Contract extension for social enterprise offering smoking cessation services in Barnet

Barnet Federated GPs CIC will continue running the service for another year, reports Joe Ives, Local Democracy Reporter

Barnet Council has awarded a new six-figure contract to deliver smoking cessation services in the borough.

The decision was formally made yesterday (Thursday 14th) by Dawn Wakeling, the local authority’s executive director for communities, adults and health.

The £400,943 deal will pay for a one-year contract extension to Barnet Federated GPs Community Interest Company (CIC).

The social enterprise already provides smoking cessation services in the borough, including the management of NHS health checks and GP smoking cessation services.

The extension is backdated to the start of April for the CIC’s own service provision, and runs until April 2027. The management contract for the NHS portion of its work comes into effect from the start of July and expires the same month next year.

The NHS health checks are for adults in England, aged 40 to 74 years, who do not have a pre-existing diagnosis of cardiovascular disease.

They’re designed to detect early signs of stroke, kidney disease, heart disease, type two diabetes, or dementia.

Authorities like Barnet Council have a legal obligation to offer these checks to eligible residents every five years.

Local stop smoking services were established in 1999 as part of a government policy to help smokers quit. According to a council report these services “have been incredibly successful to date”.

It’s difficult to measure the effectiveness of the local authority’s work specifically. Figures from the Department of Health and Social Care show smoking rates in Barnet have fallen from 17.4% in 2011 to 8.5% in 2024.

But the data also shows the number of smokers across England fell from one-in-five to one-in-ten during the same period.

In 2024 the Labour government announced it was investing an additional £70million to support councils to provide their smoking cessation services, through a support grant.

As a result, Barnet Council received £333,217 for 2024/25 and £346,923 in the following financial year. This funding has now become part of the ring-fenced smoking cessation spending within the public health grant.

Information and stop smoking services can be found on the council’s website:
Visit barnet.gov.uk/health-and-wellbeing/adults-health/get-support-stop-smoking

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