The children of problem drug and alcohol users will get special support if they are judged at risk when their parents are in treatment, under new guidance published by the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse and The Department for Children, Schools and Families.
Joint Guidance on Development of Local Protocols between Drug and Alcohol Treatment Services and Local Safeguarding and Family Services, highlights the role that substance misuse workers can play in helping children’s services to identify and support vulnerable children and families.
The guidance, issued to local social services, details how drug and alcohol workers can help deliver a child protection plan by providing information on the risk of harm, providing specialist knowledge on how a parent’s addiction impacts on child safety and by helping to improve the health and wellbeing of parents. The document makes explicit to all staff working with families – including drug and alcohol workers – that referrals should be made to children’s services when a child is suspected of suffering significant harm.
Launching the guidance Paul Hayes, NTA Chief Executive, said:
“Drug workers are not child protection or safeguarding experts, but their role in providing effective treatment to drug dependent individuals means identifying the influences on an adult’s drug use and what motivates them to stop.
"Questioning what’s happening within the families of drug users in treatment is critical for successful treatment outcomes, both for the individual as well as any family involved, and the new guidance for local protocols clarifies when and how to involve children’s social care. Entering drug treatment is protective: it protects the individual, their children and wider society.”
The NTA estimates that at least 120,000 children are living with the 207,000 adult drug users in England’s total treatment population.
