Agenda item

[To consider a briefing note outlining alcohol harm in Wolverhampton and what the Council and its partners are doing in response]. 

The Principle Public Health Specialist introduced the aims of the presentation (a copy of the presentation is attached to the signed minutes). She set out to the Panel statistics on alcohol related deaths in a national context, with significant increases seen since the Covid-19 pandemic began. Statistics showed that Wolverhampton had the highest alcohol specific related deaths in the country. More specific data in Wolverhampton highlighted White British males and South Asian males as being over-represented in relation to alcohol related deaths, as well as being aged between 50 to 59. Socio-economic factors were a major cause of alcohol related problems nationally, with the poorest in society struggling with the effects of alcoholism. The Principle Public Health Specialist asked if the Panel had any questions.

The Vice Chair asked why the localised data graph seemed to go up and down in extremes across the years.

The Director of Public Health answered that they had recently finished a survey on lifestyles in the City which would help the team to understand the behaviours of people in the City, which would allow them to understand more about alcoholism in the City. He explained that the smaller numbers being measured in local data compared to national data which has millions of people was the reason why Wolverhampton’s data line seems more dramatic.

A Panel member gave historical context around alcoholism within the City, highlighting a 2012 study on school children who had drank alcohol under the age of 15. He wanted to know if lessons had been learnt from that and if any action had been taken on this, believing the two issues to be linked.

The Director of Public Health clarified that the 2012 and subsequent surveys on children’s consumption of alcohol was specifically about if they had ever consumed alcohol at all, rather than a survey about long term use age, he said it was key to understand the cultural context people live in and how that played a role. He said they had continued to monitor the schools and was pleased to report those levels have been declining since the 2012 survey.

Discussion occurred around economics, how much unemployment contributes to alcoholism with countering views as to the level it contributes.

A Councillor enquired what could be done from a social housing perspective, citing examples of multiple recovering alcohols being housed within the same street and therefore contributing to their relapses. He asked if a better dispersal plan or policy would be possible.

The Director of Public Health replied that partnership working was required to better respond to people’s needs.

The Principle Public Health Specialist continued the presentation, in which statistics of estimated unmet needs from alcohol treatment were shown. Wolverhampton had an 82% unmet need estimate, which was consistent with the national trend. The Principle Public Health Specialist stated this would be where work would need to be focused upon. Recovery statistics were presented to the Panel. With 120 out of 228 Wolverhampton recovering alcoholics supported to successfully obtain employment during their treatment phase. Partnership responses in the local area have been formed and continue to be developed under the Local Drug and Alcohol Strategic Partnership, which was formed in July 2022. This partnership was designed to align with the national drug strategy with additional funding from the government granted to local authorities. The plan to address alcohol harm in the City was shown. With a planned increase in workforce, this equated to an increase in detox and other alcohol dependency services. Bullet points covered further areas for consideration for the Council and its partners.

The Chair asked what the treatment entailed.

The Principle Public Health Specialist answered that the treatment is a holistic approach, with includes group recovery, one on one treatment, housing, welfare support and more. The Individuals needs and their ranking in risk play a part in the treatment they receive. The Director of Public Health added that individual care plans whilst being surrounded by a specialist workforce were key in the strategy. He informed the Panel that Wolverhampton’s alcohol treatment success rates were some of the highest in the country, as well as the probability of patients gaining employment during their treatment.

A Councillor wanted further explanation around the plan to reduce alcohol serving premises in the area. He also wanted to know how cultural norms in communities fit into the plan, as well as situations such as poor parenting.

The Director for Public Health replied that they plan to consider licensed premises and where a licensed premise would be granted going forwards, based off the data. If it was apparent somewhere that sold strong alcohol would not be beneficial to a community, it would likely not be given permission to set up business.

The Vice Chair asked what the approach towards licensed premises who were caught selling to people under the legal age was.

The Director of Public Health stated that a partnership approach was always taken with businesses towards how they managed those issues and the response was decided on a case by case basis. The Director of Resident Services raised the work of licensing, environmental health and trading standards, citing test purchases which were done to ensure licensed premises were complying with the law. He stated it was important to understand intent, and some cases have resulted in a removal of license to serve to sell alcohol on the premises.

A Councillor felt work needed to be done with licensees to help them better understand risks within their communities. He felt a culture of responsibility needed to be pushed, through training and partnership. He suggested a forum for the licensees could be set up, which would enable better communication and collaboration to ensure community cohesion.

The Director of Resident Services agreed that prevention was better than the cure and agreed working with traders to help in the prevention of enabling alcoholism was important. He said their team did already work with traders on this. Through “Trade With Confidence”, Officers work as pseudo-consultants with those businesses to ensure compliance with the law and more responsible trading.

A Councillor welcomed the information but requested further clarity on the role housing could play in tackling the City’s issues. Speaking from a Fire Services perspective he stated that statistically, many fires on premises have a higher rate were linked to residents with alcohol or drug addiction. He said involvement in the fire service would be welcomed. He recommended that data on people for well being purposes, if it could be done in line with GPDR, could be shared with the Fire Service so they could work in partnership with the Local Authority and Healthcare Services to help sign post people with addiction problems and help prevent fires. He requested further information on what was being done with Social Housing Providers. He also asked how the service dealt with Veterans specifically, if at all. The Councillor was keen to stress not every Veteran was an alcoholic, but deaths of Veterans from liver failure were very high, so he wanted to know what services existed for them, as he was a former Veteran himself.

The Director of Public Health recognised that tackling issues in high-stress professions was a challenge. He said that it would require “Family Working”, defining family as both biological and professional families for soldiers, or police officers, fire fighters etc. He stressed the importance of those networks playing a part in tackling alcohol dependency.