04 Feb 2012
Drugs, discipline and schools
The Telegraph have been using the Freedom of Information Act to explore how many decisions to permanently exclude pupils have been overturned on appeal.
They report that last year about 500 appeals were heard and that over the last 5 years some 400 decisions have been overturned. The story details a number of individual cases including two that feature the possession of illegal drugs.
I think it is worth putting some context around this, so I've gone back to the DfE data for school exclusions.
Over the last 5 years there were just under 2,000 permanent exclusions that have been identified as for drug and alcohol use. 370 in 209/10.
Over the last 5 years there were 48,000 permanent exclusions.
Throughout this period the government's advice to school was exclusion should be used as a last resort. Indeed...
27 Jan 2012
Call for proposals – Drug Prevention and Information Programme "Action grants" 2011-2012
I'd like to thank Neil for bringing my attention to a EU call for funding proposals for drug prevention and information programmes.
As you'll see they can contribute upto 80% of funding, but the call makes clear that proposals must have a minimum partnership of 2 eligible organisations from 2 different EU Member State, must not have started already, and must be for at least €75,000. In total the fund for this call is €4,953,200.
The EU say:
Overall priority will be given to large-scale projects built on a wide partnership involving organisations from a significant number of EU Member States/eligible EFTA States and offering a true European scope and relevance.
So think big people! The deadline for proposals is 17 April 2012, 12:00 CET.
27 Jan 2012
Video - Drug Education and PSHE
We recently asked our Chair, Brian Dobson, to reflect on the position of drug education within PSHE, and how this might be supported as a result of the Department for Education's PSHE review.
As you'll hear Brian is clear that our view is that drug education should be an entitlement for young people, and that PSHE should be a statutory subject for all schools.
26 Jan 2012
Robert Slavin - the difference between programmes and principles in education
One of the really interesting blogs out there is Robert Slavin's Sputnik.
Robert is the Director of the Institute for Effective Education at York, amongst other things, and writes about using evidence to improve education.
His latest blog post is all about the tricky issue of programmes over principles.
As anyone who has explored our site will know the Forum is a believer in principles as a bedrock for better drug education, we've spent sometime in thinking through the ones we advocate and hope they are helpful to educators and those that support drug education.
Robert, though, makes a number of interesting points about the limitations that principles have in changing outcomes.
He points out there is a resistance to using programmes in schools and that teachers often feel more comfortable with principles they can...
25 Jan 2012
Public Health Indicators
The Department for Health have produced the indicators that the government will use to determin the progress (or otherwise) that is being made to improve public health.
Under the domain of improving the wider determinants of health, there are a number of indicators that look to be of interest to those of us looking to contribute to public health through drug education and prevention. These include:
Pupil absence - the annual survey of young people's smoking drinking and drug use has consistently shown he link between absence (and exclusion) from school and drug and alcohol misuse.
First-time entrants to the youth justice system - we've seen that about 6% of arrests of 10 - 17 year olds are directly as a result of drug offences, but a further 26% are for violence and it I'm sure that alcohol will play a part in a large...
23 Jan 2012
DfE Drug Advice for Schools
The Department for Education and Association of Chief Police Officers have published joint guidance for schools to help them manage drug and alcohol incidents, inform them about their legal powers they have (particularly around searching pupils and confiscating contraband) and to help them develop a drug policy.
The DfE say that the new guidance replaces the 2004 guidance, however, it is not as broad as in the past; with the advice on the scope and approaches they might use in educating their pupils about drugs having been omitted.
We wait to see whether this will be addressed by the department's review of PSHE education which is due to report shortly.
Key messages
Schools are advised to:
Develop a broad drug policy (in consultation with the whole school community) which will include sections on how drug...
12 Jan 2012
PQ - PSHE and drug prevention
Diana Johnson MP has asked the Home Office and Department for Education about what discussions are taking place about the role of education programmes in preventing drug misuse.
James Brokenshire has answered for the Home Office:
My officials are in continuous dialogue with their colleagues in the Department for Education about drugs education and the important part that it plays in contributing to the drugs strategy and in particular the reducing demand strand. Drug education is also a subject covered by the Drug Strategy Inter-Ministerial Group upon which Minsters from both the Home Office, Department for Education and other Departments sit.
The continuing discussions at official level also cover the imminent cross-Government Alcohol Strategy, which will address the full range of harms from alcohol (both health and social...
09 Jan 2012
Young people arrested for drug offences
You might have seen that the Daily Mail have published the findings from a Freedom of Information request looking at the numbers of young people arrested for drug offences and have found that just over 12,500 were arrested over the last three years in England and Wales.
While we don't have the data that the the Mail received from their FOI requests there is a full set of official statistics for last year which make for interesting reading.
You’ll see there are two regions where arrests are significantly higher than the national average London and the North West.
In London over 4,600 (11% of the total arrests) under 18s were arrested for drugs offences.
The North West's totals include those from Merseyside where more than 1,500 (18% of all arrests for this age group) were arrested for drugs offences.
I...
07 Jan 2012
“We don’t have no drugs education”: The myth of universal drugs education in England
One of the pieces of research that is referenced in this year's Focal Point report to the EMCDDA is a small scale project - the researchers spoke with 50 pupils and 10 teachers - looking at pupils perceptions of their drug education and those of teachers.
They found:
A recurring theme was that students reported having received little or no drugs education; the majority could not remember having had any at their secondary school. These students were not the ‘drugwise’ youth described in the normalisation thesis and young people wanted their school to provide them with more information. Teachers recognised that schools’ drugs policies were rarely implemented in practice and that drugs education was not a priority. Schools also appear to be adopting new strategies based on surveillance and targeting to control...
07 Jan 2012
Research Digest
Research papers that have caught our eye.
Heterogeneous Friendship Affiliation, Problem Behaviors, and Emotional Outcomes among High-Risk Adolescents
This longitudinal study examined whether the addition of nondeviant peer influences in early high school protected against the negative socialization effects of deviant affiliation on both concurrent and future smoking, alcohol problems, and depressive symptomatology. Adolescents (9th and 10th grade students, N = 1,128) completed self-report questionnaires at both a baseline and 24-month assessment. Nondeviant affiliation consistently reduced the effects of deviant influences on smoking and alcohol problems but not on depressive symptoms.
School-Related Assets and Youth Risk Behaviors: Alcohol Consumption and Sexual Activity
Four school-related behaviors...
06 Jan 2012
Guidance on new public health responsibilities
The Department of Health has published guidance on what public health will look like from April 2013.
Public Health England will have three main business functions:
Delivering services to national and local government, the NHS and the public.
Leading for public health.
Supporting the development of the specialist and wider public health workforce.
Local authorities will be given a new legal duty to take such steps as they consider appropriate for improving the health of the people in the area. They will take responsibility for providing or commissioning the majority of public health services including:
tobacco control and smoking cessation services
alcohol and drug misuse services
public health services for children and young people aged 5-19 (including the Healthy Child Programme 5-19)
They...
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About this blog
This blog tries to pick up relevant media and research stories about drug education. It mainly focuses on information in England as this is the geographical remit for the Drug Education Forum. We welcome comments that are on topic.Categories
Recent Posts
- Drugs, discipline and schools
- Video - Drug Education and PSHE
- Call for proposals – Drug Prevention and Information Programme "Action grants" 2011-2012
- Robert Slavin - the difference between programmes and principles in education
- Public Health Indicators