A PIONEERING scheme which has prevented the break-up of many North families has won national praise.

Health bosses say the Middlesborough Addictive Behaviours Service is leading the way nationally in caring for families with parents addicted to drugs or alcohol.

Its success in keeping families together while parents are treated for their addictions is singled out as an example of best practice in a Home Office document about female drug-users.

Within a year of its launch in 1997, the project saw a dramatic drop in the number of children taken into care because of their parents' drug and alcohol consumption.

Before the scheme was introduced, 60 per cent of children born to drug-users in Middlesbrough were taken into care.

But by 1998, this figure had dropped to 12 per cent.

Today, the service works with parents until the youngest child starts school.

Later this month, a support group for children of parents addicted to drugs or alcohol is launched.

The project was developed by the Teesside Addictive Behaviours Services, which is based in Kings Road, North Ormesby, and is part of the Tees and North East Yorkshire NHS Trust.

It brings together social services, GPs, ante-natal services, probation and other agencies to help parents addicted to drugs or alcohol live a more stable life.

A vital part of the team is a multi-agency pregnancy liaison service, which includes a specialist midwife who works with pregnant drug-users.

At first, the service concentrated on helping families during a woman's pregnancy.

But bosses soon realised that the number of children being taken into care was still unacceptably high. This led to a longer-term approach.

Manager of the Middlesbrough service Kerry Notman said: "We recognised that, to be effective in the long term, the support needed to be extended beyond birth."

She said it was important to recognise that drug-using parents are not automatically bad parents, and said that substance misuse is not a reason for inclusion of a child's name on the child protection register.

She said: "By introducing a practical, sympathetic way of working, parents are now more likely to come forward to address their drug problems without fear of losing their children."