Ms Anna Quigley:

A key extra element is the involvement in policymaking. When we talk about community development, that is the core of it. It is people who have lived experience of the issue on the ground.

In our view, that includes people who use drugs, their families and the wider community, who are greatly impacted by the community drug problem. Community development is not just about developing and putting in place services and support on the ground, although that is a crucial part of it, but also about being involved in the policies.

An example is the NEIC, which operates across a range of different areas and provides resources for a range of activities and projects. One striking point is that the NEIC structure has nothing to do with housing or housing policy. Housing policy is a fundamental issue in an area like the north inner city. The drugs issue is massively affected by the housing crisis, and all of the related issues around crime, imprisonment and mental health are affected by it. Therefore, housing policy is at the core of this. In earlier days, it was part of the national drugs strategy and it would have been seen as part of the role of the councils on the task force to address housing policy. That is gone. It is now seen as operating through one particular programme, Housing First. While it is brilliant that that is there, it is just a programme.