First Steps in Identifying Substance Related Needs
This national guidance is aimed at professionals who work in statutory or voluntary health, social care, education and the criminal justice system, providing a service to children and young people.
This includes: those working in schools and pupil referral units with specific drug and alcohol responsibilities, social workers, education welfare officers, care home workers, youth workers, Connexions personal advisers, youth offending team staff, generic counsellors, accident and emergency staff, child and adolescent mental health workers, foster carers, residential care workers, voluntary agency staff and staff at one stop shops.
The aim of the guidance is to:
- highlight the responsibilities of all professionals working with young people in relation to identifying substance related needs.
- provide a framework for identifying substance related needs within existing assessment procedures.
- ensure young people´s drug, alcohol and solvent needs are identified and acted upon with the aim of reducing vulnerability to developing substance misuse problems.
First Steps in Identifying Substance Related Needs (Authors: Jill Britton and Safia Noor) 
Supported by:
DrugScope
Department of Health
Department of Education and Skills
Drugs Prevention Advisory Service (DPAS)
National Children´s Bureau (NCB) – Drug Education Forum
Youth Justice Board
Re-solv
National Treatment Agency
Scottish Executive
Social Care Institute for Excellence