inbetw een journey inbetw een journey inbetw een journey inbetw een journey Pathw ay Complexity Outcome Freq Treatment Prison Positive Treatment 39,000 Outcome ,000-2, ,000-33,000-23,000-1,000-38,000 35,000-23,000 27,000 87, ,000 Low Other exit 47-1,209,000-3,000-1,212,000-45,000-82,000 56,000 29,000-1,000-4,000 61,000 49, ,000 37,000-64,000-1,275,000 Still in treatment ,000-1, ,000-50,000-72, ,000-24,000-39,000-83, ,000 Total 100-2,549,000-6,000-2,555, , , ,000 75,000-4,000-4, ,000 84, ,000 64, ,000-2,448,000 Positive Treatment Outcome ,000-7, ,000-26,000-36,000 40,000-1,000-1,000 34,000 34,000 15,000 43, , ,000 Medium Other exit 45-1,018,000-10,000-1,028,000-35,000-3,000 48,000 27,000-1,000 1,000 64,000 43,000-97, , , ,000 Still in treatment ,000-6, ,000-61,000-84, ,000-26, , , ,000 Residential Total 100-2,285,000-23,000-2,308, ,000-39, ,000 74,000-3, ,000 77, , , ,000-2,033,000 Positive Treatment Outcome ,000-10, ,000-16,000-10,000 38,000-1,000-16,000 24,000 16, , , ,000 High Other exit 44-1,136,000-21,000-1,156,000-27,000 4,000 74,000 16,000-1,000-27,000 39, , , , ,000 Still in treatment ,000-16, ,000-80, , ,000-43, , , ,000 Total 100-2,595,000-47,000-2,642, ,000-6, ,000 50,000-5,000-1,000 85,000 62, , , ,000-1,699,000 Positive Treatment Outcome ,000-8, ,000-10,000-10,000 32,000-1,000-10,000 20,000 50,000 81, , ,000 Very High Other exit 44-1,107,000-21,000-1,128,000-51,000-30,000 87,000 10,000-1,000-1,000 19,000 38,000-92, , , ,000 Still in treatment 40-1,015,000-20,000-1,035,000-30, , ,000-43, , , ,000 Total 100-2,531,000-49,000-2,580,000-91,000-40, ,000 37,000-4,000-1,000 72,000 58, , , ,000-1,778,000 Positive Treatment Outcome 21-96,000-6, ,000-10,000-8, ,000 24,000-1,000 6,000 53,000-49,000 Low Other exit ,000-11, ,000-15,000-3,000-19, ,000 41,000-28,000 46, ,000-59,000 Still in treatment ,000-13, ,000-40, ,000-79,000-32,000-70, ,000 Total ,000-31, ,000-65,000-11,000-53,000-2, ,000 65,000 3,000 52, , ,000 Positive Treatment Outcome 14-69,000-9,000-78,000-11,000-1, ,000 16,000 3,000 15,000 47,000-31,000 Medium Other exit ,000-28, ,000-27,000 7,000-12,000-1,000-53,000 48,000-77,000 85, , ,000 Still in treatment ,000-27, ,000-53, ,000-74,000-93, , ,000 Community Total ,000-64, ,000-91,000 6,000-51,000-3, ,000 64,000 19, , , ,000 Positive Treatment Outcome 9-47,000-8,000-54,000-6,000-1, ,000 10,000 13,000 25,000 55,000 1,000 High Other exit ,000-39, ,000-24,000 17,000-7,000-1,000 1,000 43,000 49, , , , ,000 Still in treatment ,000-39, ,000-57, ,000-72, , ,000-99,000 Total ,000-85, ,000-87,000 16,000-44,000-3,000 1, ,000 59,000 37, , , ,000 Positive Treatment Outcome 6-34,000-6,000-40,000-4, ,000 7,000 13,000 25,000 49,000 9,000 Very High Other exit ,000-45, ,000-17,000 27,000-4,000-1,000 1,000 29,000 42, , , , ,000 Still in treatment ,000-51, ,000-44, ,000-70, , ,000-4,000 Total , , ,000-65,000 26,000-34,000-3,000 1, ,000 49, , , , ,000 Total savings Overall Savings Notes Figures rounded to the nearest 1,000. Figures may not sum because of this rounding. '-' indicates between and Overall Savings are total costs and total savings combined Includes savings to the exchequer (although not cashable) and excludes wider societal savings. This does not include any discounting, so does not include a NPV 30
33 Table A2: Indicative estimates of annualised (from April 1 st 2012) savings to government if 100 clients were sent down each complexity level and pathway. This table is a more detailed version of table 5 in Chapter 4 of the main report. Annualised Estimates of Savings Pathw ay Complexity Outcome Freq Welfare Payments Housing Benefit Employment Health Drug Related Offending Total Positive Treatment Outcome 31-15,000 18,000-27,000 20,000 62,000 Low Other exit 47-50,000 28,000-2,000 40,000 31,000 34,000 Still in treatment Total ,000 46,000-3,000 67,000 51,000 97,000 Positive Treatment Outcome 30-24,000 18,000-1,000 25,000 48,000 84,000 Medium Other exit 45-2,000 27,000-37,000 72, ,000 Still in treatment Residential Total ,000 45,000-62, , ,000 Positive Treatment Outcome 22-8,000 13,000 25, , ,000 High Other exit 44 3,000 26,000-49, , ,000 Still in treatment Total 100-5,000 39,000-1,000 74, , ,000 Positive Treatment Outcome 16-10,000 10,000-24, , ,000 Very High Other exit 44-29,000 26,000-1,000 66, , ,000 Still in treatment Total ,000 36,000-1,000 90, , ,000 Positive Treatment Outcome 21-5,000 13,000-26,000 21,000 71,000 Low Other exit 37-2,000 22,000-45,000 36,000 84,000 Still in treatment Total 100-7,000 35,000-71,000 57, ,000 Positive Treatment Outcome 14-1,000 8,000-18,000 28, ,000 Medium Other exit 44 5,000 26,000-55,000 86, ,000 Still in treatment Total 100 4,000 35,000-73, , ,000 Community Positive Treatment Outcome 9-1,000 5,000-13,000 45, ,000 High Other exit 46 13,000 27,000 1,000 64, , ,000 Still in treatment Total ,000 33,000 1,000 77, , ,000 Positive Treatment Outcome 6-4,000-9,000 47, ,000 Very High Other exit 44 23,000 26,000 1,000 69, , ,000 Still in treatment Total ,000 30,000 1,000 78, , ,000 Notes Figures rounded to the nearest 1,000. Figures may not sum because of this rounding. '-' indicates between and Overall Savings are total costs and total savings combined Includes savings to the exchequer (although not cashable) and excludes wider societal savings. This does not include any discounting, so does not include a NPV Savings for Health and Drug Related Offending are shown in the table to be proportional to the frequencies with each outcome. No real account has been taken of the different outcome groups. 31
34 Table A3: Indicative estimates of annualised (from April 1 st 2012) savings to government if 100 clients were sent down each pathway, for very high complexity clients under bold assumptions This table supplements table 6 of Chapter 4 in the main report, providing the annualised estimates that are used to calculate that from 1 st April 2012, assuming that savings after exiting treatment continue at the same rates and that costs do not continue, the annual saving from 100 very high complexity clients on community pathways, is around 0.3m, and the annual saving for 100 very high complexity clients on residential pathways is around 0.9m, resulting in a difference of 0.6m savings per year. Therefore this suggests it would take approximately 5 years for residential pathways to offset the additional treatment costs (over three years), relative to the equivalent for community pathways.. Pathw ay Residential Community Notes Complexity Outcome Freq Very High Very High Welfare Payments Housing Benefit Employment Health Drug Related Offending Positive Treatment Outcome 26-16, ,000 17,000 32, , ,000 Other exit 44-29, ,000 45,000 35, , ,000 Still in treatment Total , ,000 62,000 67, , ,000 Positive Treatment Outcome 11-1, ,000 40,000 51,000 Other exit 42 22, , , ,000 Still in treatment Total , , , ,000 Residential Total - Community Total Figures rounded to the nearest 1,000. Figures may not sum because of this rounding. '-' indicates between and Overall Savings are total costs and total savings combined Includes savings to the exchequer (although not cashable) and excludes wider societal savings. This does not include any discounting, so does not include a NPV Annualised Estimates of Savings Total 598,000 32
35 Annex B: Methodology notes B.1 Treatment Cohort 1. Using the September 2013 data from NDTMS (National Drug Treatment Monitoring System), analysis follows a cohort of individuals who met the following criteria: They started at least one new treatment journey in structured drug treatment between 1 st April 2009 and 31 st March 2010; At the start of the earliest new treatment journey in 2009/10, they were aged 18 or over; During their earliest new treatment journey in 2009/10, they indicated an opiate as one of their problem substances. 2. This returns a cohort of 54,712 clients. Each client was then followed up until 31 st March Complexity groupings were assigned to these clients based on their status at the beginning of their treatment journey. The small number of clients whose complexity was classed as very low were excluded from the analysis. 3. A person was considered to have a positive treatment outcome if they: were discharged from the treatment system with a code of treatment completed free of dependency and not using heroin or crack cocaine ; remained out of treatment and did not come into contact with the criminal justice system for a drug-related offence in the same local area until 31 st March 2012; remained out of treatment anywhere in England for the next 12 months following their completion from the treatment system; if the person positively completed treatment less than 12 months before 31 st March 2012 then they were followed up into the next financial year to ensure they had not re-presented to treatment or the criminal justice system for at least 12 months. The definition here of a positive treatment outcome was specifically constructed for the purposes of this analysis. Pathways 4. During this time period, there were six possible categories for adult treatment interventions available in NDTMS: inpatient detoxification (IP), prescribing (either specialist or GP), structured intensive psychosocial interventions (psychosocial), structured day programmes (SDP), residential rehabilitation and other structured interventions (OSI). Each person was assigned to a treatment pathway in this analysis based on the combination of interventions received from the start of their earliest new treatment journey in 2009/10 through to 31 st March Grouping into pathways in this way creates 33 possible combinations, 16 of which contain residential rehabilitation and 17 of which do not. As this would prove unwieldy 33
36 to analyse, this analysis only considers the five most common pathways overall and the five most common which include residential rehabilitation. 6. Of the original 54,712 opiate users selected for analysis, 88% are in the five most common treatment pathways. Table B1 below presents the breakdown. Table B1: 5 most common community and residential pathways N % 5 most common community pathways 47, % Prescribing, Key Working and Low Level Psychosocial Intervention 28, % Prescribing, Intensive Psychosocial 9, % Prescribing, Structured Day Programme 3, % Other Structured Interventions only 2, % Intensive Psychosocial Intervention Only 2, % 5 most common pathways with a residential component 1, % Residential Rehab, Key Working and low level psychosocial (partly in the community) % Inpatient Detoxification, Prescribing, Residential Rehab % Prescribing, Residential Rehab % Inpatient Detoxification Prescribing, Intensive Psychosocial, Residential Rehab % Prescribing, Intensive Psychosocial, Residential Rehab % Total 48, % Notes: Source: NDTMS, PHE Time in treatment 7. Clients on residential pathways have marginally lower average lengths of time in treatment than those on community pathways. This is for all time in treatment, not just the length of time spent in a residential setting, and is a consistent pattern seen across the range of client complexities. For example over the three year period analysed, very high complexity clients on residential pathways spent an average of approximately 1.49 years in treatment, compared to approximately 1.57 years in treatment for those on community pathways, as shown in Chart B1 below. 34
37 Chart B1: Average length of time in treatment per client per complexity level and pathway, in years Notes: Source: NDTMS, PHE Costing of treatment activity 8. The cost of treatment was determined by applying national average costs per day 6 for each intervention type. Using this data, we were able to calculate the unit costs 7 for each intervention in each area: Spend / (no. of people * no. of days in each intervention type). 9. Below are the unit costs used in the analysis. Unit costs vary significantly, ranging from 6 for specialist prescribing to 413 for inpatient detoxification (see Table B2 below). Table B2: Treatment unit costs (per person per day) Intervention Unit cost ( prices) Prescribing, Key Working and Low Level Psychosocial Intervention 5.92 Structured Day Programmes Intensive Psychosocial Intervention Other Structured Interventions Inpatient Detoxification In 2012, PHE collected funding and expenditure data from 87% of partnerships (local drug commissioning partnerships usually comprising of PCTs, Local Authorities, Police and Probation) across the country. Expenditure data was broken down by the six treatment interventions recorded on NDTMS (the same six that have been used to generate the different treatment pathways) and other pertinent information, such as spend on the Drug Interventions Programme (DIP). 7 National unit costs for each intervention were derived from the median of the partnerships costs per day, to remove the effect of any anomalies/ outliers in the data. 35
38 Residential Rehabilitation Notes: Source: NDTMS, PHE 10. Expenditure included all spend for each intervention, such as those paid on behalf of the partnership, e.g. prescription charges, accommodation costs and administrative costs such as providing community care assessments prior to entry into residential services. As the spend is fairly high for rehabilitation 8 / inpatient 9 care, with few people receiving the interventions for a relatively short amount of time, the unit costs are higher than community based treatment interventions. Caveats around the treatment analysis 11. Numbers in the five most common residential pathways were significantly lower than the number of clients in the five most common community pathways. 12. Clinicians will make assessments and judgments on the most appropriate pathway for each client. If guidelines are followed, clients will be placed in the most appropriate and effective pathway to meet their need. All clients entering residential rehabilitation will have undergone clinical and community care assessments and in many areas a funding panel will have made the final decision on whether to place in individual in residential treatment. In no small part, these processes will take into account whether an individual is likely to succeed in residential treatment. 13. Therefore, it should be taken into account in this analysis that clients were not randomly allocated, and this introduces the risk of a considerable sample bias. It cannot be assumed that the outcomes shown would be replicated on a different or a larger cohort. Nor can it be assumed that the needs of the cohort who went to the higher cost residential pathways could have been met more cost effectively by a community treatment pathway. 14. Analysis covers new treatment journeys during 2009/10, thereby excluding anyone in treatment during that time who had started their journey prior to 1 April Clients who were still in treatment at the end of the period being analysed would continue to accumulate costs beyond 2011/12, but these have not been included in this analysis. 15. The performance of drug treatment interventions vary at a local level, as does the performance of different residential providers. These have not been accounted for as the model is based on national level data. 8 Residential rehabilitation was defined as: residential services with programmes to suit the needs of different service users, e.g. therapeutic communities, 12-Step programmes and faith-based programmes; drug and alcohol crisis intervention services; inpatient detoxification directly attached to residential rehabilitation programmes; residential treatment programmes for specific client groups (e.g. for drug-using pregnant women, drug users with liver problems, drugs users with severe and enduring mental illness). Interventions may require joint initiatives between specialised drug services and other specialist inpatient units; some drug-specific therapeutic communities and 12-Step programmes in prisons; Second stage rehabilitation in drug-free supported accommodation where a client often moves after completing an episode of care in a residential rehabilitation unit, and where they continue to have a care plan, and receive key work and support; other supported accommodation, with the rehabilitation interventions (therapeutic drug-related and non-drug-related interventions) provided at a different nearby site(s). Partnerships had to include all spend on residential care as defined above. 9 Inpatient treatment was defined as follows: an Inpatient Unit (IPU) provides care to service users with substance-related problems (medical, psychological or social) that are so severe that they require medical, psychiatric and/or psychological care. The key feature of an IPU is the provision of these services with 24-hour cover, 7 days per week from a multidisciplinary clinical team who had specialist training in managing addictive behaviours. Partnerships had to include all spend on inpatient care as defined above. 36
39 16. Re-presentation occurs if an individual reappears on the NDTMS or shows up on the PNC for a drug-related offence within 12 months of leaving treatment, or is recorded in the Drugs Intervention Programme (DIP). An individual not re-presenting indicates a likelihood of recovery from dependency. However, some of those clients identified as sustaining their recovery may have had another drug-related event, such as an admission to a hospital or other contact with the criminal justice system not captured in the analysis. 17. After completing any treatment, clients are placed in after-care treatment which is an important part of the recovery process for opiate clients, but this is not currently recorded and therefore cannot be taken into consideration when calculating the cost to certain treatment pathways. 18. Other Structured Intervention (OSI) is a wide umbrella term for a variety of other treatments given to opiate clients. Consequently, it is a more difficult intervention to cost consistently as part of the unit cost exercise. 19. National unit costs are based on 87% of partnership submissions. While this represents the overwhelming majority, it should be noted that figures could be slightly different if we had expenditure information for all local authorities. 20. In the case of the higher unit cost of residential pathways, it also cannot be assumed that the needs of the cohort who went to residential rehabilitation could have been met more cost effectively by community treatment pathways. This is because the assessments of need and likelihood of success may mean that the most appropriate and therefore cost effective pathway for that particular cohort was residential treatment, and for them a community pathway would have been less appropriate and therefore less cost effective. 21. It is also a clear expectation of local authority commissioners that a system of aftercare or recovery support is in place for people when they exit all forms of structured treatment. Although aftercare services contribute towards recovery outcomes and some have an associated cost, they are not included in this analysis, as the numbers accessing these services are not recorded We have assumed that all partnerships have segmented their expenditure in the same way and that all submissions were accurate (NB: we exclude outliers from the national averages) and that all previous year costs are the same as those collected in real terms. 23. The use of complexity in this analysis is based on the likelihood of client achieving outcomes and not clinical complexity. For example, pregnancy is a positive factor in the complexity scoring, whereas clinically it will add significant complications. Also, the unit cost for people of different complexity is the same, despite the fact that, for example, potentially treating a client of very high complexity might be more intensive and so more expensive than treating a client of lower complexity. 10 The National Drug Treatment Monitoring System data base changed in November 2012 to record a fuller picture of recovery support, so some of this information will be available in the future. 37
40 B.2 Welfare 24. DWP information about claimants, and the benefits that they are in receipt of, was matched to client records held by PHE in November This match was based on the claimant s initials, date of birth, gender and the local authority in which they lived. 25. It was not possible to match all records. For example, some claimants may have moved between local authorities, and remained unmatched as a consequence. In other cases, multiple matches were identified. This occurred when a single client in drug treatment matched with more than one DWP claimant. To avoid multiple counting or misrepresentation of these cases, these matches have been excluded As a result only a proportion of PHE clients have been matched with DWP records. Throughout the analysis the underlying assumption is that clients who remain unmatched on each pathway have similar characteristics to those who have been matched. However, it is possible that their characteristics and claiming patterns could differ. 27. For PHE clients who match DWP client records, average periods in-and-out of treatment, and on-and-off of different benefits have been calculated. This has been carried out for each treatment pathway (residential or community) and for each complexity (low, medium, high, very high). It is assumed that these averages would also be typical of unmatched cases if they had been able to be matched. 28. On average, approximately two-thirds of PHE clients could be matched to DWP records. However, a higher proportion of clients on residential pathways were unmatched than clients on community pathways. Therefore additional caution should be taken when interpreting these figures. 29. Details of the five most common residential pathways, and the five most common community pathways, were mapped onto this existing DWP/PHE data match. 30. In analysing the matched data, the period 1 April March 2012 was considered. We then split this into three separate periods: The period of time in which the client was in treatment both the initial treatment pathway, and for those that left and returned, any subsequent time in treatment; and: The period of time in between treatment. This would include situations where a client has finished one treatment journey - but then re-presents and re-enters treatment. The period of time following the client s last treatment journey, up until 31 March We also captured whether, or not, each client had positively exited treatment, allowing us to look at the different claiming patterns of clients who positively exited treatment before 31 March This is because it cannot be determined which of the many potential matches might be the correct one. 38
41 32. In order to understand the claiming patterns of these clients prior to entering treatment as part of the 2009/10 cohort, we looked at the benefits that clients had been entitled to in the two years immediately preceding their entry into treatment. 33. For each period of time we considered whether the client was in receipt of one of the main DWP working-age benefits, or not. These working-age benefits included: Jobseeker s Allowance (JSA); Employment & Support Allowance (ESA); Incapacity Benefit (IB), including Severe Disablement Allowance (SDA); Income Support (IS); and Disability Living Allowance (DLA). 34. Other benefits, such as Carer s Allowance (CA) were not included in the analysis of benefits. Benefits administered by local authorities (for example, Housing Benefit) were not included here, as details of periods of entitlement had not been included in the data match between DWP and PHE. The impact of the different treatment pathways on HB expenditure has been separately estimated. 35. In the analysis, JSA, ESA, IB, SDA and IS have been treated as the main out-of-work benefits. In a small number of cases, claimants could be working for a few hours per week, and still remain entitled to one or more of these benefits. DLA has been treated separately throughout the analysis, as it can be paid both in and out of work. 36. Some claimants could be entitled to more that one of these benefits at the same time, (for example, entitled to both IB and IS). The extent to which some benefits overlap has been taken into account in the analysis, and has been costed accordingly. 37. The entitlement information included on the PHE/DWP data match does not include details of the amount of benefit in payment. 38. In order to estimate the amount of benefit which the claimant would be likely to receive whilst entitled to one or more of the above benefits, DWP administrative data was used DWP systems include a disadvantage marker, which should be set when a claimant is known to have a drug dependency. The marker is known to significantly underestimate the number of claimants who are likely to have dependency problems. However, in the case of this analysis the disadvantage marker was used to estimate the average amount of benefit to which a claimant with drug problems is entitled, rather than the overall numbers of claimants with drug problems. 40. The drug dependency disadvantage marker has been matched to DWP datasets previously used to produce published National Statistics on average benefit awards. Based on this marker, average awards for each benefit have been produced for each quarter during 2009/10, 2010/11 and 2011/ These average entitlements have been estimated by applying the individual weights used to control for disclosure in the production of the National Statistics. When the 12 July 2013 National Benefit Dataset (NBD) 39
42 average entitlement across the twelve quarterly snapshots was calculated, the adjusted caseload figures for each quarter were used to weight the figures. 42. All calculations of employment savings and welfare costs are presented on a 2011/12 basis. For consistency of approach with both treatment and offending analysis presented, benefit rates for 2009/10 and 2010/11 have been expressed in 2011/12 terms using the GDP deflator published by HM Treasury 13. Table B3: Average Awards of DWP Benefit Claimants with a drug dependency disadvantage marker over 2009/ /12 Benefit Estimated Average Weekly entitlement JSA ESA IB (inc SDA) IS DLA Notes: Source: DWP administrative data Estimated Average Daily entitlement 43. ESA claimants undergo a Work Capability Assessment (WCA) in order to determine whether they are entitled to ESA, or not. If they are entitled to ESA, the WCA will help to determine whether they should be placed in the Support Group (SG) or the Work Related Activity Group (WRAG). 44. The dataset underlying the ESA National Statistics records the rate of ESA in payment, and each claimant s benefit entitlement, at a particular point in time. However, neither the underlying dataset nor published statistics are retrospectively adjusted once the ESA group into which a claimant is placed has been determined following the WCA. Once a claimant had been placed in the SG or WRAG they would then be entitled to a higher amount of benefit. This would usually apply from the start of their claim, rather than from the point at which a decision on the WCA had been made. 45. This means that some claimants are shown as being in receipt of a lower amount of ESA than would have actually been the case once a decision has been made about their ESA claim. 46. Steps have been taken to attempt to correct for this retrospective increase in ESA entitlement, which does not appear in the published statistics: where a claimant had an increase in their ESA entitlement between one quarter and the next, the earlier entitlement amount was increased by: the amount equivalent to the ESA WRAG component for the relevant year, if the quarter-on-quarter increase in entitlement was equal to or more than per week (the amount of the ESA WRAG component in 2009/10) and less than per week (the amount of the ESA SG component in 2009/10) 13 Published GDP deflator, June https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/gdp-deflators-atmarket-prices-and-money-gdp-june-2014-quarterly-national-accounts 40
43 the amount equivalent to the ESA SG component for the relevant year, if the quarter-on-quarter increase in entitlement was equal to or more than per week (the amount of the ESA SG component in 2009/10) and less than per week (the difference between the personal allowance for a single person and a couple in 2009/10). 47. Ranges were used, rather than specific values, to account for quarter-on-quarter changes which spanned financial years. In some cases these quarter-on-quarter changes could be exaggerated as a result of benefit up-rating. This would result in changes which might be larger than the standard WRAG or SG components. Despite this, it is likely that the approach still misses some instances where ESA entitlements should be revised, and changes the entitlement for others that should not have been changed (for example, where a claimant was working but then stops). Overall, the effect of this adjustment increased the average ESA entitlement used in the analysis, by less than 2 per week. 48. The estimates of average weekly benefit entitlement have been used to calculate the benefit spend on this cohort of clients entering treatment in 2009/10 throughout the three year period that the analysis covers, (before, during and inbetween, and after treatment). This calculation is based on the average number of days clients spend in receipt of each benefit. 49. Estimates of costs and savings are based on estimates of daily costs per client, multiplied by the appropriate number of clients and appropriate number of days (before, during and inbetween, and after treatment- for each complexity, and exit type). An adjustment has been made in the calculation of the average duration after treatment for those with an other exit, for both pathways, to remove the number of days a client is dead, or in custody (taken to be on average 71 days), from the estimate. 50. Because the analysis used to derive estimates of benefit entitlement is based on a proxy measure for those in treatment (the DWP drug dependency disadvantage marker, as explained above), the figures used to estimate welfare spend are subject to uncertainty. As a result care should be taken with interpretation. 51. Charts 3 and 4 in Chapter 3 of the publication paper show the percentage of time spent on an out of work benefit for clients with a positive treatment outcome. Charts B2 and B3 below show this for clients with an other exit outcome. 41
44 Chart B2: Percentage of time spent on an out-of-work benefit for clients with an other exit outcome by 31 st March 2012 for the most common 5 residential pathways Notes: Figures rounded to the nearest %. Source: Anonymous data match of DWP National Benefit Database (NBD) and PHE s NDTMS While findings are based on a hypothetical 100 people on each complexity, the confidence intervals presented relate to observed numbers to more accurately capture the differences in outcomes for people on a community vs. residential pathway. 42