The Board to receive an update on the Alcohol Plan.

Laura Juett, Senior Public Health Manager provided the Board with an update on the Strategic Alcohol Plan for Plymouth 2013 – 2018.  It was reported that –

(a)           the dashboard sits alongside the plans and describes the scale of the issue, benchmarks the position, demonstrate progress over time and highlights the on-going challenges;

(b)          alcohol related hospital admissions in Plymouth were higher than the national average.  In 2012/13 saw the first drop in hospital admissions since 2008;

(c)           the 2014 Wellbeing Survey would provide a baseline in reported levels of alcohol consumption to gain a better understanding on how much people were drinking;

(d)          Devon and Cornwall Police were working to improve the recording and reporting of alcohol related offences.  In early 2015 they would be providing trend data and breakdown by neighbourhood;

(e)          that children affected by parental alcohol misuse was difficult to record and more intelligence was needed.  The Health Visitor Caseload Survey undertaken every 2 years records a series of health needs from families across the city with children under the age of 5 years should gather more intelligence;

(f)            the detailed implementation plan shows areas of progress and challenges in the following areas :

·         Prevent;

·         Protect;

·         Treat;

·         Enforce and control.

In response to questions raised, it was reported that -

(g)           they hadn’t set specific measures but were looking at an overall reduction in alcohol consumption across the city;

(h)          the voluntary and community sector (vcs) were involved in a series of initiatives in delivering the Strategic Alcohol Plan such as ‘the reduction of full strength alcohol campaign’ led by the Shekinah Mission and Harbour Drug and Alcohol Services working in partnership with the local authority.  Treatment services delivered by the vcs were very much a core part of the successful delivery of the plan;

(i)            the licensing policy was amended to make much better use of control measures for licensed premises and they were working with the responsible  authorities to respond to licensing applications and reviews;

(j)            the Evening and Night Time Economy (ENTE) forms part of the enforce and control aspect.   They were working with the Business Improvement Districts (BID) areas to create safer environments, ensuring people do not enter a BID area drunk and working with premises to ensure they do not serve alcohol to people that were drunk and how we get the balance for a vibrant economy for ENTE with licenced premises acting responsibly;

(k)          the Chair would continue to have regular meeting with the Chair of the Growth Board.  The Growth Board Chair supports the aims of the Health and Wellbeing Board and wants people to go out and enjoy the city safely;

(l)            mental health was covered within treatment services that deliver services for dual diagnosis.  Further development of  the Alcohol Liaison Service would see those people with dual diagnosis and builds the capacity and links between the hospital and community based mental health services;

(m)         the dashboard was developed to give an indication of the position on the overall objectives set and the implementation plan provides a sense of whose involved with the plan.  The Alcohol Programme Board chaired by the Director of Public Health has a number of partners across the city sitting on the board;

(n)          the Strategic Alcohol Plan was not the responsibility Public Health but the responsibility of this Board.  Public Health co-ordinates the delivery of the plan and this board agreed to this and wanted to provide the assurance that different partners were engaged with the delivery;

A discussion took place on whether this Board had the delegated authority to approve the financial requirements as set in the recommendations.  The Board were asked to think about its role and remit to make resolutions in both human and fiscal investment to meet the strategic aims.  The Board then agreed to slightly amend recommendation 2.

Agreed that –

1.         Health and Wellbeing Board members consider the proposed dashboard as the annual performance framework for the Strategic Alcohol Plan for Plymouth 2013 – 2018.  Specifically the Board is asked to –

·                      financially support further editions of the Wellbeing Survey to measure consumption levels;

·                      support the development of the proposed police flagging system to record alcohol related  violence;

·                      support further development of the alcohol related anti-social behaviour indicator;

·                      consider inclusion of number of child protection cases where parental alcohol misuse is a factor as an additional indicator.

2.         The Health and Wellbeing Board supports a sustainable hospital alcohol liaison service, as stated in the previously agreed Strategic Alcohol Plan for Plymouth.