Government Pushing For School Involvement
The Government is reminding secondary schools that it would like them to participate in NHS statistical survey measuring the use of smoking, drinking and drug use by young people
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by Dave Cross
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The Government says: “The Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use in Young People in England survey provides an invaluable snapshot of prevalence, trends and attitudes amongst students aged 11 to 16.
“The results will provide vital information to better understand behaviour and to develop policies, plan new initiatives and monitor their impact.
“Students in participating schools will complete the survey questionnaire anonymously under exam conditions. This year for the first time, the survey will be open to all mainstream secondary schools and entirely online, so students will be able to complete it securely on a school computer, laptop or tablet. This will halve the time needed and improve accessibility, making it easier for schools and for students.”
The period to complete the research runs until December. State, independent and private secondary schools are all invited to register their interest in participating.
The government says that schools will receive a lesson plan designed to fit in with the PSHE curriculum and the survey can be run as part of a PSHE lesson. Participating schools will also receive a bespoke report showing how their school’s survey results compare to the national results.
Gary Childs, Assistant Director, Data and Analytics at NHS England said: “The insight about behaviours and attitudes that this survey offers is essential to the formation of effective health and education policy.
“Without the participation of schools, we would not be able to provide this crucial insight and therefore we are extremely grateful to all the schools and students who take up this opportunity.”
Sam Clemens, Research Director at Ipsos said: “We are looking forward to working closely with NHS England, schools and students across the country to deliver another hugely insightful data gathering project.
“The scale of the survey allows us to accurately understand the nuances in trends between age groups and demographics, which is why we encourage as many schools as possible to participate. In addition to helping wider policy, this information will allow schools to provide bespoke and targeted support to their students.”
The survey report will present information on the percentage of students who have ever smoked, tried alcohol or taken drugs. The report will also explore the attitudes and beliefs of school children towards drug taking and from where and from whom children obtain drugs. Relationships between smoking, drinking and drug use will be explored along with the links between each behaviour and other factors such as age, gender, ethnicity and previous truancy or exclusion.
Schools can register their interest to participate or find out more information about the survey by emailing [email protected].
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
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