Tobacco Needs Assessment

The Tobacco Needs Assessment has highlighted several key areas where more work is required around identified needs, gaps and challenges. The recommendations below will help support Cheshire West and Chester Council to continue to provide stop smoking support to residents and reduce smoking prevalence in line with local, regional and national strategies and action plans.

1. Continue to provide a Universal Stop Smoking Service.

2. Target interventions for populations which have higher smoking prevalence than the general adult population. This should include routine and manual workers, those living with mental health conditions, people accessing drug and alcohol support services, women who are smoking during pregnancy.

3. Work with colleagues across organisations to obtain data and information to fill the gaps in knowledge identified in the needs assessment. This includes UK prison and criminal justice system, rough sleepers and those in temporary accommodation, social housing, children and young people, Combined Intelligence for Population Health Action (CIPHA) data for health needs and global ethnic majority groups.

4. Continue Prevention work to support a reduction in the uptake of smoking and vaping.

5. Continue advocating to maintain ring-fenced spending for stop smoking interventions. Including the universal stop smoking service, communication campaigns, alongside local and regional collaboration.

6. Ensure service provision can evolve with changes to legislation and guidance on the use of e-cigarettes as a quit tool, and the unknown long-term health effects of vaping.