Supporting Smoke-free Families

24th October 2025

In support of Stoptober, we are pleased to announce a new podcast featuring a conversation with two leading professionals in tobacco control and maternity support, and the accompanying Good Practice Points: Promoting smoke-free families.

In this episode, Dr Louisa Clifford-Taylor, Health Visitor Research Associate at the Institute of Health Visiting, is joined by:

John Waldron, Policy and Public Affairs Manager at Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)
Danielle Gahan, Tobacco Dependency Lead Midwife at Stockport NHS Foundation Trust

Together, they explore how health visitors and early-years practitioners can effectively support families to become and remain smoke-free.

Dr Louisa Clifford, Health Visitor Research Associate at the Institute of Health Visiting

This podcast and accompanying Good Practice Points: Promoting smoke-free families have been released to coincide with Stoptober 2025, the national campaign encouraging people to quit smoking together.

Stoptober is a long-running national annual campaign from the Department of Health and Social Care and the NHS Better Health programme running from 17 September 2025 to 31 October 2025. This year the campaign emphasises the powerful message: “Let’s quit smoking together this Stoptober.” Each October the campaign invites people who smoke to make an attempt to quit and stay smoke-free for 28 days — evidence shows that reaching the 28-day milestone makes a person around five times more likely to quit for good. There are free digital tools, motivational support and signposting to local and NHS stop-smoking services, as we know that quitting works best when people have the right help and support around them.

Smoking remains the single biggest cause of preventable illness and death in the UK. For families, smoking in pregnancy and early parenthood significantly affects both parent and child health.

In this podcast we cover:

Why smoking in pregnancy and early parenthood matters including the risks, the inequalities and the opportunities for change.
The latest evidence on vaping and how practitioners can offer clear advice to families.
Practical conversation tools and messaging for supporting families.
Where to access trusted resources and guidance.
A specific focus on how health visitors can build on maternity contacts and early home visits to sustain smoke-free messaging beyond birth.

Our Good Practice Points: Promoting smoke-free families

This podcast accompanies the launch of iHV Good Practice Points: Promoting smoke-free families, an evidence-based guide developed for health visitors.