Council chiefs have hit back at claims public health funds are being ‘raided’ to fill holes in town hall budgets.
England’s local authorities were this morning accused of ‘playing fast and loose’ with ring-fenced funds after research suggested town halls were holding back investment from numerous public health services to support wider councils services.
Freedom of Information requests from the British Medical Journal found almost a third of responding local authorities had stopped at least one public health service since responsibilities were transferred from the NHS last April.
A report from the BMJ said: ‘The BMJ found that many local authorities have deployed public health funds to support wider council services that are vulnerable to cuts, such as trading standards, citizens’ advice bureaux, domestic abuse services, housing, parks and green spaces, and sport and leisure centres’.
However the Local Government Association (LGA) said it was ‘inaccurate and wholly misleading’ to suggest councils had been siphoning off public health funds to support wider services.
Former Department of Health regional director of public health for the south west, Gabriel Scally, told the BMJ: ‘This time it isn’t NHS managers who are playing fast and loose with public health budgets, it is local authorities. Of course, local authorities are having their budgets reduced, but the Department of Health has provided that funding to local authorities to spend on public health, not to be siphoned off to prop up other services.’
Responding to the report, chair of the LGA’s Community Wellbeing Board, Cllr Katie Hall, said: ‘Councils are investing just as much as previous arrangements in public health services, and indeed are supporting wider determinants of health too. Many services – such as housing, planning, leisure and recreation, and environmental services – are crucial in keeping people fit and healthy.
‘We are convinced that the most effective use of resources to improve public health is to combine the public health professional workforce, with its specialist expertise and intelligence, with mainstream council plans and services.’
