Alcohol Policy UK

Adopting healthier lifestyles could prevent 40% of cancers

Cancer Research UK have highlighted the significant role of lifestyle choices in up to 40% of cancers. More than 100,000 cancers – equivalent to one third of all those diagnosed in the UK each year – are being caused by smoking, unhealthy diets, alcohol and excess weight, the Charity says.

Tobacco as ever features as a major cause of mortality, but alcohol consumption is also defined as a major risk factor for some cancers and a smaller risk factor for many others. The research links alcohol to oesophageal, oral, laryngeal, liver, breast and bowel cancer risk in particular.

Of the 158,700 cases of cancer diagnosed in males each year and the 155,600 in women, alcohol ranks as the 4th highest risk factor for males and the 6th highest for women.
President of the Royal College of Physicians Sir Richard Thompson said the report is a "wake up call" to the government to take stronger action on public health. The report comes shortly after Andrew Langford, Chief Executive of the British Liver Trust spoke out on Government policy with liver cancer deaths rising 74% since 1997.

The Department of Health's Public Health pages list key elements to its approach to addressing lifestyle issues, including the white paper and the controversial Responsibility Deal. A Change4Life social marketing strategy was recently released, committing to delivering alcohol messages within a wider lifestyles agenda.

East of England regional alcohol event 2010 presentations

As highlighted in the recent East of England 4th regional alcohol newsletter, presentations from the EOE Annual Conference on the 19 May 2010 have been published on the Alcohol Learning Centre including:

• Community Alcohol Partnerships - A new way of tackling under age drinking
• Alcohol Treatment Pathways - local routes Feb 2010
• Information Sharing from Emergency Departments to Prevent Alcohol Related Assaults
• Reducing Alcohol Harm and Violence: Sharing ED Data
• Strengthening partnerships to improve alcohol services
• Sexual Health in Essex -Teenage Pregnancy and Alcohol
• Implementing a response to Families with multiple problems
• West Suffolk Hospital Alcohol Project
• Licensing Tools
• Improving Health, Supporting Justice in the East of England
• Tacking Alcohol Related Violence in Suffolk

Alcohol commissioning skills survey

The AERC Alcohol Academy is seeking the views of those with a responsibility or interest in alcohol commissioning skills and knowledge.

If you are an alcohol lead, commissioner or other professional in the field please complete the online survey or disseminate to relevant colleagues.

Responses will help identify the skills and learning options most valuable in developing alcohol-related commissioning. From here the Academy will develop an Alcohol Commissioning Learning Programme or series of workshops -  by completing the survey you will be able to register interest to partake in a free pilot of the programme.

The survey should not take more than 10 minutes to complete and closes on Friday 16th July 2010.

Your information will be kept anonymous. For more information please visit www.alcoholacademy.net or find alcohol commissioning resources here.

To share this survey please send http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/KHXY6JL or simply copy and paste alcohol commissioning survey.

Children, Young People and Alcohol: Pan-London Guidance

Guidance on children and young people's alcohol issues has been released this month by the London Joint Action Group (JAG) on alcohol. The guidance is aimed at all commissioners, service managers and front-line staff who work with children and young people.

Download 'Children, Young People and Alcohol: Pan-London Guidance'

The guidance chapters include:

1. Key Strategies
2. Universal/Prevention and Early Intervention
3. Targeted/Harm Reduction
4. Specialist Treatment
5. Treatment Exit and Transitions
6. Information Sharing and Joint Working
7. Whole Family Approaches
8. Key Contacts

The guidance was produced by gathering information from a select number of statutory bodies and practitioners across London, including first London Alcohol Practitioner's forum (event summary here). The JAG was established to support the delivery of the Regional Statement of Priorities [pdf], a framework for reducing alcohol related harm in the capital.

See Too much too young? Alcohol misuse amongst young Londoners for further information about Children and Young People's alcohol use in London.

How alcohol policy works in England; a research study and analysis

A new study exploring the key challenges and issues facing alcohol policy and local strategy has been released through the new AERC Alcohol Insights library.

'The Orientation and Integration of Local and National Alcohol Policy in England and Wales' (download pdf) provides a unique insight into how alcohol policy is determined and delivered, examining the complex factors that shape and influence its delivery. Informed by consultation and research within both local and national frameworks, it explores a number of key themes:

• The policy landscape
• Tensions between the centre and the peripheries
• Tensions within and between partners within ‘core’ statutory partnerships
• The role of the private sector
• Contradictions within policy formulation and implementation
• Relations between statutory partners and other non-statutory policy actors such as the drinks industry and local residents
• The limitations of alcohol policy

The report examines the numerous challenges facing the successful delivery of effective alcohol policy, ranging from schisms between health and treatment agendas and criminal justice or economic regeneration concerns. Also highlighted were concerns over a focus on binge drinking responses driven by political will, often resulting in the use of little evaluated responses rather than effective and sustainable approaches. Nonetheless, 'cautious optimism' was valid in some areas such as the positive impact of certain legislative measures and a possibly increasing recognition of the need for a firmer government stance towards aspects of industry regulation.

New group on alcohol policy research and development

The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine are inviting relevant stakeholders to take part in a new alcohol harm reduction research and development programme. The project is seeking community-based statutory alcohol professionals from all sectors, statutory alcohol harm reduction leads and local voluntary activists to attend the inaugural meeting in London on the afternoon of the 23rd November.

The REAP (Research for Effective Alcohol Policies) project will support alcohol policy research and development and will be led by researchers from a range of British Universities. It aims to develop and evaluate community interventions that are responsive to local needs and based on evidence, with the goal of reducing harm from alcohol.

Interested stakeholders should contact Despoina.Xenikaki@lshtm.ac.uk no later than November 13th, indicating your role and e-mail address. Reimbursements for expenses are available.

The AERC Alcohol Academy will be linking into the REAP project to share and develop the experience, skills and learning of alcohol coordinators and strategic leads across the country.

AERC Alcohol Academy launch event - summary and slides

The launch of the AERC Alcohol Academy took place last month in London with a one day event of workshops and presentations. The event was set up to pilot and deliver the academy’s objectives of facilitating networking and developing skills and learning for alcohol coordinators and strategic leads.

The Academy will be delivering a series of free events across the country to continue development and support of strategic alcohol harm reduction. For further details and to enquire about a seminar in your region see the ‘What we do’ page on the website.

AERC Alcohol Academy – launch event sessions

The launch event included the following sessions focusing on some of the key strategic issues facing alcohol coordinators and strategic leads.

1- ‘Alcohol harms: trends and issues’ Dr Rachel Seabrook, Institute of Alcohol Studies

This presentation (ppt.) gave an in-depth exploration of alcohol-harm and what we know about trends in use. Key issues covered include:

• Types of harm e.g. health vs social and short term vs long term
• Consumption data – what we know and the limitations of the data
• Alcohol-related admissions – breakdown of all causes
• Trends in alcohol sales – affordability, price and consumption
• Poly-drug and alcohol use issues

2- 'Partnership as a mechanism for delivering local alcohol policy’ Rachel Herring, University of Middlesex (Workshop 1, followed by structured group discussion)

This presentation (ppt.) explored the role of partnerships in delivering local alcohol strategy and covers key issues including:

• The local frameworks for alcohol strategy delivery
• The role of alcohol in cross-cutting partnership agendas
• What is ‘partnership’ and why is it important?
• Multi-component approaches
• Key issues and challenges to partnerships
• Evaluating LSPs – governance  and delivery issues
• Successful partnerships and lessons from other fields

3- 'Research and evaluation: strengthening the evidence base'  Professor Betsy Thom, University of Middlesex

This presentation (ppt.) explores important considerations for setting up alcohol interventions and evaluating projects covering key issues including:

• What kinds of alcohol-related research/evaluation evidence do we have?
• Examining population level studies, socio-cultural studies and policy-impact studies
• What are the most and least effective alcohol interventions?
• Why does research evidence often fail to influence policy & practice?
• What are the challenges for research & evaluation?
• How can the Academy facilitate a critical understanding of research and evaluation?

4- ‘Alcohol problems in the elderly’ Dr Karim Dar, Consultant Psychiatrist in Addictions (Workshop 2, followed by structured group discussion)

This presentation (ppt.) gives a highly comprehensive assessment of alcohol problems in the elderly and examines the treatment responses available, despite numerous socio-political barriers. The general structure of the presentation addresses:

• Introduction-beliefs about addictions and its treatment
• Epidemiology
• Risk factors & signs/symptoms
• Diagnostic issues
• Screening
• Medical and psychiatric co-morbidity (including dementia)
• Treatments

5- 'The context of alcohol policy and the role of the Academy' John Eversley, Managing Director of ppre

The final presentation was given by John Everlsy, Director of ppre, a senior lecturer at several universities and expert in the field of public policy and management. The presentation gave a fascinating and thought-provoking insight into how we think and understand policy and research and its relevance for the academy. A video of the presentation will be published shortly.

AERC Alcohol Academy to launch in June

The AERC Alcohol Academy will be officially launching next month with a conference and workshop event in London. The Academy will operate as a social enterprise set up to facilitate networking and skills development for alcohol coordinators, leads and commissioners. It therefore aims to allow those within the relatively new field of strategic alcohol harm reduction to share and develop the innovative practice required to make real impact at local and regional levels. However the Academy also aims to seize on the knowledge and experience of coordinators and look at how this may be used to influence learning, best practice and influence national policy.

Last year a scoping exercise was carried out which showed significant support for the objectives set out by the Academy and the Alcohol Education and Research Council (AERC) subsequently funded the Academy to run for 15 months. The Academy will deliver conference and workshop events across the country tailored to suit the needs and interests of local alcohol coordinators and leads. The scoping exercise identified a number of key issues that were consistently highlighted including commissioning skills, the need for best-practice sharing and networking and skills in the delivery and management of a complex and multi-thematic alcohol agenda.

If you are an alcohol strategy coordinator, strategic PCT lead or alcohol commissioner and are interested in attending the launch event on the 9th June, please email james@ranzettaconsulting.co.uk. Places are very limited so quick contact is advised! See here for the agenda.

The AERC Alcohol Academy is also running an email network forum for alcohol coordinators and leads to allow discussion, networking and best practice and information sharing. To request membership to this group, please email forum-subscribe@alcoholacademy.net.

LDAN and Alcohol Policy UK themed alcohol workshops

LDAN and Alcohol Policy UK have teamed up once again to present a brand new series of themed alcohol workshops for 2008/09.

Forthcoming events include:

• Dual diagnosis and alcohol...still falling through the gaps?

         19th November 2008

• Alcohol, faith and culture...supporting diverse communities
  

          18th December 2008

• Alcohol and street populations...multi-agency approaches

          23rd January 2009

• Housing continuing drinkers...points of intervention

          20th February 2009

Each workshop will cover:

•  the evidence on prevalence and best practice
•  current policy frameworks
•  tensions and possible solutions
•  interesting practice

Who should attend?

• Policy makers
• Service planners
• Practitioners

The first in the series: “Older People and Alcohol – A Demographic Time bomb?” took place on Thursday October 16th. A report on the seminar will be released shortly.

The workshops are FREE to attend but places are limited. To book please email info@ldan.org.uk with you name, job title, organisation and phone number or call 020 7704 0004 to speak to Ruth McQueen or Shona Flannigan (All sessions run from 2-4.30pm in a central London location, full venue details supplied on booking).

About us: Alcohol Policy UK is the news and analysis website for the alcohol harm reduction field that was set up by Libby Ranzetta in 2005. Contributors are an informal network of consultants, researchers and practitioners, keen to share learning and ideas. Our motto: nonus wheela reinventare.

LDAN is the London Drug and Alcohol Network – developing substance misuse policy and supporting the capital’s treatment sector. (www.ldan.org.uk) to book

These workshops are supported by GLADA (The Greater London Alcohol and Drug Alliance).

Alcohol Enforcement Skills Development seminars

The Home Office Alcohol Strategy Unit is holding 10 regional Alcohol Enforcement Skills Development seminars. The seminars are free of charge and will be held over two days. The first seminar is in London on 28^th and 29^th October:

Day 1 - For delegates to have an awareness of their tools and powers under the Licensing Act 2003, Regulations and Statutory Guidance. See full agenda here.

Day 2 - The second day will be aimed at those involved in the more technical and strategic aspects of dealing with alcohol related problems, with specific focus on the Licensing Act 2003. See full agenda here.

The registration website for attending the first two seminars is now live at a www.alcoholtrainingworkshops.co.uk . The next seminars will be in Cambridge on 18th and 19th November.

If your have queries or require further details on this event you can contact William Mackenzie, Alcohol Strategy Unit, Home Office Tel: 020 7035 1819.