Drug Education News

Philip Davies, Conservative MP for Shipley, asks a Parliamentary Question about 
DARE UK (a Drug Education Forum member):

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many primary schools teach the Drug Abuse Resistance Education programme; what guidance is given to schools on the age of pupils to whom this programme is taught; and what the requirement is for parental consent before the programme is used.

Jim Knight: The Department’s guidance, “Drugs: Guidance for Schools” (DfES 2004) makes it clear that teachers should be the main providers of drug education and maintain responsibility for the overall drug education programme in their school. External contributors can be used where they add to the drug education programme a dimension that the teacher alone cannot deliver. It is for schools and local authorities to decide whether to use the services of an external contributor to assist with their drug education programme, and if so which. The Department does not collect information on the external contributors used.

The guidance also requires individual schools to work closely with pupils’ parents and carers in the development of their drug education programme, thereby ensuring that it is relevant and sensitive to the needs and diversity of its pupils.