It is almost 9.30 p.m. Amid the rattle of coffee cups, a knot of young mums is gathered around the briefcase of simulated drugs exhibits. "I didn't even know what a spliff looked like." "It worries me 'cos you'd never tell one pill from another." "Somebody spiked my drink at a party once and I was really woozy. Get me some of the leaflets, will you?" The group around the display set up by our local alcohol advisory service, Drinksense, is equally animated, debating the marketing strategies which have given us alcoholic lemonade, Shock -a cider in a bottle shaped like a light bulb -and MD 20-20, a grapeflavoured temptation at 13.1 per cent volume.The two of us -educational consultant/exhead teacher and County Adviser for Drugs and Health Education respectively -as well as the community police officer and the local drug agency representative, are engaged in individual conversations with parents seeking specific advice. Another Parents' Drugs Awareness Evening is drawing to a close, one of 90 which was offered in the period up to 31 March 1996.
The Health Education Authority commissioned the Promoting Health in Secondary Schools project in January 1994. The project, which ran until 1995, aimed to support regional and local education and health professionals and colleagues in secondary schools in their efforts to develop effective wholeschool approaches to health at the levels of both policy and practice. The Institute of Education and Goldsmith's College, University of London, co-ordinated the work. This article has been written from the viewpoints of three of the people involved in the programme, from our respective national, regional and local perspectives.One of the first steps was the establishment of a central team with overall responsibility for implementation. This team included Geoff Whitty of the Institute of Education who was the project director, Sally Inman of Goldsmith's College who was the associate project director, and Marilyn Toft, of Lewisham Education Authority, who took on the role of training co-ordinator. A group of training consultants with expertise in particular curriculum areas advised the team as appropriate.To assist effective local implementation of the project, regional co-ordinators were identified from each of the eight health regions. The geographical areas were large and the responsibilities of the co-ordinators included liaison with the central team, carrying out local needs assessment, recruitment of project participants, organizing and delivering courses targeted at local support workers, and co-ordinating training for secondary school teams. These local teams, from nine counties, involved senior managers, school governors, teachers, school nurses, health promotion officers and parents. Priorities identified by the local needs assessments helped to determine the general direction and specific focus for the training. This led to a wide range of strategies throughout the country, with each of the eight regions taking different approaches to the project.
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