Drink education for youngsters

The final draft of guidance on reducing underage drinking through school-based programmes will not be published by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) until next week.

But a newspaper reported that the body will urge the inclusion of alcohol education in science lessons and as part of the personal, social and health education sessions which children start at the age of five.

Children will be taught about the harmful effects of excessive drinking as well as the idea of safe, moderate drinking, the newspaper reported.

Lessons will also focus on how marketing is used to promote and encourage drinking, and on the social unacceptability of alcohol abuse.

Under the new guidelines, the Telegraph reported, teachers will be encouraged to identify children who are misusing alcohol and offer advice, reports say.

One-on-one counselling will be made available for children identified as problem drinkers, though in some cases their parents may not be made aware if the child asks for confidentiality.

The Portman Group, which represents leading drinks producers, said some of the advice was redundant. David Poley, the group's chief executive, said: "Children don't need lessons to be protected from the influence of alcohol marketing.

"The industry already abides by strict rules on both the content and placement of advertisements to avoid them appealing to children."

Other experts said promoting sensible drinking was not enough, and what was needed was to scrap 24-hour licensing, increase tax on alcohol and curb TV advertising before 9pm. Dr Nick Sheron, a liver physician and secretary of the Alcohol Health Alliance, told the Telegraph: "Teach children about alcohol so they can be informed but don't expect that if you tell children not to drink that they are going to take a blind bit of notice."