Greetings

If you’re here, it’s because you’re interested in being the new Chief Executive of NOFAS-UK. Thank you for your interest.

NOFAS is a brilliant organisation and has made real progress towards making Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder something that only appears in the history books. But we have a long way to go and perhaps you will be the person to help us get there.

Click on the logo on the left, and you’ll be taken to the NOFAS-UK website where you can find out a load more about what we do.

WHAT IS FETAL ALCOHOL SPECTRUM DISORDER?

Fetal* Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) – nowadays more properly described as Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder – can occur in children born to mothers who have drunk alcohol during pregnancy. Light to moderate alcohol consumption rarely results in FAS but can do so. Heavy consumption is clearly undesirable. The effects vary widely but it can result in serious physical and mental disabilities, and impacts a person’s ability to live and work independently.

* In common with most international organisations, we use the American spelling ‘fetal’ rather than ‘ foetal’ and retain the title FAS rather than FASD.

BRIEF BACKGROUND TO NOFAS-UK

The charity’s purposes are two-fold: to campaign to reduce the incidence of FAS and to support those who are affected by it.

We interpret the campaigning aspect to include raising awareness amongst professionals and the public alike, and campaigning for policies and regulations to help prevent FAS.

CURRENT PROGRAMMES

Our current activities include:

• running a training programme for midwives; to date we have trained 15,000
• providing information for GPs
• running regular conferences for professionals
• producing informational videos, films and literature
• putting together and managing an international panel of medical experts
• providing a global six-monthly online document to interested parties which collates all the latest international research
• running targeted awareness campaigns amongst schoolchildren
• dealing with media inquiries, including appearing in the media
• lobbying government, MPs and alcohol companies for better policies to reduce the incidence of FAS
• running a 5-day a week helpline
• running support groups for parents