A suggestion from the body representing NHS trusts that the commissioning of key public health services should be removed from local government is ‘illogical,’ councils have said.

NHS Providers said legislative reforms in 2012 had become ‘fragmented and vulnerable to funding cuts’.

A spokesperson said: ‘Alongside a strengthened role for integrated care systems in public health and a robust voice for local government within systems, we believe clinical public health services would be better commissioned alongside other NHS services.’

But health and social care spokesperson at chief executives’ organisation Solace, Paul Najsarek, warned ‘any move to shift budgets back to the NHS would be both disruptive and counterproductive’.