Public Helath

This story tells us:

Local councils have today criticised central government after it was revealed that public health services such as sexual health clinics and services reducing harm from smoking, alcohol and drugs will have to be cut by £85m this year by local authorities.

In findings released by health think-tank the King’s Fund today which analysed DCLG data, it was revealed that councils in England were planning to spend £3.4bn on public health services in 2017-18.

However, on a like-for-like basis excluding the impact of changes to how budgets are calculated over different years, councils will only spend £2.52bn on public health in 2017-18 compared to £2.60bn last year.

Once inflation is factored in, the King’s Fund experts also discovered that public health spending is more than 5% less in 2017-18 than it was four years ago, in 2013-14.

Researchers suggest that central government cuts are to blame for the fall in spending for public health, which looks set to be reduced by at least £600m by 2020-21 on top of £200m already cut from the 2015-16 budget.

“These planned cuts in services are the result of central government funding cuts that are increasingly forcing councils to make difficult choices about which services they fund,” said David Buck, senior fellow in public health and inequalities at The King’s Fund.

“Councils are clear – the government needs to look to prevention, not cure, for delivering long-term savings and better services,” said Cllr Izzi Seccombe, chairman of the LGA’s Community Wellbeing Board.