Youth alcohol strategy fails to set goals
Sarah Cooper
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
The Youth Alcohol Action Plan should have provided a target for reducing the number of underage drinkers, according to a national children's charity.
Responding to the strategy unveiled at the start of this week, Geethika Jayatilaka, deputy chief executive of 4Children, said: "A fundamental point is to reduce the number of young people drinking problematically and the government needs to set a goal."
Anti-alcohol campaigners said the government should also have outlined its views on alcohol advertising in the plan.
A spokesman for Alcohol Concern said: "We hoped the government would use this opportunity to issue a statement on its thinking on whether alcohol advertising regulations should be tightened to prevent young people from being exposed to advertisements to the degree that they are."
Instead, the plan stated the government would look at action on advertising once the Home Office's Review of Price, Promotion and Harm has finished.
Jayatilaka said the government needs to examine existing policy on alcohol advertising. "It needs to be honest about what is not working. I really want to see something more challenging in helping the drinks industry feel it has to change its culture."
The strategy, published jointly by the Department for Children, Schools and Families, the Department of Health and the Home Office set out plans to extend alcohol arrest-referral schemes, which offer heavy drinkers counselling after they have been arrested. The pilot was extended to young people in June 2007 as part of Safe, Sensible and Social - Next Steps for the National Alcohol Strategy.
Alcohol Concern's spokesman said: "There is a lot of evidence to suggest young people benefit from alcohol interventions - certainly at the moment there are very few opportunities for young people to access quality advice or counselling."
The plan also stated parents would be involved in developing guidance on underage drinking. Ministers also promised to make it an offence for under-18s to persistently be in possession of alcohol and to allow greater use of acceptable behaviour and parenting orders to stop underage drinking in public places.
