Search
Close

MAT Standards Programme updates

This page will be updated until March 2025, when the programme is due to come to an end.

Involvement Plan (January 2025)

The MAT (Medical Assisted Treatment Standards) were developed to support the reduction of drug related harms, including drug related deaths. The aim being to make holistic treatment and support for people available quicker, offering more choice and joined up care with other key services and organisations as part of the Recovery Oriented System of Care (ROSC), which is person centred for people who experience drug use in Scotland. 

The involvement of key stakeholders, including people with Lived and Living Experience (LLE) as well as family members/carers is a central part of the programme, ensuring that their contribution is meaningful, that the engagement is co-produced, person centred, and trauma informed.

Continue reading: Involvement Plan: Improvement Support for MAT Standards Implementation Programme

Stakeholder Insights, Barriers, and Recommendations for Improvement (December 2024)

To ensure the effectiveness of the MAT Standards, ongoing developments, evaluation, and continuous improvement during and following the implementation of the standards is essential. This needs to include the involvement of those with lived and living experience, as well as the creation of national guidance, and a governing body, to monitor and enforce the standards. 

Continue reading: Stakeholder Insights, Barriers, and Recommendations for Improvement 

MAT Standards implementation case studies

Following on from our brief insights series, we will periodically produce a series of case studies spotlighting in greater depth various examples of MAT standards implementation work from across drug and alcohol services, pharmacy and the third sector.

Continue reading:

MAT Standards reflective insights 

As part of the developing learning system to support the implementation of the MAT standards, we are releasing a series of reflections written by people working within the HIS MAT team and also people working externally. These are aimed to be short reads to give you insight into some of the people working to support the implementation of MAT standards and also working within the wider substance use landscape. The authors share their own experiences and reflections, highlighting the challenges they have identified working in this system and what they feel is important to enable the ongoing implementation of not only the MAT standards but also to influence the future design and delivery of services to enable people to have positive outcomes and receive person-centred, safe and effective substance use services. 

Continue reading:

MAT Standards Pharmacy Impact Report (April 2024)

We engaged with a range of stakeholders to assess the impact and implications of the MAT Standards on the 1,271 community pharmacy services in Scotland. Our report details recommendations which will help to inform the design of a national improvement programme for MAT standards implementation. Findings from this work evidences the many ways people are supported by pharmacy, whilst challenging us to think about how to better deliver care within the challenging circumstances the system faces to reduce drug related harms and improve outcomes.

Continue reading: Assessing the impact and implications of the MAT Standards on community pharmacy services.

In developing this report we undertook a literature review to understand views from across the world, you can read those findings here: 

MAT Standards National Learning Sessions

Materials from previous webinars in our National Learning System can be found below:

MAT Standards implementation brief insights (July 2023)

The Improvement Support for MAT Standards Implementation programme engaged with services across Scotland to develop a series of brief insights on innovations in local service delivery. There are 21 brief insights detailing local experiences of implementation. These insights have also supported the National Benchmarking Report on Implementation of the Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) Standards 2022-23.

Continue reading: