Agenda item

Notice of Motion – Tobacco Control

To be moved by Councillor David Roche and seconded by Councillor David Sheppard

This Council notes that:

?        There has been a significant reduction in the number of people smoking, and there have been improvements in the services designed to assist with smoking cessation. Rotherham can be very pleased with the progress it has made in areas such as the reduction in the % of pregnant women smoking, in the impact of the new tobacco  working group. We understand our progress is better than in many other areas. Despite those, smoking remains the single largest driver of health inequalities and poor health in Rotherham, where – in common with the rest of the UK – it is the leading cause of cancer and preventable and early death.  We know that that we have been successful, but we also know there is more to be done

?        Preventable disease continues to have a massive impact on the public’s health, the NHS and the economy.

?        Decades of comprehensive policy action have meant adult smoking prevalence in the UK in 2019 was at a record low at 14.1%, but this masks significant inequality.

?        Differences in smoking rates make it one of the leading drivers of health inequalities, responsible for half the difference in life expectancy between the lowest and highest income groups in England.

?        Smoking is estimated by Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) to cost society £17bn annually for England, £2.4bn of which falls to the NHS.

?        That through their public health duties, local authorities are responsible for improving the health of their population and do this through services such as stop smoking services and wider tobacco control activities.

This Council:

?        Believes that local government must be adequately resourced to fulfil their public health duties and that the Council will make representations through Cancer Research and ASH to push for this to happen. Furthermore as part of this,  the Council calls upon the three Rotherham MP’s to   seek to improve funding for Public Health from the Government

?        Supports Cancer Research UK’s calls for a Smokefree Fund (a fixed annual charge on the tobacco industry, making the tobacco industry pay for the damage their products cause, without being able to influence how the funds are spent) to fund local tobacco control work, and urges the UK Government to consider implementing a Smokefree Fund as part of its efforts to reach the Smokefree 2030 target and tackle health inequalities. By supporting this motion we will be joining others in a Cancer Championships network  to help to provide more weight and support to Cancer Research UK to achieve their aim

Therefore, this Council will:

?        Ask Trading Standards and the Police in Rotherham whether ways can be found to further crack down on illegal tobacco sales. Also to work with Trading standards and Public Health to investigate if anything can be done re the “positive and open “way vaping is advertised/displayed with at the very least calling upon Vapour outlets to consider how they portray their wares   that might encourage youngsters to start vaping

?        Call upon Children and Young People’s Services to work with schools to see how they can provide further information and preventive work to warn of the dangers of vaping and smoking; in doing so to support youngsters to give up vaping whilst at the same time warning of the dangers of taking up vaping as a choice rather than as a measure to aid smoking cessation

?        Calls upon South Yorkshire ICS, to provide more support and a unified approach to those wishing to give up smoking in our region.

Background / supporting information

?        The Prevalence of smoking in Rotherham is significantly higher than for all-England. Approximately 16.9% of Rotherham adults (around 35,400 people) were smokers in 2021 compared to 13.0% nationally. 

?        From 2017-19, there were 1,272 smoking attributable deaths in Rotherham – a rate of 271 deaths per 100,000 population. This is significantly worse than the England rate of 202 or the Yorkshire and the Humber rate of 239 deaths per 100,000 population 

?        An estimated 13,836 Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) in Rotherham were caused by smoking in 2019 alone. This accounts for 16% of all DALYs in Rotherham - making smoking the single greatest contributor to the total burden of disease locally. 

?        Rotherham performs significantly worse than all-England for most indicators used to monitor the impact of smoking on population health. 

?        Smoking is the single largest driver of health inequalities in England. The more disadvantaged someone is, the more likely they are to smoke and to suffer from smoking-related disease and premature death.   

?        Rates of smoking are considerably higher amongst some groups, including:  

?        People who work in routine and manual occupations  

?        People from lower socioeconomic groups 

?        People with long term mental health conditions  

?        People with drug and alcohol additions 

?        People from some ethnic groups, including mixed ethnic groups and white British populations 

?        LGBTQI+ people  

?        Inequalities in Rotherham that are more pronounced than seen nationally.  For example, the odds of smoking amongst routine and manual workers in Rotherham are 2.45 times those of the general population, compared to an odds ratio of 2.22 nationally (2020 data).   

Local tobacco control

Rotherham has a multi-agency Tobacco Steering Group which oversees delivery of plans to address local tobacco control actions. The action plan and a range of indicators monitoring progress were recently presented to Health and Wellbeing Board in January. The action plan is aligned against five strategic aims designed to deliver a smokefree Rotherham by 2030 (<5% prevalence), which have been based on national evidence of good practice and recommendations from the Government’s The Khan Review:

?        Strategy and Coordination.  Deliver a coordinated tobacco control policy, strategy, governance and monitoring system

?        Quit for good.  Encourage and support smokers to quit for good

?        Enforcement. Tackle suppliers of cheap, counterfeit, and illicit tobacco and nicotine-containing-products through delivery of effective enforcement

?        Reduce variation in smoking rates by tackling inequalities

?        Stop the start.  Reduce the number of people taking up smoking, particularly young people  

As part of this work an e-cigarette position statement has been developed to generate consensus on how to ensure that there is access to e-cigarettes as an effective harm reduction tool and quitting aid for existing smokers, without inadvertently contributing to a growth in the uptake of vaping amongst non-smokers (especially children and young people) through normalisation, or glamorisation of vaping.

Smoking cessation services are provided in the community, currently through Get Healthy Rotherham, and also as part of NHS services, including QUIT programme in hospitals and a service for pregnant women. Illicit tobacco work is undertaken through the Trading Standards team. 

Investment in tobacco control is highly cost effective. Every £1 spent on smoking cessation services estimated to deliver a saving of £10 in future health care costs and health gains. Despite this, there has been a national and local decline in spending on tobacco control. In Rotherham, spend on tobacco control per head of population fell by 49% between 2013 and 2018 within the context of overall cuts in PH spending.

It was moved by Councillor Roche and seconded by Councillor Sheppard that:-

This Council notes that:-

?               There has been a significant reduction in the number of people smoking, and there have been improvements in the services designed to assist with smoking cessation. Rotherham can be very pleased with the progress it has made in areas such as the reduction in the % of pregnant women smoking, in the impact of the new tobacco working group. We understand our progress is better than in many other areas.Despite those, smoking remains the single largest driver of health inequalities and poor health in Rotherham, where – in common with the rest of the UK – it is the leading cause of cancer and preventable and early death. We know that that we have been successful, but we also know there is more to be done

?               Preventable disease continues to have a massive impact on the public’s health, the NHS and the economy.

?               Decades of comprehensive policy action have meant adult smoking prevalence in the UK in 2019 was at a record low at 14.1%, but this masks significant inequality.

?               Differences in smoking rates make it one of the leading drivers of health inequalities, responsible for half the difference in life expectancy between the lowest and highest income groups in England.

?               Smoking is estimated by Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) to cost society £17bn annually for England, £2.4bn of which falls to the NHS.

?               That through their Public Health duties, local authorities are responsible for improving the health of their population and do this through services such as stop smoking services and wider tobacco control activities.

This Council:-

?               Believes that local government must be adequately resourced to fulfil their Public Health duties and that the Council will make representations through Cancer Research and ASH to push for this to happen. Furthermore, as part of this, the Council calls upon the 3 Rotherham MPs to   seek to improve funding for Public Health from the Government

?               Supports Cancer Research UK’s calls for a Smokefree Fund (a fixed annual charge on the tobacco industry, making the tobacco industry pay for the damage their products cause, without being able to influence how the funds are spent) to fund local tobacco control work, and urges the UK Government to consider implementing a Smokefree Fund as part of its efforts to reach the Smokefree 2030 target and tackle health inequalities. By supporting this motion, we will be joining others in a Cancer Championships network to help to provide more weight and support to Cancer Research UK to achieve their aim.

Therefore, this Council will:-

?               Ask Trading Standards and the Police in Rotherham whether ways can be found to further crack down on illegal tobacco sales. Also, to work with Trading Standards and Public Health to investigate if anything can be done re the “positive and open“ way vaping is advertised/displayed with at the very least calling upon vapour outlets to consider how they portray their wares that might encourage youngsters to start vaping

?               Call upon Children and Young People’s Services to work with schools to see how they can provide further information and preventive work to warn of the dangers of vaping and smoking; in doing so to support youngsters to give up vaping whilst at the same time warning of the dangers of taking up vaping as a choice rather than as a measure to aid smoking cessation

?               Calls upon South Yorkshire ICS, to provide more support and a unified approach to those wishing to give up smoking in our region.

Background / supporting information

?               The prevalence of smoking in Rotherham is significantly higher than for all-England. Approximately 16.9% of Rotherham adults (around 35,400 people) were smokers in 2021 compared to 13.0% nationally. 

?               From 2017-19, there were 1,272 smoking attributable deaths in Rotherham – a rate of 271 deaths per 100,000 population. This is significantly worse than the England rate of 202 or the Yorkshire and the Humber rate of 239 deaths per 100,000 population 

?               An estimated 13,836 Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) in Rotherham were caused by smoking in 2019 alone. This accounts for 16% of all DALYs in Rotherham - making smoking the single greatest contributor to the total burden of disease locally. 

?               Rotherham performs significantly worse than all-England for most indicators used to monitor the impact of smoking on population health. 

?               Smoking is the single largest driver of health inequalities in England. The more disadvantaged someone is, the more likely they are to smoke and to suffer from smoking-related disease and premature death.

?               Rates of smoking are considerably higher amongst some groups, including:-

?               People who work in routine and manual occupations  

?               People from lower socioeconomic groups 

?               People with long term mental health conditions  

?               People with drug and alcohol additions 

?               People from some ethnic groups, including mixed ethnic groups and white British populations 

?               LGBTQI+ people  

?               Inequalities in Rotherham that are more pronounced than seen nationally. For example, the odds of smoking amongst routine and manual workers in Rotherham are 2.45 times those of the general population, compared to an odds ratio of 2.22 nationally (2020 data).

Local tobacco control

Rotherham has a multi-agency Tobacco Steering Group which oversees delivery of plans to address local tobacco control actions. The action plan and a range of indicators monitoring progress was recently presented to the Health and Wellbeing Board in January. The action plan was aligned against 5 strategic aims designed to deliver a smokefree Rotherham by 2030 (<5% prevalence), which have been based on national evidence of good practice and recommendations from the Government’s The Khan Review:

?               Strategy and Coordination. Deliver a co-ordinated Tobacco Control Policy, strategy, governance and monitoring system

?               Quit for good. Encourage and support smokers to quit for good

?               Enforcement. Tackle suppliers of cheap, counterfeit, and illicit tobacco and nicotine-containing-products through delivery of effective enforcement

?               Reduce variation in smoking rates by tackling inequalities

?               Stop the start. Reduce the number of people taking up smoking, particularly young people  

As part of this work an e-cigarette position statement has been developed to generate consensus on how to ensure that there is access to e-cigarettes as an effective harm reduction tool and quitting aid for existing smokers, without inadvertently contributing to a growth in the uptake of vaping amongst non-smokers (especially children and young people) through normalisation, or glamorisation of vaping.

Smoking Cessation Services are provided in the community, currently through Get Healthy Rotherham, and also as part of NHS services, including QUIT programme in hospitals and a service for pregnant women. Illicit tobacco work is undertaken through the Trading Standards team. 

Investment in tobacco control is highly cost effective. Every £1 spent on Smoking Cessation Services estimated to deliver a saving of £10 in future health care costs and health gains. Despite this, there has been a national and local decline in spending on tobacco control. In Rotherham, spend on tobacco control per head of population fell by 49% between 2013 and 2018 within the context of overall cuts in Public Health spending.

On being put to the vote, the motion was carried.