SCHOOLS are offering nicotine patches to kids and holding stop smoking classes in an effort to get them off cigarettes.
Learning mentors and school nurses throughout the borough have been trained by the Barnsley Stop Smoking Service to give advice to schoolchildren on stopping smoking and to dish out the products.
Young smokers can get vouchers to take to a pharmacy and get nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) including patches - which the Chronicle understands can be given to children as young as 12.
The scheme, being run at Priory School, is believed to be in place at other secondary schools but many seem to be unaware of it.
A grandma of five said: "I have all five of my grandkids at Priory from just leaving to the little ones and I wouldn't be happy about it because it encourages them. It's like telling them it's OK to smoke because then you can do this [get patches]."
A former worker at Monk Bretton chemist said a colleague's daughter came in with one of the vouchers and the mum didn't even know she had been given it.
Lynsey Bower, SmokeFree Barnsley Coordinator said around one in three 14-year-old girls are regular smokers. "It is important that we have a range of measures to both discourage young people from taking up smoking and also to support those who smoke to stop."
Zoe Styring, from the Barnsley Stop Smoking Service, added: "The young people are monitored weekly to confirm their smoking status throughout their quit attempt."
