Tracey Crouch – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tracey Crouch on 2015-02-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make an assessment of the merits of increasing (a) funding and (b) other Government support for (i) the KCA Riskit Project and (ii) other early intervention programmes on drug and alcohol misuse by young people, and if he will make a statement.

Jane Ellison

Ring-fenced 2015/16 public health allocations allow local authorities to plan and commission the services their communities need most, including those for young people vulnerable to risk taking behaviour such as the Riskit Project, and others including prevention and early intervention programmes. Schools can and do pay for these programmes and local authorities and the National Health Service are also free to find additional funds for them.

The case for early intervention and prevention is clear as the consequences of poor health in adolescence last a lifetime and incur costs in the long run.

This assessment underpins Public Health England’s significant early intervention and prevention support offer. This includes the ‘Young people’s health and wellbeing: a framework for public health’ and the Child and Maternal Health Observatory (ChiMat) site, which provides data and guidelines to support to local authorities. Government also funds the Alcohol and Drug Education and Prevention Information Service which is a platform for sharing information and resources aimed at schools and practitioners working in drug and alcohol prevention.