CLIENT: Oldham health authority

PROJECT: Oldham Alcohol Strategy development

What were MAKE asked to do?

Oldham NHS wanted an independent specialist to bring together their first alcohol strategy. 

How did MAKE do it?

• We  worked wth stakeholders from the police to the council, large employers to venues in the nighttime economy in order to identify their own organisational priorities for tackling alcohol harm, to assess what they were already doing and what they could do differently to make a difference. 

• We reviewed over 20 of the borough’s policies including licensing, policing plan, offender management, public health, treatment strategies. spatial planning, social care and occupational health to identify where they might be improved and better integrated to deliver the borough's health aims.

• A major challenge in Oldham, as it is elsewhere, is to improve the quality of data that can both inform health policy and measure performance. We appraised the quality of the available data and set out a framework for new and better data collection to support the delivery of the strategy. 

• We created an action plan wth named organisations and individuals to address each of the recommendations, including implementing the Department of Health's four tier model for alcohol misusers.  

What happened next?

The NHS adopted the strategy and for the first time in Oldham and Greater Manchester substantial funding was allocated from hospital budgets for preventative work.

What unique value did MAKE bring to this project?

Oldham has a large Muslim population, most of whom for faith reasons do not drink. However, amongst the community there are 'hidden' heavy drinkers. We developed a specific approach to identifying these individuals and created a bespoke approach using local charities to deliver care to these dependent drinkers.