Supporting Vulnerable People and Addressing Class A Drug Use In Kettering: An Evaluation of #Citadel

This report presents the findings from the first interim evaluation of the #Citadel project. #Citadel is a partnership intervention in the town centre wards of Kettering aiming to address the root causes and associated harms of Class A drug use, through a public health, holistic, multi-agency approach. The project has an innovative and evidence-based model, the Drug Nominal Matrix, to prioritise 25 individuals for intervention. The initial stage of the evaluation has interviewed key individuals engaged in the project from a range of partners, undertaken an online survey of partners, and analysed data relating to the project. The report assesses the baseline picture of data and identifies a number of key themes: partnership support for the new approach, information and intelligence sharing, partnership and communication, issues of project longevity, and the definition and capturing of success. The initial period of the project has been heavily impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, and related issues of lockdowns, social distancing and competing priorities for partner agencies. The report concludes by making a series of recommendations for the future of the #Citadel project, focusing on how the project grows and develops in the ‘new normal’ context as Covid-19 restrictions begin to reduce.