Benchmarking Report 2024-2025 Summary
The Drug Deaths Taskforce published 10 standards of care for medication assisted treatment in May 2021. This was followed by the Scottish Government plan for the National Mission on Drugs (2022) and the National Strategy for Community Justice (2022).
The purpose of this document is to provide an update on the implementation of the medication assisted treatment (MAT) standards across all 29 Alcohol and Drug Partnership (ADP) areas in Scotland as of April 2025 and to provide information that ADPs can use for benchmarking and improvement.
The full benchmarking report is available on the PHS website.
NATIONAL FINDINGS
ADPs submitted three strands of evidence (across process, numerical and experiential components), which was scored to construct the red, amber, green, blue (RAGB) assessment, a composite illustration of progress against each of the standards. In this complex field of work, where there is a drive and a framework for continuous improvement, standards are not always directly comparable each subsequent year.
The report for the year up to April 2025 shows great progress.
In 2024/25, for MAT standards 1–5, 91% have been assessed as fully implemented (RAGB blue or green). This is an increase from 90% in 2023/24, 66% in 2022/23 and 17% in 2021/22.
For MAT standards 6–10, 75% were assessed as RAGB green, 16% provisional green. This is an improvement from 2023/24 when 91% were provisional green.
Year on year improvement and consistency are demonstrated and evidenced in standards of care across all 29 ADP areas. This is a reflection of innovation, hard work and sharing of good practice by local teams.
NORTH LANARKSHIRE SPECIFIC
North Lanarkshire Comparison Table:
MAT standard 1: Access
The standard is fully implemented (RAGB green) in 25 out of 29 ADPs where 86% of people received a first MAT assessment within one day of presentation.
North Lanarkshire Urgent Response Team was developed to meet MAT 1, ensuring that anyone who required MAT would be assessed and receive a prescription within 24 hours of receipt of referral. Data submission to MIST shows 81% of people referred received a prescription within 24 hours of assessment, bypassing the 75% requirement.
MAT standard 2: Choice
The standard was assessed as fully implemented (RAGB green) in 27 out of 29 ADP areas. National data shows a 5% decrease in Methadone prescribing and an increase of 6% in prescribing of long-acting injectable Buprenorphine.
North Lanarkshire shows a 11% decrease in Methadone prescribing, a 16% decrease in oral Buprenorphine and a 27% increase in long-acting injectable Buprenorphine. Consideration must be given to resource required to facilitate this increase.
MAT standard 3: Assertive outreach and anticipatory care
The standard was assessed as sustained implementation (RAGB blue) in one ADP area, full implementation (RAGB green) in 25 ADP areas and provisional green in three ADP areas.
North Lanarkshire commissioned Turning Point Scotland Crisis Outreach Team to provide a bespoke service including assertive outreach, crisis intervention and overdose response. ART and Harm Reduction Team work closely with Turning Point Scotland to engage with the most vulnerable, hard to reach cohort of service users. North Lanarkshire achieve both criteria for MAT 3, contact within 24 hours and physically seen within 72 hours of notification. North Lanarkshire were able to report on 341 interventions, the highest in the country.
MAT standard 4: Harm reduction
The standard was assessed as sustained implementation (RAGB blue) in two ADP areas, fully implemented (RAGB green) in 25 ADP areas and provisional green in two ADP areas.
All ADP areas report that blood-borne virus (BBV) testing, injection equipment provision, naloxone and overdose awareness, and wound care are available for at least 75% of the caseload at all MAT appointments.
North Lanarkshire has imbedded recording Harm Reduction at every engagement using a bespoke tool. This tool shows 4000+ interventions recorded in a full calendar year. This is recorded per locality so each team can review their own area’s harm reduction requirements.
MAT standard 5: Retention as long as needed
This standard was assessed as fully implemented (RAGB green) in 27 out of 29 ADP areas.
A key intention of this standard is to help reduce unplanned discharge because this can pose an increased risk of harm if people are not supported in the transition from care. All but one ADP area achieved the benchmark of 75% of people retained in care for six months.
North Lanarkshire ensures that people are supported to discharge when they are ready, 94% of people supported by ART have been linked for more than 6 months. This is exceptional in comparison to other areas. North Lanarkshire ART are using a variety of measures to support retention including use of NEO system to detect non engagement with pharmacies.
MAT standards 6 and 10: Psychological support and trauma- informed care
MAT standards 6 and 10 were assessed separately in 2023 but assessed jointly in 2024 because there is a lot of overlap with process documentation and delivery. These standards were assessed as fully implemented by 22 of the 29 ADPs.
North Lanarkshire have a clear and concise implementation plan for MAT 6+10. The plan includes commissioned services as well as ART to ensure consistency in service provision across North Lanarkshire. The 3 Tier training commitment has exceeded MIST requirements.
MAT standard 7: Primary care
The aim of MAT standard 7 is to ensure that all people have the option of substance use intervention and support including MAT shared with primary care and this would help support receipt of care for general health issues.
4,539 people were prescribed OST through primary care, a reduction from 5,712 people reported in 2023/24.
“Western Isles, South Lanarkshire, Perth & Kinross, North Lanarkshire and Borders had no patients prescribed OST through primary care, this remains the same as 2023/24”. Direct from Benchmarking Report 2025
MAT standard 8: Independent advocacy and social support
This standard was assessed as fully implemented by 26 of the 29 ADPs. Which means that all areas have commissioned (or engage with) independent advocacy services and have advocacy training plans in place for staff. However, the intention of MAT 8 is to ensure that all people have access to support for housing, welfare and income support as well as independent advocacy.
North Lanarkshire has specialist commissioned Advocacy service which has recently been enhanced to include awareness raising within teams and additional resource to support more service users. A recording system is being developed to capture data on when advocacy is being offered.
MAT standard 9: Mental health
This standard was assessed as fully implemented by 21 of the 29 ADP areas where there are documented procedures for joint working to care for people with co-occurring mental health and substance use issues.
North Lanarkshire Urgent Response Team are able to screen for mental health which allows for MAT 9 criteria to be met for a small cohort of people. A Pan Lanarkshire steering group has been established, mapping existing pathways, completing a comparison against the HIS Guidance document published in November 2024, created an action and improvement plan for planning and moving forward.
JUSTICE
HMP Shotts
Prison healthcare staff liaised with the MAT standards lead at NHS Lanarkshire to consider MAT Standards within a prison setting.
2 surveys were undertaken. One with people open to the Addiction team with 35 residents taking part. The other within The Hub with 12 people offering their opinion. The findings of each survey were written up into a report for the management team and an improvement plan developed based on the feedback.
MAT Lead continues to liaise with staff to raise awareness and upcoming requirements for MAT Standards.
Key learning points
Continuous feedback can help enhance service delivery by providing valuable insights into lived experiences and the impact on wellbeing within a prison setting.
Prison-based and community-based staff can work together by using MAT resources and learning to support the implementation of standards in prison settings
FURTHER READING
