SUCCESSFUL efforts to improve health and reduce the number of people smoking in the borough have been praised by the head of the NHS to a Parliamentary committee.

Simon Stevens, the chief executive of the NHS, appeared in front of MPs at the House of Commons’ Health Committee on Tuesday, June 6, as they examined the delivery of public health services across the UK.

He praised the ‘value’ Wigan Council was getting out of commissioned services such as smoking cessation, with the number of people smoking dropping significantly in the borough and more people living longer.

Mr Stevens told the committee: “Lord Peter Smith in Wigan [the leader of the council] went on the record saying that as a result of local authorities now having the ability to commission smoking cessation and prevention services this was now driving much more value out of the money being spent.”

The borough has seen a significant drop in the number of people smoking in recent years, with smoking prevalence falling from 25.5 per cent in 2010 to 20.6 per cent in 2014.

The number of people dying due to smoking in the borough has also fallen significantly, by 12.7 per cent.

That is 1.8 per cent better than the national average.

Figures from Public Health England show that the number of smoking-related deaths in the borough have dropped from 399.3 per 100,000 people per year from 2007 to 2009 to 348.4 per 100,000 people from 2012 to 2014.

They also show that the borough has the fourth lowest figures across Greater Manchester for both smoke-related deaths and smoking prevalence.

Fewer people in the borough are also being admitted to hospital due to alcohol-related conditions.

Alcohol specific admissions in under 18s have fallen by around half in the last five years, from 223 between 2007 and 2008 to 2009 and 2010 to 115 from 2012-13 to 2014-15.

Donna Hall, chief executive of the council, said: “We are leading the way in delivering the devolution of health and social care.

“We are very pleased Simon Stevens has referred to our work at such an important committee.

“By working together with our health partners we are reforming public services by putting residents at the heart of the community and looking really closely at what is right for our residents and not what has been traditionally done.

“We will continue to work hard to improve health and social care services for the people in the borough and wider Greater Manchester.”

On the fall in the number of smoking-related deaths, Professor Kate Ardern, director for public health, said: “We know that historically the borough has a legacy of high smoker numbers, which has meant our smoking related deaths are higher than we would like.

“But with the work we have been putting into helping people discover the benefits of quitting, along with innovative ways of helping people to stop smoking such as the QuitPal app from Healthy Routes, we expect to see the numbers of smokers and smoking-related deaths continue to fall.

“We have already seen really encouraging progress, with the number of smokers dropping from 25.5 per cent in 2010 to 20.6 per cent in 2014, which equates to a proportionate fall of 19.2 per cent, compared to the England figure of 13.5 per cent.

“But we expect to see the trend continue as more people access the borough get the right support to help them quit for good.”

To find out more about smoking cessation services visit wigan.gov.uk/Resident/Health-Social-Care/Healthy-Routes/Stop-smoking.aspx.