Decision details

Councillor Wendy Brice-Thompson, Cabinet member for Adult Social Services and Health, introduced the report

Cabinet was reminded that as part of the LBH Financial Strategy it had been agreed that a significant proportion of the Public Health ring-fenced grant (approximately 30%) would be redirected to other Council services to prevent them from being cut or to allow those services to make essential savings.  The report had identified all those services which made important contributions to the overall health and wellbeing of Havering residents.  Much of that funding had been directed to early help and health promotion for children and families as a priority.  This approach diverted needy families away from statutory social care and delivered better short- and long-term outcomes.

To release this level of funding - particularly given the expected reduction in the public health grant for 16/17 and 17/18 – the Council needed to decommission some existing public health services.  The report listed the services which were being proposed for decommissioning and sought the approval of Cabinet to decommission those services with effect from 31 March 2016 - subject to the outcome of a public consultation on the prioritisation of spend from within the ring-fenced public health grant.

Reasons for the decision:

This decision was required to allow the Public Health Service to reduce existing expenditure in order to redirect funding to other LBH services. This was part of LBH’s Financial Strategy to achieve MTFS (Medium Term Financial Strategy) targets.  Cabinet approval was required because of the costs involved.

Other options considered:

All commissioned non-mandated public health services were in scope for the review of cost effectiveness which had informed the decommissioning proposals.  The services proposed for decommissioning had been selected either because there was little evidence of effectiveness or as the ‘least worst option’.

Cabinet:

1.      Authorised a four week public consultation on the prioritisation of spend from within the Public Health Grant and the Council’s proposals to decommission the services listed in paragraph two of the report with effect from 31 March 2016.

2.      Delegated the final decision on whether to decommission the services listed in the report at paragraph two to the Cabinet Member for Public Health following the conclusion of the public consultation.