Our Smokefree pledge

As local health leaders we acknowledge that:

• Smoking is the leading cause of premature death, disease, and disability in our communities
• Smoking places a significant additional burden on health and social care services and undermines the future sustainability of the NHS
• Healthcare professionals have a key role to play in motivating smokers to try to quit and offering them further support to quit successfully
• Reducing smoking amongst the most disadvantaged in our communities is the single most important means of reducing health inequalities
• Smoking is an addiction starting in childhood with two thirds of smokers starting before the age of 18 Smoking is an epidemic created and sustained by the tobacco industry, which promotes uptake of smoking to replace the tens of thousands of people its products kill in England every year.

Read or download our smokefree pledge as a PDF

We welcome:

• The Government’s ambition to make England smokefree by 2030 and tackle health inequalities in smoking prevalence
• The NHS Long Term Plan’s commitment for all smokers in hospital, pregnant women, and long-term users of mental health services to be offered NHS funded tobacco dependence treatment by 2023-24
• NICE public health guidance on tobacco.

In support of a smokefree future, West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership, an integrated care system, commits from 9 March 2022 to:

• Treat tobacco dependency among patients and staff who smoke in line with commitments in the NHS Long Term Plan and Tobacco Control Plan for England
• Ensure that smokers within the NHS have access to the medication they need to quit in line with NICE guidance on smoking in secondary care
• Create environments that support quitting through implementing smokefree policies as recommended by NICE
• Deliver consistent messages about harms from smoking and the opportunities and support available to quit in line with NICE guidance
• Actively work with local authorities and other stakeholders to reduce smoking prevalence and health inequalities
• Protect tobacco control work from the commercial and vested interests of the tobacco industry Support Government action at national level
• Publicise this commitment to reducing smoking in our communities and join the Smokefree Action Coalition (SFAC), the alliance of organisations working to reduce the harm caused by tobacco.

Read or download our smokefree pledge as a PDF

Signed by:

Cathy Elliott, Chair-Designate for NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board

Rob Webster, CEO-Designate for West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership

Dr James Thomas, Medical Director-Designate for NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board

Endorsed by:

Amanda Pritchard, Chief Executive, NHS England

Prof Dame Helen Stokes-Lampard, Chair, Academy of Medical Royal Colleges
 
Prof Jim McManus, President, Association of Directors of Public Health
 
Prof Maggie Rae, President, Faculty of Public Health
 
Dr David Strain, Chair, BMA Board of Science
 
Gill Walton, Chief Executive, Royal College of Midwives