Thank you to West Midlands Police and Aquarius for inviting me along to witness the fantastic work they have been doing around substance misuse in three schools in the Selly Oak constituency.

Aquarius provide specialist services for children and young people who use substances or gamble, and those who are affected by a parent or carer’s substance misuse.
The work they did in the Selly Oak schools mainly centred around vaping, cannabis, alcohol, and nitrous oxide.

I had the very difficult task of judging the poster competitions at Bournville School, Swanshurst School, and Selly Park Girls’ School, where students used their artistic skills to reflect on the seriousness of substance misuse and ways to tackle it through designing their own posters.

Hannah from Aquarius and I selected winners from each school, and I’m pleased to say that all of the posters will be displayed in GPs’ waiting rooms across the constituency. Well done to the winners, and to all the students who took part. And a huge thank you to Schools Intervention and Prevention Officers Karina and Darren from West Midlands Police for the invaluable work they do in schools across Selly Oak.