Funds For Services Tackling Diabetes And A Project Aimed At Improving Mental Health Among Young Homeless People Have All Been Slashed Completely.

The NHS body overseeing healthcare in north-east London has been given £1.1million less to fight health inequality compared to last year, writes local democracy reporter Sebastian Mann.

The NHS North East London integrated care board (ICB) has been allocated £661,893 by the NHS to help and improve services for autistic children over the next year, among other things.

Last year it was handed £1.7million. Funds for weight management services, tackling diabetes and a project aimed at improving mental health among young homeless people have all been slashed completely.

The biggest cut has been to mental health and wellbeing services for asylum seekers and refugees. Last year, the ICB was given £367,000 – this year it has been allocated nothing.

The ‘community chest,’ which acts as a pool for local support networks, will only receive £80,000, which is just half of last year’s grant.

It has also lost its £2,000 funding for hearing while just £41,023 has been meted out for training carers, down from last year’s £82,046. The NHS has also cut the funds for a programme aimed at increasing the number of over-50s on the relevant benefits from £107,069 to £41,289.

In 2022, the ICB struck a deal with the recently-scrapped NHS England to receive £2.69m between August 2022 and March 2027.

“There has been a reduction in the total funds available over the agreement due to ICB [cuts],” the council said in a report published this week.

Funding has not dropped across the board, however.

Services targeting speech therapy for children with autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) will receive nearly triple what they saw last year, up to £133,127 from £45,907.

Funding has similarly jumped for developing a primary care model for housebound people from £45,595 to £132,330.

Some £210,000 will go towards staffing costs for coordinators employed by the council. The total team cost is more than £500,000 a year, the council says, and without the funding it may need to find “alternative budgets” or “consider terminating existing contracts”.

The boost will also allow the town hall to hire a second school counsellor to support children with neurodevelopment difficulties.

Residents’ health is a major concern for authorities in north-east London.

The National Child Measurement Programme found that 68% of adults in Havering are overweight or obese, which is significantly above both the London and England averages.

A further 20% of four- to five-year-olds are obese, and 40% of children aged ten and eleven.

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