A celebrated project providing early intervention for underage drinkers in Fife is to close in September.
The street referral service run by Leven-based Drug and Alcohol Project Limited (DAPL) has been held up as a pioneering example of good practice by Scottish ministers and a Fife Drug Court sheriff.
However, under controversial plans to shift funding from local groups to national organisations, DAPL is in danger of running out of money in a matter of weeks and folding.
It comes at a time when Fife Constabulary, which works in close partnership with the project, is conducting a high-profile clampdown on underage boozing.
This month a police operation at Rimbleton Park in Glenrothes resulted in 13 youngsters being referred to DAPL after they were caught with alcohol.
North-east Fife and Levenmouth will be first to lose the service as the money dries up. Street referrals in those areas are expected to cease at the end of the month, with the Glenrothes street referral scheme likely to close in September.
Out of the 31 staff at DAPL, six are faced with imminent redundancy and the rest face an anxious wait for funding news.
A final decision on Fife Alcohol and Drug Partnership’s funding proposals will be made by councillors on August 25 at Fife Council’s health and social care partnership meeting.
DAPL manager Robert Grant said he had written to councillors in a last-minute bid to highlight the service.
“In the last four months we have had about 100 street referrals, and 50% are from the Glenrothes area. We are seeing about eight to 13 referrals a week from the Glenrothes area.
“We’re not putting young people into the offending cycle. We don’t target them as criminals.Stigmatising”When they are referred to us we give them support rather than criminalising them and stigmatising them at an early age with a criminal record. It’s a holistic approach to supporting people and tackling problems at an early stage in their drinking career.
“If a referral is made, we meet with the young person and their family and assess if there are any issues within the family, because it often brings up different things.
“We give support to the young person and the family where necessary, but this will all stop.”
Mr Grant said it would be a great loss if “something as forward thinking and as groundbreaking as this will be totally gone with no recognition.”
In 2009, Sheriff Maxwell Hendry from Fife Drug Court praised the street referral scheme and the work of DAPL as a whole.
Former education minister Hugh Henry congratulated DAPL on the street referral scheme, describing the project’s work as “excellent,” during a visit in 2007.
Meanwhile, in 2008, public health minister Shona Robison joined Tricia Marwick MSP on a visit to DAPL.
“We’ve had them all here, and DAPL is being strangled because of this grant application,” Mr Grant added.
The health and social care partnership had been set to decide funding for alcohol and drug misuse services at its meeting last month, but asked for more time to consider the issue.
Independent councillor Andrew Rodger, who is a member of the committee, said, “It’s been quite upsetting for staff who work hard to help people come off drugs and lead more stable lives.
“I just hope that people like Mr Grant are reassured that, as councillors, we are making sure that everything is being done as it should be done.”