Tobacco and Alcohol Education

One of the priorities of the Public Protection Partnership (PPP) relates to educating young people regarding the dangers presented by tobacco and alcohol. We do this is a number of ways.

Tobacco Control Alliance

PPP staff are members of the Berkshire West Tobacco Control Alliance. The aim of the Tobacco Control Alliance is to protect communities from tobacco related harm through education and enforcement. We aim to do this by discouraging young people from starting to smoke and by motivating and assisting every smoker to stop the habit. We work closely with Smokefreelife Berkshire. Berkshire West Tobacco Control Alliance provides a Tobacco Control Plan which is updated annually, please see the most recent copy in Associated documents below.

We deliver education sessions to local schools to raise awareness of the health harms of smoking, with particular focus on year 9 pupils as part of their Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) lessons. Since 2007 we have also been running surveys in local schools to assess the smoking and drinking habits of 11-17 year olds to inform our educational and enforcement work.

See here link for Tobacco Control Trading Standards Presentation for schools. 

In addition to providing tobacco education in schools, PPP also delivers sessions in school PSHE lessons on the health harms of drinking alcohol. Along with our colleagues in Public Health, we part fund a theatre performance and workshop called ‘Last Orders’ for year 9 pupils in Secondary Schools in West Berkshire and Wokingham.

We support Public Health colleagues with delivering the Health and Wellbeing in Schools programme. As part of this we help with the delivery of the Young Health Champions qualification across several schools. Our work with Public Health also includes national campaigns such as Stoptober, Smoke-free homes and Smoke-free cars.

If you need an incentive to stop smoking at home this booklet can help. A smoke free home protects you and those you live with, reducing the risks of heart disease, lung cancer and strokes.

PPP works with Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs and Thames Valley Police to reduce the sale of illegal tobacco and alcohol. PPP also enforces the laws relating to the sale of age restricted products including the sale of tobacco and alcohol, for more information about this click here.

Youth Health Champions

The Youth Health Champions programme is a peer education approach to health promotion, empowering young people in a variety of settings to have a positive influence on their own health and the health of those around them. It is running in five west Berkshire schools at the moment and is proving to be a very successful initiative. This video of Youth Health Champions was filmed at the Youth Health Conference in March 2019.

PHSE4you Podcast Links

Community Alcohol Partnership

The district wide Community Alcohol Partnership (CAP) was launched on the 6^th July 2023. Local partners such as retailers, schools and the police will be  working together to prevent the misuse of alcohol by children under 18 years old.

To report any concerns in relation to the sale of illegal tobacco or the sale of age restricted products to children under 18 years old please call the Citizens Advice Consumer Service on 034 540 40506 or report it here.