Children Living with Substance Using Parents/Carers
Last updated: December 1, 2008
Table of Contents
2. The Procedure
The following procedure / practice guidance is for professionals working with drug and/or alcohol using parents, their children, and their families. It has been drawn from Children’s Needs ? Parenting Capacity 1999 (Cleaver, Unell and Aldgate, 2000); Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their Families (Department of Health 2000);
SCODA Drug Using Parents, Assessment in Childcare (Calder et al 2003) and Substance Misuse and Childcare (Harbin et 2000).
This procedure acknowledges the need to contribute to a healthier society by reducing the harm caused by alcohol and all other drugs. However, it does not set out that a parent or carer of children should abstain from the use of drug and/or alcohol in order to parent children. It encourages them to seek help, support, and treatment to address their drug and/or alcohol use problem to reduce the harm it causes to the individual, family, and society.
This procedure applies whenever there are concerns about the well-being or safety of children whose parents or carers have drug and/or alcohol problems, specifically where these difficulties are impacting, or are likely to impact, on their ability to meet the needs of their children. It also applies to pregnant women who have drug and/or alcohol problems, where their partners are known to have drug and/or alcohol problems or where someone with drug and/or alcohol problems is living in a household where children are present.
Parents and carers include those with parental responsibility, those with significant responsibility for the care of a child, or other members of the household.
2.i Aims of the procedure
- To ensure the provision of co-ordinated services to families in which there are dependent children of parents, carers or pregnant women with drug and/or alcohol problems.
- To ensure good co-operation and collaborative decision-making between services.
- To increase understanding of the impact of an adult’s drug and/or alcohol problems on children’s lives.
- To ensure that universal, targeted and specialist services improve the early identification of children in need.
