Pubdate: Mon, 08 May 2006
Source: Edinburgh Evening News (UK)
Copyright: 2006 The Scotsman Publications Ltd
Contact:  http://www.edinburghnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1626
Author: Ian Swanson, Scottish Political Editor
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/women.htm (Women)

DRUG ADDICT PARENTS RISK LOSING CHILDREN TO CARE IN CRACKDOWN

DRUG addict parents face an increased risk of having their children  
taken into care under a new action plan unveiled today by First  
Minister Jack McConnell.

Social workers and other professionals will be told that there must  
no longer be an assumption that keeping families together is the best  
option for youngsters.

There will be action to ensure better communication between agencies.

And social workers and other frontline staff are to be retrained in  
child protection.

The moves follow a string of tragedies involving children whose  
parents were abusing drugs.

East Lothian toddler Derek Doran died in December last year after he  
drank his parents' methadone.

Three-year-old Michael McGarrity was found alone in a flat in Leith  
with his mother's dead body in November.

In 2002, 11-week-old Caleb Ness died at the hands of his brain- 
damaged father after being released into the care of his drug-addict  
mother.

And in January, an 11-year-old girl was treated in hospital for the  
effects of heroin after she collapsed at school in Glasgow.

The First Minister today visited the Aberlour project in Edinburgh  
with Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson to launch the action plan for  
protecting young people who live in drug abusing households.

The project in Niddrie supports addict parents and their youngsters  
and also works with pregnant addicts, aiming to ensure children do  
not fall into the cycle of drug abuse that snared their parents.

Today's document includes a clear statement that it is the rights of  
the child that should be supreme rather than any rights of drug- 
abusing parents.

An Executive source: "It has not been that clear up until now that  
public services recognise the interests and rights of the child  
should come before everything else."

The action plan also identifies several areas for further action in  
the coming months:

More effective identification of children at risk, including at the  
stage of pregnancy so appropriate support can be offered at the  
earliest possible stage;

Ensuring drug users with children undergo a multi-agency assessment,  
so decisions can be taken on parental capability and care plans can  
be agreed with the possibility of "contracts" between service  
providers and parents;

More effective communication between agencies, particularly between  
those dealing with adults and children, including the sharing of  
information;

To consider how barriers and cultures about confidentiality that act  
as an impediment to sharing information can be broken down;

Developing a new national fostering strategy, to help support  
fostering more effectively in the future.

Ms Jamieson said agencies would work together to assess the potential  
risks to children.

She said: "It's very important that social work, health, the police  
and the other agencies involved investigate the circumstances and  
make decisions based on the facts as they find them.

"In some instances it may be the case that the right thing to do is  
to find an alternative for the children. In other circumstances it  
will be the case that families can be supported with the right  
resources put in place."

But former health minister Susan Deacon, Labour MSP for Edinburgh  
East & Musselburgh, warned against knee-jerk policy changes.

She said: "It is a complex area and public policy has to reflect that."

Up to 60,000 children in Scotland are affected by parental drug use.

At the Scottish Labour spring conference earlier this year, Mr  
McConnell announced plans for new legislation to force agencies to  
share information in cases involving children of drug addict parents.  
He told delegates he was "infuriated" at the repeated failures of  
communication highlighted in many of the tragedies.

CAMPAIGNERS have called for an end to "overcrowding" in foster care  
homes in Scotland.

The Fostering Network has urged the Scottish Executive to limit the  
number of children put into homes to three, in line with the rest of  
the UK.

There is currently no limit to the number of children placed in  
foster homes in Scotland.

The Executive has said it had no immediate plans to restrict numbers  
but would keep the issue under review.

The Fostering Network said statistics showed there were 2600 carers  
in Scotland caring for an estimated 3500 foster children on any given  
day.

One in every four of these children lives with a family which already  
cares for four or more children.

The organisation has warned that, in order to meet Scotland's total  
foster needs, an extra 1700 foster families would be needed.

Director of Fostering Network Scotland, Bryan Ritchie, said: "We need  
the Executive to implement a limit of three children per foster  
family, except for larger sibling groups, as is the case in Northern  
Ireland, England and Wales. And secondly, we need more people to step  
forward and consider becoming foster carers themselves."
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