Plans approved for 'enhanced' specialist stop smoking service in Sunderland

Sunderland City Council’s cabinet of senior councillors, at a meeting this week, agreed to vary the contract of the council’s existing specialist stop smoking service with ABL Health Ltd.

This aims to allow funding to be included from the ‘local stop smoking service and support grant’ allocation to “increase stop smoking provision across the city”, along with the “direct supply” of nicotine replacement therapy to service users.

The funding boost follows last year’s announcement from Central Government of a plan to “create a smokefree generation”, with extra investment into local authority-led stop smoking services.

Council cabinet documents list the grant allocation for Sunderland in 2024/25 as £407,965, with similar indicative amounts predicted for the next four financial years.

At a cabinet meeting this week, senior councillors on Wearside were asked to approve a contract variation, plus an extension term, to utilise the national funding.

According to a cabinet report, this aims to “enhance the offer of the commissioned specialist service to increase capacity to deliver against the national target of an additional support to 5,651 smokers to quit over a five-year period”.

These quits are expected to be “over and above the number of clients the service is currently commissioned to support”.

The contract variation also covers the “direct supply of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) to people who are setting a quit date to stop smoking”.

Councillor Kelly Chequer, deputy council leader and cabinet member for health, wellbeing and safer communities, introduced a report on the contract changes at City Hall on June 20, 2024.

The report to cabinet said the strengthened specialist stop smoking service would include increased numbers of specialist staff while “enhancing the overall service infrastructure and accessibility to stop smoking services”.

Other benefits included “increasing referrals and improving pathways/strengthening partnerships” and “co-locating services in locations where residents routinely attend such as mental health services and care homes”.

Cllr Chequer added the grant would be used to “increase and strengthen the workforce to respond to the increase in quits”.

Councillor Michael Butler, cabinet member for children’s services, child poverty and skills, welcomed the proposals and the previous work behind the city’s stop smoking service.

Cllr Butler said: “I know how hard Cllr Chequer, council officers and the external services have worked towards this.

“Certainly over the past couple of years when I chaired Health and Wellbeing Scrutiny and looking at such things, it was absolutely fantastic and has great results.

“Hopefully the end results will be carried forward for people who are facing this challenge”.

Councillor Michael Mordey, leader of Sunderland City Council, added: “As a service user I have been through and was assisted in first quitting smoking cigarettes and then assisted in coming off the vape.

“Because of the service I can testify first-hand to its success and hope many more people across the city can access the service to quit what is a life-debilitating addiction”.

Senior councillors were told that despite reductions in the number of people smoking on Wearside in recent years, the city’s smoking rates are still higher than England.

Council documents state more than 500 deaths a year are caused by smoking in Sunderland, with around 29,000 smokers in the city equating to a smoking rate of 13.2%, higher than the England average of 12.7%.

Within the council’s Healthy City Plan, the local authority has committed to reducing Sunderland’s smoking prevalence to 5% by 2030, which is in line with the national ambition.

A cabinet report added contract changes “seek to achieve further effective, system wide joint working with existing local and regional partnerships to maximise the reach of the additional funding which will increase the number of smokers engaging with effective interventions to quit smoking.”

It was noted that the “additional investment will improve publichealth outcomes, deliver on local Health and Wellbeing Board priorities and achieve the objectives of the Sunderland City Plan”.