Breckland Health and Wellbeing Partnership

Breckland Council has set up a 'Community Alcohol Partnership' (CAP) in Thetford and Dereham based on local intelligence these areas are most at risk, with the view to set up CAP's in all the market towns across Breckland.

Each CAP project will devise an action plan that is uniquely tailored to local need with the overarching aims to protect children and young people from alcohol harm, enhance their health and wellbeing and improve local communities.

All action plans are based on three key pillars namely:

•  Alcohol education
•  Provision of positive activities
•  Responsible retail strategies

Since 2017, we have also encouraged CAPs to include an objective around moderate/safe drinking for 18-25 year olds.

Alcohol education

Schools in CAP areas are encouraged to take part in a wide variety of alcohol education programmes including but not limited to the Alcohol Education Trust's Talk about Alcohol programme, Smashed- an interactive drama-based programme - and the Royal Society of Public Health's Young Health Champions programme.
We also encourage schools to use interactive, innovative ways of teaching about alcohol including school action days involving a range of local agencies, competitions to encourage pupils to present team-based creative solutions to reducing alcohol harm and visiting speakers with special expertise or knowledge.

Responsible retail strategies

CAPs work closely with retailers, providing support, training and publicity materials and helping them build positive relationships with local police, trading standards and licensing officers. Before COVID, independent retailers were offered additional support and training from supermarket partners. This was not possible during COVID restrictions, and we also realised it was sometimes difficult for independent retailers to leave their shops to attend external training. So, we came up with a free online training course for retailers to help them prevent underage sales and proxy purchase (where adults buy alcohol on behalf of children).

Provision of positive activities

CAP encourages local partnerships to assess leisure activities for young people in their area, to talk to them about what they would like to do and look at ways to increase choice and accessibility. Most CAPs work closely with existing leisure and sports facilities, using youth clubs, youth buses and local cafés to provide opportunities for young people to drop in and meet in a supervised, safe environment. As well as enhancing their confidence, health and wellbeing, these activities are also an excellent opportunity to deliver alcohol education in an informal setting.