Blueprint drugs education: the response of pupils and parents to the programme. Executive summary.

The Blueprint drug education programme was an evidence-based, multi-component programme that was piloted in 23 schools in England during the spring terms of 2004 and 2005. It was developed to support the UK Government target to ‘reduce the use of Class A drugs and the frequent use of any illicit drugs among all young people under the age of 25, especially by the most vulnerable young people’. Funded by the Home Office, the focus of the programme was the provision of drug education lessons to secondary school children in Year 7 (when pupils are age 11) and Year 8 (when pupils are age 12), complemented by four further components: parent, media, health policy and community. The programme aimed to equip pupils with the knowledge and experiences necessary to make informed choices about drug use, incorporating the support of parents and the wider community in its multi-component approach – an approach that previous initiatives have shown to be effective in education. The implementation of the programme was assessed during the first stage of the evaluation and is reported separately (Stead 2007). This report focuses on the second stage of the evaluation which set out to assess: • how pupils and parents responded to the programme;• • pupils’ awareness and knowledge of drug use;• • pupils’ perception of drug use prevalence among same-age peers;• • perceived acceptability of drug use and• • the quality and frequency of parent-child communication.• This report also outlines key learning points for future education programmes and the implications this has for policy development in this area