Information from the Government’s Drug Strategy Website http://www.drugs.gov.uk/Home

Blueprint is a research programme designed to examine the effectiveness of a drug education project aimed at school children 11–13 year olds. Detailed information is available from the Government’s drug strategy website. 

1. Evidence-base for Blueprint

Reviews of research demonstrated that drug education can delay the start of drug use and achieve at least modest reductions in drug use. (Dusenbury and Falco, 1995; Dusenbury et al., 1997; Tobler 1997; Tobler and Stratton, 1997)  

1.1 Context/Setting

Blueprint provides drug education in school as well as in the family environment, and the wider community which includes implementation of health policy. The popular media should also be used to support programmes. This is because research has indicated that effective drug prevention programmes feature multi-componented structures that have

·         Parental (or carer) involvement which is highly interactive between children and the parents or carers.

·         Coalition with the community which can promote and support the programme.

·         Media involvement, which can reinforce prevention messages.

·         Provision of training for parents and teachers to improve skills in drug prevention.

·         Coordination with the work of key education and prevention partnerships in delivering the programme.  

1.2 Content/method of delivery

The content of Blueprint Programme has been designed to reflect features of effective programmes identified in research. Effective programmes:

·         Are based on theory and evidence.

·         Deliver drug-related information in a developmentally appropriate manner.

·         Aim to enhance children’s ability to deal effectively with drug issues.

·         Include both focused training on such as social resistance skills and broad-based skills training as well as comprehensive health education.

·         Use interactive teaching

·         Provide training and support to teachers

·         Have sufficient follow-up 

·         Are tailored to reflect the culture of the recipients

·         Are reinforced by family, community and media components

·         Include components that recognise and meet the needs of special populations

·         Incorporate evaluations 

Also, evaluations of the Government funded drug education projects (Project Charlie, NE Choices and the Integrated Programme) identified general principles for effective programmes which were also used as a framework for Blueprint. 

2. Project Plan

Blueprint was launched in September 2003 and Year 7 pupils in 23 pilot schools received ten lessons of Blueprint materials during the spring term in 2004. The pupils will receive further five lessons in the spring term in 2005. There are six comparison schools which are receiving their current drug programme. For more information on project time line is available on the internet, (http://www.drugs.gov.uk/NationalStrategy/YoungPeople/Blueprint/ProjectTimeline) 

3. Evaluation

The evaluation, running from 2003 to 2007, will examine following five aspects of the programme.

·         Usefulness of Blueprint teaching resource as rated by teachers, which will be established by lesson observation, teacher interviews and teacher journals.

·         Usefulness of Blueprint learning resource as rated by pupils, which will be
examined by questionnaires and interviews with pupils.

·         An impact of the programme on the substance use behaviour of young people, which will be measured by lifestyle surveys at three points in 2003, 2005 and 2006.

·         Effectiveness of Blueprint in improving the quality and quantity of family communication in relation to drugs. This will be assessed by the questionnaires with pupils and questionnaires and interviews with parents)

·         The cost-effectiveness  

Also, classroom delivery, parent workshops, health policy and teacher training will be evaluated and community case studies will be conducted. The findings of this project will guide and inform the development of drug education in England. A milestone for research is detailed in the table below.

 Project Research Timeline, adapted from Project Timeline available from http://www.drugs.gov.uk/NationalStrategy/YoungPeople/Blueprint/ProjectTimeline

 Key References 

Dusenbury, L., Falco, M. (1995) Eleven components of effective drug abuse prevention curricula. The Journal of School Health, 65(10), 420.

Dusenbury L., Falco. M., Lake, A. (1997) A review of the evaluation of 47 drug abuse prevention curricula available nationally. The Journal of School Health, 67(4),127-132 

Tobler, N.S. (1997) Meta-analysis of adolescent drug prevention programs: results of the 1993 meta-analysis. NIDA Research Monograph 170: 5

Tobler, N.S., Stratton, H. (1997) Effectiveness of school-based drug prevention programs: A meta-analysis of the research. Journal of Primary Prevention, 18(1), 71 - 128