The “Glasgow cocktail”, as it has become known, is a mixture of benzodiazepines and heroin injected directly into the bloodstream. There are as many as 15,000 “opiate users” in Glasgow for whom this cocktail, or its equivalent, is part of daily life, says Iona Colvin, head of the city’s addiction services.

As a consequence, in the greater Glasgow area there may be as many as 10,000 children directly affected by their parents’ problem drug use, says the Scottish Executive’s recent publication Getting Our Priorities Right, which offers policy and practice guidelines for working with children and families affected by problem drug use. The figure for the whole of Scotland is estimated to be 20,000.

Parental drug misuse has contributed significantly to the number of children being looked after as a result of concerns over safety and neglect, says the Greater Glasgow Drug Action Team. It can also affect children’s long-term development and stability, affecting school attendance, leading to involvement in crime and possible substance use later in life.

Glasgow has been awarded pound;3.9 million over the next two years by the Scottish Executive to help combat the problem and is setting up nine addiction services to support families across the city.

“Addiction services are now recognised as the front-line drug service,” says Iona Colvin. “Over the next two years we aim to build family support services, respite services and services aimed at young people with drug and alcohol problems. We have also established a homeless addiction team working in the city centre.”

Children want their parents to stop taking drugs and to look after them, she says. But they don’t want to talk about it to teachers or social workers for fear of betraying their parents and being taken away from them.

This is the crux of the problem for all involved in children’s services, including teachers. While the Executive recommends an inter-agency approach to support children at risk, that requires a sharing of information on a need-to-know basis. But it is that sharing of information which makes parents and children shy away from exposure, which they fear may lead to separation.

“It’s difficult to get children to talk, particularly the younger ones,” says Dr Marina Barnard, a senior research fellow at Glasgow University’s Centre for Drug Misuse Research. “We need to find ways to reach children in a non-threatening, non-stigmatising way.”

Her reference model is The Venture, a large adventure playground in a deprived area of Wrexham in Wales, where community staff are skilled at recognising children who have problems. With regard to parental drug misuse, children’s symptoms can be common with reactions to other problems such as bullying, parental rowing, divorce or abuse: signs of neglect, aggression, withdrawal and so forth.

Inviting the child to speak or confide may be the first step.

“How a school might intervene is the question,” says David Liddell, director of the Scottish Drugs Forum. “It’s difficult to know how to respond, especially as information can be secondhand. There’s no specific response. I think it should be part of the school’s overall strategy if a child is not coping, to use guidance, the school doctor and social worker.

“Ideally you want a whole team supporting the child and the parents on a need-to-know basis but respecting confidentiality. The last thing you want is the kind of public knowledge which can affect peer relationships and teacher relationships adversely.”

Mr Liddell argues for early intervention rather than just crisis management.

“Specific drug services need to be shifted from the parents’ perspective solely to a more holistic view which includes the children. We need support workers or homemakers who adopt a softly, softly approach to gain the trust of the families, a non-threatening person who can intervene early, and not necessarily a social worker as they are often seen as another arm of the state. Ideally, it could be someone sited with the specialist drug agencies and possibly in the voluntary drugs services.”

It is essential, he says, not to demonise problematic drug-using parents as this can lead to unnecessarily punitive consequences, such as the removal of children, based on a general assumption that parents with drug problems are bad parents.

“Some can be good enough parents and the question arises if it is not better to leave the child with the parents, given adequate outside support. Support is the crucial issue here.”

Alastair Ramsay, the director of Scotland Against Drugs, recommends training for teachers.

“There’s only so much a teacher can do if a child is living in a chaotic environment. Teachers don’t have all the skills to cope and need training. Agencies, services to children, should be bidding, on behalf of young people with drug-using parents, for more resources.”

About a third of referrals to social work addiction services in Glasgow are women, says Ms Colvin. Many are still the main carers of their children and are often single parents.

The Turnaround Project in Tradeston caters for problematic women drug users. They are usually referred by the procurator fiscal’s office, but can also refer themselves at any point in the criminal justice system. Last year, of the 470 women who used the service, nearly two-thirds had one or more children.

“Most of our women have lost the custody of their kids to the local authority or have given them to grandparents. Only 15 per cent of children we deal with are still with their parents,” says project leader Sophia Young.

“Children are very protective of their parents and will do anything to cover up their chaos because they don’t want to lose them.”

There is a general fear around drug issues, a fear to which teachers are not immune, which makes people hostile to or judgmental about drug users, she argues.

“This hostility makes drug-using parents ashamed or afraid to get involved in school life or in the education of their children.

“A great many parents can overcome the worst of their addiction and get stable on methadone and be able to support the child very well. It’s if they relapse heavily that chaos ensues.”

Child protection issues override at Turnaround as they do in schools and project workers, like teachers, are bound to report. But drug taking is not automatically a child protection issue, says Ms Young.

“It’s about awareness. All drug use is not the same and a child should certainly never be classed as a bad child because its behaviour is reflecting chaos at home.”

Turnaround clients work hard to get their children back, she says. But at some stage a mother must focus on her own recovery.

“They have to be themselves first and then be a mother. They are the most successful ones because you can’t recover for other people. If they say they want to give up for their children, they’ll often relapse saying they’re not good mothers or their children would be better off without them.

“Parents who give up their children can be acting responsibly. It can be their last act as a responsible parent.”

A woman at rock bottom is further down than a man, she says. “A woman loses everything: her home, her children, her family contacts, and she is usually working as a prostitute. There’s no one below the junkie prostitute in the drug pecking order.”

The chaotic mother is also bad for the child. “No matter how bad the father is, it’s usually not as bad for the child as a chaotic mother, because to a child she is the centre of your life,” says Ms Young.

She agrees that there is no distinctive behaviour in children which would point to drugs at home to a teacher.

“It’s the same indicators that tell you simply that something is not good at home - lies, aggression, hunger, run down, lack of concentration, absence.

“The child might tell you if they think you’ll help, and the teacher can use guidance, contact social work for advice. Drug use does fit into existing systems. But if the child feels you are hostile or judgmental about drugs they won’t open up to you.”