London, 31 May 2022: The Council will be comprised entirely of people with direct lived experience of gambling harms, as well as those who are indirectly impacted by others’ gambling harms, to share their expertise and experience and to inform GambleAware and its Board of trustees.

This Lived Experience Council builds on GambleAware’s commitment to ensuring its approach is collaborative and best placed to support the communities most in need. Council members will be expected to provide expert independent advice across GambleAware’s activities and programmes, guide the charity’s governance and strategic development and have a rotating observatory and advising seat at all Board meetings. 

In addition to inviting people to apply to the new Council, GambleAware is looking to build a community of individuals who are willing to share their experience and knowledge of gambling harms to inform its day-to-day work.

Zoë Osmond, CEO, GambleAware said: “We are committed to meaningful and inclusive involvement of those with lived experience of gambling harms to ensure their voice is amplified across all areas of our work. As an imperative step in this process, we are pleased to be launching and opening the call for applications for GambleAware’s new Lived Experience Council.

“I strongly encourage all those who are interested in being part of this new venture, to please get in touch. The new Council and community members will bring their unique insight, expertise, and knowledge to GambleAware and help us in creating a society free from gambling harms.”

The Lived Experience Council follows-on from GambleAware’s ongoing work in providing funding and support to build the capacity of community-based civil society groups focussing on gambling harms.

To date, GambleAware has worked with community groups to establish the ALERTS group, formed as a parallel governance structure to the National Clinician’s Network Forum which is part of the National Gambling Treatment Service (NGTS). The group’s members are all people who have experienced harms associated with gambling and/or gambling disorder who have been in treatment. In recognition of the need for a national representative network across Great Britain, GambleAware has also awarded a grant for the establishment of the Gambling Lived Experience Network (GLEN), supported in its work by community-based organisation Expert Link.

To find out more about the Council, please read this information pack.

To apply please complete this application form.

To find out more about being part of GambleAware’s wider lived experience community, please read this information pack. To apply please complete this registration form.

If you have troubles accessing the files linked in this article, please contact us at involvement@gambleaware.org. 

-ENDS-

Contact: 

GambleAware

+447523 609413

gambleaware@atlas-partners.co.uk

About GambleAware:

• GambleAware is the leading charity (Charity No. England & Wales 1093910, Scotland SC049433) commissioning the transformation of treatment and prevention services, leading public health campaigns and keeping people safe from gambling harms.
• Up to 2.9 million people in Great Britain are at risk of harm from gambling. Gambling can harm people and their families financially, psychologically and physically. GambleAware works in close collaboration with leading organisations and experts including the NHS, government, local authorities and gambling treatment providers, to ensure that people get the information, support and treatment they need.
• Every year GambleAware funds access to free, confidential treatment for nearly 12,000 people and over 41,000 calls to the National Gambling Helpline.
• GambleAware is a commissioner of independent evidence-informed prevention and treatment services in partnership with expert organisations and agencies across Great Britain, with over £56 million of funding under active management.
• In partnership with gambling treatment providers, GambleAware has spent several years methodically building structures for commissioning a coherent system of brief intervention and treatment services, with clearly defined care pathways and established referral routes to and from the NHS – a National Gambling Treatment Service.
• The National Gambling Treatment Service brings together a National Gambling Helpline and a network of locally-based providers across Great Britain that works with partner agencies and people with lived experience to design and deliver a system, which meets the needs of individuals. This system delivers a range of treatment services, including brief intervention, counselling (delivered either face-to-face or online), residential programmes and psychiatrist led care.
• In April 2021 GambleAware published a new five-year strategy which defined the charity’s vision of a society where people are 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. Alongside this, GambleAware outlined its four key strategic priorities and four commissioning objectives which will help guide the charity as it strives to achieve its vision.
• GambleAware produces public health campaigns including ‘Bet Regret’ and its Women’s Gambling Harm Prevention campaign. The charity is responsible for the design and delivery of the campaign based on best practice in public health education.