Specialist gambling harms services for local councils and public health teams.

Our Services

We offer two main commissioned services to local councils and public health partners: public health awareness campaigns, and training for professionals. 

Public health awareness campaigns 

We deliver and support gambling harms awareness campaigns in partnership with local authorities, covering prevention, stigma reduction and behaviour change communications. Each campaign is shaped around the local audience, the local treatment and support landscape, and the public health priorities of the commissioner. 

The case for specialist delivery 

When a local authority wants to run a gambling harms campaign, there are usually three options: 

1. Run the campaign in-house — relying on internal communications teams 

2. Outsource to an advertising or media agency — buying paid media and creative through a generalist partner 

3. Work with a specialist gambling harms provider — such as Chapter One 

Media agencies can place advertisements, but they are not set up to make sure messaging is clinically sound, informed by lived experience, stigma-aware, and aligned with the treatment and support people will reach for. Talking about gambling harms to people who are experiencing them, or who are close to someone affected, takes expert handling — not a generic comms approach. The wrong message, in the wrong tone, in the wrong place, can deepen stigma rather than reduce it. 

What you get when we deliver your campaign 

• Specialist subject expertise. Our team understands gambling harms first-hand, through both personal and professional experience. Every message is built on that understanding. 

• Evidence-informed framing. We apply established public health framing to behaviour change communications, grounded in behavioural insight rather than generic advertising creative. 

• Lived experience applied to messaging. Our campaigns are shaped by people who have been harmed by gambling and by families bereaved by gambling-related suicide. This is what keeps messaging authentic and stigma-aware. 

• Safe signposting. Every campaign points people to NHS gambling services and other evidence-based support, so awareness turns into action and no-one is left without a next step. 

We can deliver an end-to-end campaign, support an in-house team, or work alongside a media partner where one is already appointed. 

Training for professionals 

Frontline professionals are often the first to come into contact with someone affected by gambling harms. Many have not had access to clear, evidence-based training on the subject. Chapter One's training is designed to close that gap. 

Who our training is for 

Our training is suitable for any professional who may come into contact with someone experiencing gambling harms, or someone close to them. This includes: 

• Health and social care teams 

• Housing and homelessness services 

• Financial services and debt advice 

• Criminal justice professionals 

• Family and community support workers 

• School staff and youth-facing workers 

What the training covers 

Participants finish the training able to: 

• Recognise the signs that someone may be experiencing gambling harms 

• Understand how modern gambling products are designed, and why anyone can be affected 

• Start a conversation with someone they think may need support 

• Signpost to specialist treatment, including free NHS gambling services 

• Reduce stigma in the way gambling harms are talked about in their setting 

Impact so far 

Chapter One has trained over 1,000 professionals to date. After our training: 

• 95% feel confident to start a conversation about gambling 

• 98% feel confident to support someone experiencing gambling harms