The final evaluation was published of the 'Positive Futures' programme, which used sports and other activities to engage young people at risk of drug abuse. It stressed the importance of youth work methods, and the personal and social development that followed engagement in the programme, in promoting successful schemes.
Source: Tim Crabbe with others, Knowing the Score: Positive Futures case study research - Final report, Home Office (0870 000 1585)
Links: Report | Crime Concern press release | Young People Now report
Date: 2006-Nov
A report examined the impact of Positive Futures (a national sport and activity-based social inclusion programme for young people at risk of drug abuse). Projects adopting a 'community development' rather than a crime reduction approach had demonstrated their success in retaining young people s engagement, contributing to their personal development and impacting upon their wider patterns of social behaviour.
Source: Tim Crabbe, Going the Distance : Impact, journeys and distance travelled - Third interim national positive futures case study research report, Home Office (0870 000 1585)
Links: Report
Date: 2006-Oct
A new book examined the effects of drug use on family dynamics and relationships, including possible social and emotional costs. Existing service provision, in treating the problem drug-user in isolation, failed to address the needs of drug-affected families, and missed the opportunity to develop family-oriented support and treatment.
Source: Marina Barnard, Drug Addiction and Families, Jessica Kingsley Publishers (020 7833 2307)
Links: Summary
Date: 2006-Oct
An advisory body report examined the hazardous use of tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs by young people. It said that good parenting and stable family life could reduce the risks to young people. Additional measures were needed to reduce the overall consumption of alcohol. There should be a careful reassessment of the role of schools in drug misuse prevention: the emphasis should be on providing all pupils with accurate, credible, and consistent information about the hazards of all drugs.
Source: Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, Pathways to Problems: Hazardous use of tobacco, alcohol and other drugs by young people in the UK and its implications for policy, Home Office (020 7035 0459)
Links: Report | DEF press release | BBC report | Guardian report | Times report
Date: 2006-Sep
A survey found that (in England in 2005) 22 per cent of children aged 11-15 had drunk alcohol in the previous week, 11 per cent had taken drugs in the previous month, and 9 per cent were regular smokers (smoked at least one cigarette a week). The 2005 results were broadly similar to those in previous years.
Source: Elizabeth Fuller (ed.), Drug Use, Smoking and Drinking among Young People in England in 2005, NHS Health and Social Care Information Centre (0845 300 6016)
Links: Report | DEF press release
Date: 2006-Aug
A strategy document described the 'Positive Futures' programme (a national sport and activity-based social inclusion programme for young people at risk of drug abuse), and explored the political environment and policy context in which it worked.
Source: Positive Futures: Be part of something, Home Office (0870 000 1585)
Links: Strategy
Date: 2006-Jul
A report examined how former drug misusers understood potential and actual links between their early life experience and subsequent problematic drug use. It said that young people should be educated about the potential dangers of drug use by local ex-drug misusers, rather than outsiders with little understanding of local residents lives. A related article used a life-story approach to examine how early childhood experiences could be understood as a precursor to drug misuse, and the forces that enabled people to transform their habits and lives.
Source: Kim Etherington and Emma Barnes, The Southmead Project (SP): Practices and processes, University of Bristol (0117 928 9000) | Kim Etherington, 'Understanding drug misuse and changing identities: a life story approach', Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy, Volume 13 Number 3
Links: Report | Bristol University press release | GSE press release | Article
Date: 2006-Jul
The education inspectorate said that the majority of schools were making a valuable contribution to pupils health and well-being: but mental health issues were not tackled sufficiently across the curriculum, and a minority of schools focused too little on the potential impact of drugs, smoking, and alcohol on pupils lives.
Source: Healthy Schools, Healthy Children? The contribution of education to pupils health and well-being, HMI 2563, Office for Standards in Education (07002 637833)
Links: Report | OFSTED press release | Drugs Education Forum press release | BBC report | Guardian report
Date: 2006-Jul
A report examined the prevalence and nature of under-age drinking and the relationship between alcohol consumption and offending among young people. Those who drank alcohol once per week or more committed a disproportionate volume of crime, accounting for 37 per cent of all offences reported by young people aged 10-17, but only 14 per cent of respondents.
Source: Sian Matthews, Laura Brasnett and Jonathan Smith, Underage Drinking: Findings from the 2004 Offending, Crime and Justice Survey, Research Findings 277, Home Office (020 7273 2084)
Links: Findings
Date: 2006-Jun
The results were published of a survey of over 9,000 secondary schoolchildren aged 11-15 in England in the autumn term of 2005, focusing on prevalence of smoking, drinking, and drug use. Around 20 per cent had tried drugs in the previous year, similar to the percentage in previous surveys in 2003 and 2004.
Source: Drug Use, Smoking and Drinking Among Young People in England in 2005, NHS Health and Social Care Information Centre (0845 300 6016) and Home Office
Links: Report | HSCIC press release | Drugscope press release | BBC report
Date: 2006-Mar
A review of tertiary-level evidence published between January 2002 and September 2004 focused on what works' to prevent and/or reduce illicit drug use among young people aged between 7 and 25 years old.
Source: Yuko McGrath, Harry Sumnall, Jim McVeigh and Mark Bellis, Drug Use Prevention Among Young People: A review of reviews, National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (0870 121 4194)
Date: 2006-Feb