Pivot Support Services

NHS problem

Harmful alcohol use, drug use, and gambling harm collectively cost the UK an estimated £49 billion a year, spanning health, social care, criminal justice, and productivity losses. 7.5 million adults in England drink at hazardous levels, yet the vast majority never access structured support: around 80% of people with drug dependence never receive treatment. Existing NHS and third-sector pathways are largely crisis-triggered, activating only once harm has escalated to a diagnosable or acute stage. There is no consistent, scalable digital offering, and families and loved ones affected by someone else’s substance use or gambling harm have almost no dedicated support pathway at all 

Founder story

Anna founded Pivot Support Services after losing someone to addiction, and recognising that existing pathways are outdated & dontt meet the needs of most. She has spent over 20 years working in health and social care leadership and is studying  an MSc in Mental Health and Addiction. Pivot was built from lived and professional experience of a system that only responds once someone is in crisis, and that offers almost nothing to the families left carrying the impact. 

The solution

Pivot digital platform for recovery and wellbeing, addressing harmful coping behaviours including but not exclusive to alcohol use, drug use, and gambling harm – it is designed to support the full spectrum from pre contemplation to active recovery. It works on a B2B2C model, reaching individuals through NHS,  ICB and LA partners, employers, housing associations, probation services, and football clubs. The platform combines a structured recovery framework, daily wellbeing check-ins, a recovery capital assessment, guided self-management exercises grounded in Motivational Interviewing, and a peer community. A linked Affected Others pathway gives family members and loved ones their own dedicated support journey, an area with no direct comparable in the UK market.  

Impact

Pivot is designed to improve wellbeing and recovery capital scores over time, and to support sustained engagement before and beyond formal treatment, a stage where most people are currently left without structured support and relapse risk is highest. By keeping people connected to a recovery pathway after discharge, Pivot aims to reduce relapse rates and the repeat crisis presentations that follow. 

The wider societal cost of addiction and gambling harm is estimated at £49 billion a year, spanning A&E attendances, ambulance attendance, mental health crisis care, police time, the criminal justice system, and lost productivity. Pivot is intended to reduce demand across all of these, by intervening earlier and by supporting people to stay in recovery for longer, reaching people who would otherwise not engage.. Secondary harms linked to prolonged addiction, including liver disease and other physical health conditions, and the significantly elevated suicide risk among people affected by addiction, are also expected to reduce as engagement and recovery capital improve. 

Pivot’s Affected Others pathway extends this impact to the whole family, not just the individual in recovery, recognising that family members carry significant health, financial, and emotional burden, and that supporting them is itself a route to better outcomes and reduced system cost.