This document, for service commissioners and service managers, describes the unique contribution of clinical psychologists to effective recovery-orientated drug and alcohol treatment systems. It details clinical psychologists’ extensive competences and how these can be deployed to enhance recovery outcomes for service users and their families. Drug and alcohol treatment services continue to face challenges to service delivery requiring substantial organisational and practice changes. Delivering more ambitious service user outcomes at a time of financial pressures calls for ever greater effectiveness from resources. Other drivers for change and innovation include:
incorporating new evidence-based interventions;
establishing robust clinical governance;
enhancing workforce competences;
involving service users more closely in decision making;
changes in patterns of substance use over time; and
building greater links to community resources.

With this context in mind, this document sets out how clinical psychologists contribute to the contemporary priorities of drug and alcohol treatment services.