Mark Moody, Chief Executive
Last week, the Government published its 10-Year Health Plan. It’s smart, considered, and in many ways, sensible. It takes a welcome, broad approach, understanding that our health isn’t just built in hospitals, but within communities. That placing multiple services together under one roof, closer to home, can improve access and reduce the stark inequalities that currently exist in accessing NHS care. The plan acknowledges that prevention matters. That we need to put measures in place to support people’s health and stop them from getting sick, not just treat them when they do.
The Plan goes into impressive detail on many areas. From HPV vaccination to GLP-1 medications for weight loss, to genomic sequencing for adults.
It shows what’s possible when ambition meets clarity, which makes the total absence of action on drug use, and the brief commitments to alcohol harm, all the more stark.
It’s no surprise that drug use is unmentioned: it’s too often seen as separate from health, hidden in the stigmatising shadow of crime, needle litter or anti-social behaviour. That’s not the focus of this article, though.
Because perhaps more surprising, given it’s a topic we’re all more familiar with, one fully embedded in our culture and everyday life, is the subdued section of text devoted to addressing alcohol harms.
A huge opportunity may have been missed.
Alcohol is one of the biggest preventable causes of ill health and early death in the UK. Over 10,000 people die as a result of heavy drinking each year.
Alcohol is linked to cancer, liver failure, domestic violence, homelessness, A&E visits, widening health inequalities and unrelenting pressure on our health system.
Earlier drafts of the 10-year plan reportedly included minimum pricing, ad restrictions, and clearer public messaging, none of which have made it into the final iteration. There’s room to debate their impact, but in the end, it’s their absence that speaks loudest.
According to The Guardian and The Times, those ideas were pulled after internal pushback and industry pressure. This happens, and is expected as the alcohol sector faces its ‘tobacco moment’. I’ve read the objections. I don’t agree with them, but I do understand. Times are hard. Costs are rising, we’re all trying to protect jobs, and money is tighter than ever. But this isn’t about budgets or balance sheets, and it shouldn’t be about what’s in the interests of any one sector.
This is about the hundreds of thousands of people with an alcohol dependence in the UK. This is about people like Jo, who began drinking to numb her grief after losing her son’s father, until alcohol nearly took her life. Her story says more than I, or any statistic, ever could.
In 2023-24, more than 100,000 people in England and Wales accessed treatment services for alcohol, 26% higher than four years before.
Change Grow Live services are and will always be there for those who need support, and we are seeing more and more people come to us for help. Against this backdrop of dramatically growing need, preventative measures are crucial.
The reason alcohol is so hard to tackle is right in front of our eyes. It is everywhere. At celebrations, commiserations, stitched into our weekends, our advertising, our social lives, our conversations. It’s cultural. It’s commercial. It’s normal. And that visibility, that acceptance, is exactly what makes it so difficult to confront.
This isn’t a matter of minor adjustments like expanding voluntary guidelines for alcohol labelling. It requires bold, almost definitely unpopular choices. It means disrupting what has come to be a normality for many and being honest about what the cost of alcohol is to us: as an economy, as a society, as individuals.
It’s been 13 years since the last national alcohol strategy. In that time, the impact of alcohol harm has deepened. Deaths have risen for five years in a row. They’re now 40% higher than before the pandemic. And behind each statistic is a life lost too soon.
The 10-Year Health Plan sets out some genuinely ambitious goals and gets a lot right, especially in recognising the importance of prevention and community-based care.
But two of the biggest factors behind poor health, drugs and alcohol, deserved more. And people deserved more. For a plan that puts prevention at its heart, that’s a missed opportunity.
Without significant preventative measures as part of this otherwise ambitious new vision for health, we must continue to do what we can, and advocate for others to do what they can, to face alcohol harm with the urgency it demands.
A time will come when alcohol harms are addressed with the severity they deserve. The only question is, how much more are we willing to lose before then?
If you’re interested in the work we’re doing or want to help us raise awareness of alcohol harm, speak to Russ from our team: [email protected].