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Substance misuse by parents is dominating the cases dealt with by the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service, practitioners have said.

Cafcass is warning that the problem is set to get worse and is calling for more support from other mainstream services, many of which fail to take a preventive approach.

The organisation wants improved co-ordination between drug and alcohol teams, courts and those involved in safeguarding children. It is urging support to be offered to children at the same time as parents.

Elizabeth Hall, Cafcass senior regional manager for the North East, said in her area just under half of all private and public law cases involve actual, or allegations of, parents misusing drugs and alcohol. She supervises about 90 practitioners.

She said: "Some social services departments are good at using early intervention when the parents’ problem is not critical. This helps prevent some cases coming to court, but in other cases the child needs to be moved."

Hidden Harm, a report published last year by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, estimated that 350,000 children were victims of parents with drug problems in the UK.

The council has recommended that the government improves access to support services, including addiction treatment and parenting skills advice. It also calls for a more integrated approach between social workers, health visitors, GPs, teachers, and child and adolescent mental health services.

However, advisory group Drugscope warned that the main carer - usually the mother - may be reluctant to access help for drug misuse, fearing that social workers will take a "knee-jerk reaction" and immediately take the child into care.

It is calling for the development of a more preventive approach, so it is not automatically assumed parental drug misuse immediately results in child neglect or abuse.