Whilst we have always wanted ASSIST to reach the largest number of young people in the most cost effective way, two things have changed since our licensing model was first introduced:  smoking rates have fallen, which is excellent news, while public health budgets have been slashed – which is not good news!

Most of our customers are not able to offer ASSIST in every school in their locality, because they simply do not have the budget to deliver it.  Smoking rates are falling, but they are still far too high in many ‘pockets’ of the country, and these invariably overlap with areas of income disadvantage.   Put crudely, children in households with lower levels of income are more likely to smoke or to take up smoking as a teenager.   Adults in their household are also more likely to smoke, with obvious consequences for available household budgets.

We are now offering to work with Local Authorities to target the areas of their locality where smoking rates are highest because like Public Health England, we believe that a targeted approach is now the best strategy. In their latest guidance to support the commissioning of tobacco intervention, section 6 focusses on preventing young people from taking up smoking, with recommendation 3 (peer led interventions) stating that schools should‘consider offering evidence-based, peer-led interventions aimed at preventing the uptake of smoking such as the ASSIST (A Stop Smoking in School Trial) programme.’

We all know that prevention, or taking an upstream approach as it is sometimes referred to, is more cost effective in the long term, targeting helps customers to make the biggest return on their investment.

For more information please contact sally.good@evidencetoimpact.com

 

Background

Click here for PHE's press release - Prevention must be the heart of the NHS long-term plan

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