Stoptober 2024

Stoptober is the Department of Health and Social Care’s annual stop smoking campaign, based on evidence that if a smoker makes it to 28 days smoke-free, they are five times more likely to quit for good. Since it first launched in 2012, Stoptober has helped over 2.5 million people make a quit smoking attempt. With your help, this year we aim to rally the remaining smokers in England to give quitting a go this October and support them to quit successfully.

While smoking rates have declined in recent years, over 5 million people in England still smoke and smoking remains the single biggest cause of preventable ill health and death. Latest data shows that using willpower alone remains the most common approach to quitting smoking, despite being proven to be the least effective. We are therefore encouraging partners like you to use Stoptober as an opportunity to promote the range of quitting support available and, as a result, increase the number of successful quit attempts.

We’ve created a range of campaign assets to help you promote Stoptober. These assets focus on reminding smokers of what Stoptober is all about – that if you quit smoking for Stoptober (ie 28 days) you are five times more likely to quit for good. We are also creating assets promoting useful quitting tips, the health benefits of quitting and the range of support available.

Whether you’re a Local Authority, NHS Trust, ICB, service provider or employer, there are lots of opportunities to make Stoptober work for your audiences. In previous campaigns some examples of effective partner activity have included creating displays, organising community outreach activities, scheduling content for newsletters, websites and intranets and planning social media takeovers. We also know that face-to-face interaction with smokers is highly effective in generating quit attempts and explaining the range of support on offer.