Less than a month before the new financial year, local authorities still don't know how much public health funding they will receive.
Alice Wiseman, Gateshead Council's director of public health, said this meant the authority was having to "take risks" in terms of commissioning services and "hoping" that the promised Government funding materialises. Ms Wiseman was speaking while giving evidence to the Public Accounts Committee in in Whitehall on Thursday.
In response, Jonathan Marron - director general of the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities - promised an announcement of this year's public health grant was imminent. This comes following criticism from a coalition of NHS and public health groups as to the delay - with the Association of Directors of Public Health, the NHS Confederation and the Local Government Association (LGA) among the groups highlighting the delay was causing a risk to the public's wellbeing.
