GLEN’s response to announcement of OHID being appointed Prevention Commissioners for Statutory Levy Funding.
We welcome the long awaited announcement by Fiona Twycross (Baroness Twycross) and Stephanie Peacock MP regarding the appointment of a Commissioner for Prevention within the new Statutory Levy framework.
Of all the areas covered by the new RPT commissioning structure we see prevention as being of the highest importance, and as aligning most closely with the goals and priorities of those with Lived and Living Experience of harms deriving from gambling.
We do however find it unfortunate that this announcement has come so late in the day, less than 7 full weeks before the Levy commences on April 1st, which has prevented any meaningful engagement with the new commissioner occurring in advance of this seismic change in the gambling harms environment.
We look forward to supporting the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) and also the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) in their discharge of this important role.
Prevention must always be at the forefront of tacking any Societal Harm – which harms caused through gambling definitely falls within the definition of being.
However, unlike others who will today be putting out statements which read as being 100% supportive of this appointment we do wish to raise a note of caution.
We see our own role as representing the body of experiential knowledge and understanding deriving from having experienced, and in many cases inflicted harm upon others, as a result of disordered gambling behaviours. We also see our role as helping protect others from facing similar harms to those that we ourselves have encountered.
As such, we know that good intentions are not enough.
What matters is coordinated and informed action.
Action which requires integral involvement of experiential knowledge and understanding.
While for those working at hashtag#OHID the prevention of further harms now becomes part of their operational focus, for everyone at hashtag#GLEN, and in the wider hashtag#GamblingHarms LE Community, it is our SOLE purpose.
We are 100% invested in making this happen.
We accordingly openly offer our support to OHID in helping develop an effective and wide reaching approach to reducing and mitigating harms caused by gambling here in GB. But we will not be shy in challenging decisions or approaches which we feel are not optimal, and which do not fully embrace the power of involving Lived Experience at ALL stages of development and implementation.
We hear many with expertise in Public Health talking about proven approaches to tackling harms caused from addictive products. Many of those approaches have valid applications in terms of gambling. But others do not.
A ‘cut and paste’ approach will NOT work.
We are GLEN.
We are HERE.
Come SPEAK to us.