DRUGS charity DrugScope is today joining forces with BT to teach school governors and senior managers in the North-East about dangerous substances.

In the fifth of a series of training events, the school managers will discover how to develop more effective drugs policies, how to ensure drug education classes are of high quality and how best to deal with any drugs incidents which may occur on their premises.

Substances covered will include alcohol and tobacco, over-the-counter and prescription medicines, solvents and illegal drugs.

More than 50 schools from the local education authorities of Darlington, Durham, Gateshead, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Newcastle, North Tyneside, Redcar and Cleveland, South Tyneside, Stockton and Sunderland are to take part.

The training day is part of a nationwide project called "Lets talk about ... effective drug education".

The programme will see four more events around the country and one each in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. It follows a nationwide survey which suggested that many school managers still did not know the best way of dealing with incidents involving drugs.

It also found that many governors, board members and senior teachers were not getting the training they required to deal with drugs issues.