Issue - meetings

24/00001 - Stop Smoking Services and Support Grant (Section 31 Grant) 

Rutuja Kulkarni-Johnston, Luke Edward and Chris Beale were in attendance for this item.

1. Dr Schwartz introduced and provided an overview of the report. 

2. Ms Kulkarni-Johnston said that the money provided an opportunity to support more residents with additional services to meet the nationwide 2030 target to decrease the number of smokers to 5% of the population. 

3. Mr Beale provided further information on the Section 31 Grant. It was noted the grant would come with criteria attached which were expected by the end of January 2024. One of the conditions was that the existing stop smoking funding must remain at the same level it was in 2022/23 in the year ahead, for Kent this was £1.7 million. It was said that the grant would go live on 6 April 2024.

4. Mr Watkins welcomed the additional funding for the Prime Minister's smoke-free generation measures. It was noted that the Cabinet Member was comfortable with maintaining the spending on stop-smoking measures, currently, this was 2% of the overall public health budget.

5. The Cabinet Member and Public Health officers agreed to review the types of e-cigarettes and vapes offered to residents as a tool for smoking cessation after a member raised that individuals were guided to a supplier that offered disposable vapes, which was contrary to the Council’s decision to ban disposable vapes for public health and environmental reasons.

6. RESOLVED that the Health Reform and Public Health Cabinet Committee endorsed the acceptance of the Stop Smoking Services and Support Grant 2024/2025 to 2028/2029, subject to final review and consideration of detailed terms and conditions from the Department of Health and Social Care.