Yorkshire and Humber Workforce Development Programme

Tobacco dependence workforce development strategy

Mission statement
We will support local stop smoking services to target delivery where and for whom it is most needed, and to adapt so that they can facilitate the delivery by stop smoking practitioners, and other health and social care professionals, of effective stop smoking support tailored to the individual.

Who we are and why we are doing this
The collaborative of fourteen local authorities within NHS Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board are joined by the National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training (NCSCT).

As population smoking prevalence drops but remains stubbornly high within priority groups, the focus over the next five years is on overcoming the barriers to accessing services by these groups, maximising effectiveness of interventions and the individual tailoring of support and treatment.

As a collaborative we aim to:

• Increase the number of people who make aided quit attempts, with a focus on local priority groups
• Work collaboratively to support people who smoke and who want to stop by providing access to person-centred, evidence-based stop smoking support and aids
• Work in partnership and collaborate with other organisations across systems

What we propose
A five-year plan for targeting by local stop smoking services (service adaptation), tailoring of interventions (flexible behavioural support and use of stop smoking aids based on need) and evaluating (making sure that what we do works). There will be development, delivery and sustainability phases – although the nature of this project means that they will overlap and need to remain flexible. We propose to develop, deliver and evaluate resources and new specialist training to:

1. Target and adapt service models for priority groups
2. Tailor interventions to the individual needs of people who smoke, particularly those in priority groups
3. Deliver Very Brief Advice on Smoking (VBA+) in non-clinical settings
4. Provide effective first point of contact and triaging by administrative staff

Key principles

• People who smoke are at the heart of what we do.
• Smoking remains the leading cause of preventable illness, death and disability, and a leading driver of health inequalities. Tackling tobacco dependency is one of the most effective ways of eliminating health inequalities.
• Identifying local priority groups and providing effective support to meet their needs is a high priority to reduce health inequalities and should be reflected in local commissioning and service delivery models.
• Effective stop smoking interventions should be available to all, but the scale and intensity of interventions must be proportionate to the most disadvantaged.
• Stop smoking services are extremely cost-effective and play an important role, alongside other tobacco control policies, in driving down rates of smoking at national and local level.
• Stop smoking practitioners are an important local asset and optimising the effectiveness that they can have with people who smoke requires effective recruitment, training, support and supervision, continuous professional development and retainment.