Alcohol Policy UK

Events: Alcohol Studies Group conference, Youth Policy and Home Office best practice

New Directions in the Study of Alcohol Group conference 2010

The New Directions in the Study of Alcohol Group (NDSAG) 2010 conference takes place from Thursday 22nd to Sunday 25th April in Norwich. For further details including registration form see the NDSAG blog.

NDSAG is concerned with the use and abuse of alcohol in society, and the treatment of people with alcohol-related problems. Its aim is to promote a better understanding of these topics. The Group is mainly a forum for debate; where anybody concerned with helping people with drinking problems is encouraged to exchange ideas, share results and learn about new developments in the field.

Youth Policy project consultation seminars

The Alcohol Concern Youth Policy project are conducting 'Young People and Alcohol Consultation Seminars' across the country, starting next month in London - download flyer. The events aim to support the development of youth specific resources, share innovative local practice, contribute to national policy recommendations and take the opportunity to network with other professionals.

Tackling alcohol related violence & disorder in market towns: networking event

On Monday the 22nd March in Hinckley, Leicestershire, a conference and networking event takes place to look at responses to alcohol related problems in market towns. The event has been organised by Hinckley & Bosworth and the Home Office to bring together practitioners from market town locations to share good practice of “what works” in tackling alcohol related crime and disorder.

The Home Office are also arranging further conference events in March including best practice for seaside towns and the priority area wrap up event. The Havering Beacon Night Time Economy event also takes place in March.

The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) are also currently holding alcohol consultation events.

Havering Beacon conference: best practice in managing the Night Time Economy

As London’s only Beacon accredited local authority for managing its town centre night time economy, Havering is holding a 2010 Beacon Conference.

Supported by the Home Office and featuring contributions from senior figures covering all areas of one of the UK’s most legislated industries, the conference is free to professionals looking to develop a safer, stronger and more successful local night time economy. 

However, places are strictly limited - download the Havering Beacon event conference flyer for further details and registration.

NOMS Alcohol Policy Stakeholder Consultation Events

The National Offender Management Service Interventions and Substance Misuse Group (NOMS ISMG) is holding a series of stakeholder consultation events in February and March 2010 to inform the development of NOMS Alcohol Policy.

These are practically focused events aimed primarily at commissioners, strategists/policy makers, operational managers and practitioners from community and custodial settings and representatives from the alcohol treatment sector.

Please download the NOMS Alcohol Policy Consultation Events Flyer for more information about the events and how to apply for a place. Enquiries and expressions of interest should be made to Rebecca Kamara.

Home Office best practice and networking events

The Home Office Alcohol Strategy Unit are organising two free events in Brighton and London as the Partnership Support Programme concludes.

Tackling alcohol related violence & disorder in coastal towns: networking event

On Thursday 4 March 2010, 9.30am - 4.45pm, an event to share good practice of “what works” in tackling alcohol related crime and disorder in coastal locations will take place in Brighton & Hove.

This event has been organised by Brighton & Hove City Council with their Safe in the City Partnership and the Home Office to bring together practitioners from recognised Seaside locations in England and Wales. It will particularly focus on alcohol related challenges specific to coastal towns such as planning for large seasonal influxes of people, effectively tackling alcohol related ASB and managing large numbers of stag and hen parties

For registration and full details, download Coastal Town invitation

'Alcohol Priority Area' wrap up event

On Thursday 18th March 2010, 10.30am - 4pm will be the 'Alcohol Priority Area' event for representatives from the Home Office’s 50 priority areas.

For registration and full details, download 2008-03-18 wrap up event flyer

For other forthcoming alcohol-related events see our recent listing here.

Upcoming events: Academy North East workshops; National Pubwatch and others

AERC Alcohol Academy regional workshops: the North East

For alcohol leads in the North East region:

Next month the Alcohol Academy will be running four half-day workshops in the North East; on the 10th of february two focused workshops will explore alcohol and older people (AM) and cocaethylene (PM) issues, looking at how alcohol strategy can better respond.

Please note these workshops are targeted for NE strategic alcohol leads and those with a relevant interest or expertise in the topics  - for further information, enquiries and registration please see the Balance events page.

A wider event on the 23rd of February will cover alcohol and Domestic Violence (AM) and alcohol and Children and Young People (PM). See the Balance events page for further details.

Check the Alcohol Academy events page for future upcoming workshops and events in other regions, or speak to your Regional Alcohol Office. Presentations are available from the York & Humber and London launch events.

Alcohol Learning Centre events calender

Remember the Alcohol Learning Centre has an events page for forthcoming health focused events.

National Pubwatch Conference for 2010

The 2010 National Pubwatch Conference: 'Work Place Violence' will be held on 9th February in Northamptonshire. It will cover topics such as 'Reducing the Risk to Your Business', 'Drink Banning Orders' and 'Work Place Violence'. Attendance costs £30 for Pubwatch Licensee fee payers, statutory and other agencies will cost £80.

Other events

Last year we also highlighted two interesting non-profit events which are now shortly approaching: on the 10th February the Royal Geographic Society will be exploring 'who drinks where and why?' and on the 30th of March the University of Nottingham are exploring 'Student Alcohol (Mis)Use'

Alcohol Concern are organising the 'Developing Choice in Peer Support - The SMART Recovery Model' - Delegate fee - £50 + VAT, but 1 service can accompany free. 

The Alcohol Academy have only a few places left reserved for alcohol leads or commissioners on the 'IBA: commissioning and delivery issues' symposium in London on the 8th February. An online survey examining the issues in delivering brief interventions is open to practitioners and commissioners until the 5th February.

The Home Office will be shortly announcing a number of events to promote recent learning and best practise in relation to reducing crime and disorder in the Night Time Economy. Watch this space for details.

4th national alcohol conference: presentations available

In November last year, the Home Office, Department of Health and Department of Children, Schools and Families in partnership with colleagues in the North West hosted the 4th National Alcohol Conference, “Safe Sensible Social: Supporting Delivery” in Liverpool.

Presentations included:

Best Practice and Case Law Update: Download

Liz Meek, Government Office for the North West : Download

Newquay night-time economy approach : Download

The Role Of Schools (Part 2), Anne Trout, PHSE Consultant : Download

Tackling Alcohol Related Youth Crime and Anti-Social Behaviour (Day 1) : Download

Tackling Alcohol Related Youth Crime and Anti-Social Behaviour (Day 2) : Download

Think Family, Shaun Hilditch, DCSF : Download

Dr Arif Rajpura, NHS Blackpool : Download

5th Alcohol Early Implementer conference presentations available

Presentations from the Department of Health's (DoH) 5th alcohol Early Implementer Conference can be accessed here from the Alcohol Learning centre.

As part of the Alcohol Improvement Programme (AIP), the event was targeted at alcohol leads from the 20 Early Implementer PCT's, so included some insightful presentations relevant to addressing alcohol-related health harms.

An interesting presentation was also given by Chris Heffer, DH Deputy Director Drugs and Alcohol, providing an overview of some of the current challenges and opportunities facing the AIP and alcohol policy.

Online survey: brief interventions - issues for delivery?

A short online survey has opened to gather the views and experiences of those involved in the delivery of brief interventions for alcohol.

If you are practitioner, worker or commissioner involved in the delivery of brief interventions in England (UK), please click here to take survey!

The survey is compromised of 8 questions and should not take more than 5 minutes to complete. It has been developed by the AERC Alcohol Academy, a social enterprise set up to promote excellence in alcohol harm reduction. The Academy are hosting a small symposium event for strategic alcohol leads and commissioners in February - for further details see here or contact james@alcoholacademy.net.

Brief interventions, also known as Identification and Brief Advice (IBA), are a short method of screening and providing simple structured advice for those drinking at increasing or higher risk levels. As brief interventions have been shown to be a cost-effective method of reducing higher risk drinking, they have been increasingly rolled out across a range of settings (such as GP practices, A&Es etc.) as part of alcohol strategy approaches.

However, with the rapid development of brief interventions it has been indicated there may be some challenges to ensuring effective delivery and integration within services and treatment pathways. This may particularly relate to wider contextual issues and sometimes limited access and support to further alcohol treatment - brief interventions are not intended for dependent drinkers who typically require further specialist support.

Recent learnings on brief interventions were recently published following the recent INEBRIA event, including UK projects reviewed by HubCAPP. The SIPS project is currently researching delivery methods, settings and tools.

2009 round up: national policy, local progress and some of the year's milestones

The national

Well, there were plenty of interesting movements in 2009 for the alcohol policy field, setting up an interesting but certainly challenging year ahead. The pricing debate seemed to dominate the political policy landscape, with various health and market interests still fighting their corners. However public scepticism appears to remain the decisive factor, though the government claim not to have ruled it out, pending further research. In the meantime the Home Office have vowed to stick with the mandatory code despite recurrent rumours of it being scrapped.

Meanwhile Scotland have been demonstrating the difficulty in attempting to bring in minimum pricing measures facing political opposition and the threat of a possible breach of EU competition law. So for now, minimum pricing seems to remain a somewhat theoretical discussion as a national policy, but local areas such as Oldham have been attempting targeted local approaches through licensing review powers.

However the imminent general election will be of key significance to the future of the pricing debate. The Tories are proposing further 'targeted taxes' instead, but also promising to axe the current licensing regime, itself a hot topic. At the 2009 Labour conference the Prime Minster conceded the 2003 Licensing Act had not reduced alcohol-fuelled crime and disorder in many areas, but argued for further use of powers to address drunken troublemakers and problematic premises. This chimed with 2009 Home Office guidance for preventing alcohol-related disorder that stated "All the research indicates that crime and disorder remains stable since the introduction of the [2003 Licensing] Act but that the powers are being underused."

The Professor Nutt affair was also high profile and demonstrated the difficult distinction between advisory and campaigning roles. Nutt, who is currently developing a synthetic alcohol substitute, was sacked by the Home Secretary whilst calling for a drugs classification system that further reflected the harm of legal drugs such as alcohol and tobacco.

On the eve of 2010, centre-right think tank Policy Exchange released a press release claiming excessive drinking on New Year's Eve alone would cost the NHS up to £23 million. Highlighting the rising trend of acute alcohol-related hospital admissions, they have proposed that 'those admitted to hospital for less than 24 hours with acute alcohol intoxication should be charged the NHS tariff cost for their admission of £532. This amount would be reduced for those paying the costs of their own alcohol education and awareness course.'

However alcohol wasn't just in the national framework through politics - alcohol messages highlighting unit awareness, health and binge drinking risks adorned us from all angles. Cynics (particularly of industry funded campaigns) were outspoken, but at least the discussion was happening, even if alcohol awareness week only succeeded locally. Social marketing however was possibly the 2009 buzz-word, championing a better understanding our target audience to achieve behaviour change - expect more in 2010.

The local

Of key importance in 2009, the attention, skills and in some cases resources for alcohol at a local and regional level continued to develop rapidly. For health, the development of the the Department of Health's Alcohol Improvement Programme (AIP) and regional action kicked in, with the Alcohol Learning Centre an ever-expanding resource of guidance, tools and learning. Key 2009 alcohol documents such as 'Signs for improvement' and the most recent pathways guidance were also released to support commissioners, whilst HubCAPP has continued to showcase innovative and better evaluated local practice examples from across the country.

On the crime and disorder agenda, the Home office has continued to roll out guidance and legislation to tackle the impact of alcohol-related disorder. Of key significance: the practical guide for dealing with alcohol-related problems, the somewhat cautionary alcohol arrest referral guidance and the launch of Drinking Banning Orders (DBOs). Older measures such as Controlled Drinking Zones continued to be adopted despite protestations of excessive use, but Alcohol Disorder Zones (ADZs) remained unused as a measure to make premises pay extra when impacting on the local area.

Our new social enterprise the AERC Alcohol Academy also launched in 2009, set up to promote and support skills and learning for strategic alcohol leads. The Academy plans to focus on supporting the development of High Impact Changes and key issues for local alcohol approaches such as commissioning skills, alcohol use amongst the elderly and the largely unknown impact of cocaethylene. Equity of access to alcohol treatment & interventions, and new opportunities such as exploring new settings for brief interventions (IBA) are also key areas we will be seeking to develop.

However, with the forthcoming public sector squeeze there will be significant challenges to maintain the alcohol agenda's 2009 momentum. Those tasked with delivering alcohol policy will need to focus on demonstrating cost-savings and seize opportunities for integration into wider health and community safety agendas. But with the continuing dialogue on the impact of alcohol-related harm and an improving understanding of effective responses, the opportunities to reign in the burden of alcohol-related harm will still be there.

And a selection of some key Alcohol Policy UK reports from 2009

January - March

• Chief Medical Officer proposes alcohol-free childhood for under-15s
• Whose cider you on? - concerns over impact of white cider
  
• Chief Medical Officer calls for minimum pricing
• British teenagers amongst worst for binge drinking

April - June

• NHS healthchecks - a missed opportunity?
• Welfare reform eyes up alcoholics claiming benefits
• Welsh alcohol health profile published
• JRF report examines transferable lessons for alcohol policy
• 2009 Alcohol Statistics for England released

June - July

• Alcohol commissioning and data tools released
• Parliamentary review highlights gaps in alcohol treatment
• Alcohol Disorder Zones not being used
• AERC Alcohol Academy launch event
• 'Signs for improvement' commissioning guidance released
• BMA calls for alcohol advertising ban

August

• Areas supported to act on Alcohol Awareness week
• Home Office release 'practical guide' for addressing alcohol problems
• Group campaigns against 'controlled drinking zones'
• Panorama covers Oldham's local 'minimum pricing' approach
• 'Pubs aren't dying - they are evolving'

September

• WHO gives guidance to EU states on alcohol strategy
• Cocaethylene use rising but awareness still low
• Alcohol Concern: Supermarkets keeping shoppers in the dark
• 'Stealth' drinking risk as home consumption rises

October

• Falls in alcohol consumption but long term trend not clear
• NW Public Health Directors call together on minimum pricing
• Documentaries on alcohol including Horizon's 'Do I drink too much?'
• Tories stick to targeted taxes on high strength alcohol
• Industry to promote low-alcohol drinks

November

• Alcohol Arrest Referral Guide identifies challenges
• Scotland's minimum pricing move still battling opposition
• Oldham progresses action on irresponsible drinks promotions at supermarkets
• Internet-based interventions could be effective
• How alcohol policy works in England: a research and study analysis

December

• What awaits the white cider market as White Lightning de-listed and tax rises loom?
• Guidance on the consumption of alcohol by children and young people: A report by the Chief Medical Officer
• WHO release draft global alcohol strategy
• First Drinking banning Order issued

Conferences: 'Student alcohol (mis)use' and 'Drinking Spaces and Places – Examining who drinks alcohol, where and why?'

Two interesting and inexpensive events have come to our attention:

Seminar - 'Drinking spaces and places: Examining who drinks alcohol, where and why?' - Wednesday 10 February 2010

'The impact of drinking alcohol in excess is seen both in terms of individual health and disorder in public spaces. This seminar focuses on why policy levers need to recognise the importance of where and how people drink.'

Tickets (including refreshments): full £60, academics/members £40, students £15

See here for full details of download the full programme here.

Student alcohol (mis)use conference - 30th March 2010

This event is being organised by the University of Northampton, costing £40 to attend including lunch and materials. See here for full details. The organisers are currently accepting submissions and poster presentations and have declared themes of the conference will cover:

• students’ alcohol-related perceptions and beliefs
• the nature of students’ (mis)use of alcohol
• the culture of student drinking and ‘binge’ drinking in general
• policies and strategies in managing student drinking and its effects
• alcohol issues within educational institutions and their local communities
• the community and regional context of student use of alcohol
• therapeutic approaches to students with alcohol problems