The topic of this briefing is how parenting capacity can be affected by parental substance misuse (drugs and/or alcohol) and how this may be managed.

Key messages:
• The misuse of drugs and/or alcohol may adversely affect the ability of parents to attend to the emotional, physical and developmental needs of their children in both the short and long term
• A number of policy and practice documents are available governing the provision of services to support parents who misuse substances
• Research has tended to focus principally on substance misusing mothers rather than fathers, and drugs rather than alcohol. Residential programmes which include the children have been demonstrated to be effective
• Studies often fail to evaluate the impact of substance misuse on parenting capacity relative to other aspects of disadvantage, such as poverty, unemployment or depression
• Parents are worried about losing their children, so confidentiality is considered to be a requirement for support services
• children often know more about their parents’ misuse than parents realise, and feel the stigma and shame of this misuse, but also fear the possibility of being separated from their parents and taken into care