A new Community Alcohol Partnership (CAP), which brings together local stakeholders to tackle underage drinking and associated anti-social behaviour, has launched in East Renfrewshire.
CAPs are made up of partnerships between retailers, local authorities, police, schools, neighbourhood groups and health providers, working together to highlight the risks of underage drinking and improve the health and wellbeing of local children and young people.
The East Renfrewshire CAP will work with youth services and local organisations to provide alcohol-free activities for young people. It will also work with local schools to educate young people about underage drinking and ensure that they are equipped to make the right decisions about issues such as alcohol and drugs and anti-social and criminal behaviour.
In addition, CAP aims to help retailers avoid making underage sales and reduce ‘proxy’ sales where adults buy alcohol for under-18s.
Partners in the East Renfrewshire CAP include, trading standards, licensing, community safety and local schools in East Renfrewshire Council, as well Scottish Fire & Rescue. The CAP will be coordinated locally by Police Scotland.
Derek Lewis, Chair of CAP, said: “I am always pleased to see the launch of new partnerships. We know from research that underage drinking can lead to many social and educational problems for children and young people. We also know from our evaluations that CAPs are having a significant impact on reducing alcohol consumption amongst 13- and 16-year-olds in the areas in which they operate.”
“Local CAP schemes are established and run by people from a variety of organisations within their communities, including retailers, local authorities, police forces and schools to identify and tackle the problems associated with underage drinking. All CAPs are tailored to the needs of their local community which means that they are highly effective in getting to the root cause of the problem.”
There are currently more than 250 CAPs in the UK.
