Shropshire health funding disparity put in spotlight
Shropshire Council has said it is getting an unfair deal from central Government in terms of the funding it is being given to look after public health in the county.
The council receives £26 per head of the population towards public health while Telford & Wrekin council receives £61 per head to cover the same services.
Public health is a part of the Department of Health designed to help people be healthier and live better lifestyles, offering services for stopping smoking, supporting people with diabetes and vaccinations.
This year was the first year where local council's budgets have included funding for public health, a service that was previously managed by the NHS.
The council says that its rural nature is what is contributing to the disparity in grants compared to the more urban Telford & Wrekin borough, and particularly when compared with very urban areas of London.
Rod Thomson, director of Public Health for Shropshire, said: "If you look at the figures for the Public Health Grants to different authorities, you can see that generally rural areas receive a much lower grant per head than the more urban authorities.
"For instance, Westminster receives £128 and Kensington and Chelsea receives £126 per head respectively.
"Comparing these figures for two of the most affluent areas of London to the £26 per head Shropshire receives, you can begin see the disparity between rural and urban areas.
"There are unique challenges in rural public health – the sparsely populated areas and spaced out market towns we have all need to be catered for, in many cases individually.
"Unlike where people are living in a densely populated environment, we can't get the same economies of scale with our demographics," he added.
This news comes as both councils have revealed the amount of money needed to be cut from their forthcoming budgets.
Between 2014/15 and 2016/17 Shropshire Council must find £80 million of savings to fill a budget gap.
More than half of this will come next year.
As part of the scheme, every employee, apart from school staff, has been offered the chance to apply for rredundancy.
So far 740 people have applied.
Telford & Wrekin Council must save £20 million from their budget by 2016.
