Now this will impact heavily on Wolverhampton, and I will be requesting City Council officials to inform me of the impact of this announcement, and what it will meant to public health plans in this city.
George Osborn’s plan is to see Councils cutting £200m from public health budgets in 2015-16, according to a Department of Health proposal on which it has pledged to consult.
The cut, revealed by chancellor George Osborne yesterday, was billed as a saving of £200m on “non-NHS” spending.
Until 1 April 2013, public health budgets were managed by NHS commissioners, before being transferred to local authorities under the Health Act 2012.
Councillor Phil Bateman said ” Its clear now that this Government has pulled a flanker, previously it was part of a ring fenced NHS, now they have devolved responsibility to Local Government, they feel that they can axe funding plans and promises!”
The cut will hit spending this year and represents 7.4 per cent of the £2.7bn annual budget devolved to councils from the DH via Public Health England.
Among the services funded by councils via their public health budgets are: school nursing; screening programmes; drug and substance misuse programmes; smoking cessation services; and sexual health schemes, including HIV prevention.
Other common public health services funded by councils are obesity prevention and weight loss schemes.
The proposed cut to public health budgets comes days after NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens said “the new smoking is obesity”. He pointed out on Sunday that one in five cancer deaths were caused by the condition.
Councillor Phil Bateman added “So the nation receives more cuts to vital services, but I suppose that it is only to be expected, because that is what voting for a Conservative Government always happens.” 
