A pioneering scheme which has prevented the break-up of many North-East 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 the parents are treated for their addiction is singled out as an example of best practice in a Home Office document about women drug users.

Within a year of its launch in 1997 the new 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 where taken into care.

But by 1998 this figure had plummeted 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 being 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, antenatal services, probation and other agencies to help parents who are addicted to drugs or alcohol to live a normal, 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, so that the service also works with parents until the youngest child starts school.

Manager of the Middlesbrough service, Kerry Notman, said: "We recognised that, to be effective in the longer 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 substance use in itself is not a reason for inclusion of a child's name on the child protection register.

"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 as an automatic result," she added.