Children and Young People Now report the views of Tim Bateman, senior policy advisor at crime reduction charity Nacro, about the actions around alcohol detailed in the Children’s Plan:
The plan revealed a youth alcohol action plan would be published in the spring to tackle the problem of under-age drinkers.
The government has said the plan will look at alcohol education in schools, tackle parental alcohol misuse and consider the case for further action on alcohol advertising.
But Tim Bateman, senior policy advisor at crime reduction charity Nacro, said this would not be enough. “They may be reasonable things to do but they’re only a fairly small part of the overall picture,” he said. “The action plan needs to recognise there appears to be a difference in attitudes towards alcohol in this country to those elsewhere.”
Bateman said neighbouring countries such as France also had easy access to cheap alcohol, but did not appear to have the same problem of young people binge drinking. “There is a cultural issue,” he said. “Changing the price of alcohol or putting restrictions in place won’t tackle why young people are drinking in the first place.”
Rosie Chadwick, director of prevention services at charity Crime Concern, said educating young people over the dangers of alcohol would be important in combating teen drinking.
Ms Chadwick says that they have been doing survey work with young people involved with Positive Futures and have found that they don’t understand the dangers that alcohol can pose.
Filed under: alcohol , alcohol, building brighter futures, Children's Plan, DCSF
