National Mission: annual report 2024-2025
Sets out the progress made between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025 by national government, local government and third sector partners towards reducing drug deaths and improving the lives of those impacted by drugs in Scotland.
7. Outcome 6: Children, families and communities affected by substance use are supported
7.1 Overview
Families require dedicated support to empower them and allow them to support the recovery of their loved one. They also need access to services to enable their own recovery.
7.2 Progress in 2024-25
7.2.1 Whole Family Approach Framework
Throughout 2024/25 we continued to support the implementation of our framework for holistic family approaches and family inclusive practice. The framework is supported by investment totalling £6.5 million per year over the life of the Parliament. £3.5 million of this investment is provided to ADPs each year over the life of the Parliament to implement the framework locally.
In addition to this, we continue to support vital front-line and third-sector organisations through our Children and Families Fund, which supports direct work with children and families affected by alcohol and drugs with a focus on partnership working. It prioritises projects which demonstrate how they will take a Whole Family Approach, which is Relational and Rights-Based when delivering front-line services. £15 million been allocated across 34 projects via the CORRA Foundation.
We are now working with local Alcohol and Drug Partnerships to improve their family support and implement family inclusive practice across alcohol and drug services, supported by an expert national Families working group and focussing on valuing families, promoting support and building trusting relationships. This, alongside our work to support young people affected by substance use, will support the delivery of The Promise by making significant change in the way services work with families.
We remain committed to Family Inclusive Practice (FiP). We have continued funding Scottish Families Affected by Alcohol and Drugs to work with volunteer local areas as part of the development phase of this work to develop and test Family Inclusive Practice at an operational level. This work is on track, which has included testing out approaches, training delivered in over twelve localities, training delivered to some individual specific projects, development of a FiP definition and the development of FiP measures and assessment tools.
A Rapid Review of the Literature on Whole Family Approach was published in July 2023. This review focused on examples of best practice to better understand existing interventions and the development needs of substance use practitioners and the wider workforce. The evidence from this rapid review has been shared with Alcohol and Drug Partnerships and underpins the implementation support of our Families Framework through our national working group.