Better targeting of existing money spent on health prevention could deliver an extra £11 billion annual return on investment, according to the NHS Confederation. It recommends more investment in prevention – particularly around children and young people, exercise and smoking, diabetes, and cardiovascular interventions – and on high-value interventions.
The LGA has long endorsed a greater emphasis on prevention in health care. Cllr David Fothergill, Chairman of the LGA’s Community Wellbeing Board, said this should be a “core part of health and care and not a luxury extra when budgets allow”.
Councils and their partners play a “vital role” in addressing the wider determinants of health, through their role in public health, care and support, housing, green spaces, youth services, and the local economy. But with resources under intense pressure, council spending is increasingly used to meet growing demand and cost pressures in acute, frontline services – leaving less and less for preventative support, he added.
Cllr Fothergill said: “We have called on government to invest in the public health grant and other vital areas of prevention, such as supported housing (see Supported housing ‘could save millions’) and health visiting. This must be part of a new long-term approach to funding prevention and early action support, and a more sophisticated understanding of the social return of that investment.”