A multi‐level approach to community‐focused training in drug education: part 2 – teachers as researchers and partners in curriculum development

Recent advice suggests that single‐level, single‐strand interventions are less effective in preventing or reducing harm from drug misuse than multi‐level multi‐agency approaches. Part 1 described one aspect of a community focused initiative in drug education. The overall aim of the initiative was to support and train key adults within the community to implement locally relevant schemes of work and drug‐related policies. In the previous paper, we described the training offered to parents, school staff and governors in communities in Essex. This second paper reviews both the guidelines for effective teaching and learning in drug education and the importance of effective teacher education. We describe an action research approach to in‐service training for health education coordinators which led to the development of a minimum entitlement curriculum for three different communities within the same county. We offer this combination of research, training and development as a new approach to drug education.