Issue - meetings

Report of Corporate Director for People

Councillor Woodings, Portfolio Holder for Adult Social Care and Health, introduced the report.

Matt Corder, Public Health Principal, presented the report and stated the following:

a)  the report requests approval to accept and spend funding of up to £2,726,075 over the 5 years 2024/25 to 2028/29 (up to £545,215 per annum) awarded to Nottingham City Council by the Department of Health and Social Care to support our stop smoking service and help more City residents stop smoking;

b)  the additional time-limited grant funding has been issued to all Local Authorities and the funding uplift for each area is based on the number of smokers in each local authority, thereby targeting local authorities with the most smokers;

c)  the government has already confirmed additional funding of £70 million a year for 5 years, from 2024/25 to 2028/29, and allocations will continue to be based on the average smoking prevalence over a 3-year period to ensure the allocations are based on the most robust and recent data;

d)  approval of the recommendations within the report will allow for the improvement, expansion and additional targeting of the support offered to smokers to quit over the next 5 years (2024-29).

Resolved to

(1)  approve receipt of additional Public Health Grant funding from the Department of Health and Social Care up to a total of £2,726,025 over a period of 5 years from 2024/25 to 2028/29 (up to £545,215 per annum);

(2)  delegate authority to the Director of Public Health to:

(a)  enter into Grant Agreements, under S31 of the Local Government Act 2003, with the Department of Health and Social Care for receipt of the grant funding as detailed in resolution (1) above:

(b)  spend the total grant on the ‘Integrated Wellbeing Service – smoking services and support contracts’, subject to compliance with grant conditions imposed under S31(4) of the Local Government Act 2003, and modification procedures under ‘Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023’;

(c)  enter into relevant contract modifications / variations for the ‘Integrated Wellbeing Service - smoking services and support contract’, in consultation with the Director for Legal and Governance / Head of Legal and Governance where sealing of a deed is necessary to give effect to the delegation.

Reasons for recommendations

a)  stop smoking services are funded through the ring-fenced Public Health Grant (PHG). The PHG funding is awarded under a s31 Local Government Act 2003 Grant Agreement and subject to grant conditions (s31(4)). The government’s command paper lays out the vision to create a smokefree generation unaffected by the extraordinary harms of addiction-driven smoking, and tackle youth vaping. This includes a programme of funding to support current smokers to quit smoking, with £70 million additional funding per year nationally for local stop smoking services and support;

b)  Smoking rates in Nottingham are the second highest in England with higher prevalence of smoking in pregnancy (13.4%), routine and manual workers (27.8%) and adults with mental health conditions (32.8%) when compared to the England average. Helping these individuals successfully  ...  view the full minutes text for item 72