Drug policy and performance management: A necessary evil?

Abstract

This paper considers the impact of a culture of performance management on the UK drug strategies since 1995. It discusses the background to the emergence of this policy direction and explores the reality of the culture through interviews with those responsible for making and implementing drug policy. Within the UK drug policy has been made centrally, but is implemented at a local government level and this is an important feature. The paper considers the interaction of performance management with other policy features, such as devolved power, New Labour, regionalization, partnership, and an emphasis on evidencing implementation. The findings indicate that the performance management of the strategies by the centre has developed and increased over time, but that this is perceived as a necessary evil; without it the drug strategy would not be so well understood or supported at the centre. Thus, the implication is that drug services would not have been so well funded and drug treatment would not have improved.

Notes

Notes

[1] It is acknowledged that those who ‘implement’ policy at a local level might also be responsible for developing policy in that context and this is explored in the larger study.

[2] The sample was purposive and not random and the work is qualitative. It seeks to be illustrative of the concerns and views of those implementing drug policies in the UK 1995–2005; it does not claim to be absolutely representative. It contained eight people who were responsible for developing the TDT strategy at a national level in 1995 and 12 policy ‘implementers’ who worked at a local and regional level between 1995–2005. The research went before Middlesex University's ethics committee. Interviewees all gave informed consent and the research was undertaken in accordance with the SRA ethical guidelines.

[3] NTA Press release 21 June 2006.