New Coventry drug and alcohol service for young people to launch in 2027

A targeted service to tackle drug and alcohol issues among children and young people in Coventry is set to start in 2027, to address rising demand and long waiting lists.

Coventry City Council has a statutory responsibility to identify, assess and protect children affected by alcohol, drugs or other substances.

This includes the so-called "hidden harm" caused by the often-unseen impact of parental substance use, mental ill-health or domestic abuse.

The current service, Coventry's Early Intervention and Young People's Substance Misuse Service, is provided by Change Grow Live and is known locally as Positive Choices.

The contract comes to an end in March 2027.

Plans are under way to launch a new Young People's Drug and Alcohol Prevention, Treatment and Support service in April 2027, which will run for the next five years, with options to extend it.

The council's Cabinet Member for Public Health and Sport, Councillor Kamran Caan, asked the Cabinet to approve the recommissioning of the service.

"Demand has grown, needs are more complex, and timely access is under severe pressure," Cllr Caan said.

"We've got a 74 per cent increase in referrals from 2019 to 2025. More referrals and they're more complex cases. I think the longer waits are a major contributor and in this day and age, mental health is such an issue, but with the rise in demand, we've got to submit this for tender," he said.

Waiting lists for treatment in Coventry are currently longer than national expectations, the council admitted.

Allison Duggal, the council's director of public health and wellbeing, said there has been "a significant rise in demand on this service and a significant rise in the complexity of the cases that are being referred in".

"In particular, we see a lot more in terms of use of ketamine, nitrous oxide, on top of that underlying drug and alcohol use, cannabis and the like. We are also starting to see some of the synthetic drugs coming through, and we want to keep ahead of that," Ms Duggal said.

"So, what we've done is looked at the service. Previously there was an emphasis on risky behaviours, online sexual harm, etc. Now, whilst we're going to maintain that, we're also looking to improve on that by working alongside colleagues and children's services," she said.

"What we want to do is just have a more targeted prevention service and be able to have more of a holistic assessment around vulnerabilities. We're also looking to extend the opening hours and actually have more outreach," Ms Duggal said.

Consultation had taken place with connected organisations and young people, with feedback indicating a more focused service was needed, along with extended opening hours.

Councillor Patricia Hetherton said there was now "real evidence of a link between ADHD and addictions", and asked how quickly early intervention was being carried out to tackle this.

Ms Duggal said an assessment was being carried out into addiction links to special educational needs and neurodiversity.

Councillor Mal Mutton welcomed the idea of a revamped service, and said there was "a lot of duplication" in the existing provision.

"This gives us more opportunity to work with education and other partners and it's good to have a more focused approach, because there is a rising problem, particularly around ketamine, where you've got kids as young as 13 presenting with it," Cllr Mutton said.

Councillor John Blundell raised concerns that changes to the existing service could mean young people falling into a gap, but public health officers gave assurance that assessments, community engagement and regular reviews should prevent this.

The recommissioning of the service will now go out to tender, with the director of public health awarding the contract to the preferred provider.

The service is funded by grants. In 2026/27, this comprised £581,000 from the Public Health Grant and £185,000 from a Drug and Alcohol Treatment and Recovery Improvement Grant.