Title: Brief interventions to reduce hazardous and harmful drinking in parents of children referred to children's social care: a pilot feasibility study
Funder: Department of Health and Social Care

Abstract: Around 30% of children under the age of 16 years in the UK are living with at least one parent with an alcohol use disorder (AUD). As well as being a risk to the health of the parent, parental AUDs have been found to be associated with adverse experiences and outcomes in their children. As such, addressing parental AUDs is both a public health and safeguarding priority. CHAR(13) + CHAR(10)There is a wealth of high quality evidence supporting the effectiveness of alcohol screening and brief interventions to reduce risky drinking in primary health care and a range of other settings. However, to date, there has been no research examining the feasibility of alcohol screening and brief interventions in a social work setting or with parents of children referred to children's social care due to a concern about the well-being of the child. Intervening early has the potential to reduce the risk of harm to both parent and child. CHAR(13) + CHAR(10)This research programme seeks to determine the feasibility and acceptability of embedding alcohol screening and brief interventions within children's social care. There are three workstreams to the research programme: a systematic literature review, a pilot feasibility cluster randomised control trial (cRCT) of alcohol screening and brief interventions and a qualitative study. Workstream 1: The systematic literature review will review the international literature on the effectiveness of interventions for parental substance use. The evidence will provide valuable intelligence, that will inform the extension of brief interventions to the parental context. In addition, the systematic review will inform which parental and child outcomes are measured within workstream 2 as well as the tools used to measure outcomes. The brief intervention will be piloted during the pilot feasibility cRCT.Workstream 2: The pilot feasibility cRCT will establish the feasibility and acceptability of conducting a trial of alcohol screening and brief interventions to reduce risky drinking in parents of children referred to children's social care due to concerns regarding the well-being of the child. Social workers within children's social care will conduct alcohol screening with parents. Following a positive alcohol screen, consenting parents will receive one of three intervention conditions: a control condition of an alcohol information leaflet, brief advice delivered by the social worker or extended brief intervention (brief advice delivered by the social worker plus a referral to a health practitioner for behaviour change counselling). CHAR(13) + CHAR(10)Workstream 3: Building upon workstream 2, parents, social workers, social work managers and health practitioners will be interviewed to evaluate factors that impact upon the implementation of alcohol screening and brief interventions with parents with AUDs whose child is referred to children's social care due to concerns regarding the well-being of the child. The acceptability of outcome measures relevant to a future trial of alcohol screening and brief interventions with parents with AUDs will also be determined. CHAR(13) + CHAR(10)The research programme will ultimately inform the development of a contextually relevant protocol for a full trial of brief intervention to reduce alcohol intake in parents within this setting. As such, the research will directly impact on parents referred to children's social care, the children and upon service provision within health and social care.

Lay abstract: Parental risky drinking can be harmful to both the parent and the child. The study objective is to investigate whether social workers can deliver a brief intervention, aimed at reducing risky drinking to parents of children referred to children's social care. Issues around recruitment and retention will also be explored. Social workers will be trained to identify eligible parents using an alcohol screening tool and deliver one of three interventions: an alcohol information leaflet, brief advice or extended brief intervention. The findings of this study will inform a full trial of the effectiveness of alcohol brief interventions within this context.

Research activity codes: 3.1 PRIMARY PREVENTION INTERVENTIONS TO MODIFY BEHAVIOURS OR PROMOTE WELL-BEING;6.6 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND BEHAVIOURAL
Health categories: CANCER AND NEOPLASMS;CARDIOVASCULAR;METABOLIC AND ENDOCRINE;STROKE