LGA response to King's Fund research

13 Jul 2017 08:52 AM

Chairman of the Local Government Association's Community Wellbeing Board, Cllr Izzi Seccombe, responded to the King’s Fund research on council public health budgets

"We have long argued that reductions by central government to the public health grant in local government is a short term approach and one that will only compound acute pressures for the NHS and other services further down the line.

Councils are clear - the Government needs to look to prevention, not cure, for delivering long-term savings and better services.

"To take vital money away from the services which can be used to prevent illness and the need for treatment later down the line is counterproductive.

"Interventions to tackle teenage pregnancy, child obesity, physical inactivity, sexually transmitted infections and substance misuse cannot be seen as an added extra for health budgets.

"Local authorities were eager to pick up the mantle of public health four years ago, but many will now feel that they have been handed all of the responsibility, but without the appropriate resources to do so."

Related information from the Kings Fund is available at:  Big cuts planned to public health budgets