To prepare, the teams were asked to digest the snappily titled "The Public Health Burden of Alcohol and the Effectiveness and Cost-Effectiveness of Alcohol Control Policies" - a report from Public Health England.

The report looks at the types of alcohol-related harm and also asses the effectiveness of targeting the three key influencers of alcohol consumption:

• Affordability (price)
• Availability (ease of purchase)
• Acceptability (social norms around consumption)

Click here to see the full report, external

Move over Dry January! Even if you don't think of yourself as a heavy drinker, plenty of us have sworn off alcohol after the Christmas holidays. Our presenter Matthew Taylor isn't the only one looking forward to hearing some innovative solutions today.

According to a government report there are currently over 10 million people drinking at levels which increase their risk of harming their health. Among those aged 15 to 49 in England, alcohol is now the leading risk factor for ill-health, early mortality and disability and the fifth leading risk factor for ill health across all age groups. All of these problems apply a massive amount of strain on the NHS, the police, the courts and on families where alcohol abuse is a problem.

Jocelyn Bailey is an experienced researcher in the field of strategic design. Her work explores the use of design in grappling with complex public problems - from forming policy to achieving change.

Image source, Uscreates

Thomas Kohut uses design, collaboration and creativity to solve problems, rethink issues, and develop campaigns, change behaviour and increase engagement.

Image source, Uscreates

Cat will be joined by Mary Rose Cook, the co-founder and director of Uscreates and has designed, led and delivered multiple social innovation and improvement ideas.

Image source, Uscreates

Our fearless, free-thinking teams are going to be led through the idea generating process by a team of facilitators, on hand to guide, point out errors, shoot down the ridiculous and praise the innovative. They're our gurus, our mentors and, occasionally, our hand-holders.

Cat Drew will head up the facilitating team. She's used to overseeing complicated, mind-boggling projects using data and design techniques.

Design firm Uscreates have helped facilitate previous episodes of The Fix dealing with childhood obesity, re-offending and the housing problem. But how can this kind of company help tackle society's ills?

You can find out all about their innovative, occasionally seemingly bizarre, approach to facilitating solutions to endemic problems in this blog post., external

Image source, Uscreates/Vianney Le Caer

Using a variety of innovative exploratory techniques (and the occasional balloon, honestly), the teams will hear first hand evidence concerning alcohol consumption, consider case studies that reflect the issue, take on a wealth of information before winnowing down all their disparate thoughts into one specific, illuminating question which they will then try to answer.

It'll look a little like this. Lovely isn't it!

Image source, Uscreates

How would you solve a seemingly intractable societal problem? Today, 12 of the country's brightest young minds will get together and try to do just that. And, starting at 9.30am, we will follow their progress every step of the way.

For 9 hours we'll be privy to their ideas, headaches and thought processes as they wrestle with this question:

How do you reduce alcohol consumption?

What innovative solutions will they come up with? Stay tuned!

While we're waiting for the ideas to start churning here's the winning pitch from The Fix episode dealing with childhood obesity. The proposal called for after school supper club competitions, giving both kids and parents the incentive to eat healthy.