Children and Young People: Legislation, Guidance and Policy Development
There have been many developments over the years for children and young people’s services, mostly over the last few years. Some are long over due and those that focus specifically in relation to drug and alcohol use are in their infancy and need to be given time to be embedded effectively.
This paper will highlight the developments over recent years in the children and young peoples substance misuse agenda.
The term ‘children’ refers to all those individuals who are under the age of 18, in accordance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989). The term ‘young people’ is used for teenagers, and teenagers themselves, prefer the term ‘young people’ to ‘children’. |
Lifeline began providing services to children and young people in 1990.
Lifeline was very much ahead of the game.
This has now grown to many children and young people’s services across the country employing over 70 people at all levels. There are services in Manchester , Blackburn , Salford , Tameside, Calderdale, Kirklees, Tower Hamlets and YOIs as well as newly commissioned services now in Leeds and Enfield .
Developments since 1996
1996 HAS Report
The HAS (96) Report, examined the issue of Young People and Substance Misuse and recommended a 4 Tiered model of service intervention.
The tiered model of drug and alcohol interventions provides a framework for an integrated and comprehensive child-based service. The model is an approach to commissioning and service provision of substance misuse interventions for children and young people.
Since 1996 there have been major changes in services for young people, for example, Youth Offending Teams were established, and the development of the Connexions service.
The Comprehensive Spending Review in 1997 saw the beginning of additional funding allocating an additional £63m for three years from 1998/99 for spending on drug education and prevention services for young people.
1998 National Drug Strategy Young people is one of the four aims of the strategy to:
"Prevent today’s young people from becoming tomorrow’s problem drug users."
1999 saw the launch of the National Healthy Schools Standard, by the Department for Education and the Department of Health.
1999 – The policy Guidelines for Working with Young Drug Users (SCODA and The Children’s Legal Centre 1999).
2000 Spending Review saw an additional funding allocation of £152m to achieve the National Drug Strategy’s aim for Young People.
2001 saw guidance for the first time for DATs to undertake needs assessments across their areas and to develop the Young People’s Substance Misuse Plans and the integrated young people’s substance misuse programme.
The integrated approach to substance misuse services was intended to promote effective strategic planning at a local level in line with the Government’s national priorities. More importantly, it was designed to ensure that services respond to children and young people’s needs in an effective and immediate way. Prior to this commissioning was on an uncoordinated basis.
The young people’s allocations bought together the Department of Health, the Youth Justice Board, the Home Office and the Department for Education and Skills.
Operational outputs were established, across the four tiers from educational policies through to treatment provision.
2001 HAS Reviewed.
2001 NTA established.
2002 Models of Care for Substance Misuse Treatment.
2002 The Updated Drug Strategy. The updated strategy highlighted some key themes for children and young people services:
- All schools to provide good quality education.
- Established prevention and Positive Futures campaign to target those most vulnerable.
- Support for 40-50 000 young people with drug problems every year.
- New powers for drug testing and treatment.
- New campaign for class A drugs.
- Clamp down on dealers to children and young people.
- Improved services and better support for parents, carers and families.
2003 Every Child Matters. The inquiry into the death of Victoria Climbie 2003 highlighted the lack of priority status given to safeguarding children. The Government’s response to the findings included the Green paper Every Child Matters 2003 and the provisions in the Children Act 2004.
2003 Hidden Harm – focused on children with a parent, carer or other guardian whose drug use had negative consequences for themselves and those around them.
The document emphasised the importance of multi-agency working within young person’s drug services and recommended ‘an integrative approach’ to be adopted in relation to identifying and meeting the needs of this group of children and young people.
2004 Children Act
The key aspects of the Act are:
* A duty on the local authority to co-operate with key partners, to improve integrated planning, commissioning and delivery of children’s services
* Clearer accountability for local authority children’s services, via a director of children’s services and a lead council member
* Establishing local safeguarding boards to replace non-statutory Area Child Protection Committees.
Children and young people’s strategic partnerships and establishing children’s trusts to provide coordinated care and improve delivery and integration across sectors and agencies. It is vital that the planning and organisation of substance misuse services for children and young people fits into the overall planning and commissioning of children’s services to ensure that all four elements of the Health Advisory Service Report (HAS) (1996, 2001) tiers are fully integrated to improve outcomes for children and young people.
The Children Act 2004 requires each local authority to establish a statutory local safeguarding children board. The purpose of which is to co-ordinate and ensure the effectiveness of local arrangements and services to safeguard children, including services provided by individual agencies. This means that all agencies, including voluntary agencies, must safeguard and promote the welfare of children.
The Children Act 2004 embodied all the aspects of Every Child Matters into legislation.
Three of the most important in this context are:
The creation of children’s trusts under the duty to cooperate.
The establishment of Local Safeguarding Children’s Boards.
The duty on all agencies to make arrangements to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.
Important sections of the Act:
S10 interagency cooperation
S11 duty on Local Authorities and partners to cooperate to improve the well being of children and young people and to make arrangements to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. This will be achieved through the Local Safeguarding Children’s Boards.
2004 The National Service Framework for Children, Young People and Maternity Services (NSF)
A 10-year programme of health improvement for children and young people and a key part of the ‘Every Child Matters: Change for Children’ agenda. The Children’s NSF set a series of Core Standards for health and social services for children, young people and pregnant women, which included promoting the health, safety and well-being through the identification of needs and early intervention.
2005 Every Child Matters: Change for Children
* being healthy
* staying safe
* enjoying and achieving
* making a positive contribution
* economic well-being.
A key aim under ECM ‘Be Healthy’ outcome for children and young people is to encourage that: "young people choose not to take illegal drugs".
2005 Every Child Matters: Change for Children-Young People and Drugs (2005). In March 2005, the Department for Education and Skills and the Home Office published a joint strategy, supported by the Department of Health, linking Every Child Matters and the National Drug Strategy for Young People (DFES 2005). The joint strategy identifies a joint approach to the development of universal, targeted and specialist services, to prevent drug harm and to ensure that all children and young people are able to reach their potential.
The approach has three main objectives:
- Reforming delivery and strengthening accountability.
- Closer links between the National Drug Strategy and Every Child Matters.
- Implementing the Change for Children programme locally, regionally and nationally.
Ensuring provision is built around the needs of vulnerable children and young people. More focus on prevention and early intervention with those most at risk, with drug misuse considered as part of assessments, care planning and intervention by all agencies providing services for children, including schools.
Building service and workforce capacity. Developing a range of universal, targeted and specialist provision to meet local needs and ensure delivery of workforce training to support it.
Within this approach, specialist drug services are to play a vital role where children and young people have developed substance misuse problems.
Key Performance Indicator’s
Education percentage of schools receiving healthy schools standard
Truants excludes (never agreed)
Social services LAC identification, assessments and interventions
YOT all young people screened for substance misuse. Of those screened ensure that those with identified needs receive appropriate assessment within 5 working days and following the assessment, access early intervention and treatment services they require within 10 working days.
Treatment increase the participation of young problem drug users (under 18 years of age) in treatment programmes by 50% between 2004 and 2008
2005 Young People Substance Misuse Treatment Services-Essential Elements
2005 The Common Assessment Framework (CAF). The CAF is intended to promote more effective, earlier identification of children’s additional needs and improve multi-agency working. It is intended to provide a simple process for a holistic assessment of a child’s needs, taking account of the individual, family and community. Information will follow the child and build up a picture over time. It will encourage greater sharing of information between practitioners, where consent is given.
The CAF has been developed to help practitioners to determine if there are needs that would hinder the five outcomes of ECM.
The forthcoming common assessment framework seeks to rectify this situation.
It will:
* identify needs early
* avoid duplication amongst agencies
* refer young people to appropriate services for support
* establish a lead professional who is accountable for service delivery.
All services working with children and young people will be expected to use this framework. In line with the joint guidance, it is expected that substance misuse will be an integral part of this framework.
2006 Working Together to Safeguard Children.
Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is defined as protecting children from maltreatment; preventing impairment of children’s health or development; ensuring that children are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care; and undertaking that role so as to enable those children to have optimum life chances and enter adulthood successfully (Working Together; 2006).
2006 Youth Matters
2006 Lifeline Project Strategic Plan 2006-2009 ‘Telling the Truth about Drugs’
Statement of Purpose: The purpose of Lifeline is to relieve poverty, sickness and distress among those persons affected by addiction to drugs of any kind and to educate the public on matters relating to drug misuse.
drugs are closely linked to poor outcomes among young people’. The Lifeline Strategic Plan echoes the ECM 5 outcomes.
Lifeline’s mission statement ‘Telling the truth about drugs’ reflects our role as an organisation in establishing an approach to substance misuse issues that is accurate, credible and non-judgmental.
2007 Assessing young people for substance misuse NTA.
