Public Health: Kent
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding his Department provided to Kent County Council for public health activities in (a) 2024-25 and (b) 2025-26; and whether the Council is required to use those funds to promote child vaccinations.
Answered by Ashley Dalton
The Department of Health and Social Care allocated public health funding to Kent County Council of £86.6 million in 2024/25 and £91.3 million in 2025/26, which consists of:
Total DHSC Public Health Funding to Kent County Council, £ | 2024/25 | 2025/26 |
Public Health Grant | 77,308,935 | 82,039,842 |
Drugs and Alcohol Treatment and recovering funding1 | 5,570,725 | 5,584,314 |
Start for Life Grant | 1,755,000 | 1,799,600 |
Stop Smoking Services | 1,944,823 | 1,891,779 |
Total | 86,579,483 | 91,315,535 |
[1] Includes contributions from the Department for Work and Pensions for individual placement and support funding and from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government for rough sleeping drug and alcohol treatment funding which are transferred to the Department of Health and Social Care, and paid out via Department of Health and Social Care grants.
Core funding for local authorities’ public health responsibilities is provided through the Public Health Grant. Local authorities are responsible for deciding how best to use this funding in support of their public health responsibilities. There is no specific requirement for them to use it to support access to National Health Service childhood immunisations, but local authority funded services may play an active role in promoting uptake of childhood vaccinations – for example through local authority-commissioned health visiting services that may advise parents on childhood vaccinations.
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