Those in social work jobs should receive compulsory training on substance misuse after concerns were raised about the support given to families to overcome drugs and alcohol.

The high proportion of child protection cases in which drug or alcohol misuse is a factor is one of the main reasons for the campaign. Training experts have partnered with the British Association of Social Workers, the charity Drugscope and social care organisation Turning Point in an effort to reduce the knowledge gap in the profession.

At present those universities offering social work degrees must include training on certain skills, however they are free to choose which subject areas they cover and experts believe this has led to a patchy covering of important issues.

Hilary Burgess senior academic adviser from the Social Policy and Social Work Subject Centre told Community Care: "People are covering substance misuse in different ways and probably with different levels of success. Clearly it would be better if all initial qualifying programmes include issues of alcohol/substance misuse in their curricula."

Burgess added that the education working group of the Social Work Reform Board of which she is a member are currently discussing how the social work degree could be strengthened to account for different user groups and different areas of need.

Recent research found that 74 per cent of newly qualified social workers feel they would benefit from more training on risk assessments regarding drugs or alcohol so it is clear new professionals feel they would benefit from the introduction of such training.