Substance Use in Schools Working Group minutes: November 2025

Attendees and apologies

• Health and Wellbeing Unit, Scottish Government (Chair)
• Education Institute for Scotland (EIS)
• Education Scotland (ES)
• National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT)
• Alcohol and Harm Prevention Team, Scottish Government
• Curriculum Team, Scottish Government
• Drugs Policy Team, Scottish Government
• Health and Social Care Research Division, Scottish Government

Apologies

• Association of Directors of Education (ADES)
• Tobacco, Nicotine and Gambling Team, Scottish Government

Items and actions

Welcome, introduction and apologies

The chair welcomed attendees and noted apologies.

Minutes and actions from previous meeting

The chair provided an update on the actions from the previous meeting, highlighting:

• the website for the working group would be live in advance of the next meeting
• the Terms of Reference will be amended and circulated to the group for sign of by correspondence
• SG will ensure meetings of different working groups do not clash with each other

The group agreed they were content with the minutes.

Action:

SG to publish the minutes from the previous meeting on the SG website.

Draft guidance

The chair provided an overview of the changes that had been made to the guidance and invited feedback from members. The following points were suggested:

• the use of the term ‘give consideration to’ in developing policy should be sharpened for schools so they are clear that these points must be considered
• under prevention, curriculum should be included but the reference to PSE should be removed.
• There should be consideration given to how the physical environment contributes to substance use
• suggestion to include a link to the Public Health Framework, making clear this guidance sits within a wider approach to public health
• evidence section required updating as new research shows no statistically significant difference in vaping between girls and boys
• it would be helpful to organise the resources in Appendix 2 by topic area or sector
• it was suggested that it would be helpful to link in with Glasgow and Greater Clyde Health Improvement Team who offered to support with dissemination of the guidance
• the use of exemplification, particularly on vapes, would be helpful. Angus is doing good work on this with the Planet Youth project and it might be helpful to link case studies on the ES Relationships and Behaviour webpage. Another group member mentioned that initial data from the project from the past two years indicates a reduction in smoking and vaping and co-occurrence with violence, mental health and other substances

Actions:

• group members to send any further comments on the guidance by COP 3rd December
• SG to amend draft guidance based on comments and written feedback and circulate to the group ahead of the next meeting on 17th December
• Drugs Policy Team, Scottish Government, to pass on details of Glasgow and Greater Clyde Health Improvement Team to Chair
• ES to contact Angus Council regarding exemplification from the Planet Youth project
• Social Care Research Division, Scottish Government to share data from the Planet Youth project with the group

Any other business

No other business was raised.  The Chair noted the next meeting of the group will take place on Wednesday 17th Dec from 10:00-11:00am via Teams.

The Chair thanked members for their contributions and closed the meeting.