Toolkit for teachers

The impact of parental drinking on children

Teachers are like most others in the population in that they tend to have limited knowledge about the prevalence and nature of the impact that parental drinking has on children. In this section we give you the opportunity to see the evidence base on which this toolkit is based.

Most important for teachers will be the ability to recognise a situation where a child is suffering as the result of a parent’s drinking. Some of the signs and symptoms are set out here

Together with an idea of the effects that this can have both on individual children and on the wider family

Once a problem has been identified, then it is important for other adults, including teachers, to understand the factors – some of them quite simple – that can help reduce the chances of the child suffering any long-term harm. These factors are described here