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

Annex D

The Underpinning Principles

Our approach is centred around a public health and human rights-based approach to tackling drug harms. We want a Scotland where ‘we live long, healthy and active lives regardless of where we come from’ and where individuals, families and communities:

• have the right to health and life – free from the harms of drugs and alcohol
• are treated with dignity and respect
• are fully supported within communities to find their own type of recovery

The following principles underpin the Standards for young people.

• Effective prevention, early intervention and reducing supply mean that fewer people develop problem drug use.
• Overdose prevention and harm reduction provision mean that risk is reduced for people who take harmful drugs.
• Assertive outreach, pathways between justice and community settings and near-fatal overdose pathways ensure that people at most risk have access to treatment and recovery.
• A choice of high quality, evidence-based treatment options including residential rehabilitation means that people receive high quality treatment and recovery services.
• Providing joined up, person centred services, addressing wider needs and providing advocacy ensures that quality of life is improved by addressing multiple disadvantages.
• Ensuring families are supported in their own right and as part of their loved one’s care means that children, families and communities affected by substance use are supported.

These outcomes are underpinned by a set of cross-cutting priorities which describe how these outcomes should be delivered:

• Lived experience at the heart: People with lived and living experience of substance use, including families affected by substance use, should be supported to be participants in policy and service design.
• Equalities and human rights: Policy and service design should take an intersectional view of disadvantage, considering the specific needs of different groups. Policy and service design should take a human rights-based approach.
• Tackle stigma: Problematic substance use is a health condition and people experiencing harms should be able to access support free from stigma and discrimination.
• Surveillance and data informed: Policy and service design should be informed by relevant, up to date surveillance and data to ensure they meet the needs of people who use substances.
• Resilient and skilled workforce: The workforce should be supported and trained to deliver high quality care.
• Psychologically informed: Policy and service design should follow trauma-informed practice to promote safety and prevent re-traumatisation.

These principles are consistent with other relevant strategies such as Getting It Right for Every Child (GIRFEC),^[29] Keeping the Promise,^[30] and the Charter of Rights for People Affected by Substance Use.^[31]

The Charter of Rights^[32] is a guide to taking a Human Rights-Based Approach and aims to support people to understand their rights and the support they can expect from substance use related services, as well as supporting duty bearers (such as statutory, independent and commissioned services, partnerships and policy makers) to continuously improve the availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality of their services.

The Charter of Rights describes key rights which are drawn from both national and international law, which were identified through consultation as being the most relevant for people affected by substance use and describes the ways in which these rights should be met.

These rights can be applied in practice for young people using the UN PANEL principles which are widely recognised as the principles underpinning a Human Rights-Based Approach:

• participation
• accountability
• non-discrimination and equality
• empowerment and capacity-building
• legality

The FAIR model (Facts, Analysis, Identification & Review), developed by the Scottish Human Rights Commission,^[33] is another way to support duty bearers in taking a human rights-based approach towards decision-making. The Standards in this report have been developed using a human rights-based approach by applying the FAIR model and co-designed with young people.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024^[34] came into effect on 16 July 2024. There are clear links between the Standards for young people and UNCRC articles. For example, Article 33 states that children must be protected from harmful and dangerous drugs. Article 24 states that children have the right to good quality health care and information about their health.

The working group wanted to understand examples of support that already existed for young people in Scotland and gathered a range of information to develop an approach, to establish a set of treatment of care Standards for young people affected by drugs and alcohol.

The Standards are aligned with, and support the delivery of other overarching policy frameworks, including:

• Keeping the Promise by 2030^[35]
• Getting it Right for Every Child^[36]
• The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)^[37]
• The Charter of Rights for People Affected by Substance Use^[38]
• Scotland’s Population Health Framework^[39]
• Scotland’s Public Service Reform Strategy: Delivering for Scotland^[40]
• Health and Social Care Service Renewal Framework^[41]