DRUGS PLAN FOR SCHOOLS ABANDONED

Key Education Advisers Are Laid Off In Cash Crisis

Confusion Over Dangers As Cannabis Is Reclassified

A key plank of the Government's drugs strategy to warn young people of the
dangers of cannabis is set to collapse due to a funding shortfall, The
Observer can reveal.

At least half of Britain's 150 school drugs advisers, who are seen as a
critical part of a Government bid to stem the rising tide of drug misuse by
young people, will be made redundant after central government funding for
their posts ends in April. The Government had hoped local education
authorities would then fund the jobs but, with the continuing cash crisis
in education, many LEAs have insufficient resources to take on the new burden.

The news comes just over a week before cannabis is reclassified from B to C
and amid widespread confusion among young people over the health risks of
the drug and the new legal situation. Health professionals agree that
education is essential to prevent harm to a 'vulnerable minority' at risk
of developing psychosis after smoking cannabis.

Most expected the three-year funding for the advisers to be continued. But
a survey by the National Health Education Group, a coalition of drug health
professionals, found that 23 out of 46 LEAs would not have a school drug
adviser in post by Easter. Only a third had secured funding for their
advisers from other sources, as the Government hoped they would. In at
least half of Britain's 150 LEAs redundancies were considered likely. Other
research has revealed that some areas of Britain will be left without any
school drug advisers at all.

Eric Carlin, chairman of the Government-sponsored Drug Education Forum,
said: 'The Government were being completely unrealistic in expecting LEAs
to take on funding. The advisers are very important. It is vital that they
are there.'

Teachers told The Observer yesterday that they were dismayed by the sudden
loss of the advisers. 'We need every bit of help we can get in schools and
in drugs education. The Government are giving with one hand and taking with
the other,' said one north London-based secondary school teacher.

According to a Government survey published last year, nearly half of
15-year-olds have tried drugs and one in five is a regular user. The survey
of 10,000 children in 321 English schools showed that 45 per cent of
15-year-olds said they had tried cannabis, sniffed glue or used harder
drugs at some stage and nearly a third took cannabis over the previous year.

The loss of the advisers will also affect other flagship programmes such as
the 'healthy schools teams' and citizenship projects, according to the
survey, and is likely to jeopardise the Department for Education and
Skills' plan to roll out new guidance on drugs education to schools within
weeks.

'With new Government guidelines coming into schools next month and current
confusion among young people over cannabis the timing of this withdrawal of
funding is very unfortunate,' said Harry Shapiro, of DrugScope, a national
drugs charity. Shapiro said that the advisers provided a crucial link
between the world of drugs professionals and education specialists.

Such is the concern among Drug Action Teams, the bodies that co-ordinate
the Government's anti-drugs policies at a local level, that the DFES was
forced to issue a statement 'clarifying their position' through the Home
Office late last year. Many professionals had been sure the funding for
school drugs advisers would be continued.

The statement, obtained by The Observer, explained that the three-year-old
multi million pound programme would end in March and says that the DFES
expects LEAs 'to plan how they will resource this work'. The Government has
said that overall funding for schools will rise by four per cent per pupil
this year.

A DFES spokesman said: 'This survey is completely unrepresentative. LEAs
are fully signed up to tackling drugs in schools and they - and schools -
continue to have access to a wide range of resources for drugs education.'