Telford council coughs up almost £69,000 for stop-smoking services
Data has revealed Telford & Wrekin Council spent an average of £1,768 per quitter on stop-smoking services this year.
Telford & Wrekin Council was among the top big spenders of local authorises in England for the first financial quarter of 2023 when it came to stop-smoking services.
Data from NHS Stop Smoking Services in England between April to June 2023 shows how much local authorities spend on each person attempting to quit smoking.
The council spent £68,984 overall delivering services to help people quit. With 39 people reportedly getting off the cigarettes between April and June - it averaged £1,768 per quitter.
A study in 2021 found that smokers in England cost local care services huge amounts of money each year. With smokers needing care 10 years sooner than non-smokers, the habit places a burden on local social care services.
It was then estimated that 102,500 people were receiving local authority-funded care as a result of smoking, which adds up to £1.2bn each year - equivalent to eight per cent of the country’s social care budget for home and residential adult care.
Those on the list of big stop-smoking spenders include Hammersmith and Fulham which spent an average of £3,750 per quitter and Brent which £3,116 spent per person quitting smoking.
