Image: Graph made by Rotherham Reveal
Current projections estimate Rotherham won’t achieve the Smokefree 2030 ambition, with 10.2% of population still smoking, a review concluded.
In the council’s Tobacco Control Review published last week, re-allocation of funds were recommended to steer the borough in line with the national smokefree target.
Additionally, the review also noted that ‘current national investment is still not sufficient to meet the Smokefree 2030 ambition’.
In a comment to the Rotherham Reveal, a council spokesperson said: “Due to the budget issues we’ve unfortunately faced, the council’s work has been hindered with only putting emphasis on specific tasks of utmost importance.
“We have long wished to tackle the issue of smoking as the youth of the country are being ruined by this influence.”
An assessment found that 1,272 deaths between 2017-2019 can be attributed to smoking, which is the leading cause of early and preventable deaths in both the UK and Rotherham.
Rotherham currently only has one dedicated service to support smokers looking to quit.
Since 2020, £2,071,814.27 has been allocated to various areas of the council’s Tobacco Control Work Plan. An additional £139,478 has been asked to be invested into the plan on top of the current figure.
Graph made by Rotherham Reveal
In 2019, the government announced an ambition to make England smokefree, when the adult smoking prevalence falls to 5% or less by 2030. The Khan Review, published in 2022, found that ‘without further action, England will miss the smokefree 2030 target by at least 7 years, and the poorest areas in society will not meet it until 2044’.
Cuts to council spending on smoking cessation across the country have been significant over the last few years, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), a charity campaigning to end the harm caused by tobacco, had reported. Public health spending for stop smoking services and tobacco control saw a 45% reduction since 2015, as seen in the graph below.
Image: Graph made by Rotherham Reveal
However, smoking rates have been falling, albeit a little slow.
John Waldron, 30, Policy Manager at ASH, said: “Smoking rates have started to decline nationally, although they are not quite as fast as we would like.
“We know that campaigns like this are highly effective in helping smokers quit smoking. We see a big spike in smokers attempting to quit around October.”
Since it started in 2012, the annual anti-smoking campaign was estimated to have generated 350,000 quit attempts in England.
Rotherham was ranked as one of the best places in the country for quitting smoking, with 71% of attempts successful.
On 4 October the government announced that it will double the funding for stop smoking services from next year.
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