Hidden Harm

The job of the SADAT is to develop strategies that will address problematic alcohol and drug misuse. The policies we implement on the ground and come directly from the Scottish Executive. Hidden Harm – Next Steps: Supporting Children – Working with Parents is one such document, which identifies a range of actions that the Scottish Executive is taking forward in partnership with, among others, local Alcohol and Drug Action Teams [ADATs].
One of the key aims of the Scottish Executive is that all children in Scotland should be safe, nurtured and healthy.
Yet across Scotland there are an estimated 40-60,000 children affected by parental drug use and 80-100,000 children affected by parental alcohol misuse. Moreover, children affected by parental substance misuse can be hard to reach.
That’s why all Scotland’s 22 ADATs are being asked by the Executive to ensure that safeguarding and promoting the interests of children of problem drug and alcohol using parents is a key priority in all local developments and strategies.

The Executive’s approach is based on the premise that everyone’s responsibility – including those whose professional relationship is with the parental substance misuser – must be to the child first and foremost.
This is not to deny that parents with substance misuse problems need help, but the Executive’s priority – and the priority of every local agency, must be to protect and safeguard children.

This approach challenges the view that the needs of the problem alcohol and /or drug user are paramount but it does not need to be inconsistent with the client-centred approach taken by treatment agencies. Indeed there is clear recognition that the pool of expertise and knowledge in the voluntary sector should influence policy and practice.
However, Scottish Ministers feel strongly that more work needs to be done to ensure that all agencies give this issue the priority it deserves – in particular more effective communication between agencies, particularly those dealing with adults and children and including the sharing of information.

In Shetland, the SADAT is co-ordinating this process and, following Multi Agency Substance Misuse Protocol Training held in May 2006, an inter-agency group is currently developing a comprehensive set of guidelines for agencies in Shetland to protect children living in families with problem substance use. These will link to the local Child Protection Procedures and Integrated Assessment Framework. These guildelines have been issued and feature within the local Child Protection Procedures.