Most people entering treatment for alcohol dependency in England self-refer. In 2021– 22, only 23% of referrals were from health services.40 Our expert witnesses thought much more could be done to identify people early and direct them towards treatment. Ms Taylor 30 Qq 11, 65 31 Qq 64, 86 32 C&AG’s Report, paras 3.8–3.9, Figure 14 33 Q 1; Public Health England, Guidance Alcohol and drug prevention, treatment and recovery: why invest?, 12 February 2018 34 C&AG’s Report, para 3.3 and Figure 12 35 Qq 33–34 36 Q 33 37 Q 3 38 Qq 17, 20–21; C&AG’s Report, para 3.4 39 Qq 3, 7 40 Q 26; C&AG’s Report, para 3.7 and Figure 13 14 Alcohol treatment services wanted to see better partnership working across primary and secondary care to help with early identification of people drinking to excess and to ensure there are effective pathways into treatment. Sir Ian thought that alcohol care teams in hospitals were good news, noting that most patients coming into hospital would be seen and assessed. He cautioned that there was a long way to go and he feared many, particularly the most vulnerable, would still fall through gaps because the signposting to treatment, the training of alcohol workers and the links with the charitable sector were not yet good enough.41