Ripon Community Alcohol Partnership (CAP) met last week for their monthly meeting.
The Ripon CAP is a group of organisations working together to reduce underage drinking and the associated problems in the city.
It has stakeholders of many of the local shops, North Yorkshire Police, neighbourhood groups, trading standards, local authorities and other emergency and health services.
CAP is a community interest company with an aim to prevent underage drinking and resulted harm in local communities across the UK. It aims to tackle the problem at a base-root level.
The work of Ripon CAP has many threads, such as working with retailers around underage sales, proxy sales (where an adult buys alcohol for a child), with communication a key element to both parents and young people.
A key theme at this month’s meeting was centred around a recent research report that looked at attitudes of parent to young people drinking.
The report said that there were misconceptions from parents:
- Belief that allowing a child to drink in their presence enables them to manage a child’s alcohol intake
- These parents typically refused request for alcohol to be taken outside the home, but used home drinking as a compromise
- The parents have provided alcohol to their child after it was requested, and on the basis that they were responsible enough to handle it
- Many parents have a belief that controlling alcohol given to a child removes the potential for it being a “forbidden fruit”
NHS data from 2018 showed that 71% of 11 to 15 year-olds obtain alcohol from their parents. That is the primary source of supply.
An IPSOS survey of parents found:
- 67% of parents are not aware of Government health advice on alcohol drinking in under 18s
- 12% would allow their child to drink unsupervised
- 53% of parents have or would allow their children to drink underage
Chief Medical Officer’s Guidance on Drinking for Young People from 2009 is that alcohol can have a serious effect on a developing brain, and that under 15’s should not drink at all, and in the age group 15 to 17 it should only be with the guidance of a parent or carer.
To read the full document:
This week will also see CAP Roadshows throughout the county.
Sergeant Kate Barrett, from North Yorkshire Police’s Licensing Team, said:
We’re really looking forward to seeing plenty of people at our CAP Roadshows during Alcohol Awareness Week.
We’ll be handing out fun books for kids, stickers, and trolly coins with the message that buying alcohol for someone aged under 18 is a crime.
We also have lots of information leaflets for parents and interactive activities supplied by the CAP, such as driving remote control cars while wearing ‘beer goggles’ and showing what an alcohol damaged liver looks like.
This is all about promoting healthy and safe relationships with alcohol, as well as reducing alcohol-related crime and anti-social behaviour in our communities.
CAP Roadshow and related events (times and locations)
- Monday 20 June – Westborough/Huntriss Row in Scarborough, 10am-4pm
- Tuesday 21 June – Catterick Garrison, Tesco, 9am– 4pm
- Wednesday 22 June – Richmond Market Place, 10am-2pm
- Also on Wednesday between 10am and 3pm, Selby District Council and the Licensing Team are holding a joint ‘Day of Action’. This will involve WAVE and ‘Ask for Angela’ training session at Civic Centre, followed by engagement visits to premises
- Thursday 23 June – Ripon Market Place, 10am-2pm
- Friday 24 June – Northallerton CAP launch with a promotional stall on the High Street/Applegarth during the day
