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Bringing recovery charities together and making their voices heard has never been more important , says Jess Mullen

I wasn ’ t entirely new to Collective Voice or the wider treatment and recovery field . Having joined from Clinks , the membership charity for the voluntary sector working in criminal justice , I had worked in partnership with Collective Voice as part of the Making Every Adult Matter coalition and in collaboration with many other organisations working with people struggling to overcome drug or alcohol dependency in prison or under probation supervision .

The similarities and overlaps between the sectors are significant – both involve supporting people who ’ ve been highly stigmatised by society and both require working within a complex and challenging commissioning and policy environment . Despite these similarities , I still feel like

I ’ ve learned so much over the last couple of months and I am keenly aware of the risks in making assumptions and getting things wrong . These are my key take aways so far .

A couple of days before I joined Collective Voice , the funding allocations for the next two years were finally announced , providing the opportunity to press on with the transformational , wholesystem approach advocated for by Dame Carol Black and set in motion by the drug strategy . There remain many unanswered questions about how quickly we can expect to see the impact of this investment in a system that has experienced years of disinvestment , what obstacles can be removed to best enable impact to be felt quickly , and perhaps most importantly how we define that impact . But what is clear to me is that Collective Voice has an important role in continuing to support the sector to convene and connect , to share learning and find these answers so that this opportunity is realised and investment sustained .

Charities are a vital part of the system – the national drug and alcohol treatment and recovery workforce census published in March ( DDN , April , p6 ) shows the voluntary sector makes up 78 per cent of the total treatment provider workforce . But the makeup of the voluntary sector working in substance misuse has changed substantially over the last decade – my first experience working with the sector was on a partnership

Charities are a vital part of the system ... the voluntary sector makes up 78 per cent of the total treatment provider workforce

project with DrugScope in 2011 who at the time had around 500 members . The precise number of charities now working in the field is anyone ’ s guess . But the consensus I ’ ve heard from everyone I have spoken to is that it ’ s a smaller number than it used to be , and it ’ s disproportionately the smaller and specialist organisations that have been lost .

Nonetheless there are still small , local and specialist organisations out there . This broad ecosystem includes LEROs , the regional and local treatment providers Collective Voice is already engaged with , and others that have recently been highlighted by Manchester Metropolitan university ’ s compendium of specialist alcohol and substance misuse services for Black and racially minoritised people ( DDN , April , p4 ). In the future I hope Collective Voice is able to make stronger links and work in collaboration with more of these organisations . This is an absolutely essential part of our role as a sector steward advocating for the overall health of the system . In this context it ’ s more vital than ever to ensure that our work truly focuses upon people ’ s needs by listening to the voices of lived and living experience , and to bring our sector ’ s attention to groups who are often ignored . Now and beyond 2025 we need to advocate that government builds on the foundations of the drug strategy and ensures a further focus on the needs of women , racially minoritised and young people with substance misuse problems .

My learning journey will continue throughout my time at Collective Voice – I am not and will never be the expert . The experts are the people with lived experience and those working in the field with frontline knowledge . Collective Voice ’ s role is to draw on that knowledge and expertise , convening , connecting and amplifying , to make it more than the sum of its parts . If you have thoughts about how we can best do that I ’ d love to hear them – contact me via @ collect _ voice and at jess @ collectivevoice . org . uk

Jess Mullen is chief executive officer of Collective Voice

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