As you’d expect I’ll focus on what the media reaction has been about to the children and young people’s sections of the strategy.
In essence there have been two stories of interest to us, one about the support there will be for grandparents as kinship carers and secondly the confirmation that the government is interested in ensuring drug education is part of the primary curriculum.
For more detail see below:
The government’s last ten-year strategy aimed to reduce the number of young people using drugs and stifle the availability of illegal substances.
The Home Secretary said today that there had been successes, with drug use at an 11-year low and drug-related crime down by 20 per cent in the past five years.
A key element with today’s new strategy, as with the last such launch a decade ago, will be to reduce drug abuse among the young.
Channel 4 News will be featuring the thoughts of three young people about their attitudes to drugs in tonight’s programme, including 17-year-old Sam.
The Independent – Teachers and families enlisted to war on drugs
Primary school teachers, grandparents and employees at benefits offices are being put in the forefront of the battle against drugs. The Government has unveiled a 10-year strategy to reduce the use of class-A substances, which is among the highest in western Europe.
Warning that drug habits often passed down between the generations within families, ministers said they would take earlier action to stop children from becoming addicts in later life.
Primary school pupils will be alerted to the dangers of prescription medicines in the home from the ages of four or five, followed at an older age by warnings over illegal drugs.
Secondary schools will be urged to identify pupils at risk of drug abuse and Ofsted instructed to assess schools for the quality of their anti-drugs education.
The Daily Mail – Children as young as FOUR to get lessons on drugs and alcohol
Children as young as four are to be given lessons on the dangers of drugs and alcohol.The idea is to prepare them in case they find illegal or prescription drugs left around at home by their parents.
As well as being warned not to swallow any pills and medicines they find, children will be taught to spot the difference between soft drinks and alcohol.
And here.
The Guardian – Cash aid to help grandparents care for children in drug-risk families
Grandparents are to be given financial support and legal backing to make it easier for them to take over the care of children with parents who are problem drug users, under government plans revealed yesterday. The package includes the government’s intention to dock the welfare benefits of unemployed problem users who fail to make contact with treatment services. Ministers intend to announce more steps linking benefit rights to completing treatment courses.
The strategy emphasises what it calls the “intragenerational transmission of harms” involving the 250,000 children who live in families where at least one parent is a problem user. Research suggests that 60% of the children taken into local authority care are in families where there is serious drug abuse.
They also have opinion pieces and letters.
The Times – Grandparents will be given help to look after children of addicts
Grandparents are to be given help to care for the offspring of their drug-addicted children as part of the Government’s ten-year drug strategy announced yesterday.
Ministers want to make it easier for them to win the guardianship of their grandchildren, as part of a drive to reduce the number of children with drug-addicted parents being put in care homes.
The rules will also be changed to make it easier for local councils to pay grandparents to look after their grandchildren. Kevin Brennan, the Children and Families Minister, said that the Government was concerned by the emerging danger of “intergenerational drug abuse”…
The strategy also proposed improvements to drug education for children. Young people should be told about the dangers of prescription medicines in the home from the ages of 4 or 5, Mr Brennan said. A review was looking at the age at which primary school children should be taught about illegal drugs, he added.
The Daily Telegraph – Anti-drug campaign to target children aged five
Children as young as five could be given drugs education as part of a Government drive to tackle substance abuse in families.Ministers said pupils entering primary school should be told about the dangers of drug misuse in ”an age appropriate way”.
The idea is one of a range of proposals in a new 10-year drugs strategy that intends to place emphasis on early intervention and treatment.
Kevin Brennan, the families minister, said young children should be taught about the drugs – legal and illegal – that they might find at home.
Filed under: drug strategy , Drugs: protecting families and communities
