The Partnership Development Team

What is the ASUF?

The Forum is a chance for users or ex-users of alcohol services in Greater Nottingham to have their say about those services and try to make a real difference to services in the area. People are welcome to attend in their own right or they can come representing a group of others. That way we can ensure we get a wide spread of experience at the meetings and the views expressed therefore carry more weight.

Professionals are not allowed to come to the meetings unless they have been invited, so that people's confidentiality and anonymity can be protected and those present feel safe enough to express their true feelings. People can also join the Forum if they are unable to make the meetings as they can be kept involved in other ways e.g. correspondence, email or telephone contact.

The Forum was set up in October 2002 at the request of service planners on the City DAAT (Drug and Alcohol Action Team), as a way of making sure they had access to services users' views when it came to making improvements or changes to the services they were paying for. Views from the Forum were sent to the DAATs in both City and County and to relevant service planners in the Local Authorities, NHS Trusts and all drug/alcohol services.

For the first 3 years the Forum met every 2 months on a Thursday evening and was run by the Partnership Development Team (PDT), who are an independent and neutral resource for this kind of work. Since January 2006, however, it has been co-run by the PDT and Glen Jarvis from the City Crime and Drugs Partnership (CDP, formerly DAAT).

The meetings are now longer and more frequent, taking place every month during the day, with a free buffet lunch at the end. They CDP has taken on all the funding and admin work previously done by the PDT to keep the Forum running smoothly and, of course, with Glen's direct involvement, we now have a "hotline" to the powers that be, thereby increasing the Forum's influence.

Minutes and reports from the meetings are still sent to the same wide range of services and staff as before and we also now have Forum reps on an even greater number of other service planning committees and groups.

The Forum now has a Mission Statement describing its purpose and we follow a Priority Action Plan each year, to make sure we concentrate our efforts on the aspects of alcohol services that Forum members think are most important or most need improving.

Members of the Forum act as representatives on other planning bodies & committees. These members represent the Forum at key meetings affecting alcohol policy. Representatives have seats on the City Alcohol Reference Group and APAS Board meetings, amongst others.