Hope UK welcomes call for alcohol-free childhood

Christian drug and alcohol awareness charity Hope UK has welcomed new guidelines from the Government advising parents to make childhood an alcohol-free zone.

Government guidelines published on Thursday told parents they should not let their children drink until they are 15, while those between 15 and 17 years of age should not drink alcohol more than once a week and only under parent or carer supervision.

The guidelines were drawn up under the supervision of Chief Medical Officer Liam Donaldson, in a bid to reverse the binge drinking trend among young people.

He told BBC radio, "There is serious harm that can come to children if they drink and the main advice is that childhood should be an alcohol-free time. Certainly under the age of 15 there are serious risks."

The guidelines were welcomed by Hope UK as “a step in the direction of reducing the UK’s problem with alcohol”.

“Yet it will need the active involvement of parents and carers – not just in denying alcohol but also, and more importantly, in the provision and role modelling of alcohol-free options,” said the charity in a statement.

Hope UK added that action was also needed to help parents address their own drinking after a government report in 2004 stated that as many as 1.3 million children in England were suffering because of parental drinking.

Hope UK said a culture change was needed to lessen the appeal of binge drinking.

“To do this will require positive action. Saying no on its own is simply not good enough. Making attractive alcohol-free drinks – and using them – needs to become a social reality,” it said.

“An alcohol-free childhood may be an obvious requirement when viewed from a health perspective, but the social reality means that our culture needs changing.

“To do this, Hope UK calls on everyone – government, business and the voluntary sector – to buy into this culture change, invest time and resources, and take the practical step of adopting alcohol-free options.”

According to Sir Liam, more than 300,000 children between the ages of 11 and 15 get drunk each week.

"That is a very large number and we need to do something about that," he told BBC radio.

"There is emerging medical evidence now to suggest that damage to the structure and function of the brain takes place with exposure to alcohol at those sorts of ages."

The guidelines are not expected to replace current law, which leaves it to parents to decide whether their children - over the age of five - should be given alcohol in the home.