Success Rates of Stop Smoking Services in England

Local Authorities across the UK work tirelessly to improve the health and wellbeing of the people in their communities. One important way they do this is through the delivery of Stop Smoking Services. Stop Smoking Services provide free expert advice, guidance and support to help smokers to quit

Mapping the path to a smoke-free England Quit-smoking rates amongst pregnant women Successful quitters by age group Are vapes leading the way? Areas with the greatest success of using vapes as a stop-smoking aid? The cost of quitting Signposts of success Your journey

Mapping the path to a smoke-free England

At Haypp we want to recognise and support the important work local authorities do to help the people in their community and to contribute to a smoke-free future for the UK. Using the latest data available from the NHS and other sources, we have created an interactive map to identify the local authorities in England that have been most effective at helping smokers to quit.

You can use the interactive map to get a picture of how stop smoking services are performing across England. For example, you can see which authorities have been most successful at helping smokers quit, those that invested the most in stop smoking services, and which quit smoking aids have been most effective.

The data used in this interactive map will be updated regularly to give an up to date picture on stop smoking services in England. The data currently being displayed is from April to June 2024.

Top performing local authorities

From the data, the average quit smoking success rate across all local authorities is 57%. However, the top five local authorities have significantly higher success rates. In first place is York, with an impressive 82% success rate, followed by North Yorkshire on 80%. In some local authorities, it is proving more difficult to achieve success. Four of the bottom five have success rates between 25% and 31%, and the lowest in this dataset, Hartlepool, has a 13% success rate.

Quit-smoking rates amongst pregnant women

Encouraging pregnant women to quit is especially important because smoking during pregnancy leads to poor birth outcomes. Unfortunately, just over half of pregnant women who set a date to quit smoking manage to succeed. This is despite many authorities offering special incentives for pregnant women to quit. However, the big picture on smoking rates in pregnancy is more positive. 2024 saw record low numbers of pregnant women smoking in the UK as a result of targeted support offered by the NHS and local authorities.

Successful quitters by age group

Across different age groups, we see a broadly similar pattern of success and failure rates. The age group that was most successful at giving up smoking was the 60 and over cohort, with a 59% success rate. Concerningly, the under 18 age group seem to find it most difficult to quit, with just 51% successfully stopping smoking. This age group also had the highest percentage of potential quitters where the outcomes were unknown.

Are vapes leading the way?

Many local authorities across England now make vapes available as an aid to people trying to quit smoking. There are a variety of different types of stop smoking aids provided by local authorities. These can include nicotine replacement therapies such as patches or gum, nicotine containing vapes, non-tobacco nicotine pouches, and pharmaceutical supports. The data shows the relative effectiveness of the various stop smoking aids. From the data, we can see that the average success rate for those who use stop-smoking aids was 57%. However the average success rate for those who used nicotine-containing vapes to help them quit was 63%, a full six percentage points higher. Those who opted not to use any medication or nicotine replacement therapy had the lowest success rate by some margin, at 46%.

When considering why some local authorities are having high success rates, is notable that four out of the top five offer nicotine vapes as a stop smoking tool. These are York, Essex, Redcar and Cleveland, Stoke-on-Trent. It is clear that vapes have become an important tool for smokers trying to quit, and that the local authorities that provide vapes as part of their stop smoking services are seeing positive results.

Success rates: are vapes leading the way

Areas with the greatest success of using vapes as a stop-smoking aid?

In some areas, vapes have proved remarkably successful as a stop-smoking aid. In Darlington, 90% of quitters who used a nicotine-vape successfully quit smoking. The figure was 86% in both Calderdale and Somerset. These success rates are very high when compared with the overall average success rate of 57%.

The cost of quitting

Helping people to quit smoking is not cheap, but local authorities are having a great impact with constrained resources. On average, local authorities across England spend £936 per successful quitter. Some local authorities have had a great deal of success while maintaining a very low cost per quitter. For example Dorset spends just £86 per successful quitter. Interestingly, one of the top five locations for successful quit smoking rates, Essex, also has one of the lowest levels of spending per successful quitter, at just £151.

Signposts of success

So why are the top 5 local authorities having higher rates of success when it comes to helping people to quit smoking? We gathered information on the different types of support each council offers to people trying to quit smoking to understand what is contributing to their success:

York

Provides courses which can help you to change your smoking behaviours, and advise on medications
Offers face to face or video appointments
12 weeks' free nicotine replacement therapy is available for pregnant women
Offers a voucher scheme for pregnant smokers, up to £170 for completing the programme and becoming smoke-free
Smokers aged 18 years and over can get a free four-week vape starter kit

North Yorkshire

Offers a free personalised service for six to 12 weeks to help you quit smoking. This includes:
Access to a dedicated, local stop smoking advisor
A free supply of a selected Nicotine Replacement Therapy - other stop smoking quit aids are available subject to availability
Weekly one-to-one sessions either in person at one of the clinics, remotely or a combination of the two

Essex

Provides a coach who can help you to understand your behavioural triggers
An innovative online quit smoking course
Free Nicotine Replacement Therapy
The local stop smoking service works with vape stores across to provide access to vapes

Redcar and Cleveland

Free vape kits provided to help smokers quit
Stop smoking clinics in both Middlesbrough and Redcar and Cleveland
Provide online guidance with the option of requesting support by phone, SMS, or email

Stoke-on-Trent

For those who qualify for specialised support:

Offers free one to one support
Provides access to stop smoking medications/vapes
Digital support is provided using a range of technology such as social media, mobile Apps, chat and text

Your journey

The journey to quit smoking is rarely easy. We know that many people may not succeed on their first try. The important thing is to keep your eyes on the prize and try, try again. These are some of our top tips to help you on your journey.