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Recommendation
of Review
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Action Taken
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Progress
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1. Schools
to work with the new School Drug Consultant
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After
a delay in appointment due to uncertainty regarding the funding
stream, a new School Drug Consultant, Bill Russell, took up a three-year
post in November 2003. The management structure for this post remains
with the PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education) Adviser within
the School Development Service. The postholder is also a member
of the newly established cross branch Drugs Education Team.
The
previous postholder had found some reluctance from schools to refer
drug related incidents to a post, which sat in the Advisory and
Inspection Service. The changing focus of this section of the Learning
& Culture Directorate to a School Development Service may help
to alter the perception of this post. The PHSE adviser’s role is
key to co-ordinating and supporting the Drug consultant’s work and
communications with schools. The Senior Adviser, Partnership and
Extended Learning, links this element of work with the Strategic
Management Group of the School Development Service.
It
has been stated that the work of this post should be picked up by
Connexions School Personal Advisers. However, it would be difficult
to see how the requirement for this post to monitor policies and
drug education fits with the current Connexions role.
This
postholder continues to report informally to the DAAT Young People’s
Practitioners Sub Group and his line manager will attend the DAAT
Young People’s Strategy group in order to ensure that school issues
are raised and addressed, where appropriate, through DAAT and through
the multi-agency PSHE Action Group and the PSHE team. The PSHE team
have established a schools’ newsletter and have developed training
programmes offered to schools via the SDS OQSA programme. The Healthy
Schools programme works with designated PSHE staff within schools.
There is a continuing problem in securing adequate funding for this
support to schools.
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B Progressing
but needs further attention
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2. Recommendations
relating specifically to Schools
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System for
accrediting drug education providers to be established
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Such
a scheme was drawn up and implemented some years ago. This included
an accreditation process involving observations and a model contract
for schools to use with outside agencies providing drug education
in schools. This document was sent to all schools but was rarely
used by schools, which preferred to maintain their autonomy in deciding
who to invite into their school. The document also provided details
about the roles different agencies could provide in relation to
schools, the pros and cons of involving particular agencies and
local contact details. The updating and implementation of this process
is in the current Drug Education Team action plan.
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C Little or
no progress so far and now a priority for action
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Monitoring
of school drug policies
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This
responsibility is one of the duties of the School Drug Consultant,
who is required to report on this to the DAAT for their annual returns
to the Home Office via the Drug Prevention Advisory Service. This
should be backed up by School Officers monitoring drug policies
on their generic monitoring visits.
The
School Drug Consultant has a role in helping in the drawing up and
implementation of policies, through supporting staff in schools
and school governors who hold the overall responsibility for the
implementation of the policies within each individual school. 100%
of schools now have policies but the quality and implementation
differ in practice
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B Progressing
but needs further attention
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Consider ways
of monitoring the quality of drug education provision in schools
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The
new Ofsted Framework for Inspection places a greater emphasis on
the school’s ability to self-evaluate and to monitor the implementation
of policies, such as the Drugs Education Policy. Ofsted inspectors
evaluate how effective is the PSHE programme, including sex and
relationships education, alcohol and drugs misuse. The SDS School
Link Adviser will annually monitor the school’s self-evaluation
processes through the Spring Monitoring Quality Review meeting.
The Drugs Consultant and the PSHE team will also check the Policy
implementation in their visits to schools. If it was the opinion
of members that annual individual school monitoring visits should
be introduced, this would have to be funded through Core budget
to the SDS. The monitoring of drug related arrests, cautions and
other incidents across the age range are reported confidentially
to the DAAT to aid strategic planning. The DAAT also has a strategy
group made up of the DAAT Director, the Chair of the DAAT and the
three chairs of the DAAT subgroups, which meet to look at the monitoring
of incidents and provision.
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C Little or
no progress so far and now a priority for action
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Courses for
school governors
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This
is a further responsibility of the School Drug Consultant who should
be supported in this from the Governor Training Unit. This type
of training has been and continues to be offered on a regular basis.
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A On target
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Explore how
best to make a ‘coordinated approach in schools’
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A
conference took place on 26th March 2004 to develop this
further. An action Plan was agreed. A cross branch Learning &
Culture Drug Education Team has been established.
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B Progressing
but needs further attention
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Note the reference
to the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee in relation to smoking
issues
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Tobacco
currently sits outside of the remit of the DAAT but is addressed
in schools through PSHE provision, including the Healthy Schools
Programme. The PSHE team is looking at the possibility of developing
a website or virtual notice board within the OCN as a further way
of communicating with schools. A Young People’s website www.spired.com
has been established by the Youth Service and includes information
on all aspects of PSHE.
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A On target
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System to monitor
absenteeism strongly implemented – with information sharing protocol
and referral routes
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Process
for monitoring absence in place through Pupil Services
This
area of work sits within the Educational Social Work Service working
with individual schools. There is evidence that some absenteeism
is due to young people’s own drug or alcohol misuse or to concerns
about the drug and alcohol misuse of carers or other family members.
This information needs to be kept and analysed and relevant information
(of a non confidential nature) fed through to key agencies, such
as the Youth Offending Team, the Youth Service and DAAT so they
can plan services to support these young people.
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B Progressing
but needs further attention
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3. Creation
of new Drugs Prevention Coordinator post to prepare and implement
a new strategy for ‘Multi-agency approach to Drug Education for
Young People in Oxfordshire’
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In
2002-2003 a post of Young People’s Drug Coordinator existed within
the Council. The postholder drew together all those working in different
agencies on drug and alcohol issues with young people, into a Practitioner’s
Network, which provided training, support and a forum for needs
analysis and strategic interagency planning.
In
the absence of a young person’s Commissioner post within the DAAT,
the non-DAAT funded Young People’s Drug Coordinator picked up some
DAAT commissioning, monitoring and planning duties. This represented
a change in the nature of the post..
The
Home Office funding passed to the DAAT in April 2004. The DAAT chose
to appoint a commissioner rather than a coordinator post. Unlike
the previous post, which was located within the Youth Service structure,
this commissioning post is managed through, and sits within, the
central administrative team, managed by the DAAT Director.
The
DAAT Young People’s subgroup believe that there remains a need for
a coordinating post. The DAAT Director believes that some of this
role may be picked up by the new Commissioner post, although there
are concerns that there may be conflicts of interest. Currently
some aspects of this role are been meet by a member of the Youth
Service with a small honorarium paid by DAAT.
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C Little or
no progress so far and now a priority for action
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4. Needs
Audit to determine allocation of detached posts
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The
Executive decided not to take any action on the recommendation for
a further audit of need. The Executive recognised that the audit
undertaken by Monica Hanaway and the John Hedges audit to feed into
the Young People’s Substance Misuse Plan were still relevant and
new localised information was being fed into the DAAT through the
DAAT sub groups.
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A On target
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5. The coordinator
to work with a named Executive Member to oversee the development
of a coordinated OCC Substance Misuse Strategy including
- Establishment
of a human resources strategy to
- Ensure coordinated
training
- Address
low take up of training opportunities
- Establish
library of model lessons, accredited provides
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As
yet there is no co-ordinator or named Executive member.
The
DAAT is responsible for the development of interagency drug and
alcohol strategies. There are a number of strategies, which may
need to be developed with Oxfordshire County Council, such as:
-A
young people’s drug strategy, which addresses how this work
is to be implemented and developed across all County Council departments.
This may best be led from within the corporate centre, taking the
Learning & Culture strategy as a starting point.
-An
all age strategy for treatment for those requiring specialist
help with drug and alcohol misuse problems. The Social & Health
Care Directorate would most appropriately lead this.
-An
HR strategy for the Council focusing on the delivery of its
responsibility to its employees in relation to drug and alcohol
issues.
Many
of the above already exist in embryonic form. Of course it is possible
that some or all of the above could be combined to produce an overall
County Council Drug and Alcohol Strategy. For this to be taken forward
there would need to be a clear allocation of specified officers’
roles in relation to the drawing up of sections of the strategy.
Some
initial work had been undertaken by the DAAT towards the establishment
of a multi-agency training strategy. This needs to be built on,
training priorities agreed and implemented.
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B Progressing
but needs further attention
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6. The creation
of a local referral guide and manual, subject to enquiry to find
whether a suitable model already exists
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An
information leaflet already exists, and has been widely distributed,
showing all the agencies working with young people on drug related
matters. This needs to be updated by the DAAT. It is unclear whether
the recommendation is suggesting more than this and what any manual
might contain and at whom it should be targeted.
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B Progressing
but needs further attention
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7. Increase
support to parents and communities
- Including
website helplines
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This
was set as a target for DAAT. ‘Research ways in which the needs
of this group can be addressed’ Currently DET has 0.5 fte post for
parent/carer work with the postholder fully stretched in terms of
workload.
Work
in the community with hard to reach groups continues through detached
& other youth work initiatives but is patchy due to resource
levels.
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B Progressing
but needs further attention
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8. Improved
data collection and analyses
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Current position
is patchy. DAAT are planning to appoint a data analyst in the near
future.
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C Little or
no progress so far and now a priority for action
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9. Development
of a combined strategy with health and police partners’
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This
recommendation points to the need for DAAT to communicate its strategies
more effectively. Multi-agency strategies for Adult Treatment and
Young People’s Substance Misuse work do exist, but have perhaps
been insufficiently distributed. The need for a combined DAAT strategy
still needs to be explored, together with a strategy for bringing
it to the attention of all key partners. The Learning & Culture
Directorate is working with Health Professional partners in piloting
Integrated Support Services to the most deprived wards within the
county. We are also developing our approach to ‘extended schools’
to seek ways of developing a multi-agency partnership to provide
support to schools or networks of schools, and their surrounding
communities. This may also help to address Drugs and Alcohol Misuse
problems over time. The DfES expect Health Professional partners
to sponsor the support costs to schools.
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C Little or
no progress so far and now a priority for action
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10. DAAT
Communications Strategy to be written – including website/helpline
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The
lack of understanding of DAAT structure, policy and practice which
was apparent throughout the Review pointed to the real need for
a clear DAAT communication strategy to increase understanding of
how the DAAT works and how it can be influenced. In discussions
with the DAAT Chair following the report by the Review Group, it
has already been acknowledged that this action needs to be picked
up by the DAAT in the immediate future.
See
DAAT response Annex 3
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C Little or
no progress so far and now a priority for action
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11. The
transfer of some monies from the general education budget to the
Youth Service
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With
the ending of Standard Fund Drug Prevention monies from April 2004,
the County Council has transferred funds across to continue this
work, although there is no allowance for growth. This will allow
what currently exists to continue
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A On target
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