The Government has allocated over £34m next year to Nottinghamshire to look after Public Health. Previously Public Health was run by the Primary Care Trust. This is a 4.4% increase of money.

There are many issues to address to improve the health of residents in Southwell and Caunton – especially access to services and support in our rural areas. Will Notts CC be up to this?

The County Council is supposed to ‘put people’s health and wellbeing at the heart of everything [they] do – from adult social care to transport, housing, planning and environment.’

The money should allow the Council to transform the lives of local people through commissioning a wide range of innovative services. However, the track record of the Conservative led Council in ‘transforming’ services is not good.

There are some services that the County Council will have to provide, but there are many that are left to local discretion. At the moment about one third of spending is connected to mandated services. This will leave about £22,000,000 for spending to help local people improve their health.

I am looking to the Council to commission effective and lean services that really focus on supporting people locally to help them to live healthier and longer lives. This does not mean ‘one size fitting all’ – or increased bureaucracy at County Hall. We will all have to watch how this large amount of money is used very carefully.

Peter Harris was previously a Board member of Notttinghamshire Community Health – providing community health care in our area, and has considerable experience of Board level direction of improving health care in the area.