§ Mrs. Ann WintertonTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what assessment he has made of the training given to teachers for the delivery of drugs misuse education in schools. [80313]
§ Mr. Charles ClarkeSupport for drug education teacher training is available to local education authorities through the Standards Fund. One of the requirements of Standards Fund provisions in this area is that local education authorities should submit at the end of the year a report of their drug education work, providing information on, amongst other things, the training of teachers and youth workers. This information allows us to monitor the level and quality of teacher training on drug education and was used to inform the guidance that we issued last November on the effective delivery of drug education in schools and youth service settings.
We have also given detailed consideration to information provided by the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) in its 1997 report "Drug Education in Schools", on the level and quality of in-service training of teachers relating to drug education.