Engaging Youth Organisations in Tobacco Policy Development

1. Engaging Youth Organisations in Tobacco Policy Development Melanie Owens Health Improvement Senior (Tobacco & Young People)

2. Overview • Why was the tobacco policy support guide produced? • What did we do? • What did we find out? • What is in the tobacco policy support guide? • Where do we go from here with the tobacco policy support guide?

3. Why was the Guide produced? • Supporting policies that address tobacco prevention and education with young people has to be a part of what we do • Tobacco companies have a ‘40 - a - day habit’ in Scotland. Smoking rates in Scotland’s most deprived communities continue to sit at 40% • We need to support groups and organisations that work with disadvantaged and vulnerable young people in deprived communities • The tobacco policy picture amongst youth groups and organisations is often inconsistent, sometimes non–existent • Young people often seek to legitimise their own behaviour based on what they see role models doing

4. What did we do? • Brief literature review to identify examples of good practice • Survey with staff from a range of third sector youth organisations and groups across the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde • Survey with young people accessing services from a range of youth organisations and groups across the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde area • Focus groups with staff from community based youth organisations and groups. Focus groups with young people accessing community based youth services • One-to-one interviews with directors and managers from several youth organisations and groups

5. What did we find out?

6. What is in the tobacco policy support guide? • Taking a little time in the short term will save a great deal of time and resources in the longer term • Highlights why tobacco policy development is so important • Highlights some common barriers to tobacco policy development and suggests potential opportunities for overcoming these barriers • Offers a series of step – by – step suggestions for supporting the development and the implementation of effective tobacco policies • A series of case studies on approaches to tobacco and tobacco policies in a range of settings and examples of effective tobacco policies

7. Where does the guide go from here? • The real catalyst for developing tobacco policies is the motivation for change within each organisation. Organisations must want to make tobacco a priority before we can work with them productively • Protecting and promoting the health and wellbeing of young people is fundamental to the role of any youth worker and any organisation that works with young people

8. What will we do? • Raise awareness of the policy support guide • Build awareness through community youth networks including Youth Scotland, Youthlink Scotland, Scottish Peer Education Network, local youth networks and local tobacco alliances • Build awareness through relationships between smoking cessation teams and community based youth groups and organisations • Go directly to groups and organisations and offer policy development support

9. What about schools? • We are no looking at re-developing the guide so that it can be used within the formal education setting • Repeating the process: • Survey (Teachers, pupils and parents) • Focus groups with teachers and pupils • Links made to Curriculum for Excellence Experiences and Outcomes • Encourage schools to undertake tobacco education • Hope to launch the completed guide in August/September 2015

10. The tobacco policy support guide can be downloaded at: http://www.nhsggcsmokefree.org.uk/smokefree-services/young-people.html OR http://www.ashscotland.org.uk/what-we-do/young-people-and-tobacco/tobacco-policy-support-guide.aspx