§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science on what basis he calculated the sum of £2 million as being suitable to provide to education authorities for appointing drug abuse co-ordinators for schools; which specific education authorities are to benefit from this allocation; and what particular projects he is funding to prepare curriculum material for secondary school teachers and to analyse how education authorities are tackling drug misuse.
§ Mr. DunnThe sum is based on average expenditure of £20,000 by every local education authority. This should be sufficient to appoint, or second, from April 1986 a member of staff to stimulate and co-ordinate action in the education service aimed at the prevention of drugs misuse (or to provide an equivalent level of activity in other ways). In addition to the salary costs of the staff involved, the level of grant is intended to cover appropriate overheads and operating expenses including arrangements for training teachers and other professional staff. All authorities are being invited to submit bids and are eligible to benefit from the support grants.
The Department is providing some £85,000 for the Health Education Council for the preparation and testing of a comprehensive range of suitable curriculum materials for teachers and teacher trainers; £10,000 for the Wirral education authority to assess the effects of curriculum 241W materials in use locally and designed to counter drug misuse; and £11,000 for the National Foundation for Educational Research to prepare an account using the educational management information exchange network of how individual education authorities are tackling drugs misuse.
§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what training will be given to the drug abuse co-ordinators; and how they will be assisted.
§ Mr. DunnThis will be for each local authority to determine in the light of the individual staff appointed and the range of activity to be undertaken.