Strategic plans

GambleAware Organisational Strategy 2021-26

GambleAware published its new five-year strategy in April 2021, outlining its new vision of society where everyone is safe from gambling harms.

This vision is based on a whole-system approach, which acknowledges the many other organisations, networks and individuals, including those who have lived experience of gambling harms, that already play a key role across the system, or have the potential to do so in the future.

To get to where GambleAware expects to be in five years, the charity must focus on delivering four commissioning objectives to be effective at helping to prevent gambling harms:

• Increase awareness and understanding of gambling harms
• Increase access to services and reduce gambling harm inequalities
• Build capacity amongst healthcare professionals, social prescribers, debt advisers, faith leaders, community services and others, so they are better equipped to respond to gambling harms.
• Deliver effective leadership of the commissioning landscape to improve the coherence, accessibility, diversity and effectiveness of the National Gambling Support Network, formerly known as the 'National Gambling Treatment Service'.

GambleAware has been able to develop this five-year organisational strategy due to new funding certainty following the commitment of the four largest gambling operators in Great Britain to provide £100 million to the charity until 2024. Despite this support, GambleAware continues to support a mandatory levy to ensure continued funding certainty for the future.

The new strategy lists more than 40 programmes of work, across research, evaluation, education and treatment to help achieve the charity’s new vision. Activities include delivering improvements to the National Gambling Support Network and collaborating with providers to establish clear treatment pathways. Other programmes include the co-commissioning of place-based hubs; training programmes for faith leaders, debt advisers; new youth education hubs; a targeted women’s prevention campaign; and research programmes to build knowledge of the lived experience of gambling harms amongst women and minority communities.

GambleAware is working toward a future in which the NHS and other statutory bodies take the lead in commissioning prevention and treatment services, whilst continuing to receive support from the voluntary and private sectors. 

The strategy is available to read in full here.

GambleAware also issued a press release about the new strategy which can be downloaded here. The charity also hosted a webinar to launch the strategy, which is available to watch online here.