Joint open letter calling for investment in local public health at the Spending Review
COVID-19 has provided a stark reminder of the value of public health and held a mirror up to the deep health inequalities that exist in society. Deprived and minority ethnic communities, and people with underlying health conditions such as obesity, have been disproportionately affected by severe illness, hospitalisations and deaths.
For years local public health budgets have been cut, undermining the very system, services and leadership that has been essential to protecting communities during the pandemic. The same budgets will provide the foundation for a healthy and inclusive recovery, but we are deeply concerned that further real-term cuts could be made in the Spending Review.
New analysis from the Health Foundation, published today, calls for an extra £1.4bn per year by 2024/25 to be provided for local public health budgets in the Spending Review.
This will mean councils, working with partners like the NHS and the voluntary sector, can deliver good outcomes from frontline cross-sector public health services like drug and alcohol treatment, sexual and reproductive health, physical activity, weight management, smoking cessation, health visiting and school nursing; and provide the necessary public health leadership to address the root causes of physical and mental ill health, such as poor housing, air quality, crime and poverty.
With public health still at the forefront of our minds and the government rightly committed to levelling up, preparing for the next public health threat and building a more prevention-focussed health and social care system, there could not be a more prudent time to increase funding for local public health. The alternative is that future generations will look back and ask, ‘what changed?’
Signatories
Kate Halliday, Executive Director, Addiction Professionals
Dr Richard Piper Chief Executive, Alcohol Change UK
Prof Sir Ian Gilmore, Chair, Alcohol Health Alliance UK
Hilary Evans, CEO, Alzheimer’s Research UK
Deborah Arnott, Chief Executive, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)
Dr Maria Bryant, Chair, UK Association for the Study of Obesity (ASO)
Peter Wright, Acting Chair, Association of Chief Environmental Health Officers in England
Cathie Williams, Chief Executive, Association of Directors of Adult Social Services
Prof Jim McManus, Interim President, Association of Directors of Public Health
Dr Tony Jewell FFPH FRCGP, Past President, Association of Directors of Public Health, CMO Wales 2006-2012
Eddie Crouch, Chair, British Dental Association
Andy Burnham, Chief Executive, British Dietetic Association
John Maingay, Director of Policy and Influencing, British Heart Foundation
Dr Laura Waters, Chair, British HIV Association (BHIVA)
Pamela Healy, Chief Executive, British Liver Trust
Richard Jarvis, co-chair, public health medicine committee, BMA
Helen Marshall, Chief Executive, Brook
Emlyn Samuel, Director of Policy, Cancer Research UK
Andy Bell, Deputy Chief Executive, Centre for Mental Health
Julie Barratt, President, Chartered Institute of Environmental Health
Prof Karen Middleton, Chief Executive, Chartered Society of Physiotherapy
Oliver Standing, Director, Collective Voice
Dr Hilda Hayo, CEO and Chief Admiral Nurse, Dementia UK
Bridget Turner, Director of Policy Campaigns and Improvement, Diabetes UK
Prof Maggie Rae, President, Faculty of Public Health
Dr Asha Kasliwal, President of the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare (FSRH)
Dr Alice Deasy, Chair, Fairhealth
Matthew Philpott, Executive Director, Health Equalities Group, Food Active
Ailsa Rutter OBE FKC, Director, Fresh and Balance
Kim Roberts, Chief Executive, Health, Exercise, Nutrition for the Really Young (HENRY)
Dr Katherine Severi, Chief Executive, Institute of Alcohol Studies
Prof Patricia Owen, President, Institute of Health Promotion and Education (IHPE)
Alison Morton, Executive Director, Institute of Health Visiting
Erica Roscoe, Senior Research Fellow, IPPR North
Dr Aisling McMahon, Executive director: research, innovation and policy, Kidney Research UK
Councillor David Fothergill, Chairman, LGA Community Wellbeing Board
Simon Blake, CEO, Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) England
Mark Rowland, CEO, Mental Health Foundation
Paul Farmer, Chief Executive, Mind
Deborah Gold, Chief Executive, National AIDS Trust
Andrea Brown, Chief Executive, National Kidney Federation
Dr Charlotte Augst, Chief Executive, National Voices
Prof Donna Hall CBE, Chair, New Local
Matthew Taylor, Chief Executive, NHS Confederation
Dr Séamus O’Neill, CEO, Northern Health Science Alliance
Caroline Cerny, Alliance Lead, Obesity Health Alliance
Rachel Power, Chief Executive, Patients Association
Mark Santos, Executive Director, Positive East
Tiggy Parry, Charity Director, Project Food
Royal College of Physicians
Niamh Eastwood, Executive Director, Release
Neil Tester, Director, Richmond Group of Charities
Gill Walton, Chief Executive, The Royal College of Midwives
Professor Rod Thomson FRCN FFPH, Royal College of Nursing
Christina Marriott, Chief Executive, Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH)
Sharon White OBE, CEO, School and Public Health Nurses Association
Paul Najsarek, Solace spokesperson for Health & Social Care
Steve Douglas CBE, CEO, St Mungos
Xavier Brice, CEO, Sustrans
Terrence Higgins Trust
Dr Brian Fisher, Chair, Health Creation Alliance.
Fiona Howie, Chief Executive, Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA)
UK Public Health Network Executive Group
Versus Arthritis
Kate Oldridge-Turner, Head of Policy and Public Affairs, World Cancer Research Fund International