The NSMC has been very fortunate over recent years to island hop and work on various different islands around the world, including the British Virgin Islands, Jamaica, and now St Helena. With the drive for place-based approaches to health, local authorities and Clinical Commissioning Groups could learn a lot from the approach taken by these islands, particularly St Helena and their natural total place approaches.

In April, The NSMC launched a campaign in Hastings aimed at parents of teenage children. The campaign highlighted the negative impact alcohol can have on a teenager child’s brain development and ran with the slogan: Your child and alcohol. Think Again Now.

The first UK Social Marketing Conference in ten years will be held in London on the 14^th September, 2017 at the Queen Mary University of London.

Ten years after the creation of the National Social Marketing Centre (NSMC) in the UK, the conference will reflect on the successes (and challenges) of the last decade and plot a positive future direction for the discipline.

We are delighted to announce that Professor Jeff French, the founding director of The NSMC, is coming back to give a series of masterclasses on social marketing over the next few months.

Jeff is a global thought leader in the fields of behavioural influence, social marketing and social programme planning.  As well as publishing over 90 academic papers and five books, Jeff is a visiting Professor at Brighton University and a Fellow at Kings College London University.

The NSMC is helping to plan and test a pilot Help-Point for vulnerable people in Hastings during the night-time in late January and early February.  The Help-Point will give people a place to recover and seek advice and support as well as offering a minor injury service.  As part of the planning for the pilot we agreed that NSMC staff would go out one Friday night to see what’s happening on the streets and talk to a