The DfE is conducting an internal review into PSHE education (including drug education. Ofsted are also reviewing their inspection protocols. Patrick Hargreaves hopes this vital area is not further marginalised.

Making the case for drug education.

First, let us define our domain. Drug education considers all drugs including medicines, volatile substances, alcohol and tobacco. This article will concentrate on school-based drug education as part of personal, social and health education.  Its aim is not to determine how people should behave.  PSHE education is about the provision of information and the development of knowledge, skills and attitudes which enable young people to make effective choices to help them  live happy, healthy, successful lives, now and in the future. It also provides an opportunity for them to reflect on issues which do not arise elsewhere as part of the formal curriculum, for example understanding themselves, their interests and needs, managing challenging relationships, understanding their personal response to risk and recognising the contribution they make to the wider community.

A strategy for drug and alcohol education

The ACMD’s response to the recent Drug Strategy consultation (2010) says that 'The emphasis should be on providing all pupils with accurate, credible and consistent information about the hazards of alcohol and other drugs'.  They go on to say 'However, the ACMD stresses that research has indicated that such programmes have little impact on drug use', i.e. it's no good but it's what we know so we'll carry on anyway. This position has not moved in the five years since the publication of the Pathways report.

The European quality standards study cited in the response does not agree that quality work in schools has little impact. Further, the response claims consistency with World Health Organisation guidelines.  Those recommendations in fact advocate a needs-led, young person centred, life skills approach. Evidence and evaluation from the Drug Education Forum, Drugscope, MentorUK, the PSHE Association, NSCoPSE, The National Children's Bureau, Ofsted and NIHCE all concur with this view. Young people do not need information about the hazards of alcohol and other drugs but accurate, credible and consistent information about alcohol and drugs full stop.  Further, this should not, in fact be the emphasis but the basis and by itself will indeed be ineffective. Education must not be confused with information giving. It is simply inadequate to consider only behaviour and possible consequences, we also need to address motivators.  Young people must develop their decision making, risk analysis and life skills from nursery throughout their educational careers. They must discuss, debate and consider drugs in a socio-cultural context alongside sex, relationships, risk, bullying, offending and so on. In this way, educational interventions can and do deliver significant positive outcomes and there is actually a wealth of evidence which demonstrates this. This is particularly the case in the area of alcohol misuse, a major focus of current concern - good news in the light of the ISCD’s ‘Drug harms in the UK’ multi criteria decision analysis, clearly showing alcohol to be our most harmful drug overall.

The Department for Education (DfE) is at this moment conducting an internal review to determine how it can support schools to improve the quality of all PSHE teaching including drug education. We need the DfE, Department of Health and the Home Office to develop, fund and implement a co-ordinated education programme based on harm reduction including quality training in Teaching and Learning. Twelve years ago, the government invested heavily in PSHE Education with the appointment of Drug Education and Sex and Relationships Education Advisers in most authorities. Most of these posts have now gone as a result of spending cuts.

However, over the last decade (not incidentally, I would suggest) we know that smoking, drinking and drug use among young people are all down  and conception among 15-17 year olds (at 38.2 per 1000) is the lowest figure for thirty years (NHS Information Centre, 2011). This is within an environment of increased availability and decreased price, a huge illicit tobacco and alcohol market, an exponential rise in new psychoactive substances available on the internet and a moral panic around the sexualisation of children. Together these impact disproportionately on the young. This shows not only that there is no room for complacency but also demonstrates the folly of an over reliance on enforcement and tax hikes to influence behaviour, without input from education.

Patrick Hargreaves is a PSHE Education writer consultant and trainer and a member of the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs. He is writing in a personal capacity.

For further information on Just for a laugh, an interactive, young person centred risk education resource, winner of the national MentorUK CHAMP Award (promoting Children’s Health through Alcohol Misuse Prevention)2010, go to www.leswatts.co.uk/pshe.html

This extract is taken from an article that appears in full in the June 2011 edition of Criminal Justice Monthly.