Make it a double... number of boozing schoolchildren soars

By the time children are in Year 10 at Rotherham's secondary schools, 76 per cent of them have tried an alcoholic drink and more girls than boys admitted to drinking "at least weekly".

More than 15 per cent of boys in Year 10 also said they drink more than 20 units of alcohol a week – which equates to around 10 pints of lager or two bottles of wine.

The figures, which are set to go before a meeting of Rotherham Council's children and young people's scrutiny board on Friday, November 19, were obtained from a "lifestyle survey" conducted with local schoolchildren.

When children first start secondary school, the survey found, the vast majority have never had an alcoholic drink. In Year 7, 79 per cent of children surveyed in 2009 said they had never tried alcohol, up from 54 per cent in 2008 and 69 per cent in 2007.

However, by the time pupils are in Year 10 the percentage who have never tried alcohol falls to 24 per cent, up from 22 per cent in 2008, but down from 30 per cent in 2007.

The report, set to go before Friday's meeting, says: "Most of the young people surveyed specified that they were using alcohol at least every month or every week. More female students than male admitted to drinking at least weekly, which was the same in the previous year.

"Five point three per cent of Year 7 pupils drink alcohol on a weekly basis compared with 26.4 per cent of Year 10 pupils.

"In both 2007 and 2008, one per cent of Year 7 pupils claimed to drink on a daily basis. This figure rose to 1.7 per cent in 2009.

"This figure rises to 3.6 per cent for Year 10 pupils, which is an increase from three per cent in 2008.

"The amount of alcohol an adult can drink before putting their health at risk is 14 units for females and 21 for males a week.

"These benchmarks do not apply to young people who have not reached physical maturity. Of the regular drinkers, most Year 7 females and males consumed less than 10 units a week.

"However, as young people get older the number of units they consumed increased, particularly in male students."

Last year, 157 children accessed Rotherham's "Know The Score" specialist substance misuse service. Most of those used the service for drink problems (46 per cent), with cannabis problems close behind at 43 per cent,

The remainder included three per cent of children on opiates, three per cent on amphetamines, three per cent on ecstasy and one per cent on both crack cocaine and solvents.

The report says: "Around 0.7 per cent of all 16- to 19-year-olds in Rotherham were in substance misuse treatment at some point during the year.

"There were eight clients under the age of 13 and 63 between the ages of 13 and 16.

"The majority of clients were involved in psychosocial interventions and the majority of young people were in treatment for relatively short term interventions. This was due to the main drugs of choice being cannabis and alcohol.

"Over half – 73 per cent – of all those discharged from treatment completed successfully."

This financial year, Rotherham Council has a budget of just under 300,000 to fund substance misuse projects for children. Seven thousand pounds was spent on the All Geared Up drama tour, a play with an anti-drugs message, which was performed in 40 primary schools.

A further 11,250 was spent on training more than 30 members of staff to become specialist in drug education. Secondary schools, special schools and pupil referral units, meanwhile, are running the "Drug Lifestory" project, which costs 6,950 a year and aims to ensure pupils can make "informed decisions" about drugs.