A key influence on the timing of young people’s first alcohol use is the family (Spoth et al. 2002) and a number of substance misuse prevention programmes (mainly in the USA) have tried to influence families. Most are based in schools, which potentially provide an efficient way to reach large numbers of young people and their families (Bryan et al. 2006). However, in practice, school-based initiatives have not always managed to engage significant numbers of parents (Lloyd et al. 2000; Rothwell et al. 2009; Stead et al. 2007; Ward and Snow 2008).