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Good practice
Guidelines
One of the difficulties with much of the
guidance on this issue is that it provides information on why
you need to consider substance use in your assessment of parenting,
its impact on children and families, and what information and
data you need to know and consider in order to make an informed
judgement. There is almost no guidance on how to best
approach gathering this data in practice, ie. the skills
and approach needed to working with parents and children in
relation to this sensitive subject area. With this in mind the
following are some examples of guidance that may help.
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Nottingham
City and Nottinghamshire ACPS
In 2004, these two ACPCs produced a downloadable guidance for all
agencies working with drug and alcohol using parents. It provides
information and advice on issues such as sharing information and
confidentiality as well as actions to take and assessing parental
use within the assessment framework structure. Again, it omits the
child’s view but add this to it yourself and it is a good
start. It is available from the following link: http://www.nottinghamschools.co.uk/eduweb/uploadedFiles/Substance%20Misuse.pdf
Camden
and Islington ACPC guidelines
(Awaiting guidelines)
Specialist
services
FAS,
Camden
The Family Alcohol Service (FAS) is a London-based joint venture
between the NSPCC (National Society for the Protection of Cruelty
to Children) and ARP (Alcohol Recovery Project). Its staff come
from a range of disciplinary backgrounds and works with children
and parents affected by alcohol problems. It adopts a child focused
and strengths based perspective. The service has been evaluated
showing positive changes within families and success in engaging
families in the service as well as bringing changes to drinking
behaviour and, importantly, building resilience within the affected
family. For further information contact Jenny Carpenter on 0207
383 3817 or email jcarpenter@nspcc.org.uk .
Option
2, Cardiff
Option 2 is a statutory agency in Cardiff that works with risk and
resilience in families affected by parental substance use. It is
both a child protection and substance misuse crisis intervention
service. It only works with families where there are serious child
protection concerns related to a parent’s substance use. It
aims to create positive change in the way families function enabling
children to remain safely at home wherever possible. It is a 4-6
week crisis led intervention underpinned by a range of theories
and methods including crisis theory, solution focussed brief therapy,
motivational interviewing and systems theory. Staff work intensively
with one family 24 hours seven days a week where necessary. The
work is focussed on addressing practical problems and uses goal
setting, maintenance and safety plans. For further information contact
Mark Hamer or Rhoda Emlyn-Jones on 02920 398181 or email on r.emlyn-jones@cardiff.gov.uk .
STARS
Project, (The Children’s Society), Nottingham
This is a project designed especially to support and work with children
4 – 18 yrs who are affected by a parent’s present or
past alcohol or drug use. The project offers individual and group
counselling but will also make home visits and visit schools. They
also offer training and consultancy to other professionals. For
further information contact Sara Mayer on 01159 422974.
Launched in June 2005 is an associated website for children at the
following web address:
www.parentsusingdrugs.org.uk
Impact on parenting | Impact on children | Resilience factors
Assessment and intervention |
Websites
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