We're grateful to Alcohol Focus Scotland for bringing the sector together to organise the first Alcohol Action Day for Scotland. While we're pleased to see a dedicated day to raise awareness of alcohol harm and the action needed to address it, we're saddened that it remains so necessary.
The latest alcohol-specific death figures, published at the end of October, recorded 1,152 alcohol-specific deaths in Scotland in 2025, clearly showing that alcohol harm remains a public emergency in Scotland, and a day dedicated to highlighting its impact, recognising the work being done and calling for action is much needed.
This year's theme is Support, which sits at the heart of everything we do at SACC.
From supporting specialist charities across Scotland, to providing training for the alcohol workforce, to championing the value of alcohol counselling and the support our members provide to people experiencing difficulties with their drinking, our work is all about strengthening specialist alcohol support.
The contribution of our members is significant. In 2024/25 alone, SACC member organisations dealt with almost 7,000 new referrals to their services and collectively provided over 53,500 hours of alcohol counselling. This represents thousands of opportunities for people to access specialist, person-centred support.
SACC supports this valuable contribution, chiefly through the delivery of specialist alcohol training. Since 2018, we have delivered over 4,000 hours of training to more than 300 counsellors and alcohol support staff, helping to develop the skills, knowledge and confidence of the workforce supporting people affected by alcohol harm.
This Alcohol Action Day, we also want to highlight two areas of work that are particularly important to us and to the future of specialist alcohol support in Scotland.
1. Campaigning for Fair Funding for specialist alcohol services
Specialist alcohol charities play an essential role in supporting individuals, families and communities affected by alcohol harm. However, many continue to operate in an increasingly challenging funding environment, with short-term funding arrangements, uncertainty and insufficient recognition of the true costs of delivering services.
We believe specialist alcohol services need fair, sustainable funding that reflects the value of their work and allows them to plan for the future. That's why we're campaigning for Fair Funding for specialist alcohol services in Scotland.
We've set out our concerns and our calls for change in an open letter to funders, partners and colleagues across the sector.
Read our open letter on Fair Funding for specialist alcohol services in Scotland.
2. Exploring the value of alcohol counselling through new research
We're also looking forward to launching new research on 17 November, commissioned from Figure 8 Consultancy Ltd.
The research explores how the activities of SACC member organisations contribute to tackling alcohol-harm and the impact of alcohol counselling support across Scotland.
We want to shine a light on the value of this specialist support, the experiences of those involved and the contribution that alcohol counselling makes within Scotland's wider response to alcohol harm.
To share the findings and explore what they mean for the sector, we're hosting two online research dissemination sessions:
Tuesday 25 November | 12–1pm
Thursday 27 November | 12–1pm
We'd love to see colleagues, partners and anyone with an interest in specialist alcohol support join us. You can find out more and register for a session on the day of launch.
Alcohol Action Day is an opportunity to recognise the people and organisations working hard to reduce alcohol harm across Scotland but recognition must go hand in hand with action.
Specialist alcohol charities, their staff and volunteers and the people they support all deserve to be recognised and properly resourced. At SACC, we'll continue to champion their contribution, strengthen the specialist workforce and advocate for the support that people experiencing alcohol harm need and deserve.
