The Cost of Inaction on FASD, warns that governments across the UK are pressing ahead with reforms in health, education, benefits, justice, social care and homelessness while continuing to overlook Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), one of the country’s most under-recognised neurodevelopmental conditions.
The report argues that this is not only failing people with FASD and their families, but also locking public services into higher long-term costs.
It estimates that FASD costs UK society around £9.2 billion each year, with a 30-year cumulative present-value burden of around £160 billion. National FASD says too much of this money is currently spent late, in crisis and in the wrong places because needs are not recognised early enough and because the UK still lacks a coordinated prevention, diagnosis and support response.
The report calls for a four-nation FASD Prevention and Response Programme funded through an amount equivalent to 0.25% of alcohol duty receipts. It says that level of investment could support a UK-wide prevention campaign on alcohol and pregnancy, alongside earlier diagnosis, post-diagnostic support, funding for FASD voluntary organisations, workforce training, better recording of prenatal alcohol exposure, research and data systems.
National FASD’s Chief Executive Sandy Butcher encourages people to use this report to help in their efforts to promote change.
The media pack includes the media release, a report summary, information about FASD and key quotes.
The full report is available for download. It includes visual summaries for each key section.
This is an easy access summary of key findings of the report.
This summary provides key findings and National FASD’s call for action.
Selected social media assets available for sharing.
If this report raises concerns for you that you might like to take up with your NHS bodies, with your elected leaders or the media, here’s some information on how to do that.
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This summary describes how the report was created, including how AI was used to help. We are happy to answer further questions about the methods used.