Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Smoking and Tobacco Alliance: January 2024 newsletter
Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Smoking and Tobacco Alliance: January 2024 newsletter
The alliance has a clear, shared ambition to see smoking amongst adults reduced to 5% or lower by 2035 across Nottinghamshire and Nottingham City. Further to this, we want to make the harms of smoking a thing of the past for our next generation such that all of those born in 2022 are still non-smokers by their 18th birthday in 2040.
In this newsletter:
- In The News
- Programme Updates
- Government consultation
- Real Stories
- Partner Spotlight
- Upcoming plans and events
In the News
- Partners join forces for a smokefree future in Nottingham City and Nottinghamshire County
The Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Smoking and Tobacco Alliance is urging smokers in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire to quit for good.
The Alliance recently commissioned a new survey to open a conversation about why people smoke in the city and county, and how people feel about smoking in their communities.
The findings reveal that most people in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire who smoke do so every day, and more than three quarters (77%) say they smoke to cope with stress. This is despite the fact that smoking is known to actually increase anxiety and tension.
Two in three respondents said they’d like to cut down the amount they smoke and two in five wanted to quit altogether, but only 15% could very easily imagine themselves as an ex-smoker.
More than a third said they want to quit due to the cost of smoking. Worryingly, three in ten smokers in the county and four in ten in Nottingham City had made the decision to prioritise smoking over buying food.
There are local services ready to provide free stop smoking advice and support for people who want to quit smoking. Nottingham City residents can access support on quitting smoking through Stub it! at www.ncgpa.org.uk/stub-it. Nottinghamshire residents can access support on quitting smoking through Your Health Notts at https://yourhealthnotts.co.uk/support/stop-smoking/
For the full news release, see https://rb.gy/lkea5s
Our Alliance in the news!
Our Alliance is getting some fantastic publicity in the local media! Journalists have been interested in the findings from our report and have relayed some of our key messages to their readers. We managed to get some great coverage in print, online and broadcast publications, including Notts TV: https://nottstv.com/the-taste-of-greggs-was-unbelievable-woman-praises-nottingham-service-that-helped-stop-her-smoking/.
We’ve also amplified our story on our news channels: https://www.mynottinghamnews.co.uk/partners-join-forces-for-a-smokefree-future-in-nottingham-city-and-nottinghamshire-county/
Programme Updates
We’ve now officially launched our Alliance and the publication of our new research which aims to open a conversation about why people smoke in the city and county, and how people feel about smoking in their communities. Our messaging and goal was shared across broadcast, print and online publications to get our mission and messages across to thousands of Nottingham and Nottinghamshire residents. We’ve raised the profile of stop smoking services, available support and organisations that work hard to tackle the harms of tobacco.
Our social media channels were also launched. Across all four platforms – Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram – we have had at least 423 interactions to our posts and now have more than 115 followers.
If you haven’t yet followed our social accounts, the links are below – feel free to share and like our posts!
Twitter: https://twitter.com/smokefreenn
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/97399935/admin/feed/posts/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/smokefreefuturesnn/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/smokefreefuturesnn/
Government consultation
In October, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak set out plans to introduce legislation to prohibit children born on or after 1 January 2009 from legally buying cigarettes in England. This would effectively raise the smoking age by one year, every year, until it applies to the whole population. The idea is to create a smokefree generation, a sentiment outlined in the recent King’s speech. Smoking is the UK’s biggest preventable killer – causing around one in four cancer deaths and 64,000 in England alone – costing the economy and wider society £17 billion each year. People of all ages were invited to take part in a public consultation seeking views on plans to crack down on youth vaping by reducing the appeal, affordability and availability of vapes to our children.
The consultation posed questions in three areas for which new legislation would be needed. These were:
- Creating a smokefree generation: consulting on the smokefree generation policy and its scope.
- Tackling youth vaping: consulting on several options to ensure we take the most appropriate and impactful steps, building on England’s analysis of the youth vaping call for evidence.
- Enforcement: consulting on the proposal to introduce new powers for local authorities in England and Wales to issue fixed penalty notices to enforce age of sale legislation of tobacco products and vapes.
The consultation ran from October 12 to December 6 and the government is currently analysing feedback from the people who participated in it. The results will be announced in due course.
For more information, visit https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/creating-a-smokefree-generation-and-tackling-youth-vaping
Real Stories
“You’ve got to be ready to quit, but as soon as you are – do it sooner rather than later.”
Sandra, from Nottinghamshire, began smoking when she was just 12 years old. After smoking 20-25 cigarettes a day for 52 years she decided to make a change.
In 2019, Sandra was hospitalised due to smoking-related health conditions including pneumonia and obstructive pulmonary disease. When returning home, Sandra got in touch with her local stop smoking service – Your Health Notts.
Speaking about her smokefree lifestyle, Sandra said: “I’m so glad that I quit smoking and wish I’d done it sooner. The benefits to my personal life have been amazing.
“My family are so proud of me and I’ve been able to treat myself and my husband with the extra money I’m saving.”
Sue Lees from Nottingham city smoked her first cigarette aged just 13 and now, at the age of 55, she has finally kicked the habit with support from the Stub it! Stop Smoking Service. Delivered by the Nottingham City GP Alliance who are commissioned by Nottingham City Council, the service helps people in Nottingham City quit smoking for good through a range of methods and techniques tailored to each individual and their smoking patterns.
It has now been several months since Sue had her last cigarette and she’s enjoying numerous financial and health benefits of adopting a smoke-free lifestyle.
She said: “Now I’m reaping all of the benefits of quitting. I’m saving more of my hard-earned money and I’m no longer out of breath so often. I can also taste food properly for the first time in years – in fact, everything tastes so good now!”
We’ve compiled five case studies of people who’ve received support from our services on their journey to a smoke-free life. If you have any other case studies, feel free to drop us a line at swathi.krishnan@nottinghamcity.gov.uk and kay.massingham@nottscc.gov.uk.
Partner Spotlight
Our dedicated Phoenix team provide tobacco dependency support to pregnant women and other people at Sherwood Forest Hospitals Trust. We’ve successfully reduced the smoking at time of delivery rate by around 6% since we started running the pilot two and a half years ago. Previously a significant outlier for our SATOD (women’s smoking status at time of delivery) rates, this has been hailed as a huge success and used as an example on the NHS England website for the delivery of the maternity NHSE model.
We’re very proud of the achievements of the team and how we are supporting our women and health inequalities in our communities. The funding is due to cease in March but we’ve just been informed that our business case for further funding has been successful so this will now be a fully funded substantive service at Sherwood moving forwards.
For more information, visit https://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/prevention/tobacco-dependency-programme/. This site contains three videos; the first one is a quick summary of the service provided and includes an overview case study of a Mum, Fiona, who managed to quit with our support. The third video focuses on Fiona and baby Charlie in a bit more detail. There are also some useful blogs on smokefree pregnancies here: NHS England » Smokefree pregnancies.
- Kate Wright, Tobacco Dependency Programme Lead, Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust,
- Claire Allison, Tobacco Dependence Maternity Lead for The Phoenix Team, Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Upcoming plans and events
Going forward we’ll continue to spread the importance of quitting and signposting Nottingham and Nottinghamshire residents to the right support. We’ll also continue to educate people on the harms of tobacco.
We want to shine a light on our partners’ efforts to reduce the smoking prevalence in the area. If you’re planning any campaigns or activities focused on tobacco, please get in touch with swathi.krishnan@nottinghamcity.gov.uk and kay.massingham@nottscc.gov.uk.
We’ve been focusing on several key issues, including illegal tobacco (and the need to stamp it out) and the benefits of creating smokefree spaces. Feel free to get in touch if you have any views on either of these issues.
