Drugs, Alcohol and a Teenager in Your Care

Most people who ring us about fostering a teenager ask about drugs at some point, usually near the end of the call and in a lowered voice. It is a fair question. This page covers what is actually likely, what the law says, what you would realistically notice, and what to do on the evening something turns up in a coat pocket. You do not need to become an expert in any of it.

Please note: this is general information for carers, not legal or medical advice about a particular child. Drug classes and penalties are correct at 6 November 2026; check the current drug penalties on GOV.UK and the NHS page on alcohol poisoning before relying on anything here. If a child is unwell, ring 999.

What is actually likely, and what is not

The picture in most people’s heads comes from a drama series. The real one is duller and far more manageable. In the NHS survey of secondary school pupils in England, published in October 2024, 9 per cent of pupils in years 7 to 11 said they had taken drugs in the last year. Thirty-seven per cent had ever had an alcoholic drink, and 5 per cent drink at least weekly. The common experience is a child who tried something once at a party, not a child with a habit.

When children do need help, the substances are predictable. Of the 16,212 children in alcohol and drug treatment in England between April 2024 and March 2025, 86 per cent came for cannabis and 38 per cent for alcohol. Ketamine was next at 9 per cent. Heroin barely features. Two substances account for nearly all of it, and one is sold in supermarkets.

The figure worth sitting with is a different one. In that same year, 11 per cent of the children in treatment were in care. A child who has come through neglect or loss has more reason than most to want an evening off from their own head, and often less of a brake on the impulse. That is not a warning about the young person you might be matched with. It is why your fostering service will not leave you to work it out alone.

The law, in plain terms

Illegal drugs sit in three classes. The class sets the maximum sentence rather than what usually happens:

• Class A (cocaine, heroin, ecstasy, LSD): up to 7 years for possession, up to life for supplying.
• Class B (cannabis, amphetamines, ketamine): up to 5 years for possession, up to 14 for supplying.
• Class C (diazepam, anabolic steroids, khat, nitrous oxide): up to 2 years for possession, up to 14 for supplying.
• For cannabis or khat the police can instead give a warning or an on-the-spot fine of up to £90.

That nitrous oxide line catches people out, including people who write training material. Laughing gas was legal to possess until 8 November 2023, and plenty of adults still think the little silver canisters are a grey area. They are not.

Alcohol has its own ages, and they are oddly specific. It is illegal to give alcohol to any child under 5. Nobody under 18 can buy it, and no adult can buy it for them. A 16 or 17 year old with an adult can drink beer, wine or cider alongside a meal in a restaurant, though not buy it. Whether an under-16 can come into a pub depends on that pub’s licence conditions.

One rule overrides all of that in a fostering household: never give alcohol to a child you foster, at any age. The general law about your own children in your own home does not transfer. And if drugs are found in your house you can be the one answering for it, which is why what you keep and where you keep it belongs in your safer care agreement.

What you would notice, and the conversation that works

Carers tend to spot the admin before the substance. Money going missing in small amounts. A phone face-down on the table. Rolling papers, eye drops, a sudden enthusiasm for air freshener. Red eyes and a flat mood on a Sunday. New friends you have not met, and a young person who is cheerful about going out and vague about where.

None of that proves anything alone. A teenager who is secretive, tired and skint is also just a teenager. Write down what you saw and when, and tell your supervising social worker. Record what happened, not what you think the child is.

Then the conversation. Two things make it go badly. Having it while they are high or drunk cannot work; they will not remember it and you will say something you regret. Wait for the morning. The other mistake is asking a question you only want one answer to. “You haven’t been smoking, have you?” invites a lie, and then you have two problems.

Asking about the thing rather than the accusation works better. What does it cost round here. Who was handing it out. Did it do what they wanted. You are not collecting evidence, you are working out whether this is a bad Saturday or a route out of something. Underneath almost every settled habit is a reason, usually boredom, pain, or a friendship group that charges a fee for membership. Go after the reason, not the smell.

When you find something, or a night goes wrong

If you find drugs in the house and they belong to nobody in your family, ring your supervising social worker, or the out-of-hours number if it is late. Do not flush it. That feels like the wrong instinct, and it is worth knowing why: if the young person was holding it for somebody else, the debt does not disappear with the drugs, and whoever comes to collect will want paying by a child who now has nothing. Flushing it costs the child more than it costs the dealer. Our guide to child exploitation and county lines explains how that debt works. The same goes for confiscating a phone. The pressure was never in the handset, and a child in care who loses their phone also loses the line to their mum and their social worker. Money trouble can come from gambling and in-game spending too, and the response is much the same.

If a young person comes home very drunk, blood alcohol keeps climbing after the last drink, so “sleep it off” is the one plan that is genuinely dangerous. Ring 999 if you think it is alcohol poisoning, or if they have had a seizure, passed out or stopped breathing. NHS advice while you wait is to stay with them, sit them up if they are awake, use the recovery position if they have passed out and check they are breathing, keep them warm, and give sips of water only if they are conscious and not being sick. No food, no coffee, no cold shower, and do not try to make them sick.

Ringing an ambulance for a drunk fifteen year old is not an overreaction, and it is not a report card on your fostering. It is the correct call.

Worth teaching a young person before a night out, too: never get in a car with someone who has been drinking, and keep hold of your drink rather than leaving it on a table. The “ask for Angela” scheme in licensed venues is often described as a spiking code word. It is broader than that, and more useful: a discreet way to tell staff you feel unsafe or at risk, for any reason at all.

Where to get help

• Frank, the national drugs advice service: 0300 123 6600, or text 82111.
• Drinkline, the national alcohol helpline: 0300 123 1110, weekdays 9am to 8pm, weekends 11am to 4pm.
• Childline: 0800 1111, for any child about anything.
• YoungMinds Parents Helpline: 0808 802 5544, for adults worried about a young person up to 25. It names foster carers specifically.
• WithYou runs more than 80 local drug and alcohol services, and its website filters for under-18s by postcode.
• Nacoa: 0800 358 3456, for anyone affected by a parent’s drinking.

You won’t have to do this alone

Nothing on this page is something you would handle by yourself. Every carer at Greater London Fostering has a supervising social worker who knows the household, a 24-hour number for the evenings that cannot wait until Monday, and other carers to compare notes with. Our training covers drug and alcohol awareness properly, and we would far rather you rang about a suspicion that turned out to be nothing than sat on one for a fortnight. We were inspected by Ofsted in July 2025 and rated Outstanding in all three judgements.

The practical side is steady too. At the time of writing we pay £479.50 a week for a child under 11 and £507.50 a week for a child aged 11 or over, per child, for as long as they are living with you, with an enhanced fee of roughly £100 to £200 a week more where a young person has higher needs. It is one weekly figure covering the child’s costs and your reward. You can read more about how our fostering pay works and the support carers receive from us.

If this is the part of fostering a teenager that worries you, that is a good sign rather than a bad one. The carers who do well with older children are not the ones with no nerves. They are the ones who ring somebody.

Frequently asked questions

If a young person in my care uses drugs, does that count against me as a carer?

No. A teenager experimenting is not evidence of poor fostering, and your supervising social worker will not treat it that way. What would be looked at is a carer who knew and said nothing for weeks. Tell us early and you are doing the job properly.

Can I keep alcohol in the house if I foster?

Yes. You do not have to run a dry household to be a foster carer. You do need to keep it where a child cannot help themselves, to think about how much you drink in front of a young person who may have watched a parent drink, and never to offer a drink to a child you foster. Where you keep it goes in your safer care agreement, which describes your household rather than passing judgement on it.

What if I find cannabis and the young person says it is not theirs?

Take that seriously rather than treating it as an excuse, because it is sometimes true. Children in care are deliberately targeted to hold and move drugs for other people. Either way the next step is identical: do not get rid of it, ring your supervising social worker or the out-of-hours line, and let us work out whether this is a young person who tried something or one being used by somebody. That is a decision for the team around the child, not for you alone at 10pm.