This project is funded by the NIHR ARC National Priority Consortium for Prevention, including Behavioural Risk Factors, and led by NIHR Applied Research Collaboration North East and North Cumbria.

 

What are we doing?

The 2019 NHS Long Term Plan – a government policy – aimed to tackle smoking through delivering a new service to support smokers to quit, in three settings: acute hospital, mental health inpatients and maternity services. The government wanted to provide smokers who are admitted to any of these settings in England access to a new ‘stop smoking service’ that includes both behavioural support and medication to help them to quit.

 

This research project aims to investigate how this new service is delivered, and if it is effective.

 

 

Why is it important?

In 2019, 14.1% of adults in the UK smoked, and over 500,000 hospital admissions were due to smoking in 2020. 

 

By evaluating the rollout of the new NHS-funded tobacco dependence service it allows us to understand how it is being delivered, how effective it is in aiding smokers to successfully quit, and how cost-effective the new service is for the NHS.

 

Having an in-depth understanding of these key areas enables future decision making to be based on evidence of what worked well, what could be improved and any other factors that were influential in the successful rollout of the new NHS-funded tobacco dependence service.

 

 

How are we doing it?

We are undertaking four studies across five regions (involving 24 NHS Trusts) in England:

 

1. Interviewing those who design, fund, and provide the service
2. Surveying and interviewing NHS staff about their experiences of providing this service. We will also interview service users who have been offered the new service to understand their opinions and experiences of it.
3. Using hospital records to find out the number of smokers who have been offered and used the service, and how effective the new service is based on the number of people quitting smoking.
4. Using hospital records and other data to calculate the costs of providing the service and find out whether it provides value in helping people who smoke.

 

The findings from this study will support NHS Trusts by giving them information on how to improve the stop smoking service for the future from the perspectives of service users, healthcare professionals, and others.

 

We are writing several articles which will be shared widely; for example, with healthcare professionals, policymakers, researchers, and members of the public.

 

 

Early findings from the first phase of the research study: 

 

Professionals:

• Professionals of varying roles and expertise, including staff with lived experience – reported strong knowledge of the planned service and requirements.
• Professionals identified concerns about the adequacy of resources available to provide a high-quality service.
• Professionals demonstrated strong commitment to delivering the service despite challenges faced.

 

Smokers:

• Smokers found smoking cessation services provided in NHS settings acceptable.
• Smokers found that access to Nicotine Replacement Therapies, including vapes, supported them in smoking abstinence.

 

Preliminary costings show that the cost of delivery per patient ranges from £103 to £1,621, excluding set up costs.

 

The research team also found that:

 

• Interprofessional and intersectoral collaboration is a necessary condition for successful service delivery.
• Supporting a cultural shift to create an environment that reduces or removes the stigma associated with tobacco smoking can enhance service engagement.
• Investment in data collection, monitoring & sharing infrastructure will support sustainable service provision and improvement.
• Support for smokers beyond NHS settings is essential to enable long-term cessation and to tackle health inequalities, particularly providing the tools to quit (NRT, behavioural support), is needed to overcome financial barriers to smoking cessation.

 

Further findings will be available in Autumn 2025.

 

You can keep up to date with the latest findings from the NIHR ARC North East North Cumbria research project page here.

 

 

Downloadable resources

• Reports
  • Briefing note - commissioners
  • Briefing note - members of the public
  • Briefing note - healthcare professionals
  • Briefing note - findings & recommendations
• Publications
  • Brennan-Tovey K, Aquino MR, Flanagan S, Kaner E, Wearn A, Bigirumurame T, et al., (2022) Implementation of the NHS-funded tobacco dependence services in England: a qualitative study to understand the contexts of implementation. The Lancet

 

 

 

Who we are working with

• NIHR ARC North East and North Cumbria
• NIHR ARC Yorkshire and Humber
• NIHR ARC Greater Manchester
• NIHR ARC West Midlands
• NIHR ARC West

 

 

More information

 

 

 

Senior Programme Lead

 

Mike Spence

michael.spence@manchester.ac.uk