Membership

Membership is open to those with responsibility for commissioning substance use-related services in local government in England. Engagement with representatives from other groups without commissioning responsibility – for example, user and recovery groups, service providers, voluntary organisations, pharmaceutical and other companies – is actively pursued to ensure improved outcomes.

Membership is open and free to all commissioners of substance use services in local government in England. The benefits of membership include:

• Invitations to quarterly national meetings with commissioners from around the country, to discuss the latest opportunities and challenges in the sector
• Access to an online forum on Knowledge Hub for the safe sharing of resources and peer support between commissioners
• Opportunity to feed in views to policy and strategy discussions at the national level

Governance

The Group is governed by an Executive Board, made up of a maximum of 18 members representing each of the eight regions of England (North East, North West, West Midlands, East Midlands, East of England, South West, South East, London). The role of the Executive is to enable the ESUCG to deliver its objectives, terms of reference, workplan and deliverables. A Chair and two Vice Chairs are elected from within the Executive Board. The term of office for the whole Committee is three years and there is no limit to the number of terms members may run for.

Read our terms of reference and annual reports.

Meetings

All members are invited to attend the quarterly Full Group Meetings. These are currently being held remotely in February, May, September and November.

The Executive Committee meets every two months.