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Cllr Ian Hudspeth, Chairman of the LGA’s Community Wellbeing Board, responds to the launch of the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care’s Prevention Vision.

“Councils support the Government’s prevention vision because preventative strategies help people live healthier lives for longer, by reducing the long-term illnesses and chronic conditions that worsen their quality of life.

"The current social care and health system is unsustainable and will buckle under the weight of demand unless we urgently re-engineer our services to promote healthy choices, protect health, prevent sickness and intervene early to minimise the need for costly social care and hospital treatment.  

“Councils are tackling persistent problems like childhood obesity, mental illness, substance misuse, sexually transmitted infections and the health impact of loneliness, as well as addressing some of the serious health inequalities that still exist across the country.

“But to maximise this prevention vision and support the NHS even more effectively, government needs to ensure that councils prevention work is adequately funded by reversing the £600 million in reductions to councils’ public health grants and plug the £3.5 billion funding gap facing adult social care by 2025.

“Prevention is an essential part of the LGA’s green paper on adult social care and we look forward to working with government to help shape its own green paper on prevention and securing long term funding in the Spending Review to help use all of councils’ powers and functions to improve the public’s health.”  

Health Secretary launches 'Prevention is better than cure' vision