The Alcohol and Youth Action Plan has been recently published and after reading it I felt overall it was a good document with a mix of supporting young people and enforcement. Although I do have concerns about the balance between the mix of support and enforcement.

The action plan it's self is divided in to five key areas:
1. Stopping young people drinking in public places
2. Taking action with the industry on young people and alcohol
3. Developing a national consensus on young people and drinking
4. Establishing a new partnership with parents
5. Supporting young people to make sensible decisions.

1. Stopping young people drinking in public places
The first about stopping young people drinking in public places in principle sounds good. I have observed young people drinking in the parks and streets on a Friday evening across the borough I work in. These environments have added risks for young people including lack of supervision and environmental factors (such as canals, main roads, etc.). However the approach used in the action plan is fully enforcement - with the key agency being the Police. Now although I do believe the Police have a role in this I think it needs to be a multi-agency approach.

We need to look at why young people drink and identify the cause of young people drinking in order to stop young people drinking in public places. I undertook some consultation work and across my borough all young people who where asked why they drink responded "because there's nothing else to do" and "to get drunk". So I believe there is a role for Youth Workers to provide diversionary activities as "nothing to do and no where to go" are essentially why some young people drink.

With in this section there is a section on extending the pilot for the arrest-referral scheme to include young people under 18 who are arrested after drinking. I have worked with many young people who have committed offences, some quite severe after drinking heavily. Now although I think it is vital that we reach out and use every opportunity possible to get young people with an issue with alcohol in to treatment I wonder how this will work?

For example, a young person may be arrested for drinking on the streets and being drunk and disorderly. It could be this young persons first time drinking on the street. If it is this young person's first time drinking, their tolerance to alcohol will be lower and he would be unaware of his tolerance levels - something we all had to learn at some point. Does he really need treatment service input because he experimented?

I guess this will need to be looked at closely. I would be interested to read the evaluation of the pilot for over 18's. In my experience, those young people that are forced in to Treatment services as part of a caught order for substance often have poor engagement levels and do not wish to change their behaviour. I guess it would be the same for young people around alcohol.

2. Taking action with the industry on young people and alcohol
Taking action with the industry on young people and alcohol I am glad has been included. Since 1996 the year of 'the birth of the alcohopop' drinking levels among young people have increased - although I don't feel the alcohopop is solely to blame. We have to look at how the industry advertise.

You only have to search Google images for popular brands of Alcoholic drinks and you'll find plenty of adverts that would appeal to young people. I believe that we do have work to do in partnership with the industry to regulate both the supply of alcohol to young people and helping the industry to look at responsible advertising. I also feel that we should be educating young people on how the industry promotes it's brands to give young people an awareness of the impact the media has on society.

3. Developing a national consensus on young people and drinking
Developing a national consensus on young people and their use of alcohol I was impressed to see within the Action Plan. There has been a lack of consensus nationally about young people and drinking which gives an unclear message. This lack of consensus I also see at a local level. Different professionals have different views on young people drinking dependant up on which background they come from. This often creates debate on how to deal with the issue of young people drinking locally. So by developing a consensus on the approach of dealing with this issue will be extremely helpful to all services coming in to contact with young people.

4. Establishing a new partnership with parents
The Action Plan had some good ideas on this 'new' relationship with parents. In the area I work in all services for Children and Young People tend to have good relationships with the majority of the community. I sat the majority of the community as we have a new community of polish and eastern europeans we now need to engage with in order to work with the parents around this issue of alcohol. The Action Plan hasn't recognised this, and for me is one of the small critisms of the Action Plan.

Some of the good ideas in the Action Plan around parents are to give them advice and skill them up in dealing with their young people and alcohol. The Action Plan also talks about use of Early Intervention Programmes which is good as we need to reach out and work with families and young people before the drinking leads to risk taking behaviour and possible offending behaviour.

In terms of the Young People's Drug and Alcohol Team I work for it is good news around alcohol as the alcohol Action Plan states that is wishes to extend Family Intervention Projects for substance misuse including alcohol. I think it is important however that we evaluate these projects and ensure they demonstrate that they are cost effective and achieve clear outcomes for the young people and families as well as the tax payer who essentially pays for us.

5. Supporting young people to make sensible decisions.
One of the most positive things with in this report was a review of School Based Education around Alcohol. This for me was fantastic to hear! School education around alcohol current varies from school to school in my local area of work. I can vary from one PSHE lesson (1 hour) once a year, to regular targeted education at groups of young people at risk/or currently using alcohol. There needs to be a clear approach that is evidence based giving practice guidance, with maybe ofsted monitoring the quality of alcohol education.

It also talks about a review of Young People's Treatment Services. I would welcome this with open arms as because although it would be a high level of stress over the review period it would demonstrate the good work that we do in our team locally.

I often read of new innovative work - perhaps a partnership project, and think to myself but we've been doing that for years. Our biggest weakness in our service is maybe that we are to busy doing and don't spend enough time promoting. Not to say that we don't have area's for improvement. All teams do and we recognise this and regularly review practice and trial new ideas to improve it.

Summary
So in summary the Alcohol Action Plan is a good document. But it needs to be backed up with actions and this requires money and a commitment by agencies. I am not currently aware of any additional funds being put forward by the government to do the "extended" pieces of work but I imagine it will be put in some financial plan the government has - or at least I'm hopeful it will be.

As for the other actions it suggests, they will essentially become part of a variety of agencies core business. This is a beginning in starting the cultural change required to reduce the harms caused by young people drinking.