Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of recent trends in running costs for NHS Devon on (a) the provision of public health services and (b) health outcomes in the region.

Public health responsibilities sit primarily with local authorities and national public health programmes, such as screening, are commissioned by NHS England rather than the integrated care boards (ICBs). Therefore, the running costs within the NHS Devon ICB do not directly affect the provision of public health services.

There are ongoing discussions nationally about the potential future delegation of some public health and screening functions to ICBs, but no decisions have yet been made.

NHS Devon’s new Health and Care Strategy set out a system-wide approach to improving health outcomes and reducing inequalities through prevention, early intervention, and community-based care. This will support better long-term population health across Devon, regardless of ICB running cost trends. The ICB’s meeting papers and minutes discussing the strategy is available at the following link:

https://swpboard.nhs.uk/board-meetings/board-meeting-papers-and-minutes/