07 May 2019 Consensus Statement on Sustainable Funding for Public Health
Food Active (as part of the Health Equalities Group) have joined 80 other organisations to 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.
In recent years, local authority public health grands have been decimated. 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. Public health departments within councils have been placed in an possible position, whereby they must continue their responsibilities in protecting the health of the local community but with very little resource. Many councils have stayed above water by making efficiencies to commissioning and restructuring, however this cannot go on for much longer – many are a breaking point and it cannot be denied any longer that we are facing a public health funding crisis.
In a consensus statement co-ordinated by Cancer Research UK and signed by over 80 organisations, we are calling on the Government to uphold it’s promise to commit to investing in prevention of ill-health by pledging enough funding to ensure the relevant departments can do so.
You can read the full statement on Cancer Research UK’s website below.
Consensus Statement on Sustainable Funding for Public Health
