Joint Protocol Between Drug and Alcohol Partnerships and Children and Family Services

Final – Oct 2015

Joint Protocol between drug and alcohol partnerships and children and family services

Introduction

Families are a key priority for Public Health England (PHE) and its remit isto support families from an early intervention foundation in order that children have the best life chances possible.

An overarching priority is the importance from PHE of the Troubled Families programme. This links in strongly with drug and alcohol prevention and treatment programmes and supports the partnership working between local authorities, health, education and criminal justice services who work together to help vulnerable children and families in Telford & Wrekin.

Telford & Wrekin Council recognises that drug and alcohol misuse is a factor in a significant number of children in need and child protection cases. To ensure that a “Think Family” approach has been adopted and the voice and needs of the child/young person are met, Telford and Wrekin Drug and Alcohol Recovery Service (DARS) and Children and Family Services have a joint protocol that outlines the structure and support that is in place to meet the needs of children from early intervention through to safeguarding.

Telford & Wrekin Local Children Safeguarding Board (LCSB) outlines clear roles and responsibilities for drug and alcohol services in safeguarding and promoting the welfare of unborn babies,children and young people, including young carers, whose lives are affected by substancemisusing parents or carers.

The LSCB also have partnership professional guidance provided in respect of threshold guidance, The Child’s Journey in Telford & Wrekin and practice procedures, Integrated Working Toolkit that support partnership working.

These can be found at the below links:

All DARS workers access training for Child protection Procedures and Integrated Working Practice Common Assessment Training.

Effective Communication and Working Relationships

All Service Users with childcare responsibilities within Telford & Wrekin drug and alcohol services are assessed and supported in terms of early interventions and caring responsibilities,from initial assessment through to closure, in line with Public Health England expectations and monitored through the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System.

Where safeguarding concerns have been identified or the need for early intervention support is required, the Drug and Alcohol Recovery Service (DARS) keyworkerwill form part of any multi agency support team, this may include Child Protection Case Conferences, Core groups or Team Around the Child (TAC) meetings or Team Around The Family

Information sharing agreements:

In order to ensure effective and efficient communication between DARS and Family Connect, the DARS information technology system,Carepath, is available to Family Connect Service who are able to immediately identify if the parent / carer is known to the service in order to provide a timely response and ensure joint working is supported.

A pathway has been agreed and ratified: Family Connect can quickly link any child support practitioner to the DARS keyworker and vice versa. (see appendix 1)

The governance arrangements for this joint protocol is supported by the Local Children Safeguarding Board and the Children, Young People and Families Board

The information sharing protocol that supports this joint protocol sits with the Telford & Wrekin Partnership Information Sharing Protocol and the Family Connect Information Sharing Practice and Procedure Protocol.

All information sharing arrangements and requirements are set out through Telford & Wrekin Council Information Sharing Agreement, Information Security Policy in line with Data Protection Act requirements. Confidentiality for all Service users within DARS is outlined at the beginning of treatment and updated in line with Recovery Plan (see appendix 2).

Purpose of protocol

For the purpose of this protocol alcohol and drug use will be referred to collectively as ‘substance misuse’. ‘Parents’ will apply to all categories of adults involved with children cited above.

This protocol is to support local arrangements between adult treatment providers and Children and Family Services to deliver effective early intervention support and safeguarding by improving joint working arrangements, communication and information sharing between adult-facing and children-facing services. The protocol has been informed by Public Health England Safeguarding Protocol (2013) and The Children Act (1989 & 2004) and Work Together to Safeguard Children (2015)

All DARS practitioners are expected to use this protocol when they come into contact with service users who have children or child care responsibilities whose life is affected by the use of drugs and/or alcohol.

This protocol will apply to:

  • Unborn babies, Children and Young People whose care is deemed to be at risk due to substance misusing parents or carers.
  • Women substance users who are pregnant or whose partners are substance users.
  • Adult service users living in a house with someone else’s children e.g. step–parent.
  • Any adult who has significant contact with children e.g. separated parent, grandparent.

Protocol Aim

The aim of this protocol is to:

  • ensure that all DARS practitioners follow the Safeguarding procedures as published on the Telford Wrekin Safeguarding Children Board website:
  • promote earlier identification of those children affected by parental substance misuse and improve interventions through the use of common processes/ multi-disciplinary approaches. This will include unborn babies, children and young people whose care is deemed to be at risk due to substance misusing parents or carers;
  • ensure that referral pathways into Children and Family Services from adult treatment services are robust;
  • support children’s services practitioners to identify additional needs of potentially vulnerable adults (parents, carers or significant persons) of children they are working with;
  • support co-ordinated plans and interventions across adults and children’s services in order to improve outcomes for the most vulnerable children, young people and families within Telford and Wrekin in line with Common Processes;
  • support joint assessments across children’s and adults services where appropriate.

Protocol Objectives

The objectives of this protocol are to ensure that the priorities of Telford & Wrekin Council are supported within the aims of this protocol:

  • Put our children and young people first: Reduction in harm and risk to the most vulnerable adults, young people and children within Telford & Wrekin.
  • Improve the health and well being of our communities and address health inequalities:Ensure families can access and are supported by the right services at the right time preventing families entering into a crisis.
  • Protect and support our vulnerable children and adults: Sharing knowledge and experience between adults and children’s services.
  • To share appropriate and proportionate information in order to protect children and young people.To share appropriate and proportionate information in order to protect children and young people.

Drug and alcohol services referral processes to Children and Family services

This protocol seeks to strengthen the relationship between drug and alcohol services and Children and Family Services and to ensure a “Think Family” co-ordinated approach is delivered:

The following services that DARS will work jointly with to support their services users are:

  • Family Connect, as the first point of contact for safeguarding concerns.
  • Children Social Services Case Management Teams
  • Transition and Leaving Care Team
  • Children Specialist Services
  • Children & Family Locality Services
  • Cohesion Services.

Telford & Wrekin treatment providers will ask at initial assessment a standard set of questions to all service users who have child care responsibilities to ensure that the needs of children have been identified and will be responded to as part of any recovery plan.

There is a data setcollected within DARS in relation to all service users who have child care responsibilities. This is provided to the National Drug TreatmentMonitoringSystem

DARS have dedicated officers who provide support to children and family practitioners within their working roles.

  • A dedicated DARS Worker spends half a day each week with Children’s Safeguarding and triages and case manages any families where there is a safeguarding issue.
  • A dedicated DARS Worker attends MARAC and undertakes triage and case management of any referred in through this route
  • A dedicated DARS Worker for ‘Think Family’ partnership working.
  • A dedicated DARS Worker is the keyworker to all young people requiring specialist pharmacological intervention.

Appendix 1 DARS pathway

Drug & Alcohol Recovery Service

Appendix 2: Confidentiality Statement

Name:______

We are bound by law (The Data Protection Act) to keep confidential the information you provide to us.

We will keep your details secure and only authorised members of staff from the Treatment and Recovery Services Partnership (DARS, Nacro, Impact and TACT) may have access to your data where it is relevant and necessary to meet your health and social care needs or our statutory obligations. The only exception to this is the auditing of records for service quality purposes. In any case, only people who have undergone DBS and security checks will be able to access your information and are bound by confidentiality agreements

Should you wish to see your file at any time, you may place a written request to see the information held about you in.

All information that you give us will be treated as confidential and subject to the restrictions outlined above. We will not pass on any personally identifiable information about you to a third party unless we have your permission to do so.

We will share relevant personal information to agencies (such as your GP, Probation Officer, Social Worker, Partner and Family) unless you choose to withhold consent.

Could you please confirm which agencies you choose to withhold consent for us to liaise with:

Family (name & relationship):Partner:

Agency Name: Agency Name:

Agency Name:Agency Name

Please note however that there may be rare occasions where we may have to act without your consent.

These are:

  • When we have concerns regarding the wellbeing of a person under 18
  • When we believe that there is a risk of harm to another adult
  • When we believe that there is a risk of harm to you
  • If you tell us specific information about an offence that you have committed, including benefit fraud.
  • For continuity of care should you be detained in prison

In these circumstances we may pass on information to another agency without your consent.

NDTMS CONSENT

  • The NDTMS system involves collecting information about the type of treatment you receive from a treatment agency. Sometimes you may be seen by more than one agency. Consequently, to avoid duplication of reporting, NDTMS may share a minimal amount of information about you between the agencies from whom you may have received treatment. This data is in the form of assessments, the Treatment Outcome Profile and closure summary from the Drug and Alcohol Recovery Service.
  • Your full name and address are NOT passed on to the NDTMS although some details are sent to minimise the risk of you being counted twice; e.g. your initials, date of birth, gender, ethnicity and Drug and Alcohol Action Team(DAAT) of residence.
  • Some information from the NDTMS is sent by the National Treatment Agency (NTA) which will become Public Health England (PHE) in April 2013to other government departments, so that they can monitor the progress of the national drug and alcohol strategies. However, by the time the NTA (or PHE after 01/04/13) reports from the NDTMS to other government departments it is always in the form of total numbers of people and there is nothing in the information that could be used to identify you.
  • The NTA (or PHE after 01/04/13) does not pass any identifiable information held on the NDTMS to the police or criminal justice agencies.
  • Your information is held on the NDTMS for at least 8 years.
  • Data from the NDTMS is not placed on any register – no central register exists.
  • Your information is very useful for helping to plan and develop services that can best meet your needs. However, if you do not want information about you to be passed on, you have a right to say this.

If you wish to know more about the NDTMS (including why information is needed for the NDTMS, how information is handled within the NDTMS and/ or the type of information collected for the NDTMS and the time it is retained) please ask your key worker.

Please see Helpsheet ‘Information For Service Users’ for further information.

*Do you consent to information being shared with NDTMS?Yes  No 

Client Signature______Date:______

Triage Assessor Signature: ______

Triage Assessor Print Name: ______

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