Written Question · S3W-21956 · Session 3
In relation to the recommendations in Hidden Harm - Next Steps: Supporting Children Working with Parents, what plans it has to improve trai…
The question
To ask the Scottish Executive, in relation to the recommendations in Hidden Harm
- Next Steps: Supporting Children Working with Parents, what plans it has to improve training for midwives and health visitors so that they can better support substance-misusing pregnant women and be confident about signposting them to specialist services.
The answer
Working with others, NHS Education for Scotland are running a number of education initiatives to ensure that the training and development need of health visitors and practitioners are met. This includes how to support families with substance misuse problems and how to access specialist services.
All midwives are taught the importance of dynamic history taking and adopting ways to facilitate women to disclose information related to alcohol or domestic abuse, this includes recognising potential signs of either and managing appropriately. As good practice and as part of the dynamic history taking and antenatal care pathway, midwives ask all pregnant women about alcohol consumption and domestic abuse at varying stages through pregnancy and after. If either is suspected or confirmed appropriate pathways of care and support systems are put in place.
Chapter five of the 2008 national drugs strategy The Road to Recovery, Getting it Right for Children in Substance-Misusing Families, builds on aspects of earlier work which has succeeded while realigning children affected by parental substance misuse with a preventative, early intervention agenda and an emphasis on support for families, along with strengthened management of immediate risk. Actions in the chapter focus on three key themes (identification, assessment and information-sharing, building the capacity and quality of support services and strengthening the effectiveness of immediate risk management).
STRADA, the Scottish Government alcohol and drug training agency, was set up to improve the skills of professional staff addressing drug and alcohol misuse in Scotland and to ensure that interventions were evidence based. Training is provided to professionals in health, social work, education, police, prisons, pharmacists, housing and employment staff and other non-statutory organisations. STRADA has also been commissioned to carry out an audit of training needs of their child protection staff, deliver training tailored to these findings and assist Local Authorities to develop joint protocols.
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-21978 on 27 March 2009. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.
All midwives are taught the importance of dynamic history taking and adopting ways to facilitate women to disclose information related to alcohol or domestic abuse, this includes recognising potential signs of either and managing appropriately. As good practice and as part of the dynamic history taking and antenatal care pathway, midwives ask all pregnant women about alcohol consumption and domestic abuse at varying stages through pregnancy and after. If either is suspected or confirmed appropriate pathways of care and support systems are put in place.
Chapter five of the 2008 national drugs strategy The Road to Recovery, Getting it Right for Children in Substance-Misusing Families, builds on aspects of earlier work which has succeeded while realigning children affected by parental substance misuse with a preventative, early intervention agenda and an emphasis on support for families, along with strengthened management of immediate risk. Actions in the chapter focus on three key themes (identification, assessment and information-sharing, building the capacity and quality of support services and strengthening the effectiveness of immediate risk management).
STRADA, the Scottish Government alcohol and drug training agency, was set up to improve the skills of professional staff addressing drug and alcohol misuse in Scotland and to ensure that interventions were evidence based. Training is provided to professionals in health, social work, education, police, prisons, pharmacists, housing and employment staff and other non-statutory organisations. STRADA has also been commissioned to carry out an audit of training needs of their child protection staff, deliver training tailored to these findings and assist Local Authorities to develop joint protocols.
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-21978 on 27 March 2009. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.
In the Official Report
No contribution in the Official Report cites S3W-21956 by reference.