Grenfell survivors’ NHS support service faces funding cut

An NHS service supporting people affected by the Grenfell Tower fire faces a funding cut from next year, Kensington and Chelsea councillors have heard.

The Grenfell Health and Wellbeing Service offers therapies and groups to survivors, bereaved families and the wider community.

NHS England is reducing its funding and no service has been confirmed beyond 2029, a council meeting was told.

NHS West and North London Integrated Care Board (ICB), which funds the service, said no decisions had been made and existing support remained in place.

NHS England committed £50m to the community's recovery in 2018, which funded the service. The ICB has bid for £1.8m to continue it, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

The fire in June 2017 killed 72 people. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has said it will make charging decisions before the 10th anniversary on 14 June 2027.

Lucy Knight, the Kensington and Chelsea council's lead member for adult social care and public health, said "no-one should be left worrying" about whether their care would still be there.

She said the NHS accepted the period ahead could be especially hard for the community, and now was not the time to change the model of care to fit a smaller budget unless it could still meet people's needs.

A cross-party motion asked the council to tell the ICB and local NHS trust that survivors and the bereaved remained a top priority, and to urge NHS England to confirm long-term funding.

Representatives of the ICB and Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust (CNWL), which runs the service, will attend a council scrutiny meeting in December.

In a September update, the service said support would "not simply stop".

The ICB said its priority was making sure future arrangements met the needs of those affected. It said local people were helping to shape proposals, which it aimed to finalise as soon as possible.

NHS England said it supported efforts to ensure people affected could continue to get the care they needed.

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