what we've done - excluded kids

From the start, CDEP recognised that there was a need not only with adults, whom we were set up for, but crucially for young people too. In Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham,drug education was handled by schools individually and supported by the Healthier Schools Partnership Project (HSPP), but this Project was not active in meeting the need of young people excluded from school.

This group of young people, it was felt, are particularly at risk from problematic drug a higher incidence of drug use and greater associated problems than the general population.

In 1998 a partnership was formed with HSPP which led to a number of innitiatives:
A half day workshop with representatives of Pupil Referral Units (PRUs) in Lewisham which wrote an outline policy framework for drugs education for young people excluded from mainstream education and those at risk of exclusion.