Greater frontline funding for local public health teams is
essential if we are to build back fairer from the devastating
coronavirus pandemic and better protect ourselves from future
outbreaks, councils and public health leaders say today.
In a new report published on the first
day of their joint annual conference, the Local Government
Association and Association of Directors of Public Health say
that while the success of the vaccine rollout means the risk
posed by COVID-19 will gradually reduce, the virus will be with
us in some form for years to come.
Health inequalities between the most and
least deprived communities have been exposed and deepened over
the past 12 months, while we have yet to see the long-term
physical and mental impact of the pandemic and what it means for
our future health and wellbeing.
Public health teams, based in councils,
should be at the centre of efforts to reduce inequalities, boost
the economy and improve people’s lives in our recovery from
COVID-19, including making greater use of combined resources at
local, system and national level. Encouraging behaviour change,
such as through health campaigns, tackling vaccine hesitancy and
promoting positive mental health, will also see people across the
country have longer, healthier and happier
lives.
The LGA and ADPH say local approaches to
tracing and containing coronavirus have proven their
effectiveness, with councils’ test and trace teams generally
exceeding the recommended 80 per cent target for contacting
people who tested positive, compared to the national system.
Surge testing to track down variants of concern in specific areas
have also been down to successful partnerships between local,
regional and national teams. Given their local knowledge and
expertise, involving councils at an earlier stage could have led
to a more swift and effective test and trace
system.
Councils and their directors of public
health also want to play their full part in the future
reorganisation of health and care systems, including working
closely with the new National Institute for Health Protection
(NIHP), giving local government a strong voice from the
start.
Councils have seen a £700 million real
terms reduction in public health funding between 2014/15 and
2020/21 – a fall of almost a quarter (23.5 per cent) per person.
If the Government’s prevention agenda is to succeed, the LGA said
this must be re-evaluated in future spending
rounds.
To match the growth in overall NHS
funding as part of the Long Term Plan, the Government should
commit to increasing the public health grant in future years to
at least £3.9 billion by 2024/25. This would allow councils to
not only continue to provide current services, but also consider
expanding other initiatives where financially possible and
locally desirable.
Cllr Ian Hudspeth, Chairman of the Local
Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board,
said:
“Every one of the lives lost to
coronavirus represents a tragic loss and the impact of the
pandemic, particularly on the most vulnerable, will be long with
us.
“Councils have been at the forefront of
measures to tackle the spread and impact of COVID-19, which has
taken such a terrible toll on our communities over the past year
and threatens to resurge, despite all-out efforts to keep it
under control.
“Directors of public health and their
teams have been magnificent in their response to this
unprecedented crisis, working tirelessly across local government
and with the NHS, volunteers, community leaders and many others,
rising to the challenge and creatively at speed to suppress the
virus.
“Local contact tracing successes and
using trusted community champions to promote vaccine take-up are
examples of what can be achieved when decision-making is left to
councils, who are rooted in their areas, given the right
resources and freedoms.
“The ongoing threat posed by new variants
means we must continue to be vigilant and use what we have learnt
to inform our future planning for health protection and
resilience, so that we are ready at all levels of public health
to confront this challenge, with local government given a strong
voice throughout.”
Dr Jeanelle de Gruchy, President,
Association of Directors of Public Health
said:
“Over the last year Directors of Public
Health and their teams, working closely with colleagues in local
government and the NHS, have risen to the challenge that COVID-19
has posed - going above and beyond to protect the health and
wellbeing of the communities they
serve.
“But, a full recovery from COVID-19 won’t
be possible unless we address the underlying structural
inequalities that help this, and other viruses, to persist. We
owe it to the diverse and disadvantaged communities who have paid
the highest price for the virus to create a recovery that
addresses our nation’s health
inequalities.
“Valuing the role, knowledge and
experience of Directors of Public Health and their teams, must
mean resourcing them properly. Additional funding to local public
health, both now and in the years ahead, will be essential to
protecting and improving the nation’s
health.”
Notes to
Editors
Health and Social Care Secretary
, England’s Chief Medical Officer Prof and Baroness
Dido Harding, Interim Chair of the NIHP are among the key
speakers at this year’s virtual LGA/ADPH public health
conference, which begins today.
