'How can the next government take prevention from rhetoric to reality?' is the first in a series of briefings for the upcoming General Election.

The briefing calls on the new Government to set a goal to improve the nation's health and reduce inequalities.

To achieve this, the charity said the Government needs to adopt a prevention-led approach that:

•         is underpinned by mechanisms that drive and align action across government and beyond to achieve this goal, and to monitor progress 
•         implements a cross-government strategy to improve health and reduce inequalities, with leadership from the top of Government and clear accountability 
•         shifts to a prevention-led approach to public spending, backed by changes to Treasury rules to ringfence and protect funding for long-term investment in preventive action, recognising the time periods required to realise the benefits.

Alongside this, the Government was urged to implement evidence-based policies to prevent the early onset of ill health and slow the progress of diagnosed conditions, by:

•           addressing critical gaps in the building blocks of health, particularly in more deprived parts of the UK, with urgent action needed to tackle poverty  
•          applying population-level approaches to leading risk factors of avoidable ill health including smoking, alcohol use, diet and physical inactivity
•           increasing local government funding – including restoring the public health grant – and changing how resources are allocated to ensure that more investment is targeted at the most deprived areas  
•          orienting health and care services to prevention, increasing the share of funding that goes to primary, community and preventative services, and taking a long-term approach to investment in prevention.