Defend HIV prevention funding for England

The Government has announced that funding for the national HIV prevention programme in England will be cut by 50% from April 2015.

We think that this is outrageous, given the ongoing high rates of HIV transmission in England and significant gaps in public understanding about HIV.

If you live in England*, please write to the Public Health Minister, Jane Ellison, and ask for funding to be continued at least at current levels for the next three years.

Key facts about HIV prevention funding in England:

The Government has funded the national HIV prevention programme since 1996. Funding for these programmes has been progressively reduced in recent years.

The current national prevention programme - HIV Prevention England (HPE)- has been funded for three years, until the end of March 2015.

HPE coordinates a national programme of prevention focussed on the needs of men who have sex with men (MSM) and black African men and women.

Funding for HPE is £2.45m per year - this is already less than the combined funding received by the previous prevention programmes, NAHIP and CHAPS, in 2011/12.

The Government will now only allocate £1.2m to the national HIV prevention programme for 2015/16 - and there has not yet been any commitment to fund subseqent years.

Local authorities should invest in HIV prevention as part of their public health responsibilities - but recent NAT research shows that less than 0.1% of the public health allocation in high HIV prevalence areas is being spent on primary HIV prevention. Local authorities need the support of a national programme to maximise the effectiveness of their HIV prevention activities.

NAT believes that there is an urgent need for nationally-funded prevention work on HIV. Don't let the Government get away with decimating HIV prevention!

*The funding allocation only applies in England

Name: *
Your email: *
Postcode: *
Subject:

Dear Minister
I am writing to express my shock and disappointment that the Government will be halving its national-level investment in HIV prevention for England, from April 2015 onwards, and to ask that you commit to continue to fund the programme at least at current rates.
Last year, 5,493 people were diagnosed with HIV in England.  The UK saw the highest ever number of new diagnoses among gay and bisexual men.  25% of people living with HIV are yet to be diagnosed.  And Public Health England says there is no sign that rates of HIV transmission are declining. 
In England, two populations continue to be profoundly and disproportionately affected by HIV:  gay and bisexual men, and black African men and women.  The proposed new rate of funding, £1.2million for 2015-16, allocates less than £1 of investment in prevention per person within these two communities.  Funding at this level will only increase health inequalities within England.
There has been amazing scientific and medical progress in the fight against HIV, but too many people still do not know the basics about how to protect themselves and others against HIV transmission. A recent Ipsos MORI poll commissioned by NAT (National AIDS Trust) found that a third of British adults could not correctly identify the three main ways in which people in the UK acquire HIV (sex without a condom between a man and a woman, sex without a condom between two men, sharing injecting equipment) There has also been a increase in the proportion of people who believe you can get HIV through impossible routes, such as kissing, sharing a glass, spitting or sneezing.
These findings should prompt us to invest further in national HIV prevention and ensure that it reaches an even wider audience – not to cut the limited funding that currently exists.
I am aware that HIV prevention falls within the public health responsibilities of local authorities in England, but I am not confident that all councils are delivering in this area. 
Soon-to-be-published NAT research has found that in areas of high HIV prevalence, investment in primary HIV prevention currently represents less than 0.1% of the public health allocation.  Local authorities need the support of a national programme to maximise the effectiveness of their HIV prevention activities.
I urge the Government to revise this decision and to commit to continue funding the national HIV prevention programme for England at current levels for a further three years (2015-2018).

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Watch / Listen

NAT has recorded a short film which looks at how the HIV epidemic has changed over the past quarter of a century and how NAT has made a difference to the lives of people living with HIV. The film features NATâ€™s Chief Executive, Deborah Jack, Lord Norman Fowler who was Secretary of State for Health in the eighties, and a number of people living with HIV who share their experiences and explain why NAT matters to them.

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