Sexual health service cuts could cost taxpayers £10bn, report warns

According to a report commissioned by Brook and FPA (the Family Planning Association), reduced access to contraception services could cost the NHS and the wider public sector between £8.3bn and £10bn over the next seven years.

Unprotected Nation estimates that there could be 22,000 more NHS abortions each year by 2020, if services continue to be cut at their current rate, as well as an extra 91,620 more sexually transmitted disease cases.

The report argues that young people will suffer the brunt of reductions to services, given that sex and relationships education varies in quality in schools across the country.

But it states that improving investment in sexual health services could achieve savings of between £3.7bn and £5.1bn to the public purse by 2020.

Brook chief executive Simon Blake admitted that the NHS is “under intense pressure to make savings” in spending, but he argued that cuts to sexual health services are a false economy.

“This report makes very clear just how short-sighted restrictions to contraception services are – particularly for young people who have to navigate this void alongside a black hole in sex and relationships education programmes,” he said.

FPA chief executive Dr Audrey Simpson added: “The wheels of this crisis are firmly in motion. Investment in sexual health saves money, but if national and local government ignore the warnings and continue stripping away services, advice and information, the bleak predictions in this report will come true.”

Earlier this month Brook was among a number of health charities to warn that further cuts are expected to hit young people’s sexual and mental health services when councils take over responsibility for public health in April.

They fear that money for young people’s health services will be diverted into projects aimed at reducing councils’ escalating adult social care bill.