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Anti-Drug Awareness

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs. Anderson, during the first debate in Westminster Hall for a few weeks. I thank all hon. Members and my hon. Friends who have taken part in this debate for their good wishes on my change of post—I hesitate to say promotion, being the sort of person that I am. I look forward to it, and my intention is to continue in the way in which I tried to conduct myself in my junior ministerial role. It is a great privilege, and I am aware of the responsibilities that come with the post. I am grateful for everyone's good wishes. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Nottingham, North (Mr. Allen) on securing the debate. He and I have been friends for a number of years, and his constituency is next to mine. During all that time he has pursued his agenda, and it is now everyone's agenda. The words ““early intervention”” are now used by everyone across the political spectrum. It would be remiss of me not to tell hon. Members here and those who will read our proceedings that my hon. Friend has gone on and on about early intervention since he was elected to Parliament 20-odd years ago. That opinion was unfashionable in many ways back then, and it shows that opinions that are unfashionable in one decade sometimes become fashionable. My hon. Friend has never wavered or changed his opinion on early intervention, and he deserves great credit for that. With others, he has forced the issue on to the agenda and has made policy makers, not only at national level but at local level, look to early intervention as one way of dealing with the problem that we want to do more about. I also congratulate all those in Nottingham on their work under my hon. Friend's leadership as chair of One Nottingham, and that of Alan Given, Derek Stewart, Nottingham city council and the wider community safety partnership. We should carefully examine with my hon. Friend and his colleagues what is happening in Nottingham and evaluate it to see what difference it is making and how we can take that forward. I look forward very much to seeing what progress is made under Drug Aware—my hon. Friend and I were at the launch together—and how we can take it forward. On a personal level, the point that my hon. Friend made about intergenerational change is fundamental. As many hon. Members know, in a previous existence I taught, and one of the worst experiences that I remember was of a young girl who was having problems with substance misuse. I had been teaching long enough to remember that I had tried to help her mother, who had also had problems with substance misuse when I was teaching her. It is easy to say that the problem is this or that, and that it is so-and-so's fault or someone else's fault, but it struck me at the time that whoever's fault it was, and whatever the issues and challenges for the system, the fact that that was the case reflected that, whatever our intentions and with the best will, we had failed because the same problems had carried on from one generation to another. We must do better. My hon. Friend the Member for Bolton, South-East (Dr. Iddon) referred to tobacco, and I know that the Nottingham project deals not only with illegal drugs, but with the whole issue of alcohol and tobacco abuse through a process of education, as my hon. Friend said, and particularly the idea of empowering individuals with self-esteem and so on. My hon. Friend the Member for Nottingham, North knows that the work in Nottingham is entirely consistent with the principles underpinning the Government's policies of effective co-ordination and education, and early intervention. It may help if I speak more broadly about education. Clearly, it is essential, but I believe that we have sometimes asked the wrong questions about drugs education. There is quite a lot of such education in schools, and I provided it when I taught personal and social education, which was a new subject then. The question is not, ““Is there enough drugs education in schools?”” but ““What is effective drugs education, and what works and makes a difference?”” Some of the current research by the Blueprint programme, my hon. Friend's evaluation and the comments from hon. Members here are beginning to answer that question. That provides a great deal more hope for the future than just arguing about the amount, and many teachers agree. I refer my hon. Friend to the ““Drug Education: An Entitlement for All”” report to the Government by the advisory group on drugs and alcohol education in September 2008 on personal, social and health education, and teacher training. In their response the Government agreed to examine initial teacher training and the non-statutory nature of PSHE. We will conduct an independent review of PSHE, focusing on improved outcomes for children and young people, and on a statutory common core for PSHE. If we go to the heart of what my hon. Friend said—lots of other issues arose—I hope that, depending on the outcome of that review, we shall start to address the fundamental point. That review will be an important piece of work, to which we must all contribute if we want to move forward.