Alcohol Concern have assesed the level of priority given to alcohol across 25 local authorities in England in a new report. The audit found that although most key local needs assessment documents recognised alcohol, most did not go far enough to address the full impact of alcohol misuse on the local population.
The report highlights the "unprecedented and wholesale changes to health service" over recent years, impacting on local structures and commissioning. The shift in responsibility means that Joint Strategic Needs Assessments (JSNAs) should now be taking centre stage for local action and decision making by Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) and local authorities.
However many key alcohol needs assessments gave alcohol only a brief mention – far from the ‘comprehensive section on alcohol harm’ that Public Health England recommends. Local prioritisation to alcohol also appeared less in areas classified as lower need in the NWPHO dataset, but Alcohol Concern warn such areas must not overlook the still significant impact of alcohol misuse. The report raised other specific concerns, including a gap in some areas failing to recognise key evidence based approaches including addressing hospital admissions or delivering Identification and Brief Advice (IBA) or treatment.
The report makes 11 recommendations. In particular, local Directors of Public Health need to ensure alcohol is sufficiently prioritised with attention to the local picture, with needs assessments making use of wider datasets. As one example, the needs of young people should not over-emphasised in comparison with other groups, including older adults.
It also recommends that Public Health England (PHE) should note the positive impact of the alcohol-related hospital admissions indicator on local prioritisation of such work, and consider indicators around IBA or treatment provision to improve local responses. Public Health England have an Alcohol stocktake self-assessment tool to encourage local areas to take a systematic review of their strategy for addressing alcohol-related harm. The report suggest this may not be going far enough to promote widespread local prioritisation.
Last year Alcohol Concern published a Guide to Alcohol for Councillors, which aims to help councillors meet the new commissioning challenges and tackle alcohol abuse in their communities. NICE has a comprehensive set of alcohol guidance and quality standards, including alcohol pathways and further tools. NICE also recently released Public Health Guidance for local authorities.
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