Deep cuts to work to tackle addiction is leaving children and families at risk, according to charities who warn national policies are being undermined.

A 22 per cent cut by the Scottish government to the funding of local alcohol and drug partnerships (ADPs) was meant to be mitigated by health boards replacing the lost funds.

But some health boards have been reluctant to do so and critics say vulnerable people are losing out in the resulting turf wars.

Mystery surrounds the sudden departure of Dr Andrew Carnon, chair of Dumfries and Galloway's ADP, who resigned last week, but only after the partnership had made savage cuts to the grants of local charities.

NHS Dumfries and Galloway refused to comment on his resignation, however Dr Carnon is also a consultant in public health with the board and there is concern locally that health board services have been protected at the expense of local charities which have faced hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of cuts.

Drug and alcohol charity Addaction has just won a contract to work with families affected by drugs and alcohol in the area, but for £100,000 less than it was previously getting. The Herald understands that the charities Addiction Dependency Solutions, Aberlour and Apex Scotland have between them seen further cuts of around £250,000 - in some cases in excess of 20 per cent of their previous funding.

Andrew Horne, director of Addaction Scotland, said: "Drugs and alcohol are a really soft target because the people affected don't have a voice. If you cut A&E or a children's cancer ward by 20 per cent, there would be mayhem. But because this is a disenfranchised group, some health boards still think this is acceptable."

He said charities in the field had lived with standstill budgets and made efficiencies for years now, "There is only so far you can go. We are having to lay off staff just now. A loss of staff means a loss of service.

"People with drug and alcohol problems come under every part of social care and health care. If people aren't getting help, they will get ill, they are going to arrive in A&E departments and where parents aren't getting treatment that just puts children further at risk."

Another source at an affected charity said: "At best we will have to reduce the number of families we are working with considerably. Not getting early help increases the risk to children and the chances they need more intensive services and cost councils more money later. It puts their health and safety at risk and means they are more likely to end up in care."

David Liddell, director of Scottish Drugs Forum said SDF had written to all ADPs and NHS boards urging them to cover the funding shortfall. "Some have done so, others have used underspends to solve the problem temporarily and others are still negotiating. We wrote to hem to highlight the potential consequences of such a major cut," he said.

However behind the scenes there is considerable anger over the way some partnerships are choosing to ignore the Government's pressure to protect services, and at the way multi-agency ADPs can marginalise charity partners.

An insider said: "Those with health in the chair are particularly difficult. It highlights how unlevel the playing field is. Some are choosing to protect the voluntary sector, but the fear is that if there are to be cuts it is usually the voluntary sector that get hit first.

Last week eleven charities and members of the umbrella body Community Care Providers Scotland wrote to the Herald warning of the effect of local cuts on children's services. "There is currently a significant gap between what is set out in policy and legislation about what should happen and the reality of what is actually happening in the context of reduced budgets and cuts to voluntary sector children’s services. The loss of voluntary sector support to children, young people and families risks making our shared ambitions ever more remote and hard to achieve," the letter said.

Annie Gunner, director of CCPS added: "There is growing unease within our sector that the clear policy messages we’re hearing are not always followed through by funding decisions on the ground. We are very concerned that the early intervention approach set out in the legislation will be extremely difficult to achieve unless there is a renewed commitment to ensuring that these vital services are funded and fully supported.”

NHS Dumfries and Galloway declined to comment on the controversy over the local ADP, which remains without a chair at present.