Public Health England (PHE) have announced details of the £4.5 million innovation fund to support up to eight local authorities in addressing the needs of children of dependent drinkers, in addition to a new toolkit to support local authorities identify and respond to local needs.
The details follow an announcement made last month and ongoing campaigning by several MPs including a parliamentary group Manifesto for 'Children of Alcoholics'.
PHE estimate there are 200,000 children living with adults who are dependent drinkers and say alcohol can be a major factor in causing parental conflict, which can lead to a range of poor outcomes for children including their education, employment and health. Between 2011 and 2014 parental alcohol misuse was recorded as a factor in 37 per cent of cases where a child was seriously hurt or killed.
Duncan Selbie, Chief Executive at Public Health England said:
“Alcohol can have a devastating impact on a child’s future, but we can significantly reduce it by children’s and alcohol services working well together to improve how quickly issues are picked up and help is given. As well as changing children’s lives for the better, this benefits the local community: every £1 spent on alcohol treatment, sees £3 returned.
Local authorities have already embraced their duty to improve the health of their populations with great creativity and determination. The fund represents an opportunity to go further for a particularly vulnerable group of children and parents and I hope to see a range of applications, showcasing creative local solutions to an emerging public health issue.”
Parental drug and alcohol use local authority toolkit
Accompanying the new fund, a toolkit has been released aiming to support all local authorities in responding. The toolkit has been developed to support commissioners and services to:
- understand the extent of problem parental alcohol and drug use and how it can impact on the children in their households
- identify problem parental alcohol and drug use across a range of services as early as is possible
- ensure local systems have sufficient capacity and resources to support parents and children affected by problem parental alcohol and drug use
- identify and commission appropriate interventions to reduce harm and promote recovery for problem alcohol and drug using parents and reduce and prevent harm to their children
- support local authorities to address the effect of adverse childhood experiences and to safeguard children adverse childhood experiences and to safeguard children
The toolkit contains:
- data on local prevalence and unmet need amongst alcohol and drug dependent adults who live with one or more child
- data on the national and regional prevalence of parental higher risk drinking
- supporting data from the Children in Need census
- an overview of the impact on children of problem alcohol and drug use by parents
- a summary of potential responses to meet the needs of parents with alcohol and drug problems and affected children
- support to calculate the social return on investment from local interventions to reduce harms and promote recovery amongst parents who are alcohol and drug dependent
Broader questions?
Whilst the announcement will be largely welcomed across the field, many will be mindful of the wider issue of significant cuts to drug and alcohol services, estimated at around £105 million since 2012/13. Indeed views that the 'Government is choosing to address the (admittedly very tragic) symptoms of the problem of alcohol dependence, not the problem itself (via funding for treatment services) or the causes of the problem' are unlikely to exist in isolation. A recent Alcohol Concern/Alcohol Research UK report found alcohol treatment services are 'in crisis', urging the Government to plug the gap in treatment funding, while other questions have been raised about addressing the significant issue of stigma when considering help for marginalised groups especially dependent drinkers.
PHE is expecting to fund up to eight areas with up to £4.5 million available over three years. The application phase runs until 17 July. Successful applicants will be able to draw down a revenue grant to support their work over the period 2018-19 to 2020-21. Those interested in the fund should submit an application form to: [email protected]
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