THE future of Swindon's school drugs advisers has been thrown into uncertainty just days after relatives of Kate Walsh criticised the way children are taught about substance misuse.

Swindon's Local Education Authority has been told the Government is to axe a drug education grant of £37,432.

From April it will be expected to find cash from an already stretched budget if it wants to keep the posts filled.

The drugs education advisers, who have been funded by central Government since 2001, are seen as vital in helping prevent vulnerable young people from being drawn into drug abuse and addiction.

Geoff Hogg, assistant director for services to pupils at Swindon Council, said the Government money paid for the equivalent of one full-time and one part-time worker to visit schools and youth centres in Swindon.

"We were aware funding was going to cease so it didn't come as a major surprise to us," said Mr Hogg.

"We are going to try to find the money from other places, and we are confident there will be advice given to youngsters about drugs in the future."

Such advice is part of the national curriculum, and the drugs team is working on new ways to secure future funding, possibly by charging the schools that benefit from its work.

Last week the brother of 16-year-old heroin user Kate Walsh, who died in a run-down squat in Manchester Road earlier this month, called for more to be done to warn young people off drugs.

"There is not enough support for youngsters in Kate's position," said 18-year-old Damien Walsh.

"She was 16, but she was not a mature adult. We need to get pupils to realise the hurt drugs can cause."

But Keith Defter, headteacher of Commonweal School in Old Town and chairman of the Swindon Association of Secondary Heads, said: "We do need drug education in schools, and I am never relaxed when the Government is pulling the plug on funding.

"It is possible as a knock-on effect we are going to have more to do and less money to do it with."

Andy Tate