LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
NATIONAL HARM REDUCTION SUMMIT
FORWARD THINKING
The focus of the 2026 National Harm Reduction summit in Bristol – which was also a celebration of the Bristol Drug Project’ s 40th birthday – was on how lessons from the past could help us shape the future. DDN reports. Photography by Ania Shrimpton
B ristol was a city that had always been at the forefront of harm reduction, said Deb Hussey of Exchange Supplies.‘ Harm reduction survives because people keep choosing it – in commissioning decisions, in frontline practice, in research, in volunteer and staff training, in the way we talk about people who use drugs. Bristol, and BDP in particular, kept making that choice when it would have been easier not to.’
When it came to protecting progress, the UK had been a harm reduction pioneer, said Catherine Cook of Harm Reduction International( HRI). As one of the first countries to introduce needle and syringe programmes, other nations had‘ looked to the UK for inspiration and leadership.’ However, from 2010 government policy shifted towards recovery, with harm reduction given less prominence. England’ s hepatitis C elimination programme, however, was one of the most ambitious anywhere, with more than £ 1bn invested, over 110,000 treatments deliv ered, and a reduction in prevalence of almost 60 per cent in a decade. Harm reduction and peer- delivered interventions had been an important part of this success, but sustaining it would mean harm reduction being‘ protected and prioritised’, she stressed.
NSP provision, however, was decreasing, and mapping by the Hepatitis C Trust had found that almost half of the pharmacies listed as providing NSP‘ were not actually doing so’, while many of those that did were providing far below the WHO’ s recommended benchmark. UKHSA data, meanwhile, showed a rise in the sharing of injecting equipment, and peer outreach was often short-term and underfunded. All of this was putting the progress towards hep C elimination at risk, she warned, with other countries now moving ahead of the UK in terms of their harm reduction provision.‘ It’ s crucial that harm reduction is strengthened in the UK, to protect the incredible gains made so far. It’ s not just about public health – it’ s about reducing inequality and ensuring people have somewhere safe to turn.’
CONNECTING TO CARE‘ I don’ t need to convince this audience that needle and syringe provision matters,’ said Monica Desai of UKHSA – as an essential part of hep C elimination, as well as a vital opportunity to connect to care.‘ However, we’ re seeing low and declining NSP provision. At UKHSA we’ ve recommended that provision needs to be both strengthened and sustained if we’ re going to achieve hepatitis C elimination goals, but we’ re hampered by limited data availability.’
This knowledge gap was particularly acute in London, said Farrah Hart of the Greater London Authority. Provision was spread across 33 boroughs that commissioned their own services, were of different political colours, and had different priorities. Sixty-five per cent of London local authorities delivered NSP through a contract held by another organisation, added
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
‘ Harm reduction is about meeting people where they are, protecting health and saving lives,’ said Lydia Plant of Bristol Drugs Project( BDP) and Stuart Smith of The Hepatitis C Trust in a joint statement about their National Harm Reduction Summit( NHRS), held in Bristol. The purpose of the two-day summit was to take stock of a rapidly changing environment and ever-evolving drug market, and look at how peer-led and community approaches could be at the forefront of reaching people underserved by traditional services. It was also an opportunity to link with colleagues and partners in all areas of healthcare to make a more‘ accessible, equitable and resilient’ harm reduction system.
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