The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) has published the first UK guidelines on the clinical management of harmful drinking and alcohol dependence, based on evidence and professional consensus. Patterns of alcohol-related risk and harm exist on a continuum, and the guidelines use the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Disease (11th edn) definitions of harmful drinking and alcohol dependence to describe categories on that continuum.
The guidelines were developed by a multidisciplinary expert reference group from across the four nations of the UK, chaired by Dr Louise Sell, a consultant psychiatrist at Pennine Care, Greater Manchester. They were informed by a group of experts with lived experience.
In the introduction to the guidelines, Dr Sell says: ‘The aim of the guidelines is ultimately to improve outcomes for people living with harmful use of alcohol and alcohol dependence and to do this by supporting everybody who plans, commissions and delivers services in ensuring that they are of the highest quality.’
The guidelines comprise two parts – the first gives guidance on the core elements of alcohol treatment, and is relevant for practitioners who work in specialist alcohol treatment services or who provide specialist alcohol treatment in other settings, while the second covers guidance for providing the core elements of alcohol treatment in specific settings and for specific populations.
However, the DHSC is clear that these guidelines are not only for people working in specialist alcohol treatment services, but for everybody working to improve the outcomes of people with alcohol dependence or harmful patterns of alcohol use. This could be in primary, community or acute healthcare, social care (children’s and adult), the criminal justice system, homelessness and housing services, employment, and voluntary sector services across the UK.
The aim of the guidelines is to improve the quality of alcohol treatment so that people with patterns of harmful drinking and alcohol dependence get better help and support and achieve better outcomes. They provide recommendations for putting guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) into practice, and cover additional areas not addressed by NICE, such as aspects of recovery and considerations for specific settings and populations.
The guidelines were developed by a multidisciplinary expert reference group from across the four nations of the UK, chaired by Dr Louise Sell, a consultant psychiatrist at Pennine Care, Greater Manchester. They were informed by a group of experts with lived experience.
In the introduction to the guidelines, Dr Sell says: ‘The aim of the guidelines is ultimately to improve outcomes for people living with harmful use of alcohol and alcohol dependence and to do this by supporting everybody who plans, commissions and delivers services in ensuring that they are of the highest quality.’
The guidelines comprise two parts – the first gives guidance on the core elements of alcohol treatment, and is relevant for practitioners who work in specialist alcohol treatment services or who provide specialist alcohol treatment in other settings, while the second covers guidance for providing the core elements of alcohol treatment in specific settings and for specific populations.
However, the DHSC is clear that these guidelines are not only for people working in specialist alcohol treatment services, but for everybody working to improve the outcomes of people with alcohol dependence or harmful patterns of alcohol use. This could be in primary, community or acute healthcare, social care (children’s and adult), the criminal justice system, homelessness and housing services, employment, and voluntary sector services across the UK.
The aim of the guidelines is to improve the quality of alcohol treatment so that people with patterns of harmful drinking and alcohol dependence get better help and support and achieve better outcomes. They provide recommendations for putting guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) into practice, and cover additional areas not addressed by NICE, such as aspects of recovery and considerations for specific settings and populations.
References
Department for Health and Social Care (2025) Clinical guidelines for alcohol treatment. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/clinical-guidelines-for-alcohol-treatment (accessed 9 December 2025)
