West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership hosts the area's first tobacco control summit

As part of our activities to support Stoptober, healthcare partners working in tobacco prevention joined our first West Yorkshire Tobacco Control Summit held in Leeds on 5 October 2023.

The aim was to join up conversations looking at a life course and whole system approach to tobacco prevention across our region. This includes supporting the NHS Long Term Plan ambition for a smokefree generation and addressing some of the challenges we face across West Yorkshire.

The event showcased tobacco prevention initiatives, innovations and best practice examples in West Yorkshire with lots of positive feedback.

One attendee said: “Fantastic day. Really informative and generated some great ideas for collaborative working. I particularly enjoyed the networking element and talking with people with a passion for tobacco control.”

Another attendee said: “Great timing for this event after the government’s new funding announcements for smoking and the new laws around the age of sale.”

Speakers included:

• Professor Chris Bentley - system, scale and sustainability
• Sally Lee, Senior Project Manager - tobacco control: a life course approach
• Tobacco trust leads  - implementing inhouse tobacco dependency treatment services
• Joanna Feeney, Clinical Delivery Manager NHSE - regional update on the NHS Long Term Plan and importance of tackling smoking together
• Toni Williams, OHID, Consultant in Public Health - a whole system approach to tobacco control
• Priti Gohil, Kirklees Council and Charlotte Jacques, Wakefield District Council – examples of good practice
• Dr Emily Reed, Public Health Registrar and Hazel Cheeseman, Deputy Chief Executive from ASH - supporting a whole system approach
• Babul Hussain, Trading Standards - illicit tobacco and vapes

Attendees also joined three workshops on the day looking at:

• tobacco control across the life course - what’s working well, challenges and gaps
• tobacco control across the whole system - what should happen locally and what we can adapt across West Yorkshire
• problems around illicit tobacco use and vaping

The Tobacco Control Summit came about thanks to the Core20Plus5 Leadership Group and the NHS Long Term Plan Steering Group. Stoptober is a national campaign calling on smokers in England to join the thousands of others who are committing to quitting this October.