Public Health Grant: “Nowhere near enough”

Directors of Public Health (DsPH) have described today’s Public Health Grant announcement as “nowhere near enough”.

Within the grant, which pays for a wide range of locally delivered services including healthy weight and sexual health services, there is also ring-fenced funding allocated to tobacco, drug and alcohol services, as well as for early years provision.

However, although the Grant allocation is being described by the Government as an increase, high inflation and pay increases mean that the grant settlement will be the ninth consecutive year of real-term cuts to local public health funding.

This means that public health teams are having to deliver services amidst increasing demand with less and less money.

Greg Fell, President of the Association of Directors of Public Health (ADPH), said:

“For nearly a decade now, the amount of money we have to spend on our local populations’ health has been repeatedly cut. In spite of our best efforts, this inevitably means that some services have had to be scaled down or, even worse, stopped, despite overwhelming evidence of their impact and effectiveness.

“Next year’s allocation is welcome, but nowhere near enough to reverse these cuts and means that this will, very sadly, continue to be the case. In order to really make a difference, we need consistent, long-term funding instead of pots here and there for specific initiatives. Then Directors of Public Health will be able to work with the local community to implement longer-term plans to improve health and wellbeing.”

It costs around £3,800 in public health measures to give an additional year of good health to someone’s life. This figure is three to four times lower than the cost resulting from NHS interventions for that same additional year.

Therefore, investing more in public health to promote healthier lives would help conserve funds, create a healthier, more productive society and reduce demand on the NHS.

Fell, who is also Director of Public Health for Sheffield City Council, added:

“There is currently a lot of talk from all the political parties about the need for prevention. If they are serious, and genuinely want to help people avoid getting entirely preventable diseases, then the next Government needs to make a dramatic change to how our local public health services are funded.”

“Directors of Public Health work in partnership across all sectors to implement policy and initiatives that improve their population’s health. However, we can only do so much without adequate, consistent funding. To create a healthier – and therefore more prosperous – society this effort must be replicated on a national level.”