Earmarked funding
A Breath of Fresh Air for Scotland announced that £1m would be made available for smoking cessation services with effect financial year 2003/4 rising to £5m in 2005/6. In addition, the Executive announced on 9 March 2005 that these allocations would continue in the following 2 financial years 2006/7 and 2007/8 and that a further £2 million would be made available with effect from 2006/7, rising to £4 million in 2007/8 for smoking cessation services. On 11 December 2007, the Scottish Government announced this funding would continue for the three years, 2008/09 to 2010/11.
Specific funding made available to NHS Boards for smoking cessation services NHS Boards since 1999 is as follows:-
£/M | 99/00 | 00/01 | 01/02 | 02/03 | 03/04 | 04/05 | 05/06 | 06/07 | 07/08 | 08/09 | 09/10 | 10/11 |
"Smoking Kills" * | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Health Improvement Fund * | | | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
"A Breath of Fresh Air" | | | | | 1 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
National No Smoking Day | | | | | | | | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
TOTAL | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 7 | 9 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 11 |
Note:- * Now part of NHS Boards' unified budgets.
NHS MEL(1999)38 SMOKING KILLS: A WHITE PAPER ON TOBACCO NEW NHS SMOKING CESSATION SERVICES
NHS CIRCULAR: HDL(2001)64/NHS SMOKING CESSATION SERVICES
Allocation Letters
September 2003
June 2004
December 2004
March 2005
January 2006
March 2008
On 25 June 2008, the Minister for Public Health announced the introduction of new public health services to be delivered through community pharmacy as Additional Pharmaceutical Services (APS). The extended Public Health Service element of APS now includes both a health promoting element which will combine the original PHS tiers one and two and specific patient services, including: a smoking cessation service to help those who wish to stop smoking by providing a 12 week course of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) and advice; and a sexual health service, which will include free access to Emergency Hormonal Contraception and Chlamydia Testing and Treatment.
This move will see an additional £3m investment in NHS smoking cessation services this financial year and will deliver annual investment in the region of £14m and is in addition to £1.5m annual investment in smoking prevention, announced earlier this year. This substantial investment underlines the Scottish Government's commitment to smoking cessation services and further supports Boards in achieving the HEAT target.
This is a nationally agreed and funded service, which will complement the smoking cessation services made available by NHS Boards. Linking with other services that exist locally, it is expected that this service will both refer to and receive referrals from other local service providers. It will ensure equitable provision of a pharmacy-based smoking cessation service, building on the best practice models across Scotland, with most if not all 1080 community pharmacies offering access to smoking cessation support. As part of the scheme, community pharmacists are required to submit data to Boards for inclusion in the national monitoring of smoking cessation services. Data required from community pharmacists will be in line with national minimum dataset requirements.
Smoking Cessation Guidelines
This continued investment in smoking cessation will ensure provision of services tailored to local needs and circumstances. The Smoking Cessation Guidelines for Scotland: 2004 Update and the companion desktop guide Encouraging Smokers to stop: What you can do which were published in September 2004, and the subsequent up date in 2007 provide up to date evidence on effective smoking cessation interventions and practical guidance on the planning and delivery of smoking cessation services.
Link to Smoking Cessation Guidelines
Partnership Action on Tobacco and Health
The Scottish Executive funded initiative Partnership Action on Tobacco and Health (PATH) which was launched in June 2002, was specifically set up to support tobacco control activity through gathering and disseminating evidence of best practice, the development of training standards and recommendations on information management and data collection. A Breath of Fresh Air committee the Executive to continued investment in PATH to support enhanced tobacco control activity envisaged in the Plan.
Following an independent review of PATH, the Scottish Government agreed to continue investment into PATH until 2010/11.
Link to ASH Scotland for more info on PATH - www.ashscotland.org.uk