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Alcohol policy
There
are three documents that have had considerable impact on the alcohol
field in recent years:
- That’s the Limit: a guide to sensible drinking 1987 (Health
Education Council)
- The Health of the Nation white paper 1992 (Department of Health)
- Sensible Drinking 1995 (Department of Health)
In
addition, the long awaited national strategy for England was published
in 2004:
- National Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy 2004 (Cabinet Office)
That’s
the Limit (1987)
The importance of this booklet was that it first introduced the
concept of ‘units’ of alcohol. It set limits for the
number of units people should drink weekly, suggesting 21 for men
and 14 for women.
Health
of the Nation (1992)
This was a white paper outlining the Government’s strategy
for health. One area of particular concern was reducing coronary
heart disease. One of the targets set to do this was reducing the
percentage of people drinking over a set number of units (21 and
14 units respectively) by 2005.
Sensible
Drinking (1995)
This report introduced the concept of daily benchmarks for units
of alcohol consumption. Instead of a weekly limit, it advised 3-4
units/day for men and 2-3 units/day for women. It also introduced
the idea that 1-2 units a day might be beneficial to the heart…but
only to men over 40 yrs and post-menopausal women.
The
key importance of these documents for social workers is to understand
the recommendations about units of alcohol in order to offer brief
advice where appropriate.
National
Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy 2004
The national alcohol strategy was finally published in March 2004.
There were great expectations and hopes that alcohol would attract
similar Government attention and investment as drugs and drug treatment.
Unfortunately it did not and there appears to be no additional investment
until possibly 2008. Given that evidence is showing alcohol-related
harms cost society a great deal more than drug-related harms the
strategy has been met with scepticism and disappointment by the
majority of people in the alcohol field.
Four
key areas were focussed on within the strategy:
- Better
education and communication
- Improving health and treatment services.
- Combating
alcohol-related crime and disorder.
- Working
with alcohol industry
Social
harms resulting from alcohol problems and the role of social services
are almost completely overlooked in the strategy in favour of the
criminal justice and health agenda.
Safe. Sensible. Social. The Next Steps in the Alcohol Strategy (DH 2007)
This document reviews the progress of the AHRSE 2004 and proposes further work to address a number of areas including greater attention given to the families and friends negatively affected by people whose drinking is harmful to others. However it remains to be seen whether this is translated into additional resources or whether, in reality, “families and friends” really means children of parents with drink problems. In some ways the Strategy is an improvement on its predecessor but it still fails to adequately acknowledge the role of social care and social services in working with people with alcohol problems and again focuses on criminal justice and health responses. Greater emphasis is given to the children’s workforce and the role of the LSCB to oversee partnerships addressing parental substance problems. It also proposes “sharpened criminal justice for drunken behaviour; a review of NHS alcohol spending (suggesting a delay in funding any of the targets mentioned); more help for people who want to drink less; toughened enforcement of underage sales; trusted guidance for parents and young people; public information campaigns to promote a new ‘sensible drinking’ culture; public consultation on alcohol pricing and promotion; and local alcohol strategies”.
Models
of Care for Alcohol Misuse (MoCAM)
This policy document sets out a framework for developing and commissioning local alcohol treatment systems, including care planning and integrated care pathways. It usefully describes various patterns of alcohol consumption and suggests appropriate alcohol interventions for different types of alcohol use. It echoes the structure of its drugs counterpart in calling for “generic providers”, eg. social workers, to be able to conduct brief advice and targeted interventions in relation to alcohol use (Tier 1). It also highlights the need for social service professionals to work in partnership with specialist alcohol professionals. Unlike its predecessor it also makes suggests that social workers who have the appropriate skills and competence could also deliver more specialist interventions (Tier 2). One of its strengths is also the documents references to social harms, families, domestic abuse and a number of other issues that social workers deal with regularly. Again, we need to wait to see whether this will translate into practice improvements and better joint working. To download a copy of MoCAM, go to the NTA website, select ‘work areas’, then select ‘alcohol’.
Alcohol-related
legislation
The key piece of alcohol legislation is the Licensing
Act 1964 (2003 amendments in force in 2005). It
is the Licensing Act that makes provision for the granting of licenses
for the sale of alcohol, sets opening hours of licensed premises
and grants extensions to hours if appropriate. It also provides
the legislative framework for sales to persons under 18 and defines
offences under the Act, eg. drunk and disorderly.
A
more recent piece of legislation is the Criminal
Justice and Police Act 2001. This gives local authorities the right to ban drinking in public
places where nuisance is associated with it. It also gives the police
the right to confiscate open or unopened containers of alcohol (particularly
from children). In general it gave police greater powers including
closing licensed premises where there is trouble and dealing with
drunk and disorderly people including on the spot fines.
Finally
the Criminal Justice Act 2003 has introduced the concept of an ‘alcohol treatment requirement’
as a dispensation available to courts imposing community sentences.
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