4children (2012)

Over the Limit: The Truth about Families and Alcohol is a report by the fake-charity 4children(#288285) (of £12.8M income in the year ending 2011, over £9.5M came from the tax-payer in the form of grants from councils.^[1])

Key findings

Ignoring the self-selecting nature of any free-for-all survey on the internet - especially on netmums - and considering only 176 people took part:

85% of people think families in the UK need more help with drugs and/or alcohol

85% of people shouldn't be concerned with how others live their lives apparently.

47% are worried about the effect of drugs and alcohol on their lives

If they're that worried, then they should do something about it.

29% of mothers, and 30% of their partners drink more alcohol a week than the recommended amount

Since the recommended amount was a number plucked out of thin air and the number differs depending on which country you ask, this means nothing.

41% of people know one or more families that need help with alcohol or drug use

... in their opinion. Presumably this is a subset of the 85% of busybodies mentioned above.

Marginally more reasonable than something from netmums, with a sample size of 575...

8% of parents in the UK, equating to around 2.6 million parents and at least 1.5 million households, say they have taken illegal drugs

No breakdown of what drugs were consumed. Non-prescription Temazepam? Cannabis? Crack cocaine or crystal meth?

7% of parents in the UK, equating to around 2.4 million parents and at least 1.3 million households, say they have taken legal highs

So that's a little irrelevant then.

Three times as many fathers (13%) as mothers (4%) say they drink every day

Four times as many of those in the richest households (social grouo[sic] AB) (11%) as the poorest households (social group DE) (3%) drink every day

Again, irrelevant.

And so on, and so on, with the vast majority of the conclusions coming from the Comres survey. They do, however, conveniently pull the

62% of children who were subject to care proceedings were from families with parental alcohol misuse

number from Adamson & Templeton (2012) - a report seemingly based on nothing but guesswork.