An integrated, planned and implemented community prevention system is needed to tackle the excessive alcohol use in young people. Young people’s drinking is a major cause for concern for policymakers, communities, parents and many young people themselves. Many interventions have been attempted to try to prevent this excessive use of alcohol. This report reviews these, summarises the findings, and suggests that an integrated, planed and implemented community prevention system is needed.

The report:
• examines the prevention approaches which have been developed, based on the major socialising influences on children and young people as they learn about alcohol and begin to drink which were reviewed in a partner report, ‘Influences on how children and young people learn about and behave towards alcohol’;
• establishes the efficacy of current interventions;
• explores implications for future interventions;
• concludes that young people’s norms about drinking need to be changed;
• lays out a range of suggestions for how interventions might be changed, and for how a universal prevention programme might be developed and delivered.