PC Gill Young, PC Karen McKenzie and PC Martin Crow from Police Scotland received the CAP of the Year (Scotland) Award for the North West Edinburgh Community Alcohol Partnership from Douglas Meikle of the Scotch Whisky Association at the annual CAP celebration at the House of Lords on January 29.
Douglas Meikle said: “The North West Edinburgh Community Alcohol Partnerships (CAP) has reported significant results from its students’ surveys: the percentage of 13-16 year olds who said they had drunk alcohol on a weekly basis fell in one school from 17.43% to 7.84%. It has achieved this with energetic partnership working and an innovative approach to getting its messages out to young people, including using a Scot Rail train carriage as a venue for alcohol education; enlisting the help of local sea cadets to deliver a warning about proxy purchase to local homes; organising new community football sessions, go-karting and a disco and coming together with a wide range of partners at a community event at Waverley Station. Well done NW Edinburgh CAP.”
Douglas Meikle added: “I’d also like to congratulate Orkney CAP and North East Edinburgh CAP which were highly commended in this category and like all Scotland CAPs, do fantastic work to prevent alcohol harm to our young people.”
CAPs are made up of partnerships between retailers, local authorities, police, schools, neighbourhood groups and health providers, working together to empower communities to tackle alcohol-related harm to young people and improve the quality of life for residents. The CAP 2019 annual report, launched at the House of Lords, shows how this innovative partnership approach has brought significant reductions in alcohol supply to children, alcohol-related anti-social behaviour and underage street drinking.
Evaluations covering 2015-2019 show:
• 52% average reductions in regular drinking among 13-16 year olds
• 40% reductions in youth alcohol-related anti-social behaviour
• 80% improvement in Challenge 25 compliance following CAP training
• 90% reductions in residents reporting seeing under 18s drinking in the local area
• 77% reduction in young people hanging around shops and asking adults to buy alcohol for them
CAP Chair Derek Lewis said: “Underage drinking is associated with school and educational problems, unprotected sex, consumption of illicit drugs, violence and drinking problems in later life. We have been greatly encouraged to see emerging evidence that CAPs are reducing alcohol consumption by underage children. While the proportion of young people in England who regularly consume alcohol has dropped slowly between 2001 and 2018, the reductions achieved in CAP areas are even greater, with 52% average reductions in regular drinking among 13-16 year olds. We believe that this reflects the increasing emphasis on working with schools within the CAP areas.”
Ends
For media information please contact: Julia Shipston, Communications Manager at CAP: tel: 0771 3163003, email [email protected]
Notes for Editors
The first CAP was set up in St Neots in 2007 and 201 have now been launched across the UK.