“Councils have been working hard to maintain and expand access to sexual and reproductive health services, both during and prior to the pandemic, despite severe funding pressures."
Responding to a report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Sexual and Reproductive Health on access to contraception, Cllr Ian Hudspeth, Chairman of the Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board, said:
“This report is an important contribution into how we look to improve access to contraception for women which best meets their needs.
“Councils have been working hard to maintain and expand access to sexual and reproductive health services, both during and prior to the pandemic, despite severe funding pressures.
“Rising demand is continuing to push some councils’ sexual health services to capacity and there is a real risk of waiting times increasing and patient experience deteriorating. The forthcoming Spending Review needs to see significant and sustainable investment in public health, including a reversal of councils’ grant funding reductions since 2015.
“It is good that government has listened to our calls for a national strategy for sexual and reproductive health and we look forward to reviewing it.
“Better integration across the system is needed, as this report recognises, such as pooling resources and expertise. We will continue to work with government on recognising the importance of sexual and reproductive health, including through the current reforms to public health.”
Notes
The LGA represents more than 330 councils of all types across England. We work on behalf of our members to support, promote and improve local government.
It is councils who had led communities through the COVID-19 crisis. Our recent polling shows that 71 per cent of residents trust their council and two thirds are satisfied with the way their local council runs things in their area. Our new discussion paper - Re-thinking Local - sets out how councils must now be empowered to locally-lead the COVID-19 recovery and tackle the economic, environmental and community challenges that we will face as a result of the pandemic.