Smokefree Hertfordshire Tobacco Control Alliance

AGENDA

Tuesday 28th February 2017(2-4pm)

Committee Room B- Hertfordshire County Council - Hertford

Chair: Piers Simey, Consultant in Public health

The NHS statement of support for Tobacco Control: one year on
Item / Papers / Duration / Lead
Welcome and apologies / Piers Simey welcomed the meeting and introductions were made
Apologies:
Adrian Manning (Herts Valleys Clinical Commissioning Group), Alan Gough (Watford Borough Council), Bernard Lovewell, (North Hertfordshire District Council), Chris Taylor (Youth Connexions), Eric Buckmaster (East Herts Council),Fay-Suzanne Bowman (Youth Connexions), Gail Marino (,Broxbourne West Children’s Centre Group),Janka Szocs (HHIS) ,Jeannette Thomas (Stevenage Borough Council) , Kerry Murphy (Pfizer UK) , Mags Murray (Youth Connexions), Michal Siewniak (Watford & Three Rivers Trust), Nasay Franklin (HR, HCC), Sharn Tomlinson (Mind in Mid Herts), Jo Sanford (East Hemel Children’s Centres) / 5 mins / Piers Simey
Minutes of last meeting and outstanding actions / Minutes were agreed and there were no outstanding actions to address / 10 mins / Piers Simey
Schools Health Related Behavior Survey / Shelly shared the summary of results in regards to theSchools Health Related Behavior Survey
The schools complete the surveys online; the data is then complied and used by the Tobacco Control Alliance. This Data is made available at school level, district and county wide.
Over 8,500 pupils took part in 2016 from 87 schools. The Pupils are from Primary level education (Year 5 and 6 pupils) and Secondary (Year 8 and 10 pupils)
There is a section of questions relating to smoking behaviors, comprising of 9 questions. The questions relate to the young person’s smoking behaviour, their parents’ smoking behaviour and where they obtain their cigarettes from. There was one new question in this section for 2016 asking about E-cigarette use.
The data compiled from the 2016 survey from both Primary and Secondary schools is available on the presentation.
Piers: Recent American study indicates that the e-cigarette is not a gateway to smoking.
Heather Wallace asked how the schools are contacted. Shelly explained that she contacts the schools before the start of the first term.
- Link to survey used. / 10 mins / Shelly Taylor
Youth Connexions
Supporting young people to stop smoking / Heather Wallace (YC Hertfordshire Senior Youth Worker One Stop Shop (Dacorum))
SharedhowYouth connexions are performing in relation to smoking cessation and outlined their future aims.
Health is a major priority within the Youth Connexions service, with the main focus being on vulnerable groups such as; Young People. This is so they have a good start in life.
Numerous one stop shops are now open in Hertfordshire, these supply information to young people as well as also offering the smoking cessation service.
Youth Connexions also deliver smoking awareness in schools, to year 9 pupils. The focus revolves around certain aspects of smoking; law, finance, myth busting and social implications. The programme also works as a way in which pupils can engage with they’re parents who smoke and tell them about what they have learned.
Within the Onestop shop programme there is a young parent project which revolves around the use of nicotine.
In partnership with schools there is also a ‘Pupils and Parents Programme’ this is a stop smoking clinic run out of a school in Kings Langley. The clinic offers both group and Individual support. The idea behind the clinic is to get parents and pupils to support each other and quit together, as the children are more likely to smoke if the parents do. The programmes have several pieces of feedback from parents ‘They have only heard of NRT not Champix or other options’. Young people believe the imagines on cigarette packets are photo shopped and visuals such as Smoking Sue work as the best educational tools. / 10 mins / Heather Wallace
Healthy Children’s Centre Program
Support families to quit smoking
Children centers (Hemel Hempstead East) / Meinir Jones (Development and Commissioning Officer Children’s Services) shared her work around Tobacco control within Children’s Centres.
Introduced the Health Children centres programme which consists of 8 aspects.
  1. Health weight – Healthy lives
  2. Improving oral health
  3. Improving mental health and emotional wellbeing
  4. Improving sexual health.
  5. Reducing Alcohol and substance misuse.
  6. Tobacco Control
  7. Increasing Childhood immunisation rates.
  8. Child, Family and Centre Safety.
There is a large focus within the children’s centres on visuals and displays. These displays tend to focus on the economic and financial savings that stopping smoking can bring rather than the health benefits. E.g. Children’s play cars and play houses have Smoke Free Homes And Cars Stickers on as a way to engage with parents and children. Some children centres have trained advisors in house although they are not providing the service.
All outreach workers take the Tobacco Control agenda on visits to offer supports effectively.
The next step for the children’s centres is to share best practice more effectively and have more people level 2 trained therefore they can deliver a service once a contract of service is developed. / 10 mins / Meinir Jones
ASSIST- 3 years of delivering ASSIST
Schools experience / Rushma Patel (Tobacco Control lead and HHIS Business Manager) shared the success and experience of the ASSIST program.
The ASSIST Program.
ASSIST is a smoking prevention program for Year 8 which aims to reduce adolescent smoking prevalence.
The program meets The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines.
Peer supporters are trained and supported to have informal conversations with other Year 8 students about the risks of smoking and the benefits of being smoke-free.
This will help to reduce the numbers of young people taking up smoking.
Over 650 schools have been involved in the program across the country.
Training approximately 19,000 peer supporters..
ASSIST within Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire County Council purchased a 3 year license to deliver the program in 2015.
The programme was targeted at the schools in the Stevenage as it had the highest adult smoking prevalence.
4 of the 6 secondary schools in the district took part in the program.
Over 250 peer supporters have been trained in the county.
The Future of Assist
Look at opportunities to deliver elements of ASSIST within school in partnership with agencies already delivering in schools
Continue delivering ASSIST in other areas of Hertfordshire
Is Assist continuing? Rushma Patel and Elizabeth Fisher will approach board.
Piers also noted that it is a successful evidence based program that targets areas and works with parents.
Look at opportunity for Youth Connexionsworking with schools to incorporate and use ASSIST resources / 10 mins / Rushma Patel
Smokefree playgrounds
North Hertfordshire District Council / Peter Carey (North Herts Environmental Health Manager) Shared his experience when trying to make playgrounds smokefree in the district of North Herts.
Peter and his team faced several ‘Political’ problems in regards to launching the program
  • Strong Portfolio Holder support
  • Other Cabinet members more equivocal.
  • Lot of concern that residents would see this as ‘nanny state’ and there would be negative publicity
  • Queries as to why implement this when having to make cut backs in other areas.
  • Some of terminology was not agreeable ‘de-normalizing the use of tobacco…’
There was also a struggle with how it was going to be Enforced.
Finance Outlay:
  • We had 51 playgrounds that we controlled. Initial estimate was that the cost would be £2K. Leader skeptical that it could do it for that. Initially funding allocated from the £10K public health fund that districts/boroughs would have used however close to implementation the funding wasn’t available However around this time the council received some court costs for a prosecution (£3.5K) this was then used to fund the implementation.
Starting development for this piece of work was 2013 and took two years as it was not launched until 2015.
Overall there was a positive response with letters from happy parents and locals published in the newspapers detailing their satisfaction with the concept. Over the years some of the signs have been removed in areas by the public. / 10 mins / Peter Carey
Age of sell and Illicit tobacco / Mark Kempster (Senior Trading Standards Officer) detailed the current laws and amendments to those laws in relation to Age related sales of tobacco and explained the new standardized packaging.
Age Related Sales of Tobacco
  • Children & Young Persons Act 1933 (as amended)
  • Children & Young Persons (Protection from Tobacco) Act 1991
  • Children & Young Persons (Sale of Tobacco etc.) Order 2007.(made under the Health Act 2006)
  • Criminal Justice & Immigration Act 2008
  • The Tobacco Advertising and Promotion (Display) (England) Regulations 2010
  • Children & Families Act 2014 (Part 5)
  • Standardised Packaging of Tobacco Products Regulations 2015
  • Tobacco & Related Products Regulations 2016
  • Children & Young Persons Act 1933 (as amended)
  • Introduced the minimum age of sale (16 years old)
  • Children & Young Persons (Protection from Tobacco) Act 1991
  • Introduced the minimum pack size of 10 cigarettes & a statutory Tobacco Notice.
  • Children & Young Persons (Sale of Tobacco etc.) Order 2007.
  • (made under the Health Act 2006)
  • Increased the minimum age of sale (18 years old)
  • Criminal Justice & Immigration Act 2008
  • Introduced sanctions for persistently selling tobacco products to young people. (persistently = 3 sales in 2 years)
Standardised Packaging of Tobacco Products Regulations 2015
Minimum pouch weight for HRT is now 30g.
Minimum cigarette pack size now 20 cigarettes.
No packaging to produce, noise, scent, reactive inks.
White cigarettes only
imitation cork tip allowed)
Technical data removed / 10 mins / Mark Kempster
AOB / Rushma: UK has been smokefree for 10 years as of July 2017. You can use this information within your work. / 10 mins

Date of next meetings (all 2-4pm):

Wed18thOctober 2017-Committee Rooms A/B, Hertsmere Borough Council

Tuesday 20th February 2018 - Committee Room B, County Hall, Hertford

Tuesday 19th June 2018-Autun room Stevenage Borough Council