The national Whole Family Approach/ Family Inclusive Practice Working Group was established in 2020, with the support of the Scottish Government, to review current practice in relation to families affected by alcohol and drug use. Over the past year, the Working Group has carried out a process of information-gathering, sharing learning, and hearing from external experts (including families with lived experience and organisations working with families).

The Group heard many excellent examples where building trusting relationships between workers and families was recognised as the key to success, support moved at the family’s pace and focused on their own needs, and families felt respected and included in developments and decisions.

The Working Group subsequently drafted a set of Whole Family Approach/ Family Inclusive Practice Principles to apply to all services supporting families affected by alcohol and drugs. This includes family support services, and also treatment and care services supporting families’ loved ones.

[See the website for a ‘virtual exhibition’ displaying the creative output from all of the family engagement activities from the Ask The Family project']