Drug Education News

The Drug Education Forum has today submitted our views on the draft guidance that NICE are considering for school-based interventions on alcohol.

We covered the recommendations in an earlier post, and you’ll see that you have until 6 August to make your own response should you want to.

Our response supports the three recommendations that NICE have drafted, but goes on to make a few other points:

• We are concerned that non-formal educational settings are excluded from these recommendations. If it is impossible at this stage to change the scope of the guidance we feel it would be helpful if NICE were able to acknowledge that those working in the youth sector will find the guidance of help.

• We would like the guidance to acknowledge that alcohol education to also provide the opportunity to explore their own as well others attitudes to drinking.

• We think its necessary to state that ’sensible’ drinking policy needs to be applied imaginatively with the inclusion of actions that promote the social acceptability of alcohol free choices.

• We would want NICE to emphasise the need for alcohol education to recognise cultural diversity as well as age and learning needs.

• We would want NICE to note the apparent gender different responses to some interventions as detailed in these papers

  • Optimizing Personalized Normative Feedback: The Use of Gender-Specific Referents
  • Alcohol Prevention More Difficult For Young Men To Swallow
• We think that NICE should use the opportunity to emphasis the need for Head Teachers and others to invest in training and continuing professional development, and to make links to the CPD.  More details on the PSHE Continuing Professional Development programme can be found on the PSHE Subject Association website here.
• We believe that the guidance will help schools to fill in their Self Evaluation Forms.