Wednesday 12 August 2009

Another fakecharity ...

If you read the article to which I linked earlier, you'll see the usual rent-a-quotes from the Scottish Drugs Forum, Scottish registered charity 008075.

The full accounts show total income of £1,242,998. See if you can guess how much of that income is from "Members' subscriptions". Click and highlight to reveal:

£14,878 - the rest is all from the government.

Moving swiftly on, the abbreviated annual report is a veritable feast of what I can only describe as "quango pornography"...

SDF is a member of:
• Scottish Advisory Committee on Drug Misuse (SACDM)
• National Forum on Drug-related Deaths
• Scottish Government Hepatitis C National Advisory Group and Needle Exchange Guidelines Development Group
• Scottish Government Substance Misuse and Homelessness Working Group
• Scottish Government Substance Misuse Education Steering Group
• Scottish Government Alcohol and Drugs Delivery Reform Group
• NHS Health Scotland Alcohol and Drugs Workforce Development Strategy Steering Group
• Scottish Drug Recovery Network
• Scottish Training on Drugs and Alcohol (STRADA) Project Advisory Board
• UK Drugs and Health Alliance Group
• European Federation of Professionals Working in the Field of Drug Abuse (ERIT),
which supports the work of the European Union
• Correlation – the European network aiming to increase access to health services to marginalised social groups
• International Drug Policy Consortium
• Greater Glasgow and Clyde Drug Death Monitoring and Prevention Group
• Greater Glasgow and Clyde Hepatitis C Prevention Network
• Greater Glasgow and Clyde Preventing Risk of Overdose in the Vulnerable Group (PROVE)
• Glasgow Naloxone Pilot Steering and Evaluation Groups
• Glasgow City Drugs and Alcohol Planning and Implementation Group’s Communities sub-group
• Glasgow City Council Service User and Carer Group
• 14 Drug and Alcohol Action Teams
• Lanarkshire Voluntary Sector Network
• North Lanarkshire Partnership Board
• Joint Services Management Group (Alcohol and Drug Services) South Lanarkshire
• Tayside Drug Related Deaths Group
• Perth and Kinross Drug and Alcohol Forum
• Perth and Kinross Substance Misuse Strategy Implementation Group
• Perth and Kinross Practitioners’ Forum (Social Work) - Vice Chair
• Inverness Drug and Alcohol Forum

SDF chairs:
• National Forum on Drug-Related Deaths Service User Forum
• Policy Development Group of Action on Alcohol and Drugs in Edinburgh
• Greater Glasgow and Clyde Voluntary Sector Drug and Alcohol Agencies (co-Chair)
• Drug and Alcohol Independent Sector Ayrshire (DAISAy)
• Perth and Kinross Drug and Alcohol Forum’s Drug Related Deaths, Service User and Carer sub groups

SDF Director David Liddell is Joint Secretary to the Scottish Parliament’s Cross-Party Group on Alcohol and Drug Misuse. He sits on the UK Government’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD).

SDF has observer status on the Scottish Association of Drug and Alcohol Action Teams (SADAAT).

We also co-ordinate, advise, or facilitate a range of working groups and forums on drug-related issues. These include:
• Coalition of Alcohol and Drugs Agencies in Lothian (CDAAL)
• Greater Glasgow and Clyde Service User Involvement Partnership (SUIP) Steering Group
• National Voluntary Sector Forum
• Scottish Needle Exchange Workers Forum
• Scottish Network for Families Affected by Drugs


That's another forty such organisations, i.e. for every fourteen drug-related deaths in Scotland there's one such organisation, all merrily sponging away and, by their own admission, achieving sweet f***-all.

4 comments:

subrosa said...

Great post Mark. We need these quangos exposed over and over again.

Anonymous said...

It would be interesting to question the aljabeeb on their policy of quoting charities, and how they background check them (one assumes they do).

John B said...

You could argue that the reason drug deaths in Scotland are so low is *because* of these organisations. Yes, I'm sceptical too for most of them, although the needle exchange guys almost certainly do help (if your values of 'help' encompass 'making junkies not die', which I'm aware is contentious).

Mark Wadsworth said...

John B, you don't need a quango to distribute needles! You can just sell them in shops or pharmacies!

Of course, letting people obtain pure heroin and needles at low cost directly from GPs or clinics is a core part of the MW manifesto.