Concateno, Europe's most experienced drug and alcohol testing company, is urging the government to standardise the use of specialist testing laboratories for parental substance misuse in child welfare cases. The call comes following the recent publication of a series of official reports - including last week's Munro Review - focusing on various aspects of the child protection system.

The company has welcomed support given in the reports for the national roll out of Family

Drug and Alcohol Courts (FDACs) after a successful pilot scheme in London. The work of the FDAC in the Inner London Family Proceedings Court was singled out in two Government-commissioned reports: The Munro Review of Child Protection: Final Report - a Child-Centred System and the Family Justice Review - Interim Report. In profiling the FDAC, both reviews set out the benefits of its new approach to care proceedings in cases where parental substance misuse is a key element in the decision to take legal action. Figures show the FDAC has enabled parental engagement with substance misuse services - ultimately ensuring more children are reunited with their families rather than remaining in care.

However, Concateno's specialist Child Protection division TrichoTech was disappointed that the reviews did not reference the important role that testing parents for substance misuse can play in child protection casework, and the need for such screening to be conducted in a standard way. The company has now stepped up its recommendations for the use of UKAS-accredited laboratories certified to ISO/IEC 17025 for parental hair testing for substance misuse.

"For some years now, we have been urging the Government to ensure that laboratories providing drug and alcohol testing to the UK courts and social services adhere to the established, international quality standards. Such practice is already in operation when DNA tests are used for family law proceedings in civil courts," said Graham Sievers, Concateno TrichoTech director. "ISO/IEC 17025 is the only standard specific to testing laboratories, but there is currently no requirement for the courts to use laboratories accredited to this standard in child protection casework."

According to the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS), the government-recognised organisation responsible for auditing UK-based laboratories: "You need to be absolutely sure that the laboratory carrying out your testing for you has the people, facilities and track record to produce valid and accurate results every time.

"The internationally-recognised standard for the competence of laboratories is ISO/IEC 17025. A laboratory accredited by UKAS to this standard has the competence, impartiality and performance capability that ensures you will receive the service that meets your needs. A laboratory certified to ISO 9001 but without ISO/IEC 17025 should not be considered a suitable alternative."[1]

"Hair analysis tests enable the detection of parental substance misuse, helping judges, magistrates, barristers, solicitors and social workers make informed decisions on child welfare, residency and contact orders. When ordering tests, the courts and social services need to be confident that they are getting the highest level of expertise and service and ISO/IEC 17025 is that gold standard. It is time for the Government to ensure that testing parents for drug and alcohol misuse is carried out in a consistently high quality, accurate and reliable way," Graham concluded.

Concateno TrichoTech submitted evidence to both the Munro Review and the Family Justice Review drawing on its extensive experience of testing and reporting on child welfare cases. The organisation will now formally respond to the Family Justice Review consultation to call for the national standards which it says will provide child protection professionals with more reliable evidence during case work.

Concateno's hair analysis has been used in family law cases in England and Wales for more than 15 years and provides a long-term profile of drug use or abstinence by a parent. This form of testing helps prove how long a parent may have abstained from drugs, making it much easier for a court to consider a child's future safety. More recently, the company has introduced tests to determine chronic alcohol misuse (through hair analysis) and sobriety (using urine analysis).

Parental substance misuse - the scale of the problem

The Munro Review report references throughout the widespread recognition that growing up with parents who have a problem with drugs and/or alcohol can have an adverse effect on children. The report cites the FDAC's experience that "Parental substance misuse is a significant factor in up two thirds of all care proceedings, and... was the most frequent parental factor in long-term children and family social work, affecting 34 percent of all cases."[2]

It is estimated that up to 1.3 million children in the UK are affected by parental alcohol misuse, which means that one in 11 children live in a family with alcohol problems - and in half of child protection cases, parental alcohol misuse was identified as a factor[3]. One in five ! families is now affected by a family member's illegal drug misuse[4], and there are believed to be between 250,000 and 350,000 children of problem drug users in the UK, about one for every problem drug user[5].

Kevina Murray from Concateno TrichoTech's child protection team, explained: "We believe that if all UK courts were to use ISO/IEC 17025-accredited laboratories, it would help ensure the reliability and accuracy of testing in child protection case work, providing frontline professionals with supporting evidence to help protect 'at risk' children. We are pleased that the Munro Review and the Family Justice Review support the development of specialist Family Drug and Alcohol Courts, but we feel the reviews needed to go one step further to really help create a national testing standard to deal with parental substance misuse."

The final Munro Review report was published on May 10 as the last in a series of three reports from a review commissioned by the Department for Education to assess the child protection system. The Family Justice Review, published on March 3, was commissioned by the Ministry of Justice, Department for Education and Welsh Assembly Government and focused on the family justice system.

Concateno - global drug testing services

Informed testing for informed decisions, when it matters most

Concateno 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, Criminal Justice, Employee Services, Healthcare and Maritime.

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 17025:2005 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 Alere Inc., formerly known as Inverness Medical Innovations, Inc. (NYSE: ALR).

About Alere

By developing new capabilities in near-patient diagnosis, monitoring and health management, Alere Inc., formerly known as Inverness Medical Innovations, Inc., enables individuals to take charge of improving their health and quality of life at home. Alere's 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. Alere is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts.

[1] UKAS, UKAS-accredited services - a guide for small to medium businesses, Testing and Calibration, page 6 (accessed May 13 2011)

[2] Professor Eileen Munro, The Munro Review of Child Protection: Final Report - a child-centered system, Case study: Findings from the Brunel University independent evaluation of the Family Drug and Alcohol Court, page 103 (accessed May 16 2011)

[3] Turning Point, Executive Summary 'Bottling It Up', The Effects of Alcohol Misuse on Children, Parents and Families, page 2 (accessed April 26 2011)

[4] Addaction / YouGov / Dubit, 'Tale of Two Generations', Results of an Addaction YouGov and Dubit Surveys Among Children & Young People, page 3, (published online October 2008) (accessed April 26 2011)

[5] Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, Hidden Harm: Responding to the Needs of Problem Drug Users, page 3 (published online May 22 2003) (accessed April 26 2011)

Source:
Concateno