Children and young peoples services are not doing enough to meet the needs of young people with substance misuse problems, according to research carried out by Turning Point and Addaction on behalf of the Home Office.
The research suggests young people are hampered by a lack of co-ordination between substance misuse and mainstream childrens services. It highlights a lack of engagement by many professionals involved with young people in identifying substance misuse need and referring young people into treatment.
Gaps in provision were identified for vulnerable groups including those for young people in or leaving care, ethnic communities and the homeless. Equally, only 10% of services had dedicated provision for children of substance misusing parents.
The report points to a failure to understand the needs of young people at a local level and shows that they are not included in the planning of services. There are also difficulties recruiting and retaining a skilled workforce.
Turning Point Chief Executive, Lord Victor Adebowale said: This research, whilst highlighting causes of real concern, gives an important starting point for government and other agencies that are providing, and seeking to improve, much needed services for young people.
It is clear that there is a real gap in provision for children growing up in households where adults are misusing alcohol or drugs. There is also a lack of effective evaluation of services to ensure they are having the best results. I hope that policymakers, providers and commissioners will examine the research carefully and use it as a signpost towards future change. There is no denying that significant improvements have been made in recent years, however there are still gaps that need to be filled."
Rebecca Cheshire, Young Peoples Policy and Practice Manager for Addaction, who co-wrote the report, said: One of the findings of this report is that the voluntary sector is only involved in the planning of services in 10% of areas. A strength of the voluntary sector is its ability to innovate and find imaginative ways to better meet the needs of the client. We would like to see this expertise more frequently used in the planning and design of services in the future to more effectively support young people with substance misuse problems.
The research also found that:
- Drug Action Teams found it difficult to engage Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services and Social Services in the planning and delivery of young peoples substance misuse services.
- Multi-agency services were seen to be more effective at integrating and partnership working with other local children and young peoples service providers.
- Better data collection and sharing of relevant information between childrens services is needed to establish a national picture of which interventions are working well for young people.
- Only 10% of young peoples substance misuse services had been formally evaluated.
The report makes recommendations for government, commissioners, planners and service providers, including:
- The Department for Education and Skills and Department for Health should ensure Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services and social services are more effectively engaged in the substance misuse agenda including at planning, commissioning and delivery level.
- The National Treatment Agency should review the evidence base for the provision of intensive support to young people with substance misuse problems to identify the efficacy of different models including residential placements and foster care.
- Government should ensure that specialist substance misuse provision for young people is not lost within the wider Every Child Matters agenda.
To download the full report go to
Source: www.addaction.org.uk
Posted: 16th January 2006
