The council is reviewing current spend against services in line with efficiency savings and has identified a need to review the Substance Misuse services for the financial year 2018/2019 and beyond.

The council has discussed reasonable adjustments to the budget with the current service provider to achieve savings of approximately £300,000, reducing the annual budget from £1,767,757 to £1,467,757.

The council has recognised that that service is in the final year of the approved contract period and that the contract end date is currently 30^th November.  The council is therefore, proposing to exercise the full two year extension option for this contract moving the end date to 30 November 2020 allowing for a phased implementation of the proposed savings of £250,000 in the first financial year and £50,000 in the second financial year.  This will also assist with service continuity and provide planning time to consider the future following the expected ending of the public health grant in 2020.