This page provides initial information in support of FVA's work with Community Alcohol Partnerships UK to seek to establish a range of local community alcohol partnerships in some of Fife's communities.
Community Alcohol Partnerships UK
Community Alcohol Partnerships (CAP) is a not-for-profit organisation whose purpose is to prevent underage drinking via a community-led approach.
CAP's primary purpose is to support the development of effective local strategies to prevent underage drinking and enhance the health and wellbeing of children and young people.
The national CAP organisation identifies local needs, facilitates the assembly of the local CAP partnership, offers start-up funding and expert advice, provides a toolkit of interventions, shares best practice gathered across the national CAP network and supplies a rigorous evaluation system. A key part of their support offer is a team of highly skilled regional Advisers whose role is to provide advice and support to local partnerships.
Key outcomes
CAP has been able to demonstrate the following outcomes in areas where local CAPs have been established:
- 64% reduction in regular drinking among 13-16 year olds
- 98% pass rates in Challenge 25 following CAP training
- 42% reduction in alcohol related anti-social behaviour
Fife position
There are no CAPs in Fife yet. FVA is currently convening meetings with key stakeholders, and CAP UK, to discuss the benefits of CAPs in Fife, and how to progress any agreed steps.
To be added to the list of stakeholders, please contact us: [email protected].
The rest of this page contains further background information. Links to the CAP website are at the foot of this page. This page will be updated as discussions and plans for CAPs in Fife progress.
Target groups
CAP aims to educate and inform three target groups: retailers/licensees, children and young people, and adults.
Retailers/licensees
CAP has close links with the Retail Alcohol Standards Group (RASG) many of whose members fund CAP. The Retail of Alcohol Standards Group is at the forefront of promoting high standards among alcohol retailers especially those designed to prevent underage drinking. RASG pioneered the Challenge 25 scheme, a retailing strategy that encourages anyone who is over 18 but looks under 25 to carry acceptable ID if they wish to buy alcohol. RASG also pioneered best practice retail schemes to prevent proxy purchase.
Responsible retail strategies are an integral part of the CAP approach. CAPs work closely with alcohol retailers, providing support, training and publicity materials and helping them build positive relationships with local police, trading standards and licensing officers so that together they are doing everything possible to prevent underage and proxy sales.
Children and young people
All children and young people should receive education about alcohol in school via the PSHE curriculum. However, this is often a neglected subject and some youngsters, especially those who are excluded from school, miss out on alcohol education altogether. CAP encourages greater emphasis on alcohol education in schools and other settings like youth clubs.
CAP works with schools in CAP areas to support them to follow an age-appropriate alcohol education programme - preferably one that has been evaluated with proven results such as The Talk About Trust's 'Talk about Alcohol' programme in secondary schools.
CAP encourages interactive methods of teaching including peer mentoring, theatre in education and Dragon's Den-type competitions to encourage pupils to present their own creative solutions, while school action days involve a range of agencies and visiting speakers with special expertise or knowledge.
CAPs across the UK also deliver an innovative Young Health Champions course, a Level 2 qualification for children and young people between the ages of 12-25, giving them the skills and knowledge to act as peer mentors and deliver positive health messages to other children and young people.
Adults
CAPs increasingly work with young people aged 18-24, primarily signposting them to services that can help. This is a time when they are making important decisions about their education and their future and excessive alcohol consumption can have negative consequences which can blight their lives. CAP wants to ensure they are equipped to make the right decisions about a range of issues, including drugs and anti-social and criminal behaviour. CAP's is a long term, preventative approach and an important local initiative in the current climate as part of other wider approaches to tackle knife crime, gang culture and county lines.
CAPs also reach out to parents who are the most common supply route of alcohol for children, developing campaigns to increase parental responsibility and encouraging schools to integrate parental engagement and education in their action plans. They highlight the importance of not giving children and young people alcohol and that proxy purchase (buying alcohol for or on behalf of an under 18) is an offence.
Methodology
Each local CAP scheme or 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.
CAP creates and supports local partnerships (CAPs) that aim to reduce alcohol harm in children and young people, improve their health and well-being and enhance their communities. In just over 17 years, CAP has set up over 280 CAP partnerships across the UK, including almost 20 in Scotland.
Existing CAPs in Scotland:
- 7 in Edinburgh
- 4 in North Lanarkshire, with 2 more being established
- 1 in Orkney
- 1 in East Renfrewshire
- 1 in East Dunbartonshire
- 1 in Shetland
- 1 in South Lanarkshire
Fife features 9th highest in national ratio of under 15 drunkenness. CAP is hopeful that partners could establish up to 4 CAPs in Fife. South Lanarkshire, Orkney and Edinburgh have lower levels of drunkenness (South Lanarkshire is at 28%, Fife is 29%).
Measuring impact
All CAP partnership projects are required to complete a baseline and post intervention evaluation using an evaluation framework/method devised by London Metropolitan University. These evaluations show that - on average across the UK - CAP projects achieved:
- 64% reductions in regular drinking among 13-16 year olds
- 42% reductions in youth alcohol-related anti-social behaviour
- Pass rates of 90-100% in Challenge 25 compliance following CAP training
- 77% reductions in young people hanging around shops and asking adults to buy alcohol for them (proxy purchase)
The latest data from CAPs in Scotland shows:
- Survey results for numbers of 13-16 year olds who drink weekly or more frequently reducing
- Challenge 25 compliance testing improving
- Local citizens' perceptions of public underage drinking improving
Contact
To find out more about FVA's work to establish CAPs in Fife, please contact us: [email protected].
External links
FVA is not responsible for the content of external sites.
