’ m Richard Sparkes. I’ m the registered manager at The Level inpatient detox in Nottingham. I also happen to be in recovery myself.

We’ re one of the services provided by the Nottinghambased charity Framework, and are also part of the Nottingham Recovery Network( NRN) – the city’ s drug and alcohol advice and treatment service. This is

led by Framework in partnership with the NHS and local charities Double Impact and Al-Hurraya. Together we provide a comprehensive range of services to meet the needs of people in recovery – housing, employment skills and, of course, substance use treatment.

I started my career in substance use treatment with NRN as part of the rough sleeper drug and alcohol

treatment team nearly four years ago, before taking on the role of managing The Level about nine months ago.

The Level is a 20-bed, medically managed detox facility helping those suffering with substance use issues from all over the country. We’ re one of a handful of detox centres accessible to those in community treatment – last I heard there were only around 180 beds

like us and with numbers in substance use treatment heading toward the 400,000 mark, you can imagine we’ re pretty busy.

TRAUMA-INFORMED APPROACH Alongside the clinical team, our support workers help the service users through their detox journey with a trauma-informed approach and levels of empathy that I have not seen before in

24 • DRINK AND DRUGS NEWS • JUNE 2025

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