Purpose

To consider the report of the Director of
Public Health detailing the 2024/25 annual report on Hope and Help:
Reducing tobacco and alcohol harm in adults.

Decision

For Cabinet and Council to support and promote
the Director of Public Health's report recommendations, which
are:
 
For us all
 
1. 
See advice available on the City Council Website for Tobacco,
Alcohol and Drugs. If you smoke or drink more than 14 units per
week, get support to stop or cut down. If you don’t smoke,
don’t vape. Vaping is not risk-free. If you are pregnant or
want to become pregnant, do not smoke or drink at all. Get support
to help you.
2. 
 Support people around you to be
smokefree and to have a healthy relationship with alcohol.
 
For Organisations and Leaders, including the
Council, the NHS and others
 
3. 
Strengthen the tobacco and alcohol support in your organisation for
your staff, clients or patients, volunteers and visitors.
 
4. 
Don’t leave any groups of people behind.
 
   5. Learn
from people with lived experience.

Reasons for the decision

Tobacco and alcohol are risk factors for many
preventable illnesses and can cause wider social and economic harm.
The DPH Annual Report recommendations and the cross-council SCC
Tobacco, Alcohol & Drugs Strategy will benefit all Corporate
priorities. The report aims to celebrate recovery, reduce stigma,
refresh our understanding of what it means to quit smoking or seek
help for an alcohol problem, and renew motivation and efforts
across the system. The report specifically focuses on adult
treatment and recovery this time to keep it short and readable,
ensuring personal stories are not lost. It notes we have a full
programme of wider work and emphasises that children and young
people are also very important.
 
Additionally, for awareness, the related SCC
Tobacco, Alcohol and Drugs Strategy 2023-2028 has a programme of
action for each Council directorate. Subsequent annual updates to
the Health & Wellbeing Board (HWB) have reflected the latest
directorate structures. The last report went to a closed
development session of the HWB in early 2025 and is appended (See
Members Room Document 2). Recorded progress was unequal across
directorates and strongest for commissioning specialist services,
Children’s and public health-led programmes. The next annual
report will be compiled from directorate reports in early 2026 and
commitments will now be rated as red, amber or green

Alternative options considered

Not applicable