Surrey Young People’s Substance Misuse also works with local partnership services to ensure the young people we are working with are receiving the correct support to achieve their goals.
Surrey Young People’s Substance Misuse is focused on supporting young people to achieve the best possible outcomes. We not only measure reductions in substance misuse via the YPOR scale, but we also measure the impact of the service on the individuals through surveys, feedback forms and quantitative data compiled via our HALO system.
While numbers and data will always be important, we are proud to consistently receive positive feedback from young people and other professionals about the Catch22 service and our dedicated and caring staff.
Between April 2022- March 2023, Surrey Young People’s Substance Misuse worked with 208 new young people in structured treatment: this is a 11% increase from the previous year. Of these:
Impact
Surrey Young People’s Substance Misuse is the only dedicated substance misuse service for children and young people in Surrey, providing one-to-one interventions, group work, workshops for service users/professionals, and training.
Surrey Young People’s Substance Misuse received 98% service user satisfaction in 2022-23, with service users reporting that they would recommend the service to a friend.
As a harm reduction-based service, our overarching aim is to provide service users with the information, skills and confidence, to enable them to make safer and more informed choices.
When looking at our feedback survey 96% of service users reported that they felt more confident in their ability to make positive choices in their life, as a result of their contact with Catch22 Surrey Young People’s Substance Misuse. 78% of service users reported they felt their mental health had improved as a result of working with Catch22 Surrey Young People’s Substance Misuse and 90% felt safer, since engaging with Catch22 Surrey Young People’s Substance Misuse.
Evidence shows that the best outcomes for children and young people are achieved when including parent/carers in the work. Surrey Young People’s Substance Misuse strives to achieve this wherever possible, and regularly receives feedback from families and professionals, reporting an improvement in relationships at home and a more stable environment.
Challenges
National and local data shows that cannabis remains the most prevalent illicit drug used by children and young people, yet we are seeing a reduced number of referrals for under 18s with problematic cannabis use. Cannabis has become more “normalised” within society. A high amount of the young people who are referred into the service will be using cannabis but will not want to address it, so the referral will be for support with another substance. We have seen a rise in young people using more risky substances; the main one currently is Ketamine.
Online selling of substances on social media has become a challenge. Drug dealers now have a new platform where they are able to influence and target younger people. This is also making it much easier for young people to access substances.
Recruitment nationally is still an ongoing challenge within substance misuse services. This is further compounded by a lack of recognised qualifications and career progression. Surrey Young People’s Substance Misuse had been able to retain the staff team over the last 12 months but we still have experienced challenges recruiting for new posts.
Working in partnership
Surrey Young People’s Substance Misuse is an established and well-trusted service within the county. We are proud of the links that have been built with stakeholders, partner agencies, and professionals. We strive to make these relationships as strong as possible, as we recognise and appreciate the difference it can make to a young person’s life when we all work together.
Surrey Young People’s Substance Misuse now have a Substance Misuse Practitioner to work with 18–24-year-olds linked into Surrey Youth Justice service, Surrey Police Child Exploitation and Missing Teams, and Surrey Probation. We also have two additional Substance Misuse Practitioners linked into Mindworks, which is Surrey’s children’s mental health service. This allows us to offer substance misuse support directly to some of the most vulnerable and at-risk children and young people in Surrey.
We are also currently developing two Senior Substance Misuse Practitioner posts working in partnership with Surrey Healthy Schools. These roles have been created to provide a dedicated resource to promote healthy behaviours and support schools in responding to substance misuse concerns/incidents that occur within the student population. Catch 22 will co-ordinate/oversee the partnership working.
Staff are also embedded into their local short-stay school and complete workshops each school term in partnership with Music to My Ears and Surrey’s child sexual exploitation (CSE) service, Wise.
Voice of the young person
Feedback is welcomed and encouraged from service users at all stages of their journey with Surrey Young People’s Substance Misuse. Care plans are co-designed between the young person and worker, and service user evaluations are completed at point of exit. Practitioners run focus groups within each of the four quadrants, which is an opportunity to gather service users’ thoughts and experiences of Catch22, and consult with service users on current and future service development/delivery.
“I got a lot of support. They were easy to approach. I felt completely comfortable. Really appreciate the help I received!”
– Service user
The Innovate Fund
The Innovate Fund, developed by Surrey Young People’s Substance Misuse, aims to support children and young people , to improve their outcomes and enable sustained and positive change. The fund does this by giving children and young people opportunities to develop their confidence and self-esteem, build resilience and enable them to access opportunities that they may have otherwise not had.
Innovate will be piloted with Catch22 Surrey Young People’s Substance Misuse Service from January 2023 to March 2025.
Since introducing the Innovate Fund in Surrey, we have been able to support young people to access sports clubs or return to a sporting activity, motivating young people to get back into previous hobbies as well as providing them with alternative ways to release their anger or emotions. We have provided young people with items such as:
- arts and crafts materials,
- boxing bags,
- football boots,
- sleep packs,
- cinema passes, and
- laptops.
The young people who access the Innovate Fund complete a short scaling exercise, before and after accessing the scheme. We are then able to see if Innovate is a positive intervention that is supporting young people to maintain change regarding their substance use.
“The young person has continued to engage positively with Catch22 and has not used Speed or Ketamine in over a month. They report that they are no longer using alcohol to manage their mood. The young person now reports that they are using oil paints as a distraction when feeling low or craving a substance, and has expressed that they have enjoyed expressing themselves in art.”
– Feedback regarding a young person who participated in the Innovate Fund
Future plans
We are proud to be the leading service in Surrey when it comes to supporting young people with substance misuse issues. We continuously review our delivery, and collaborate with service users, stakeholders and partners to ensure that we never miss an opportunity to develop the service and keep up-to-date with new ways of working.
Surrey Young People’s Substance Misuse has just launched new leaflets for young people to try and encourage more young people to self-refer into the service.
Surrey Police have just launched drug testing upon arrest and Surrey Young People’s Substance Misuse are working in partnership with them to be able to support any under 18s who may be identified. We are also a lead in the Combating Drug Partnership – Treatment and Recovery Group. Surrey Young People’s Substance Misuse needs to make sure that young people dealing with substance misuse problems are being represented at all of these relevant meetings.
We are hopeful that we will be able to reach more young people that need the support from Surrey Young People’s Substance Misuse with the link-posts: Youth Justice, Probation, Child Exploitation and Missing Unit, and Children’s Mental Health Service.
Surrey Young People’s Substance Misuse will soon be recruiting for two Senior Substance Misuse Practitioners – a partnership role with Surrey Healthy Schools which will allow us to develop our offer to parents/carers and families of service users, and provide a dedicated resource to support schools in responding to substance misuse concerns/incidents that occur within the student population. Catch 22 will co-ordinate/oversee the partnership working.
We are also going to be collaborate with our partners to design vaping resources, as well as updating and reviewing our substance misuse training to maintain its relevance with what the young people are using and the associated risks.
We continue to review our social media footprint, utilising service user feedback to inform of us of latest trends, popular media sites/apps, and how best to reach children and young people across Surrey, who could benefit from accessing the Surrey Young People’s Substance Misuse service.
“I would recommend Catch22 to my friends who want to be healthier and more in control of their choices.”
– Service user
