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Guidelines for the Management of Incidents of Drug Misuse in Schools

Section 4

Action Required Following An Incident Involving Drug Misuse

4.1 Managing the pupil after an incident involving drugs

There is a need to ensure that schools have procedures in place to protect the welfare of any young person after a drug incident. It is important that pupils receive increased supervision and re-assurance in the period following a drug incident or disclosure of illegal drug misuse as they may feel extremely vulnerable at this time. There have been cases of young people committing suicide after disclosures of illegal drug misuse.

4.2 Communication and handling within the school community

In conjunction with the education authority, schools will need to consider whether there is a need to share any information with parents of other children or the wider community depending on the nature and extent of the seriousness of the drug-related incident. If staff think that this is necessary it should be done as soon as possible after an incident has occurred in order to prevent the circulation of misinformation. Other pupils and parents need to know the relevant facts and be reassured that everything possible to ensure their safety and the welfare of all pupils has been done. The name(s) of pupil(s) involved must be kept confidential.

Staff need:

• to be informed of a drug-related incident;
• to know which drug was involved;
• in some circumstances the name(s) of the pupil(s) involved;
• to agree a consistent response to pupils and parents; and
• to consider whether any change is needed to the school's drug education programme.

Where necessary pupils need:

• to be told the facts about the incident, including the consequences;
• to have the school's policy on drug misuse reinforced; and
• to have a drug education programme which can be responsive to incidents when appropriate.

Parents of pupils at the school or, in exceptional circumstances in the surrounding community, need:

• to be informed of a drug-related incident;
• to know which drug was involved;
• to know that school policy has been followed in line with national and education authority advice; and
• to have access to more information about drugs.

4.3 Involvement of drug support agencies

In the case of a pupil with a history of serious drug misuse who has been excluded or has transferred from another school or has attended an external drug support programme, the school should make arrangements for close monitoring and appropriate support when the pupil returns to school. Monitoring and support should be based on a behavioural contract agreed by the pupil and his or her parents. In such exceptional cases, the school will require to monitor provision carefully to ensure that further drug misuse does not place the pupil or other pupils at risk.

In exceptional cases, some pupils will be attending school and also having additional specialist support or treatment provided by outside agencies. In these cases the school will require to liaise closely with the social work service and/or other service providers and agencies involved.

4.4 De-briefing and evaluation of procedures

At the conclusion of any drug-related incident in school, it is essential to review the actions taken by all agencies involved. A meeting of those concerned in dealing with the incident may provide valuable insight into how each agency responded and will encourage and develop best practice for the future. Keeping a record of the de-briefing and evaluation, as well as a record of the actual incident is advised.

The results of such de-briefs will assist in fine tuning local arrangements and responses to any future incidents and help to harmonise the actions of agencies involved to ensure that co-ordinated, effective and timeous support is provided to the school community.

School Drug Safety Team Key Recommendations

In developing these guidelines for schools the School Drug Safety Team make the following recommendations:

• The Scottish Executive Minister for Children and Education should ask local inter-agency Drug Action Teams (DATs) to consider these guidelines, and DAT's should seek to ensure that every school, including independent schools, in their area, have written procedures for managing incidents of drug misuse in line with these guidelines. This task should be included in the Corporate Action Plans of the DATs.
• The Scottish Executive Education Department should address the updating of the guidelines on a regular basis, in consultation with the Scottish Advisory Committee on Drug Misuse.
• All local authorities and all schools should ensure that there are updated policies in place that are available to all staff. Local authorities should encourage Headteachers to use these guidelines to prepare their policy for handling incidents of drug misuse in advance of need.
• These guidelines should be used as a template against which existing local authority and individual school policies should be measured.
• SOEID Circular 5/90 identified the need for a senior co-ordinator in the school and education authority as well as nominated contacts with services such as social work, police and health. The School Drug Safety Team recommends that these professionals should include within their remit managing risk from drug-related incidents in schools.
• Local authorities should ensure that they have a named person, either in the education department or another local authority department such as the social work service, for schools to contact for information and advice about dealing with drug-related incidents, resources and training. This named person should be informed of all drug-related incidents in schools to enable an overview of local circumstances.
• Each school should ensure that a member of staff has basic training in recognising signs of drug misuse, potential effects of ingestion of controlled and other drugs, and how to respond to drug-related emergencies, such as intoxication or overdose.
• Every school should develop the concept of the health promoting school, ensuring not only that health education is integral to the curriculum but also that school ethos, policies, services and extra-curricular activities foster mental, physical and social well-being and healthy development.
• Every school should have an effective programme of drug education in place.

References

1. The Human Rights Act 1998.

2. The Children (Scotland) Act 1995.

3. Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.

4. Health and Safety at Work Act.

5. School (Safety and Supervision of Pupils) (Scotland) Regulations 1990.

6. Protection of Children from Abuse -Circular SOEID 5/90.

7. Protecting Children -A Shared Responsibility: guidance on inter-agency co-operation 1998.

8. Exclusions from School -Circular SOEID 2/98.

9. Safe School Trips, Scottish School Board Association, 1999, ISBN 1 900673 00 3.

10. The School Pupil Records (Scotland) Regulations 1990 [1990 No.1551 (s.158), amended by 1994 No.351].

11. The Schools General (Scotland) Regulations 1975 [1975 No.1135 (s.176)].

12. Tackling Drugs In Scotland Action in Partnership ISBN 0 7480 7293 4.

13. The Facts of Drugs, A Parent's Guide, Health Education Board for Scotland/Scotland Against Drugs.

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