National survey of the new smoking services : implementing the Smoking Kills white paper

Background: Smoking remains a public health problem in the UK and in 1998, the UK Government pledged £60 million for smoking cessation services to be developed in England. Services were initially implemented in Health Action Zones and were developed in other areas from April 2000. Services were targeted at all motivated smokers but the government placed particular emphasis on attracting people from specific priority groups. An evaluation investigated service implementation in HAZ areas, but to date the process has not been investigated in other areas. Study Aim: To describe the new smoking cessation service which have been implemented in England and how these are being targeted at priority groups of smokers. Method: A postal survey was developed using expert opinion and documentary analysis of strategic planning documents from smoking cessation services in the Trent NHS region. The questionnaire was posted to all English smoking cessation service co-ordinators with one postal and one email reminder.