Purpose

This report recommends the extension of the contract for the provision of the community stop smoking service by two years. The contract was let to Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust (CNWL) to commence on 1st April 2023 for a period of four years with the option to extend to a maximum of two further years. The community stop smoking service is branded as Breathe, and is a joint service with Islington, and Islington Council is the lead commissioner. 

This report describes the performance of the provider over the first three years of the contract, which has been consistently good and shown continuous improvement. Targets set in the original contract have been met, and new demanding targets set by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities accompanied by additional funding (also awarded to CNWL) are now being met. Over the past three years, Breathe has supported 3,140 Camden smokers to set a quit date with 1,938 (61.7 percent) successfully quitting. This compares favourably with London with 52.6% of attempts

successful, and England with 53.5% successful. 

In addition to providing stop smoking services directly, Breathe supports stop smoking advisors in general practice, community pharmacies and a community centre. Breathe provides Level 1 (very brief advice) and Level 2 (stop smoking advisor) training, outreach, and communications and publicity. Breathe is also responsible for collating stop smoking activity data and reporting to NHS Digital.

An extension to the contract is recommended now in order to maintain the stability of the service which is reliant on a team of expert stop smoking advisors accredited by the National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training.

This report is coming to the Director of Health and Wellbeing because Camden's Scheme of Delegation delegates responsibility to the Director of Health and Wellbeing for the discharge of the Public Health Grant from which funding for this contract originates. The ring-fenced smoking cessation funding within the Public Health Grant must be used for the purposes of providing smoking cessation services to support smokers to quit.

Decision

(i)                 THAT the performance of the contract of the Breathe Community Stop Smoking Service be noted; and

(ii)                THAT the extension of the contract/s for a period of two years from April 1st 2027 for the sum of £317,150 per annum (£634,300 in total) be approved.