‘The opportunity to have their say’? Identifying mechanisms of community engagement in local alcohol decision-making

Reynolds, J; McGrath, M; Halliday, E; Ogden, M; Hare, S; Smolar, M; Lafortune, L; Lock, K; Popay, J; Cook, PA; Egan, M

Abstract

Background:
Engaging the community in decisions-making is recognised as important for improving public health, and is
recommended in global alcohol strategies, and in national policies on controlling alcohol availability. Yet
there is little understanding of how to engage communities to influence decision-making to help reduce
alcohol-related harms. We sought to identify and understand mechanisms of community engagement in
decision-making concerning the local alcohol environment in England.
Methods:
We conducted case studies in three local government areas in England in 2018, purposively selected for
examples of community engagement in decisions affecting the local alcohol environment. We conducted 20
semi-structured interviews with residents, workers, local politicians and local government practitioners, and
analysed documents linked to engagement and alcohol decision-making.
Results:
Four rationales for engaging the community in decision-making affecting the alcohol environment were
identified: i) as part of statutory decision-making processes; ii) to develop new policies; iii) as representation
on committees; and iv) occurring through relationship building. Many of the examples related to alcohol
licensing processes, but also local economy and community safety decision-making. The impact of
community inputs on decisions was often not clear, but there were a few instances of engagement
influencing the process and outcome of decision-making relating to the alcohol environment.
Conclusions:
While influencing statutory licensing decision-making is challenging, community experiences of alcoholrelated harms can be valuable ‘evidence’ to support new licensing policies. Informal relationship-building
between communities and local government is also beneficial for sharing information about alcohol-related harms and to facilitate future engagement. However, care must be taken to balance the different interests
among diverse community actors relating to the local alcohol environment, and extra support is needed for
those with least capacity to engage but who face more burden of alcohol-related harms, to avoid
compounding existing inequalities.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 5, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Aug 27, 2020
• Publication Date: Nov 1, 2020
• Deposit Date: Aug 26, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 15, 2020
• Journal: International Journal of Drug Policy
• Print ISSN: 0955-3959
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Volume: 85
• Pages: 102909
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2020.102909
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2020.102909
• Related Public URLs: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/international-journal-of-drug-policy/