AET newsletter

March 2020

Welcome to the latest edition of our general newsletter. It is an anxious time for us all with Corona Virus having an impact on all aspect of our lives, our thoughts are with those personally affected. In this edition we share the latest news on PiPs and a brief on some our recent outreaches, plus you can discover some interesting statistics around young people's health habits.

PiP’s Pavilion in the Park

We are getting ready to begin the build of our wonderful new office, community space and café on the Great Field at Poundbury. Due to complications with the foundation design we have had to factor in a six week delay and another budget increase, but on the positive side, we should have better weather for the build and have been able to revisit the possibility of using renewable energy! This will be wonderful if we can be carbon neutral and we should be able to give you some news on this shortly!

Park runs are scheduled to begin on the Great Field this Autumn and we have so many projects in the planning, for young people, providing job opportunities and much more.

We have now set up the trading arm of the AET, with five volunteer Directors to oversee operations with our first meeting next week. This means we will be a charitable incorporated organisation from the 31st March (see separate article).

We will be looking for volunteers for our fit out in the early Autumn, from painting, joinery, floors and planting for example. We would love to hear from you if you’d like to help or can offer materials and skills? Do email helena@alcoholeducationtrust.org

We are very grateful to the Savoy Educational Trust for helping fund our kitchen fit out and to Howdens kitchens, and to Moto services, thank you!

Out and about

We are beginning to have a few cancellations of larger training sessions due to Corona Virus, but Karen, Kathryn and Brian continue to support teachers and youth professionals and young people across the country.

Karen - South, West and Midlands

Karen has been busy in the Midlands attending the Drug and Alcohol Education Award Network meeting in Derbyshire. Our resources are being incorporated into a whole school approach and sixteen secondary schools throughout the county are participating in the first year of the award.

Karen also recently delivered a presentation and distributed our resources to schools throughout Somerset. This was organised by LIFEbeat and held at Frogmary Green Farm Conference Centre. There were also presentations from a range of organisations including Avon and Somerset Police, Public Health Somerset and Somerset County Council.

In February, Karen delivered a training session organised via Southampton City Council.  Family Support Workers, Southampton Youth Offending Service, NHS, No Limits, City College Southampton and YMCA to name but a few received training and our brilliant Talk About Alcohol games and activities pack. 100% of participants found the training useful, successful at meeting their needs and well-tutored.

Kathryn - North

Kathryn delivered a teacher training session at Walton le Dale Arts College and High School. Six Lancashire schools attended and they all took away our award-winning resources and excellent feedback was received.

A fantastically attended training session for school nurses covering the Hambleton and Richmond areas of North Yorkshire, funded by the Office of the North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner also recently took place. Each team took away our resources to support their work with young people. 

In February, Kathryn took part in exciting talks with Barrow Fire Station discussing how we can support their young firefighter staff, Fire Cadet Leaders and youth engagement team across Cumbria with our fabulous  resources and training.

Kathryn has also delivered a session  kindly hosted by Drop Zone Youth Project and organised by Barrow Police. It was a multi agency event with representatives from Cumbria Health Champions,  Barrow Police PCSO'S and Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust Public Health Nurses attending, who will be championing our resources to secondary schools throughout Cumbria. Kathryn is returning to Drop Zone Youth Project this month to deliver training to staff which will reach 7 different sites, keeping young people safe around alcohol.

Brian - Scotland

Brian facilitated a workshop for the Deputy Head Teacher, Principal Teacher and the PSE Team for pupil support and care in Arbroath High School. They really enjoyed the session and are delighted with AET resources which they plan to integrate into their PSE curriculum.

Following on from last year’s discussions with South Lanarkshire’s strategic development DHT for PSE, Brian has met with Uddingston Grammar’s PT for PSE and introduced the resources. Brian has now delivered workshops in six schools within this local authority with another 12 schools benefitting across the coming months.

Drug and Alcohol Education Conference 2020

At the moment we hope to still be able to co-host the Drug and Alcohol Education Conference 2020 in partnership with the Daniel Spargo-Mabbs Foundation and The City of London Corporation which will be held on June 19th.

This will be a day for professionals to hear from leading experts on the latest research on alcohol and drugs prevention, attend a choice of workshops on evidence-based programmes, and receive planning and evaluation advice for effective PSHE.

This is our third bi-annual National Conference on Alcohol and Drugs Education and Prevention and its aim is to ensure that all professionals working with young people are equipped with the most up to date facts and figures, an understanding of best practice and the evidence base, and resources and tools to deliver engaging and effective drugs and alcohol education. This is of great importance this year as effective alcohol and drug education becomes mandatory from September 2020.For further information, email kate@alcoholeducationtrust.org or visit https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/daniel-spargo-mabbs-foundation/drug-and-alcohol-education-conference-2020-why-it-matters-and-how-to-do-it-well/2020-06-19/10:00/t-gmjpze

The Health Behaviour in School Aged Children- Reports for England and Scotland

The survey in England found that overall, 7% of young people reported using alcohol at least 3 times during last 30 days - 8% of boys and 7% of girls. The proportion of young people using alcohol at least 3 times in the last 30 days increased with age. The proportion of boys reported having alcohol at least 3 times during the last 30 days has slightly increased since 2010, however proportions of girls remain the same across all three time points.

Overall 9% of young people reported that they had ever drunk alcohol to excess (been drunk) 2 or more times. The prevalence of drinking to excess increased with age, with more than one quarter of 15 year olds reporting that they had been drunk twice or more during their life. The proportion of 15 year old girls who reported that they had been drunk has considerably decreased since 2014 from 32% to 24%.

In the under 18 group, more girls are admitted to hospital for alcohol-specific reasons than boys. In the most recent 3-year period, the admission rate for girls was 37.5 (per 100,000) compared to 25.9 (per 100,000) for boys.

Read the full report for Scotland via https://www.gla.ac.uk/media/Media_707475_smxx.pdf

and for England via http://hbscengland.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/HBSC-England-National-Report-2020.pdf

Awards news

The Private Education & Development Awards recognises the efforts of all institutions, organisations and agencies who make the education of our societies their priority. We are delighted to have been selected as Best Children's Alcohol Education Consultancy South West 2019!

Changing the legal status of The Alcohol Education Trust

As part of the planning for our new office, community space and café at the Great Field, Poundbury and a review of our internal governance the Alcohol Education Trust will change its legal form from a Trust to a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) with effect from 1st April 2020.

o Our name will remain the same – The Alcohol Education Trust (also known as AET)
o The trustees of the charity will remain the same
o The core object of the charity will remain the same - to advance education for the benefit of the public in the issues of alcohol, health and drinking habits of young people (age 11 and upwards) in the UK and their safety around alcohol. However, we have taken this opportunity to broaden our purpose slightly to better reflect the additional diversionary activities we also plan to undertake.
o We will continue in exactly the same way to keep young people safe around alcohol.
o All monies and assets of the existing Trust will be transferred into the new CIO on 1st April 2020 and the old charity will then be dissolved. Any restricted or designated funds will continue to be used for the same restricted or designated purposes

As a CIO we will be recognised as a separate legal entity which allows us to:

- Employ staff directly - not via individual trustees
- Own freehold or leasehold land or other property – allowing us to hold the new Pavilion building in the name of the charity rather than individual trustees
- Deliver charitable services under contractual agreements
- Limit the liability of our trustees as we move into new ventures

Things that will change:
 - Our registered charity number will change from 1138775 to 1186202

- Our bank account details will change with effect from 1st April 2020

OSCR Scottish Charity Regulator:
As we operate in Scotland, we are also registered with OSCR under number SCO48482. OSCR do not permit two charities of the same name to co-exist so we are required to remove the Trust SCO48482 before we are allowed to apply to register the new CIO which will have a new registration number.