Parental Substance Misuse

This section examines the scale of substance misuse among parents living in Blackpool. 

Children Living with Alcohol Misusing Parents

National Estimates

Research suggests that children experience negative outcomes as a result of their parents’ alcohol use, even amongst moderate drinkers. According to the Children’s Commissioner for England’s data on childhood vulnerability, there were 478,000 children living with a parent with problem alcohol or drug use in 2019 to 2020, a rate of 40 per 1,000.

Parental alcohol misuse in Blackpool

Data from the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System (NDTMS) shows the number of alcohol only clients in Blackpool who entered treatment who live with children and the stated number of children who live with them. While this does not capture all children living with parents who misuse alcohol, it gives some indication of the problem across blackpool.

Children Living with Drug Misusing Parents

National Estimates 

A previously published government report, Hidden Harm, estimated there are between 200,000 and 300,000 children in England and Wales where one or both parents have a serious drug problem. This amounts to about 2-3% of children under 16.  

While parents make up 50% of people starting alcohol and drug treatment each year, there is still an unmet support need for many. In England, alcohol and drug treatment data shows that an estimated 80% of alcohol dependent parents are not receiving treatment, and 60% of parents who are dependent on heroin are not receiving treatment.

Parental drug misuse in Blackpool

Parental drug misuse in Blackpool is a significant public health concern. Parental drug misuse can compromise children's health and development from conception onwards, though the risks of harm may be reduced through treatment and support for the affected adult, and by the presence of at least one other consistent parent or carer, a stable home with adequate finances, maintenance of family routines and activities, and regular attendance at a supportive school.

Children Living with Parents Experiencing Mental Ill-health

It is difficult to define what is meant by the term mental ill-health in this scenario. Mental ill-health can refer to many different conditions of varying levels of severity. The impact to an individual, their family or children will be dependent on many different factors, particularly whether they receive appropriate treatment and whether they receive adequate support.

Estimated prevalence of parental mental ill-health

The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) has produced estimates of the prevalence of common mental health conditions by local authority. Prevalence of many of these conditions is higher in Blackpool than England as a whole.  The estimated prevalence of common mental disorders, in those aged 16 and over, in Blackpool is 20.5% compared to 16.9% in England (2017). This measure will be used as a proxy for the prevalence of mental-ill health. We know from the 2021 census that there are 16,073 households with dependent children in Blackpool.¹ If we apply the prevalence, taking into account household composition, to the number of households in Blackpool with children we have an estimate of 3,330 households in Blackpool with children where an adult is experiencing mental ill-health. This figure needs to be treated with caution as we do not know whether, in multiple adult households, the existence of one adult experiencing mental ill-health increases the probability of the other adult/s in the household experiencing mental ill-health. If we also take into account that many families will have multiple children, it would be reasonable to assume that between 4,700 and 5,700 children live in families where an adult experiences mental ill-health.

 The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) estimate that 12% of mothers require support during pregnancy or in the post-natal period. Applying this to Blackpool birth rates (2023) would suggest that approximately 168 mothers would require this support each year.

 *A dependent child is a person aged 0 to 15 years or a person aged 16 to 18 years who is in full-time education and lives in a family with their parent, parents, grandparent or grandparents. It does not include any person aged 16 to 18 years who has a spouse, partner or child living in the household.

[1] Census 2011 - Table TS003 Household composition