JUST five per cent of 1,400 drug users in Worcestershire ended up 'clean' after getting taxpayer-funded treatment, it has emerged.

The performance of the county's drug recovery service has been lamented as "catastrophic" by councillors after the dismal findings.

Worcestershire County Council has admitted that 95 per cent of 1,397 addicts who were treated across the whole of 2014 returned for re-treatment within six months.

The findings are worse than the UK average, where 7.4 per cent get successfully clean, and even below regional neighbours like Warwickshire and Herefordshire.

It comes despite millions being pumped into drug and alcohol recovery services in the county, under a Government grant ring-fenced for public health.

Councillor Tom Wells, speaking during a meeting of the adult care and wellbeing overview and scrutiny panel, said: "We all know this public health grant is being cut and that's a quite serious situation.

"But if my maths are right, 95 per cent of people using these services remain addicted to opiates after treatment.

"It's a catastrophic situation for the people of Worcestershire - and on top of that we've got less money to sort it out."

Dr Richard Harling, corporate director in charge of health, admitted the service needs to modernise.

"The service has, in the past, been less successful than other drug and alcohol services nationally," he said.

"However I don't think any drug and alcohol service can claim to be successful, this is a short-term fix.

"Part of the solution is in asking if this model is the right one - these people getting the treatment, many of them now are quite old.

"In the 80s there was a big spike in the use of opiates and many of these people have been on them 20 or 30 years, these are not young people."

Councillor Wells said: "So in short, more of the same is not the answer then?"

Dr Harling replied: "I don't think so, not for us or nationally.

"It's not that we've got more drug users than other areas, but that we are less successful in getting people who quit, to stay quit.

"The characteristics of drug users are changing and I suspect the current model will be out of date within five to 10 years."

He also told the panel he was "quite persuaded" by the argument that more drugs should be decriminalised.

Councillor Anne Hingley said: "For me, the worry is about the effect this has on other services, and the impact it has on other people, like sufferers of domestic violence, which has gone up."

In April last year the service was handed to the Swanswell Charitable Trust to run under a three-year deal worth £13 million.

The organisation has a 50-year reputation and is now operating a raft of integrated services across the county.

Dr Harling said that since the contract was signed "steady" improvements have been made.