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Home » Blog » Consensus Statement on Sustainable Funding…
News

Consensus Statement on Sustainable Funding for Public Health

May 8, 2019

We call on Government to increase investment in public health in England to prevent ill health, reduce health inequalities, and support a sustainable health and social care system.

Public health is facing a funding crisis. The NHS Five Year Forward View argues that “the future health of millions of children, the sustainability of the NHS, and the economic prosperity of Britain all now depend on a radical upgrade in prevention and public health”.[i]Despite this, the Government has continued to cut the Public Health Grant year-on-year. Because of this, local authorities’ ability to provide the vital functions that prevent ill health are being severely compromised.

In the 2015 Budget, the Chancellor announced a £200 million in-year cut to the Public Health Grant, followed by a further real-terms cut averaging 3.9% each year (until 2020/21) in the 2015 Spending Review.[ii] Overall, the Public Health Grant is expecting to see a £700 million real-terms reduction  between 2014/15 and 2019/20—a fall of almost a quarter (23.5%) per person.[iii] In 2019/20, every local authority has less to spend on public health than the year before. According to analysis by the Health Foundation, almost all local authority public health services faced cuts between 2014/15 and 2019/20: for example, spending on stop smoking services and tobacco control are expected to fall by 45%; sexual health spending is expected to fall by 25% and specialist drug and alcohol services for young people is expected to be cut by over 41%.iii

Local authorities have made efficiencies through better commissioning, but cuts are nevertheless impacting frontline prevention services. As an example, research conducted by Action on Smoking and Health and Cancer Research UK shows that, following year-on-year reductions to the Public Health Grant since 2015, stop smoking services have been persistently cut across local authorities. Now, the majority (56%) of local authorities are no longer able to offer a stop smoking service to all smokers in their area.[iv]

Taking funds away from public health is a false economy. Unless we restore public health, our health and care system will remain locked in a ‘treatment’ approach, which is neither sustainable nor protects the health of the population as it should. In the UK, smoking caused an estimated 115,000 deaths in 2015,[v] whilst alcohol caused around 7,700 deaths in 2017.[vi] In England, there were around 617,000 hospital admissions where obesity was a factor in 2016/17.[vii] These preventable factors increase the risk of certain cancers, type 2 diabetes, lung and heart conditions, musculoskeletal conditions and poor mental health. Obesity alone is estimated to cost the NHS £5.1 billion every year, with wider costs estimated to be around three times this amount.[viii]

The Government must equip local authorities with adequate resources to provide vital public health functions. The Government currently plans to phase out the Public Health Grant by 2020/21, after which they propose to fund public health via a 75% business rates retention scheme. Whatever model is ultimately implemented, it must generate enough funding for local authorities to deliver their public health responsibilities, enable transparency and accountability, and be equitable so that areas with greater health needs receive proportional funding.

In her speech on 18 June 2018, the Prime Minister called for a renewed focus on the prevention of ill-health: “Whether it is cancer, heart disease, diabetes or a range of mental illnesses, we increasingly know what can be done to prevent these conditions before they develop – or how to ameliorate them when they first occur. This is not just better for our own health, a renewed focus on prevention will reduce pressures on the NHS too.”[ix]

We urge the Government to deliver on this promise by increasing investment in public health in England.

This statement is supported by:

Action on Smoking and Health

Action on Smoking and Health Wales

Age UK

Alcohol Change UK (formally Alcohol Research UK)

Alcohol Health Alliance

Association of Breastfeeding Mothers

Association of Directors of Public Health

Association for the Study of Obesity

Beat Charity

Breast Cancer Care & Breast Cancer Now

Breastfeeding Network

British Association of Sexual Health and HIV

British Heart Foundation

British HIV Association

British Liver Trust

British Lung Foundation

British Medical Association

Brook

Cancer Research UK

Centre for Mental Health

Children’s Liver Disease Foundation

CLIC Sargent

Collective Voice

County Councils Network

Dementia UK

Diabetes UK

Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare

First Steps Nutrition Trust

FPA

Health Action Campaign

Health Equalities Group

Health Foundation

Healthy Stadia

Helping Overcome Obesity Problems

HENRY

Hope UK

Institute of Alcohol Studies

Institute of Health Visiting

IPPR

IPPR North

Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust

Kidney Research UK

La Leche League GB

LGBT Foundation

Local Government Association

Local Government Information Unit

Localis

Macmillan Cancer Support

Mayor, Greater Manchester

Mayor of London

Mayor, Sheffield City Region

Mental Health Foundation

Mental Health Research UK

Mentor

Metro Mayor, Liverpool City Region

Mind

NAM aidsmap

National AIDS Trust

New Local Government Network

NHS Clinical Commissioners

NHS Providers

Obesity Health Alliance

Positive East

Release

Royal College of Anaesthetists

Royal College of Emergency Medicine

Royal College of General Practitioners

Royal College of Nursing

Royal College of Physicians

Royal College of Surgeons

Royal Pharmaceutical Society

Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents

Royal Society for Public Health

SANE

School and Public Health Nurses Association

Substance Misuse Management Good Practice

Sustain

Terence Higgins Trust

UK National Kidney Federation

Versus Arthritis

World Cancer Research Fund

YoungMinds


References

[i] NHS England. Five Year Forward View.

[ii] Public Health England. Annual budget allocations 2016/17.

[iii] The Health Foundation. Briefing: Taking our health for granted – plugging the public health grant funding gap.

[iv] Action on Smoking and Health & Cancer Research UK. A changing landscape: Stop smoking services and tobacco control in England.

[v] Peto R, Lopez A, Boreham J, et al. Mortality from smoking in developed countries 1950-2010.

[vi] Office of National Statistics. Alcohol-specific deaths in the UK: registered in 2017.

[vii] NHS Digital. Statistics on Obesity, Physical Activity and Diet – England, 2019.

[viii] House of Commons Health Committee. Childhood obesity – brave and bold action. 2015.

[ix] Prime Minister’s Office. PM speech on the NHS.

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