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Children's Health Education Charity Life Education Dorset welcomes the Drug & Alcohol Education Advisory Group Report

The recognition in the Government’s new report from the Drug and Alcohol Advisory Group, that effective drug and alcohol education should be an entitlement for all children could not be more timely.

According to a recent survey conducted by the children’s charity Life Education Centres, a quarter of 9-11 year olds think heroin and ecstasy are legal and almost one third believe drinking five or more glasses of wine in a night is normal.

Life Education’s recent survey also showed that children as young as 7 and 8 years old are learning about drugs.  The question is: do we want them to learn on the street or from professional educators and well-informed parents?

 Just as importantly, as the report also recognises, parents and families need to be better informed so that positive messages are backed up in the home. 

Children in the county of Dorset, including Bournemouth and Poole, are ahead of the game as, through the children’s charity Life Education Dorset, they have been receiving a comprehensive health and drug education every year for more than a decade.

Using Mobile Classrooms and skilled Educators Life Education Dorset visits over 40,000 primary aged children in Dorset every year delivering fun-filled, memorable and age appropriate health and drug education programmes in over 200 schools.

The aim is to equip young people with the knowledge and skills to make their own healthy choices in life with a particular emphasis on how to manage peer pressure and bullying.

Diana Sale, Chairman of Trustees of the charity said “If we want to make a real and lasting difference to teenage drug and alcohol misuse, we must reach them early at primary school.  Then, as they reach adolescence and are most at risk from peer influence, they can make informed decisions based on fact rather than hearsay.

The government has a vital role to play by prioritising funding for drug and alcohol education in schools and organisations such as Life Education Dorset can provide the specialist teachers and resources as well as bring together business, community organisations and parents to reinforce our message.”

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