The objective of this study was to evaluate a specialised service designed to improve parenting capacity, child safety and family functioning in the context of parental mental health, drug and alcohol and child protection concerns.

Client data was collected over a period of 3 years and 3 months, including demographic characteristics, service usage, presenting issues and pre and post revised North Carolina Family Assessment Scale (NCFAS-G) scores.

A significant improvement between intake and discharge occurred on the majority of the 58 NCFAS-G subscale items (32/58). In particular, most significant change occurred in the domains ‘family safety’ (p < 0.001) and ‘family interactions’ (p < 0.001).

Specialised programs can assist families with child safety concerns suffering from mental health and/or drug and alcohol problems.