UK:When it matters most: Concateno announces awareness campaign for parental drug and alcohol testing in Scottish child protection cases

When it matters most: Concateno announces awareness campaign for parental drug and alcohol testing in Scottish child protection cases

Campaign launched as new Government survey highlights public attitude towards parental heroin misuse in Scotland

Concateno, Europe’s leading drug and alcohol test provider, has embarked on a campaign to raise awareness of the important role that hair testing for parental drug and alcohol misuse can play in child protection / child welfare case work in Scotland.The campaign comes as a new survey is published, highlighting public opinion towards drug abuse among Scottish parents.

According to the findings of the ‘Social Attitudes Survey’ conducted by the Scottish Government, most people surveyed believe that the state should respond to parental heroin misuse with policies which enable children to remain with or return to their parents in the long term, with 64% favouring temporary foster care and 20% favouring keeping the child at home while the family receives support. There was little public appetite for taking children away from their parents on a permanent basis in such circumstances.

Concateno’s campaign is aimed at some of the most influential policy makers, officials, and interest groups involved in child protection or drug misuse across Scotland, including MSPs, Sheriffs and government bodies, charities, research groups and initiatives actively working with drugs and children. “By engaging with key influencers and decision makers here, we hope to bring drug testing in child protection cases to the forefront of the agenda, and to create a step change to Scotland’s policies .so that the courts and child protection professionals gain the same support here as they do in the rest of the UK.” said Kevina Murray from Concateno’s specialist Child Protection division.

Concateno works extensively with family law courts across England and Wales to provide evidence to aid decisions in cases where parental misuse of drugs poses a risk to children. To date, more than 5,000 law firms, social workers and local authorities have used its services for child residence and protection orders.

In Scotland, however, the use of hair testing for child protection cases remains largely ignored, despite its successful use in child protection and family casework internationally. In 2009, Concateno was requested by courts, law firms and social services to provide testing for over 10,000 child protection cases in England and Wales, but only 29 tests were ordered in Scotland in the same period. “We believe that much more support for Scotland’s child protection professionals can be accomplished if more testing, and the right kind of testing, is conducted,” said Kevina.

According to the Millennium Cohort Study, parental drug abuse is more prevalent in Scotland than in England and Wales, with 11 percent of fathers and nearly six percent of mothers in Scotland found to have taken drugs during 2009, as compared to 9.2 percent and 4.7 percent in England. Further figures, from ‘Audit Scotland’s Drug and Alcohol Services in Scotland’, published in March 2009, also show there are 60,000 children affected by parental drug misuse in Scotland.

“Child protection work involves challenging cases where there can be a scarcity of objective evidence and often unreliable witnesses, but where tough decisions are required on difficult issues such whether to take a child into care. Hair testing is valued in this context as a hair sample can retain traces of drugs taken over a period of months, instead of the last few hours or days that other biological samples provide. It therefore helps demonstrate patterns or trends of usage over a period of some time, informing social services and the courts with a broader picture of a parent’s or guardian’s drug lifestyle. Hair testing can also, of course, prove abstinence, which can help keep children with their parents or reunite families after temporary periods in care,” said Kevina.

“While the use of drug testing is increasing, its deployment in child protection case work remains irregular, and largely dependent on the awareness of legal and healthcare professionals or social workers of the techniques. If professionals are unaware of the availability of testing, or have a lack of access to appropriate funding, vital evidence of parental drug use may be missed.
 

“When it comes to safeguarding children in Scotland, Concateno believes that testing for parental drug and alcohol abuse can play a significant role but is being overlooked.”

Click here to view survey

Ends
For more information regarding Concateno, please contact:
Carrie Lowe or Matt Trace
Telephone: +44 (0)1962 893 893
Mobile: +44 (0)7554 014 188 / (0)7828 663 988
Email: carrie.lowe@concateno.com  / matthew.trace@concateno.com

Concateno – global drug testing services
Informed testing for informed decisions, when it matters most

Concateno (www.concateno.com) brings together Europe’s strongest and most experienced drug and alcohol testing organisations and over 60 years of collected expertise. It offers an unparalleled breadth of advisory services and testing capabilities – spanning laboratory, point of care tests and all sample types for any biological specimen, including urine, oral fluids, hair and sweat.

Concateno’s 400 employees perform and deliver more than 10 million tests annually, supported by a global network of 600 sample collection officers, trained in-house in chain-of-custody procedures. Together, they conduct testing for approximately 8,500 clients in 130 countries around the world across all industries, healthcare and government bodies.

Concateno’s dedicated divisions specialise in: Child Protection, Clinical Diagnostics, Employee Services, Criminal Justice, Maritime and Healthcare.

Quality is assured by the highest levels of accreditation, supported by expert and responsive customer service. Concateno’s three UK laboratories are audited and accredited by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) to the international standard ISO/IEC 17025 for the testing for substance misuse in hair, oral fluids and urine, respectively.

Laboratory products and point of care test products are manufactured within ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 13485:2003 certified facilities. The company is also subject to a range of external quality assurance programmes, including UKNEQAS, IIP and CAP (US scheme).

In August 2009, Concateno became a subsidiary of Inverness Medical Innovations, Inc. (NYSE: IMA).
 

About Inverness Medical

By developing new capabilities in near-patient diagnosis, monitoring and health management, Inverness Medical Innovations (www.invernessmedical.com) enables individuals to take charge of improving their health and quality of life at home. Inverness’ global leading products and services, as well as its new product development efforts, focus on infectious disease, cardiology, oncology, drugs of abuse and women’s health. Inverness is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts.
 

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