The Amy Winehouse Foundation will be joining forces with drug and alcohol treatment charity Addaction to deliver a five-year programme in schools

Amy Winehouse’s dad Mitch has been awarded a grant of £4.3 million from the Big Lottery Fund to roll-out a programme of drug and alcohol education.

The Amy Winehouse Foundation will be joining forces with a specialist drug and alcohol treatment charity Addaction to deliver a five-year programme to 250,000 secondary school children across England.

“It won’t solve the problems in itself, but it allows us to keep going with the great work being done in Amy’s name.

“And that’s what we want – to get on and do something. We could have spent our time trying to get the programme on to the school curriculum, but in all honesty that would have taken years and years of kids missing out on something that really helps them.

We couldn’t wait, and thanks to this funding support, we don’t have to”.

The programme works by creating an environment in schools where pupils can talk freely and openly about their lives, and to help people who are in recovery from their own problems with drugs and alcohol.

After a long struggle with drink and drugs, soul sensation Amy Winehouse was just 27 when she was found dead in her Camden flat in July 2011.

The cause of death was ruled to be alcohol poisoning. The Back To Black singer was dating Reg Traviss after getting divorced from Blake Fielder-Civil in 2009.