Drug and alcohol treatment charity Addaction is looking to local authorities to fund its Breaking the Cycle family programme on a payment-by-results basis.

Breaking the Cycle was piloted in Derby, Tower Hamlets and Cumbria off the back of a government report into the damage caused to children growing up in a family where drug and alcohol abuse is present. The scheme aims to impose a structure on the family house by helping rehabilitate the users, help parents gain employment and by providing support to the family, sometimes on an intensive daily basis. 

Following the successful pilot, which saw 81 per cent of parents reducing or stopping substance abuse and 87 per cent increase their prioritisation of their children's healthy development, based on and independent evaluation by Bath University, Addaction wants to roll the project out across England and Scotland, where the charity currently works in 80 locations.

Tim Vanstone, head of Breaking the Cycle for Addaction advised that initially they are looking at launching in 39 locations across England and Scotland by 2015.

Zurich Community Trust has helped fund the setting up of the pilots. Vanstone advised: "Zurich Community Trust has been extremely helpful in helping to fund the administration of the project and have recommitted to help roll it out further. This is around £600,000 of funding."

But not all funding streams have remained stable. Vanstone advised that while the charity is "holding its own" it has been subject to spending cuts "like any other organisation". But he advised that the charity is looking to modernise its funding process. "What we're doing with payment-by-results is really just keeping up with the way funding is heading right now," he said. "We can be creative on funding levels, the model we have is flexible enough to do that. Our typical model is 80 - 20 (per cent) but that can be changed."

Addaction is working with IDEA, which is working to promote the payment-by-results model throughout local authorities nationally. Together they will be hosting an open event for local councils in Westminster on 14 April to promote Addaction's payment-by-results funding model."We chose Westminster because we are also looking for political support for the scheme," advised Vanstone.