Children as young as 12 given nicotine patches on the NHS Some parents will not agree with the meetings between the child and the nurse being confidential and it will divide opinion. The only thing that worries me is that the patches will become a status symbol and children could want them just to look cool in front of their friends. NHS South West Essex employs health group Vitality to run the service. Vitality also offers children advice on weight loss and well-being and also issues the patches to children at drop in sessions across Basildon at the Laindon Health Centre, Pitsea Health Clinic, and the Basildon Centre. Andy White, headteacher of Woodlands school, admitted NHS nurses visited the school, but denied the school was involved in dishing out the patches. He said: "I know nothing about this and as a school we are not giving out nicotine patches, it is not our policy, but it might be NHS policy. We have a nurse who comes into the school twice a month who is employed by the NHS and pupils can talk to her if they wish to on an individual basis. When pupils see the nurse it is on a confidential basis and it's a drop in session type service. Parents should always know what is going on and our policy is clear. If a pupil is found smoking on site then there will be consequences and we will always let the parents know and we believe the problem should be dealt with by the parents. New research shows that over 30 per cent of UK smokers keep their habit under wraps and more than 50 per cent say the person they most want to hide their habit from is their mother. A spokesman for North East London NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the Vitality service, said: "Encouraging young people to quit smoking may prevent them from taking up the habit longer term, and so it is important they have somewhere to find confidential support for this. NHS stop smoking support is provided locally by GPs, community pharmacies and specialist stop smoking services, who are able to offer a range of advice and support on stopping smoking to people aged 12 and over, in line with NHS and NICE (National Institute of Clinical Excellence) guidelines. Some local young people who smoke approach our Vitality stop smoking advisers for advice and support to quit. This support is provided by healthcare professionals such as school nurses or health improvement practitioners, and may include nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) provided the young person is assessed as competent to consent to using this product. The use of NRT is fully explained to the young person. We always encourage young people to inform their parents or carers if they are having support with quitting smoking or having NRT, but they are not obliged to do so.