Alcohol Families Alliance calling on Jeremy Hunt to not cut ALL COA Support

Through the Alcohol and Families Alliance, of which Nacoa are a member, we have signed a joint letter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt MP, ahead of the Spring Budget on 15th March 2023, calling for him to reinstate funding to support children of alcohol dependent parents.

The Alcohol and Families Alliance is a collaboration of over 40 organisations that is united in reducing the harms experienced by families through alcohol. 

Established in 2018, the Children of Alcohol Dependent Parents grant enabled ground-breaking work to take place, benefitting many children of alcohol dependent parents by allowing them and their parents to turn their lives around. 

Reinstating this grant will provide children affected by parental alcohol misuse with access to the support they need and ensure that they are not forgotten, or neglected, but empowered to enjoy healthy and secure childhoods.

As Hunt said in 2018, ‘for too long the children of alcoholic parents have been the silent victims. This is not right, not fair.’

The letter

Dear Chancellor,

2 March 2023

I am writing in my capacity as Chair of the Alcohol and Families Alliance, a collaboration of over 40 voluntary and statutory organisations united in reducing the harms experienced by families through alcohol. Together we campaign for greater recognition, support and services for families affected by alcohol misuse.

In 2018, several of our member organisations undertook innovative projects to develop solutions to tackle the problem of parental alcohol misuse. These projects were funded by the Department of Health and Social Care and Department of Work and Pensions through a grant to support Children of Alcohol Dependent Parents (CADeP). This grant enabled ground-breaking work to take place which benefited these children and their parents, turning round their lives.

As part of International Children of Alcoholics Week, an annual campaign raising awareness of children that are affected by parental alcohol misuse, Nacoa (the National Association for Children of Alcoholics) published new evidence highlighting further challenges children affected by this issue in the UK face. The research found that 46 per cent of children with alcohol dependent parents have not told anyone outside their family, and a quarter haven’t told anyone at all, not even their closest family members. This is coupled with a 27 per cent rise in alcohol-related deaths since 2019, as published by the Office for National Statistics.

It is vital that these children are given access to the support they need, and the Alcohol and Families Alliance is urging you to announce the reinstatement of this grant in your Spring Budget on 15th March 2023. This will allow these important projects to continue and ensure that children affected by parental alcohol misuse are not forgotten, or neglected, but empowered to enjoy healthy and secure childhoods.

Whilst the Department of Health and Social Care’s announcement of £421 million in funding to boost drug and alcohol treatment and recovery services across England is welcomed, children whose parents are not engaged in these services will still miss out, and there is a need for dedicated support to reach this overlooked group.

In addition to the many children affected by this issue, alcohol misuse also has a devastating impact on adult family members, including partners, parents, siblings, adult children and grandparents. We would welcome future funding to take consideration and recognition of their needs too to ensure all family members affected by alcohol misuse get the help they need.
Yours sincerely,
Eric Appleby – Chair, Alcohol and Families Alliance
Vivienne Evans OBE – Chief Executive, Adfam
Hilary Henriques MBE – Chief Executive, Nacoa
Danny Hames – Chair, NHS Addiction Providers Alliance Dr John McMahon – CEO, Bottled Up
Dr Sam Wright – Research Associate, Manchester Metropolitan University Jan Larkin – Head of Psychology, Turning Point
Justina Murray – CEO, Scottish Families Affected by Alcohol and Drugs Kate Halliday – Executive Director, Addiction Professionals
Katherine Severi – Chief Executive, Institute of Alcohol Studies
Paul Rompani – CEO, DrugFAM
Paul Townsley – CEO, Humankind
Professor Sarah Galvani – Professor of Social Research and Substance Use, Manchester Metropolitan University
Raj Ubhi – Director of Children and Young People’s Services – Change, Grow, Live Richard McVey – Head of Service, Aquarius
Richard Piper – CEO, Alcohol Change UK
Sue Pettigrew OBE – Director, St Michael’s Fellowship
Susan Taylor – Head of Alcohol Policy, Fresh Balance Terry Martin – Trustee, AlcoHELP