5th March 2025 Seminars

This will cover key policy announcements and developments in delivering the Government’s ambition for a smoke-free UK, including on the Tobacco and Vapes Bill.

If we want to become a country where smoking is obsolete across the whole of society it will not be business as usual, it will not be a single piece of legislation, a single programme or a single agency that makes this possible. It requires action at every level across the system with a vast cast of partners who share in the mission. This is the scale of ambition needed to bring an end to the leading cause of preventable illness and the biggest single cause of health inequalities. This presentation will chart what’s needed and how we might achieve it.

Stop Smoking Services have been delivering support to smokers across England since 2000. Over the last 25 years, we have seen over 10 million quit attempts made with expert SSS support, and over 5 million successful 4-week quits. Services remain an integral part of local efforts to reduce the harm from tobacco. However, the number of people using these services has declined sharply over the last decade, and we still see significant variation locally – both in terms of models being adopted, but also the outcomes being achieved

Ensuring the latest evidence and best practice is reflected in service delivery is key for maximising impact of stop smoking services nationally. An update on the latest national guidance for Local Stop Smoking Services and tobacco dependence treatment in inpatient acute and mental health trusts and what it means to those leading and delivering stop smoking services.

This presentation aims to introduce a comprehensive guidance document designed to support NHS Trusts to create and manage smoke-free environments and workforces. Aligning to our Greater Manchester strategic vision, our opportunity to Make Smoking History and with a set of guiding principles underpinned by behavioural science, the guide provides tools and strategies to support consistent implementation across all Trusts.

The scale and spread of local incentive programmes into a national scheme and its impacts on maternity stop smoking services.

As tobacco dependence treatment services continue to expand, it is critical that healthcare systems make smoking cessation both accessible and appealing to individuals with mental illness, to help them realize the significant health benefits of quitting. However, clinical safety considerations must be carefully managed when integrating these services, as smoking and stopping smoking can introduce risks due to drug interactions with psychotropic medications. This talk will emphasize the importance of a coordinated, system-wide approach to address these challenges, ensuring that clinical safety concerns are managed without hindering access to effective cessation support.

Challenges and celebrations of Risk Perception: The obstacles and impact of an educational intervention in reducing smoking in pregnancy.

Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust successfully expanded its in-house tobacco dependency service into the Emergency Department, utilising the COSTED framework and the Swap to Stop scheme. This innovative approach integrates immediate, patient-centred support for tobacco dependency at a critical intervention point, improving outcomes and reducing smoking-related harm. By embedding this service, we’ve demonstrated how collaboration, efficiency, and sustainability can deliver impactful, high-quality care while addressing health inequalities. This initiative serves as an example of good practice, showcasing how integrated pathways and evidence-based interventions can transform services to meet the Long Term Plan priorities.

Restrictive practices in mental health hospitals, such as smoking bans, aim to create safe and therapeutic environments but can inadvertently restrict patient autonomy and reduce engagement. Smoking has long been a coping mechanism for many individuals with mental health conditions, and its prohibition often exacerbates stress and agitation among patients. In recent years, vaping has emerged as a potential harm-reduction tool that offers a compromise between public health objectives and individual patient needs. This paper critically examines vaping as an alternative to smoking in mental health hospitals, exploring its ethical, clinical, and policy dimensions. Through an analysis of existing evidence and practices, the discussion highlights the benefits of vaping in reducing behavioural incidents, addressing stigma, and fostering patient autonomy, while also considering potential risks, such as misuse and regulatory gaps. By framing vaping as a pragmatic approach to restrictive practices, the paper underscores its potential to improve therapeutic environments and contribute to more inclusive and patient-centred care. Recommendations for policy development, staff training, and future research directions are proposed to guide the responsible implementation of vaping in mental health settings.

Most people who manage to quit smoking in pregnancy relapse postpartum. BabyBreathe^TM is a complex intervention offering targeted one-to-one behavioural support in the community, delivered either face-to-face or remotely, alongside digital, and pharmacological support. In this presentation we report definitive outcomes from a randomised controlled trial (RCT) to compare the BabyBreathe^TM intervention with usual care. 887 participants were recruited to target and randomised. The primary outcome is 12-month sustained smoking abstinence, verified by exhaled carbon monoxide levels (CO). This presentation will focus on reporting the primary effectiveness outcome of the intervention, and initial qualitative process evaluation findings, before considering implications for practice.

The importance of smoking cessation in the Severe Mental Illness population and how Stop Smoking Services can offer bespoke support to reduce smoking prevalence with a view to achieving the Smokefree 2030 ambition.

The presentation will cover how Trusts in South Yorkshire have established an offer for paediatric patients and their parents/carers who smoke.  Sheffield Children’s Hospital are the only Children’s Hospital in the country to be delivering tobacco treatment and two of our Acute Trusts have established service pathways for paediatric patients.

This presentation aims to explore some of the practical challenges and opportunities experienced during the implementation of the Treating Tobacco Dependency Early Implementer Site for individuals with suspected or diagnosed Severe Mental Illness within a community model of practice.

Our experience of a 6month trial of embedding a smoking cessation advisor into Pre-operative assessment clinic.

Exploring the impact of delivery models for treating tobacco dependence in Maternity services.

Project SCeTCH is the first large-scale multi-centre randomised controlled trial comparing an e-cigarette intervention to usual care to address smoking among people experiencing homelessness.  This presentation will share findings from this NIHR funded trial involving 32 homeless support centres (477 people who smoked) across Great Britain, and the training of 220 staff to deliver smoking interventions (an e-cigarette starter pack or VBA+ and signposting to the SSS).  Participants were followed up at 4, 12 and 24 weeks and a subsample of staff and participants were interviewed about their experiences with the e-cigarette intervention.  Retention rates were good: 74%, 60% and 58% (at 4, 12 and 24 weeks respectively). Sustained quit rates (CO validated) were low but e-cigarettes helped more people quit smoking in the short-term or substantially reduce the number of cigarettes they smoked. How the intervention produced changes in smoking behaviour through facilitators and barriers in capability, opportunity and motivation (COM-B) and further real-world relevance of the trial will be discussed.

A presentation on how Wigan wanted to expand the smoking cessation offer to make it more accessible. Targeting those who rarely use community smoking cessation service by working in collaboration with trusted organisations.

In this paper, different approaches to supporting quit attempts are considered. Whilst abrupt quitting is the option offered to most smokers, a planned tailored approach, such as Cut Down to Stop, can be an effective way of engaging with clients and can increase the likelihood they might quit and/or re-engage with stop smoking services for future quit attempts. This paper looks at the key elements of Cut Down to Stop and considers the potential for this approach in helping to reduce the deep inequalities associated with smoking.

This presentation will talk about our experience of offering ‘gold standard’ stop smoking support as an integral part of a lung cancer screening programme in Yorkshire. In particular, it will focus on the results of adding a personalised intervention which utilised the use of heart and lung images captured as part of the lung scan as a potential motivator for quitting smoking/preventing relapse.

Improving access and enhancing the experience for individuals living with severe mental illness as they transition into tobacco dependency services. A system wide approach, delivering at scale to change historical commissioning stop smoking practices.

This session will look at the realities of mobilising the swap to stop offer at pace and at scale. With a particular focus on our self-serve model which saw thousands of people take up the offer within the few first weeks of launch. We’ll also look at the challenges and ways to overcome working across a large coastal/rural county using digital first.

This presentation will focus on how Sheffield amended their model and re-commissioned the Smokefree Sheffield Service to ensure it was fit for purpose in 2022 in line with the changing landscape of vapes, harm reduction, the cost-of-living crisis and new NICE guidance (2021).

The presentation will cover how we embedded the new approach of Quit, Switch and Cut Down across the system. Making the service more attractive and accessible to effectively reach priority groups and underserved communities. With increased engagement from key partners including, primary care, VCF sector and a focus on mental health services, housing and substance misuse services.

Synopsis coming soon

The scientific evidence base suggesting that e-cigarettes (vapes) can aid smoking cessation is becoming stronger, but concerns about vaping among youth could be hampering the promotion of vapes for cessation. In this session, we will discuss the current evidence base around young people vaping, delving into the prevalence, problems and potential solutions.

Rapid Fire Presentations - COMING SOON!

Since 2021 'opt-out' tobacco dependency treatment services have been introduced to almost every NHS hospital in-patient setting and maternity service, driving down smoking related health inequality by providing access to treatment. To have a greater impact still we could improve the reach and effectiveness of our services.  The opportunity to reach more people may arise via new settings to provide opt-out treatment such as ED, out-patients, community mental health, screening programmes as well as using a multiplicity of treatment providers including digital solutions, Community Pharmacy alongside well established local government stop smoking services. Systematically applying Quality Improvement through formal QI programmes or Accreditation processes  could substantially improve outcomes for our patients and the impact of our new services. A very exciting time indeed!

This presentation outlines a comprehensive, system-wide approach to achieve the 2030 Smokefree ambition of less than 5% smoking prevalence. It proposes strategies including campaigns, targeted support for underserved communities, and strengthened connections with primary care. The shared ambition aims to normalise quitting and ensure non-judgmental, evidence-based support is available to all smokers.

The presentation will consider the importance of smoker insights in informing our communications, and will explore the role this has in helping to reduce our biggest cause of disease and death and make a case for the vision of a Smokefree future.

As we consider the end of smoking and the challenges ahead, Ailsa will share the North East’s collective vision for a smokefree future, free from death & disease from tobacco, that is needed, wanted and workable.  As a smoking survivor and campaigner Sue’s keynote will highlight why working towards a smokefree future matters.