8th October 2024
In an open letter to the Prime Minister and Chancellor, over 45 health experts and organisations have urged the Government to increase funding for public health ahead of this month’s budget.
The letter, written by the Association of Directors of Public Health (ADPH), and signed by 47 organisations including the Faculty of Public Health, NHS Confederation, Royal Society of Medicine, and the Institute of Health Visiting, welcomes the positive start to the government’s mission to improve the nation’s health. Importantly, the letter also warns that a coherent, cross-government approach, backed by investment in public health services is needed to achieve their public health policy ambitions. Prevention is indeed better and cheaper than cure.
The letter calls on the Government to create an environment where everyone has the access to the basic building blocks needed to live healthier lives for longer.
Greg Fell, ADPH President, said:
“The new Government has shown they are committed to improving health…Health is more than just the NHS – every single decision made both nationally and locally impacts our health, whether it be to do with education, housing, jobs, or the environment. Only by acknowledging this joint responsibility and getting everyone involved in making the places in which we live, learn and work healthier will we be able to improve the nation’s health, and reduce the currently unacceptable gap in healthy life expectancy between the richest and poorest members of our society.”
The letter also highlights the negative impacts of a decade of real-terms cuts to public health funding and urges the Government to restore funding to 2015/16 levels so that Directors of Public Health and their teams are able to work with cross-sector partners to deliver improved health for all.
Matthew Taylor, Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation, said:
“Health and care leaders strongly welcome the emphasis the new Government has put on moving towards prevention as one of their three big shifts for the NHS. But achieving this shift will be impossible without key reforms and investment…investing in public health saves our wider public services money in the medium to long-term and supports the economic vibrancy of our local communities, particularly those with the highest levels of deprivation.
“In addition to the restoration of the public health grant, NHS leaders want to see the government incentivise a preventative approach by working with Treasury to change financial flows that currently act as a barrier to this way of working…a cross-government approach to health, delivering through the Health Mission Board, is so critical to ensuring government can deliver on their ambition.”
Alison Morton, iHV CEO, said:
“We join with others in applauding the new government’s commitment to prioritise child health and create the healthiest generation of children ever. And we offer our support to turn this into reality – which will require action at all levels of government and investment to strengthen prevention and early intervention support for families. This is not a quick fix – we agree, it is time to look beyond sticking plaster politics and make the ‘best start in life’ a reality for all children.
Investing in children is not only the right thing to do, it also makes sound economic sense. We stand at a crossroads where we urgently need to look beyond ‘firefighting’ and take a new direction to tackle the crippling costs of ‘getting it wrong’ as spending on costly late intervention is soaring out of control. The good news is that there is an army of dedicated practitioners across the health, education and social care system ready to play their part in building a better future for all our children.”
