reduction of alcohol and substance abuse for participants

By providing direct support to tackle its clients’ substance misuse and by referring its clients to substance abuse treatment by the NHS early, Centrepoint provides a benefit by avoiding the higher treatment costs that would have been incurred in the counterfactual. Oxera, based on input from Centrepoint, has estimated the average one-time treatment costs for a person suffering from the substance abuse problems to be around £19,000 for class A drugs, around £19,000 for problem alcohol use, and around £800 for cannabis. Combining the treatment costs with reduction in the probability of substance abuse implies that the reduction in expected treatment costs can be as much as around £950 per client in the case of class A drug use.