Community Alcohol Partnerships (CAP)

Objective

Community Alcohol Partnerships (CAP) is a Community Interest Company (CiC) whose aim is to reduce alcohol harm in local communities from drinking by young people under 25 with a particular emphasis on preventing underage drinking.

Description

CAP’s origins lie with the Retail of Alcohol Standards Group (RASG), set up in 2005 by the Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA), to tackle underage sales and purchases of alcohol. In addition to developing Challenge 25 to tackle the supply of alcohol, a pilot was tested in St Neots, which sought to influence demand via a combination of enforcement, education and community engagement. The results of this were sufficiently promising for RASG to fund a more extensive pilot project in Kent in 2009, incorporating the lessons learned in St Neots. Following positive independent evaluation of the Kent CAP, CAP became a Community Interest Company (CiC) in 2011. The CAP model has been tested and shown to work in a range of settings that include inner city, suburban and rural environments. A combination of enforcement, education, engagement of the community and businesses, and provision of diversionary activity for young people is the hallmark of the CAP model. CAP is based on a partnership approach that includes co-operation between a range of local authority departments.

CAP activity is always locally determined but will generally encourage and include a focus on education, enforcement, public perception, communication, diversionary activity and evaluation.

The core activity of Community Alcohol Partnerships includes:

Education - Education is the single most important element of any CAP’s action plan. Education will take many forms and is targeted at several key audiences:

Children and teenagers: Schools are encouraged to follow an alcohol education programme of their choice, preferably one that has been evaluated with proven results, such as the Alcohol Education Trust “Talk about Alcohol” or those that feature on the Mentor ADEPIS website of recommended programmes. In addition we positively encourage CAP schools to use interactive, innovative ways of teaching about alcohol including peer mentoring, Theatre in Education, school action days involving a range of local agencies, Dragon’s Den- type competitions to encourage pupils to present team-based creative solutions to reducing alcohol harm and visiting speakers with special expertise or knowledge.
Parents: Parental education is of particular importance given that parents are the single most common supply route of alcohol for under 18s. Increasingly we find that schools in CAP areas are recognising the importance of engaging with parents and many this year included relevant information and materials in e-newsletters such as Parentmail and invited CAP partners to parent open evenings. In 2016 we distributed 1,500 hard copies of Drinkaware’s parents’ resources to schools in CAP areas and parents/residents at community events. We recognise this is an area which requires further focus and will continue to encourage CAPs to implement effective parental engagement strategies.

Enforcement - CAPs focus on both the supply and the demand side of underage drinking and treat retailers & licensees as part of the solution and not part of the problem. The enforcement activity is informed by all stakeholders, who share information and co-ordinate their response. Appropriate and proportionate enforcement is encouraged in CAP schemes but usually only as a backstop after all efforts to educate have been exhausted. Compliancy testing (not test purchasing) but mystery shopping using over 18s is positively encouraged in CAPs to establish compliance with Challenge 25. If weaknesses are found, remedial action (in the form of training and signage) is offered. If all efforts at supporting a licensed premise fail then enforcement remains an option and at that point a test purchase is usually considered necessary.

The same approach is encouraged with proxy purchase – if offenders ignore warnings and an educational approach is clearly not working then schemes are encouraged to make full use of Fixed Penalty Notices for the offence of proxy purchase.

Confiscation of alcohol from under 18s drinking in public places is encouraged but this generally takes place after steps have been taken to provide education and diversionary activity for youngsters. Signage will generally be displayed warning that alcohol will be confiscated from under 18s drinking in public.

Business engagement - CAP champions the use of Challenge 25 and PASS and also supports independent retailers/licensees with training including on conflict resolution, identifying fake ID and how to make a challenge. A CAP scheme will ensure that all messages and literature are co-ordinated across the CAP area, targeting specific groups where appropriate.

Diversionary activity - CAP encourages scheme partners to conduct an early assessment of the provision of leisure and diversionary activities for young people in the area. Partners are urged to consult young people about the appropriateness of the activity on offer and to look at ways to increase accessibility (by signposting on social or other media and also by offering discounted or free sessions) and using whatever funding is available locally, often with some match funding from CAP. As well as enhancing young people’s confidence, mental and physical health and well-being, diversionary activity is also an excellent opportunity to deliver alcohol education in an informal setting. The process of consulting with young people gives them a sense of ownership and sends an important message that their voice matters.

In 2021, CAP published a report on the parental supply of alchol to children called "An Alcohol-Free Childhood". The report explores parental attitudes to the introduction and supply of alcohol to their children, reports on commissed research carried out in 2021 and 2022, and, provides recommendations. The full report is attached.

Partners

Community Alcohol Partnerships bring together local retailers & licensees, trading standards, police, health services, education providers and other local stakeholders.

The Retail of Alcohol Standards Group (RASG) was set up in 2005 by the Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA). RASG members have provided funding for CAP since its inception in 2007.

CAP funding partners for 2021-2022 are Accolade Wines, Australian Vintage, ASDA, ACS, buckfast, Beam Suntory, Campari, Chivas Brothers, COOP, Diageo, Edrington, Heineken, home bargins, Iceland, InterContinental Brands, InverHouse, Lidl, M&S, One Stop, Sainsbury's, Scotch Whisky Association, Scottish Alcohol Industry Partnership, Tesco, Treasury Wine Estate and UberEats.

Also partnering are: Police, Trading Standards, Youth Services, Schools, Local charities and Residents Associations.

Results

As of November 2022, 271 CAP projects have been launched across the UK, of which 131 are live schemes. There is also plans underway for another 45.

Measurement & evaluation

In March 2022 CAP conducted a survey of stakeholders who work within CAPs. 95% of respondents would recommend to others that they set up a CAP in their area; 75% said that without CAP they would have been unable to achieve the same outcomes; 75% is the average score for the level of influence CAP has had in helping deliver local obectives.

One of CAP’s great strengths is its flexible, adaptable model, which can be tailored to fit the needs of any particular community. The case studies in this section show some of the many and varied approaches to tackling underage drinking across CAPs and where available the evaluation reports.

There is an emerging body of evidence – both from independent evaluations commissioned by CAP and the self-evaluation reports that all schemes are required to produce – that CAP helps to reduce alcohol-related crime and disorder and the acquisition of alcohol by under-18s. In recent years we have also seen significant reductions in weekly drinking among Years 9-11 in CAP schools.

Examples of improvements (2021-2022 CAP annual report, calculated from evaluation returns covering the period 2016-2022) shows:

62% reduction in weekly drinking for 13-16 year olds
42% reduction in youth alcohol-related anti-social behaviour
Pass rates of 99% in Challenge 25 compliance following CAP training
68% reduction in residents reporting children and young people drinking in public places to be a fairly big problem.

Local needs vary as do the objectives of local CAPs. The impact of individual CAPs reflects this variety of objectives. CAP’s projects are typically located in areas where regular underage drinking is significantly higher than the national average. For those where there are pre- and post-CAP data a majority succeed in achieving far greater reductions in regular drinking for 13-16 year olds than the underlying national trend. In a sample of 28 CAPs with comparable pre-CAP (baseline) and post intervention data submitted in 2019/2020, there were reductions from an average of 23% at baseline (over 1 in 4 regular drinkers) to an average of just under 9% (under 1 in 10 regular drinkers) in 2019/2020.