The Scottish Government

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8 Children and their Wider Environment

8.1 Parental problem drug or alcohol use is often linked to other social and domestic problems that may include poor housing conditions, homelessness, unemployment, domestic abuse and social deprivation. In these circumstances, a child may well fail to thrive and be adversely affected.

This lifestyle results in disruption for children, changes of schools, separation from their friends and removal from familiar places. The stability and security associated with childhood is lost in these circumstances.

This also applies to children and young people with caring responsibilities. A more strategic approach to supporting young carers is being taken by the Executive by mainstreaming young carers within current policy and service priorities for children and young people. This builds on existing joint working in this important area.

8.2 Key Action Points

The Executive will undertake the following action to promote best practice in relation to children and their wider environment. We will:

• present legislation to implement "Getting it Right for Every Child" to place a duty on all agencies to identify the needs of children for whom they have a responsibility (including those of drug using parents) and for all agencies to co-operate with each other to take action to protect the child and meet their needs;
• implement a new quality improvement framework to assist monitoring of performance of services within and across agencies - 2006;
• implement the integrated assessment, planning and recording framework proposed in "Getting it Right for Every Child" across all areas and all agencies in Scotland - by 2009;
• improve support for young people caring for parents with substance misuse problems, within the context of "Getting it Right for Every Child";
• publish an implementation plan to take forward the recommendations of the 21st Century Review of Social Work - summer 2006;
• fund an evaluation of the Dundee Aberlour Outreach project, to assess the effectiveness of this approach for other children's services - summer 2006;
• ensure that the 32 Violence Against Women /Domestic Abuse Partnerships make appropriate links with ADATs, through inclusion in guidance to Women Multi-Agency Partnerships - summer 2006;
• ensure that the needs of children experiencing "hidden harm" are included in the forthcoming "Children, Young People and Domestic Abuse Action Plan" - summer 2006;
• launch an information campaign around the Family Law (Scotland) Act 2006, both to raise awareness of the law and also of the services that are available to support families during difficult times - in 2006;
• develop links between the training strategies for National Domestic Abuse and Substance Misuse - by end of 2006;
• monitorNHS Boards' activity and progress against the "Health and Homelessness standards" - summer 2006;
• work with the Department of Health to look at ways of strengthening advice on child protection as part of the updating of the UK-wide "Drug Misuse and Dependence - Guidelines on Clinical Management" - 2006-2007;
• undertake a review of the application of the current guidelines on clinical management and monitoring arrangements by NHS Boards - 2006;
• make sure that each ADAT has a lead officer to act as a conduit between the Executive and local interests so that information flows correctly to the appropriate people - by end of 2006;
• work with ADATs 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 2006-2007;
• include responsibility towards the children of clients in the Quality Standards for Substance Misuse Services currently being developed; and
• expand the Scottish Drug Misuse Database to ensure that information on dependent children of drug using parents is collected when clients present for treatment.

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