Nursery teachers to check for drug use

SCOTTISH nursery staff are to be taught how to spot youngsters whose parents are exposing them to drugs.

A pilot project is to be followed by training for senior nursery managers at a national conference in January. They will then teach colleagues the same techniques to identify youngsters whose parents are using drugs and putting children at risk.

The "pre-five" plan, which has been devised by national drugs agency Scotland Against Drugs (SAD), follows similar schemes in secondary and primary schools.

The issue of youngsters and drugs was recently highlighted by the experience of Edinburgh toddler Michael McGarrity. The youngster survived for weeks alone after the death of his mother, a recovering drug addict.

An inquiry is under way into whether notification procedures at the nursery which the boy attended were adequate, or if staff should have reported his absence to the authorities earlier.

According to government figures, up to 50,000 children under the age of five have parents who use drugs.

Marian Boyle, the drug agency's education co-ordinator, said: "Nursery staff need clearer guidance on what they should do if they suspect a youngster is being exposed to drugs at home.

"Policies vary in different areas and we are trying to get better consistency across the country in how staff record incidents of alarm and decide when early intervention is required."

The training, initially for 150 nursery managers, will not involve staff asking youngsters if their parents use drugs but workshops and group exercises will focus on helping them to spot when children are at risk.

Boyle said: "Dealing with these situations can be intimidating and quite traumatic for nursery staff so we want to develop their decision-making skills so that they take the right course of action. That could involve alerting a nursery manager to problems or contacting social services.

"After dealing with primary schools we now have to deal with nurseries because many younger children from very different social and family backgrounds are vulnerable to these circumstances."

The SAD plan, which will cost £65,000, is being piloted by nursery staff in Falkirk, Clackmannanshire and Forth Valley. Its effectiveness is to be analysed by the Scottish Centre of Research in Education.