The lack of certainty around long-term funding for stop smoking initiatives is putting services at risk, warns a new report from ASH and Cancer Research UK.
Tobacco control was rated as a ‘high or above-average’ priority in almost 90 per cent of councils – up from just over 60 per cent last year, and the highest level it has ever been. However, local authorities reported that the lack of funding certainty ‘has made recruitment, planning and commissioning a challenge’, says the document, putting stop smoking services at risk.
The previous government committed an extra £70m annually to stop smoking services until 2030, as well as introducing a ‘swap to stop’ initiative to provide free e-cigarettes to people who wanted to quit. Around 2.7m people in the UK had used vapes to successfully quit smoking in the last five years, according to research by ASH earlier this year.
While the current government has committed to maintain the funding in the coming financial year, there is uncertainty over the public health grant – which contributes half of the cost of local stop smoking services – as well as the swap to stop scheme, national media campaigns, and other initiatives. ASH wants to see the government match the previous government’s investment and implement a ‘polluter pays’ levy on tobacco firms, ‘who continue to make massive profits selling a lethal addiction’.
‘Local services to help people quit smoking are a vital part of a roadmap to a smokefree country,’ said ASH’s policy and public affairs officer Jim Pattison. ‘However, the short-term nature of current funding undermines this goal, making it difficult to effectively plan, commission and deliver such services. A levy on tobacco companies would secure long-term funding and allow councils to accelerate progress towards a smokefree future, ending the harms from smoking for good.’
‘Although incredibly welcome, short-term ring-fenced funding leaves vital, life-changing stop smoking services dependent on unstable financial arrangements,’ added policy lead for addiction at the Association of Directors of Public Health, Alison Challenger. ‘While this extra £70m of funding has helped thousands of people to quit, to create a Smokefree UK we need to be able to give consistent support to people trying to quit over the coming years. The public health grant should, in theory, give that stability, but a decade of cuts has reduced it in real terms by 28 per cent per person. Multi-year public health funding settlements would allow directors of public health to provide services that are tailored towards the needs of residents in their local area.’