Alcohol, children, families and domestic abuse The work of Alcohol Concern’s Embrace Project Don Shenker, Chief Executive Alcohol Concern

Elephants in the room

Elephants First elephant: alcohol About 1:4 people are drinking at increasing/higher risk including 1.1million who are dependent drinkers: 60% of alcohol is drunk at home Second elephant: children of drinking parents Usual estimate for children affected by their parents’ drinking is 1.3million (Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy for England) but recent research (Manning, V et al) taken from GHS returns and Psychiatric Morbidity surveys suggests more than twice this figure. AT LEAST 8,500 in each PCT Third elephant: domestic abuse 1:4 women experience domestic abuse in their lifetime One third of all domestic abuse incidents are alcohol-related Three quarters of children in households where there is domestic abuse have witnessed the abuse Victims of domestic abuse are 15 times more likely to drink problematically than the general population Between 70% and 90% of clients in alcohol treatment services are/have been involved in domestic abuse as perpetrators or victims/survivors

Embrace Project A three year Alcohol Concern project started in May 2008 to build capacity in non-statutory alcohol services enabling them to ‘think family and think safety’ to mainstream and embed children, families and domestic violence/abuse issues into their everyday practice. Funded by the Big Lottery Fund

Nine sites in six English regions, all voluntary sector, none have previously worked specifically on these issues Half are stand-alone and half are part of larger organisations One is peer-led, one is specifically BMER, one is a predominantly homeless service At very different stages of development Embrace Project – pilot sites

Progress over the past year (External evaluation carried out by Universities of Bath and Bedford) – Building local partnerships – especially with MARACs, Women’s Aid and LSCBs – Training – both from Embrace and locally on CAF/Hidden Harm and Domestic abuse – Developing new tools eg for recording and monitoring – Adapting/adopting new policies, procedures, protocols – Supporting staff in undertaking the work Embrace Project – pilot sites

Challenges ‘ Resistance’ among staff – don’t want to open can of worms NOT ENOUGH TIME to develop the work Partnership problems – especially with Children’s Social Care Insecurity re future – eg retendering Changes in services – Brief Interventions not appropriate, need longer time to develop trust Embrace Project – pilot sites

Why is it important? Many adult alcohol service clients (50%+) are parents/have parental responsibilities which affect and are affected by their drinking Most have been/are involved in domestic violence/abuse (70-90%) Life for children within problem drinking families can affect all five outcomes of Every Child Matters Government is increasingly focused on ‘Think Family’ agenda Families can play a crucial role in motivating problem drinkers to change, in retaining them in treatment and in preventing relapse; positive engagement of families can have a dramatic impact on treatment outcomes All adult services are responsible for contributing to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of their clients’ children. This includes PROACTIVE sharing of information with Children’s services and other agencies eg MARAC

What can adult alcohol services do?

Meerkats Meerkat moments – look out for: Potential risks for child protection/safeguarding/welfare Potential risks for domestic abuse

What can adult alcohol services do? Think family throughout the service – venue, decor, opening hours, materials available are all important Make sure that all staff are aware of and alert to issues of children families and domestic abuse ‘Ask the question’ - Screen and record Know what you’ll do with the answer – How do you manage this within your service? How do you bring in other services?

WORK TOGETHER USE THE RESOURCES AVAILABLE Key messages

WHAT SHOULD SERVICES DO? Action Research on the nine sites continues until October 2010 – report to be presented at Conference March 2011 One-day training sessions for alcohol services from January 2010 to February 2011 Knowledge Sets – two already published, final document in Spring 2010 Guidance papers for services and commissioners, and policy paper, to be published 2010 What happens next?

Can we fix it?

Thank you