Exploring public health contributions to alcohol licensing in local government – June 2017 study update

Posted on June 26, 2017 by SPHRatLSHTM

Update on study progress and forthcoming stakeholder workshop

IMG_1652Study overview

As public health has an increasing role to play in shaping how alcohol is sold in local areas, we are interested in finding out more about how public health practitioners approach alcohol licensing work and what influences their practice, to identify how to strengthen public health contributions to licensing processes.  The study is funded by the NIHR School for Public Health Research, and the study team includes researchers from London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Safe Sociable London Partnership, and Southwark Public Health team.

We have been working with several localities across London for the past year.  Below we have outlined an update on progress, and information on signing up for a workshop to discuss the early study findings in September.

Update on progress to date

We have now completed the first research phase, where discussions and observations of the alcohol licensing work of public health practitioners took place.  Since September 2016 we have worked with 8 London local authorities, which provided understanding of how practitioners approach their licensing work, including use and application of the Alcohol Licensing Toolkit and other data to improve public health’s involvement in the process.  We have also conducted a survey of alcohol licencing activity across public health practitioners in 18 London local authorities.

In June and July we will be conducting a set of focus groups to discuss approaches for strengthening public health contributions to licensing with:

  • Local authority public health practitioners
  • National stakeholders organised by the National Licensing Network.
  • Responsible Authorities within London local authorities.

We will also be inviting a range of stakeholders across London to participate in interviews.

Early findings have already identified important themes about the context in which public health operates in local authorities and the relationships that exist between the responsible authorities in alcohol policy making which have an influence on how the work is conducted and what the health impacts are.

Stakeholder workshop for practitioners in September 2017

We are organising a workshop to discuss the early findings of this research project with local authority licensing partners and explore how this research might help in improving licensing processes.

This workshop is aimed at Local Authority public health practitioners (alcohol leads and those involved in alcohol licensing), licensing teams, police licensing officers, and other licensing Responsible Authorities and stakeholders.  Please do share this information with your licensing colleagues if they have not received it.

The details for this workshop are:

Title: Influences on public health contributions to alcohol licensing processes

Date: Wednesday, 13 September 2017

Time: 10.30 am – 12.30 pm (followed by lunch)

Location: London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London WC1E 7HT.

Register for the workshop here 

More information

For more information about any part of the study, please contact Joanna Reynolds (Joanna.reynolds@lshtm.ac.uk) or Karen Lock (Karen.lock@lshtm.ac.uk), or see the project website.

For more information about Safe Sociable London Partnership, please contact Ghazaleh Pashmi: ghazaleh.pashmi@safesociable.com or see the SSLP website.