More money to be spent so children can grow up in a Sheffield where smoking is ‘unusual’

Sheffield City Council is seeking authorisation to spend a government grant to deliver its “stop smoking services and tobacco control interventions” in Sheffield and South Yorkshire.

The strategy and resources policy committee will next week discuss the proposal to spend £650,694 from the Local Stop Smoking Services and Tobacco Control Interventions Support Grant which was made available by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).

Of the proposed £650k, the council would spend:

£108k on new staff in public health (recruitment due to start in September 2024)

£127,694 on commissioning goods and services

and £350,000 investment into the stop smoking service contract

A paper published ahead of the committee meeting said that the council aims to create an environment where people “live longer, healthier lives” – also, part of the vision is that children grow up in a city “where smoking is unusual; and that Sheffield is a smoke-free city”.

The report added that the council has reduced smoking prevalence in adults by 30 per cent (20,000 fewer smokers) and smoking has reduced across all social groups (adults from 17.6 per cent to 12 per cent) since 2017. The improvements are above the national average.

According to an estimation, there are still around 54,000 smokers in Sheffield, with the Community Stop Smoking Service offering intensive stop smoking interventions targeting high prevalence groups, providing behavioural support and prescribed stop smoking medicines or e-cigarettes (vapes). It can also offer support to children to stop vaping.

The document said: “Smoking costs the economy £17 billion a year, through smoking-related lost earnings, unemployment, early deaths, and costs to social care and the NHS.

“Overall, it is estimated that smoking costs Sheffield £193 million each year including costs of healthcare, social care, lost productivity, and fire costs.”

The council’s proposal to spend the above-mentioned £650k, it says, will contribute to the achievement of the vision of the 2022-2027 Tobacco Control Strategy – the ambition here is to make smoking obsolete by 2030 or to get to five per cent prevalence in adults across all social groups.

The meeting where this will be discussed will take place at 2pm on Thursday (August 29) at Sheffield Town Hall.