We're starting to feel things are finally on the up with spring around the corner, the vaccine roll-out going well and schools set to re-open for all children from the 8th March!

Below you can find out what we've been up to in different regions, learn about our exciting competition for 15-19 year olds and find out more about our Drugs and Alcohol conference which will now take place on the 28th June. As ever to order our award-winning free resources, organise training or a student workshop, please email kate@alcoholeducationtrust.org

With the third lockdown upon us, training has continued apace. Whilst virtual training is never the same as face to face, we recognise that it is kinder to the environment and more cost effective.

Police Forces in Northamptonshire and Nottinghamshire and school nurses in Leicestershire are also receiving resources and partaking in training.

With the end of May deadline for our exciting Poster/ Film competition, youth services and groups are requesting our resources and booking in training which is great. Sessions confirmed to date include Cornwall, Devon and Derbyshire with several dates in March still available. If you know anyone who would be interested, please do get in touch via karen@alcoholeducationtrust.org .

Following its postponement, we are now hoping that it will be possible to run our third Drug and Alcohol Education Conference face-to-face on the 28th June while keeping an option to attend remotely. The conference will be held at the Guildhall in London for just £60 for teachers and £90 for others (including lunch) for a whole day of presentations for a whole day of presentations and workshops on life skills and effective RSHE with lots of resources to take away on the day.

This will be a wonderful 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 planning, evaluation and delivery in line with the statutory DfE guidance on RSHE. The conference will be held jointly by The Alcohol Education Trust and The DSM Foundation, who are drugs specialists. You can find out more and book your place here .

We are challenging 15-19 year olds to produce an Instagram campaign, film or poster on alcohol awareness topics for their peers. This is a perfect activity to keep young people busy during the Easter holidays or once back at school and ideal for a homework task! There is a prize of £150 for the best entry in each category and four runner-up prizes of £50! Please see https://alcoholeducationtrust.org/competition/ for full details. Please share with any 15-19 year olds who might like to be involved! Deadline 31st May 2021. Huge thanks to People's Postcode Lottery for their funding supporting this.

This could be hate towards people's disability, gender identity, race, religion, sexuality or another part of their identity. We know that, for many reasons, only a proportion comes to the attention of the police.

The research aims to find out more about what hate crime is being experienced across the county and how well current services help those affected to deal with the impact. The aim is that the resulting report will help inform future partnership work. They need your help to:

• Share their online survey with service users, colleagues and anyone you know who may have experienced hate crime, or worked with someone who has. https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/W9DLNDQ

• Share ideas about how they could get a better understanding of people’s experiences of hate crime.

The research is being funded by the Home Office as part of the Police Science, Technology, Analysis and Research (STAR) initiative.

We very much hope to be able to return to face-to-face teacher/staff and parent sessions in the summer term. Our teacher/staff workshops include demonstrations of activities and games as well as how to use our resources most effectively.

Our parent talks include informative and factual advice as well as top tips on how to talk to children about alcohol and help to ensure that they stay safe around it.

Both sessions include the opportunity for Q and A so you can ask any questions specific to your own situation.

For more information and to book your session now, please email kate@alcoholeducationtrust.org

Using anonymous online research methods Global Drug Survey runs an annual survey in 10 languages, which is hosted by partners in over 25 countries. The Global Drugs Survey (GDS) for 2020 was based on data from over 110,000 people. 66% were male, 52% were aged under 25 years with 22% of the sample aged 35 years or older. 87% of the sample was white. 38% had at least an undergraduate degree as their highest level of educational attainment. 54% reported going clubbing 4 or more times per year.

The survey found that respondents to GDS2020 from predominately English-speaking countries and Scandinavia get drunk more times per year than other countries. Women under 25 years old were most likely to seek emergency medical treatment (EMT) following drinking (3%) and 5% of people under 25 in the UK reported having sought hospital treatment after getting drunk, compared with a global average of 2%.

GDS2020 defined being drunk as “having drunk so much that your physical and mental faculties are impaired to the point where your balance / speech was affected, being unable to focus clearly on things and that conversation and behaviours appear very obviously different to people who know you”. 

Using this definition, 16% of respondents reported NEVER having got drunk in the last year and on average respondents reported getting drunk 21 times in the last 12 months (highest among men under 25 years (28 times), lowest among women 25+years(12 times). 

Participants from English-speaking countries and Scandinavia reported getting drunk most often (UK 34 times in last year, Australia/Denmark 32, Finland 28), while participants from South American countries reported the lowest number of occasions (Argentina and Colombia less than 7 times). Young women were most likely to seek EMT at a rate of 3.4% almost 3 times that of women (1.2%) and men (1.3%) over 25 years old.

On average respondents to GDS2020 reported regretting getting drunk on 30% of occasions. The top drinking behaviours associated with getting drunk and regretting it were: drinking too much too quickly (64%), mixing drinks (39%) and being with people who engage in heavy drinking (36%). Regret was highest among respondents from countries reporting getting drunk least often. Globally, GDS2020 participants who drank alcohol in the last 12 months reported regretting getting drunk on 33% of occasions, with women (39%) regretting getting drunk more often than men (30%).

Not surprisingly, a bad hangover (75%) was the top consequence of drinking that led people to say they regretted getting drunk, followed by ‘saying something you normally would not have said’ (41%) and increased anxiety the next day (31%).Gender differences were also evident, with women more likely than men to report increased anxiety the next day, unwanted sexual episodes and being taken advantage of sexually when drunk.