Multi-million-pound funding boost for public health services in Nottingham
Nottingham City Council's Loxley House HQ
By Latifa Yedroudj, Junior Local Democracy Reporter
Nottingham public health projects like lung checks, smoking prevention and school wellbeing schemes have been given a multi-million-pound funding boost.
Nottingham City Council will receive £39.6 million from the Government for the current financial year – which started this month.
This is up by £2.4 million compared with last year, with the funds aimed at supporting projects in the city that improve residents’ health and wellbeing.
Smoking, children’s health and prevention measures will be provided, alongside support for addiction recovery schemes, oral health and sexual health clinics.
Councillors will approve the budget and delivery of funds at Nottingham City Council’s Executive Board on Tuesday (April 22).
A total of £12 million will be used to fund Best Start in Life, a council-run initiative to support families from conception through a child’s early years.
Substance use services will receive £7.2 million in funding, while £5.2 million will go to sexual health services.
The rest of the funds will be allocated to different public health services in the city, as well as staffing and wider council services.
It comes as papers show residents in Nottingham have a lower healthy life expectancy compared to the national average.
Healthy life expectancy is the length of time someone can live without poor health or disability.
Healthy life expectancy in Nottingham is 57.2 years for males and 56.8 for females, according to figures.
This is lower than the national average, which is 61.5 for males and 61.9 for females.
Smoking is also the single largest contributor to “poor health” in Nottingham, council documents read.
Figures from 2023 show that 18.2 per cent of adults in Nottingham are smokers, compared to England’s average of 11.6 percent.
Documents read: “The conditions in which people are born, grow, live work and age have a profound influence on health and health inequalities.
“Local authorities have a key role to play in shaping these conditions, and as a consequence also have a key role in terms of improving the health and well-being of the local population (in line with statutory duties).
“It is recommended that the [ring-fenced public health grant] RFPHG continues to contribute to a range of wider Council services in order to enable the delivery of additional activity which improves
health and well-being.
“Arrangements are in place to ensure effective ongoing joint working and regular review of contributions to provide assurance that all RFPHG expenditure continues to be eligible.”
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