Guidance

Parents with alcohol and drug problems: support resources

A toolkit containing guidance, data and other resources to support professionals who are helping families affected by parental alcohol and drug problems.

Applies to England

Documents

Details

These resources are for:

  • directors of public health and children’s services
  • adult alcohol and drug treatment commissioners
  • front-line adult treatment and children and family’s services staff

These resources support local areas to:

  • understand the extent of problem parental alcohol and drug use and support needs in their area
  • assess whether local systems have sufficient processes, capacity and resources to support families affected by problem parental alcohol and drug use

The resources are:

  • planning and operational guidance for adult alcohol and drug treatment services and children’s services shows how services can work together to support families affected by parental alcohol and drug problems
  • a guide to using case studies to estimate how much money can be saved by supporting families who experience problem parental alcohol and drug use
  • an investing in families Excel workbook consisting of a social cost-benefit tool and a unit cost database – the database contains a range of costs relevant to vulnerable families and should be used with the guide to using case studies
  • data from 2019 to 2020 for each local authority, showing national and local prevalence of parental alcohol and drug misuse, and statistics on parents with a dependency in treatment and children in need – the data is available at the NDTMS website
  • an evidence slide pack which presents a variety of evidence, including case studies, to encourage commissioners to invest in services working with families

There is online support for professionals using this toolkit at PHE’s parental alcohol and drug use Knowledge Hub group (login needed). This is an online community for people with an interest in parental alcohol and drug use and the impact it can have on children, carers and families. Join the group to keep up to date on policies, webinars, research and other publications and events on the topic.

Updates to this page

Published 10 May 2021

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