New funding worth more than £650,000 for smoking prevention has been announced by Edwina Hart.
A total of £155,000 over the next two years will go into the ASSIST programme, where health promotion experts train pupils to persuade their friends not to start smoking or to give up, and more than £500,000 will be allocated for wider smoking prevention activity.
58 schools have already benefited from the ASSIST programme, with another 8 currently completing this term. The new funding will allow a further 20 schools to benefit from the programme over the next two years.
Mrs Hart also announced new funding worth £519,000 for wider smoking prevention. She announced £143,000 a year for ASH Wales over the next three years to enable the charity to continue raising awareness of the effects of tobacco and smoking. A further £30,000 a year will also be provided to ASH Wales over the next three years to fund No Smoking Day activities and campaigns across Wales.
Edwina Hart said:
“Smoking prevention for young people is a high priority as the majority of smokers take up the habit in their teenage years. The Chief Medical Officer’s annual report to be published later this week will show that hospital admissions for heart attacks were reduced last year.
“My announcement today builds on this good news and aims to prevent children from taking up smoking in the first place. Failure to prevent young people from taking up smoking will lead to higher adult smoking rates and increased costs for the NHS in treating smoking-related disease.
“Evidence suggests that a co-ordinated approach to smoking prevention is required so that young people are provided with different initiatives and strategies throughout their school life.”
