Cigarette smoking is attributed as one of the most common reasons of early death in the UK. The harmful toxins and addictive substances that are inhaled through smoking can increase the risk of developing more than 50 serious illnesses, with the addictive nature of smoking making it more difficult to stop and protect the health of yourself and loved ones around you. This has led to multiple attempts by the government to prevent people taking up smoking in the UK, while giving existing people who smoke the support they need to quit. Nationally, these legislative measures have had a huge impact on the number of people smoking in the UK with the number of recorded people who smoke dropping year on year.

In Bexley, we have followed this trend over the last decade, however the year on year rate of smoking prevalence increased between 2021 and 2022, the last year on record, rising above the national average. However, the number of people being recorded as having successfully quit smoking in Bexley is on the rise again following the Covid-19 pandemic, during which time the measurement numbers took a hit. After having been successfully commissioned to the GP Federation, the stop smoking services offered in Bexley have successfully been able to support expecting mothers to quit smoking, with fewer new mothers in Bexley smoking at the time of delivery than the average across the country.

We are currently looking to widen the net for stop smoking services pathways by not only implementing elements of the stop smoking message into the service specifications for the 0 to 19 Children’s Public Health Service and the Adult Substance Misuse Service, but also by working with and supporting schools to introduce voluntary Smoke Free School Gates within School Superzones to further protect our families. In 2024/25, we will be renewing our emphasis on Making Every Contact Count (MECC) and providing the right training to front line staff to help create a whole system approach for smoking and vaping cessation. The remainder of this report explores the issues and challenges we face and presents our plans for tackling smoking and vape use in Bexley.