£190 million.
That is the projected lifetime societal cost of FASD for a single local year group — the 449 eighteen-year-olds in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough who are likely to have the condition.
£62 million of that has not yet been spent. It falls after these young people turn 18, in adult services, employment support, housing and criminal justice.
And £29 million of it is unplanned spend: the extra cost that National FASD's modelling attaches to FASD that is never identified.
Diagnosis does not create cost. It redirects it.
Across the whole 0–17 population of the two areas, the projected figure is around £3.3 billion.
The figures are huge. As local people we already paying around £130 each and every year to meet the costs that FASD causes in Cambridgeshire & Peterborough. That is for each person living in the County & City.
As we will see in future posts a much smaller investment could significantly reduce this headline figure.
FASD is identified as a need, so what is being done?
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough can and must do better.
Full workings, sources and a live model: https://www.fieldofenterprise.org/blog/methodology-behind-assessing-the-cost-of-fasd-in-cambridgeshire-peterborough
#FASDGrowsUp #EveryonePlaysAPart #FASD #Cambridgeshire #Peterborough
These posts across September 2026 are only possible due the support of the National Organisation for FASD. In June 2026, the Charity published an in depth look at the cost of FASD in the UK. professional AI software was used to interrogate available national data so that a detailed report could be written about the impact of FASD to the UK.
That report can be found here. https://nationalfasd.org.uk/the-cost-of-inaction-on-fasd/
After a discussion about whether the same software could be used to drill down into locally available data and interesting set of information appeared for Cambridgeshire & Peterborough as well as another set for Hertfordshire where the National Organisation has its office. The following posts reflect the information gathered for Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Please search my other posts / blogs throughout FASD Awareness month 2026 for a full picture of the current situation and needs in Peterborough & Cambridgeshire UK.
Brian Roberts
September 2026
