Services
Services
Introduction to SMART Services » Enhanced Arrest Referral (DIP)
Quick Guide to SMART's Services Buckinghamshire (484KB)Who is the service for?
This service is for people who have a serious drug addiction and are commiting crimes to meet the cost of their drug use. Although the service is predominantly community based, SMART does have workers that engage with clients in local prisons, such as HMP Bullingdon, to help individuals, due for release, prepare post-release plans.
Who runs the service and where is it run?
The Enhanced Arrest Referral scheme is part of the Government's Drug Interventions programme (DIP). DIP services are designed to meet the needs of substance misusing offenders. SMART currently manages DIP intensive areas in Oxford city and non-intensive services in Bracknell, Buckinghamshire, Milton Keynes, Newbury, Oxfordshire, Windsor and Maidenhead and Wokingham.
How it operates:
There are three core elements that make up the Enhanced Arrest Referral service: engagement, case management and transfer/referral.
The first stage requires that an individual, at the point of arrest, engages with a service like SMART in police custody. The key outcome from this meeting, is the completion of a full assessment to identify the needs of the individual and the subsequent care pathway.
Having built up a rapport with the client the SMART worker will look at the best ways for an individual to realise their care plan objectives. The aim is to support the client with any custody/court related matters, clinical needs and other broader health and social issues such as accommodation, training and employment.
SMART maintains regular contact with each person to monitor their progress and provide extra support whilst they are waiting to access structured treatment programmes. SMART continues to stay involved once a client has started a specialist drug treatment service and will continue to work with the client until they are settled and fully supported within this service.
The DIP may also re-engage with the client, if the client drops out from the treatment service, to support the process of re-engaging the client in alternative treatment.
Post treatment - gaining employment, further education and training are the key exit outcomes SMART aims for.
Benefits:
The Enhanced Arrest Referral programme not only benefits people whose lives were once blighted by drugs, but also the wider community.
Independent research has shown dramatic reductions in drug use and offending where a comprehensive arrest referral service is in place. The first major evaluation of arrest referral schemes showed that areas, where the service was in place, experienced up to 50% less shoplifting and two thirds less burglary, fraud and street robbery.
Why the service was set up?
There is a clear link between drugs and crime, and therefore any service that provides help for dependent drug users and at the same time reduce acquisitive crime (such as shoplifting, burglaries and street robbery) has obvious benefits to the community
Model of Good Practice
"In our estimation the SMART Arrest Referral Service sets the gold standard" Arun Sondhi, Home Officer Senior Research Officer, 2002
Previous research by the Home Office has not only highlighted SMART as a model of best practice, but an independent academic study shows that we are exceptionally successful in engaging, and referring, problem drug users and prolific offenders into social care and specialist drug treatment services.
A recently commissioned research project by Kings College London looking at the impact of our DIP services indicated that
the related cost savings to the community are approximately one-to-four: That is:
for every pound spent on SMART services the wider community saves four.
Find out more
You can be referred in any of the following ways:
- Visiting an Open Access Drop-in
- Via your drug or alcohol worker
- Via your Probation officer, housing officer or other key worker
- Making an appointment to meet a SMART worker to assess your needs by:
