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News
Extra £5.5m to help children of alcoholic parents
The UK government has promised to provide an additional £5.5m (US$7.68m) to help the “silent victims” of alcohol-dependent parents.
The UK government has pledged and extra £5.5m to help children of alcohol-dependent parents
The joint funding from the Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for Work and Pensions will be used to help identify “at-risk” children more quickly and offer them “rapid” access to support and advice.
It is hoped that the money will help an estimated 200,000 children in England living with alcohol-dependent parents.
The money will be split with £4.5m going to local authorities to develop plans that improve outcomes for children of alcohol-dependent parents, and £1m to fund national capacity building by non-governmental organisations.
An additional £500,000 was put forwards last year to expand national helplines for children with alcoholic parents.
The extra amount will provide fast access to support and mental health services for children and their families where there is a dependent drinker; outreach programmes to get more parents successfully through addiction treatment; and early intervention programmes to reduce the numbers of children needing to go into care.
Jeremy Hunt, health and social secretary, said: “The consequences of alcohol abuse are devastating for those in the grip of addiction – but for too long, the children of alcoholic parents have been silent victims. This is not right, nor fair.
“These measures will ensure thousands of children affected by their parent’s alcohol dependency have access to the support they need and deserve.
Steve Brine has been appointed as a dedicated minister for children with alcohol-dependent parents, a role he will undertake in addition to his position as public health minister.
Brine said: “All children deserve to feel safe – and it is a cruel reality that those growing up with alcoholic parents are robbed of this basic need.
“Exposure to their parents harmful drinking leaves children vulnerable to a host of problems both in childhood and later in life – and it is right that we put a stop to it once and for all.”