Children living in families with parental substance misuse face considerable adversity and are at high risk of poor outcomes that include emotional and behavioural problems, poor school attainment and early use of alcohol and drugs. However, parental substance misuse typically co‐occurs with other complex difficulties (see Bromfield et al., 2010), including mental health problems, experiences relating to parents' own childhood and current financial disadvantage. These families are often marginalised, sole‐parent households living in impoverished neighbourhoods characterised by criminal activity (Dawe et al., 2006).