Young people accessing support or treatment for alcohol and drugs: standards - November 2025

Annex C

The Evidence Base

The 2023/24 ADP Annual Survey^[23] reported a range of treatment and support services in place specifically for children and young people aged between 13 and 24 years using drugs and/or alcohol.

Evidence shows that support differs by age. For example:

• For secondary S1-S4 (13-15 years), the most commonly provided services relevant to this age group were diversionary activities (in 83% of ADP areas), family support services (in 80% of ADP areas), mental health services (in 70% of ADP areas) and support/discussion groups (in 67% of ADP areas).
• For young people (16-24 years), a wide variety of services were provided in the majority of ADP areas. The most commonly provided services were OST (90% of ADP areas), family support services (90% of ADP areas) and employability support (87% of ADP areas). The least common service to be in place to cater for this age category was school outreach (50% of ADP areas).

We know that for many people accessing treatment for problematic substance use, their drug use started at an early age. Public Health Scotland reported that for people starting specialist drug treatment in Scotland, the median age when people felt their use became problematic was 22 years old in 2023/24, unchanged from 2022/23 and 2021/22.^[24]

In addition to supporting young people at risk from drug-related harms, it is important that efforts on harmful alcohol use also consider this cohort. The Scottish Government’s ‘Alcohol Framework 2018: Preventing Harm’ aims to put young people at the centre of preventative interventions on alcohol through encouraging their engagement. Despite an overall increase in young people (aged 16-24) with AUDIT scores suggesting low risk drinking or abstinence since 2015, the proportion of people in the age group has decreased from 83% in 2021 to 69% in 2023.^[25] Data from the Scottish Health Survey indicates that self-reported hazardous and harmful alcohol use among respondents consuming alcohol remains high, with 24% of 16-24 year olds reporting consuming harmful or hazardous levels of alcohol.^[26] Additionally, 3% had a risk screening score (AUDIT^[27]) indicative of harmful drinking. In 2023, alcohol-specific mortality rates for those aged 10 to 24 years were under 1 per 100,000 population and this has been the case since the time series began in 1994.^[28]