PUBLIC health funding for school nurses, health visits for pre-school children and family nursing is likely to be slashed by more than £3m across Teesside, latest figures reveal.

Middlesbrough Borough Council's public health budget is likely be worst hit with a £1.169m reduction - the town previously receiving more money in recognition of greater health inequalities in the area.

However, despite the cuts, the authority has agreed a ten per cent funding increase for the service until the end of March.

Public health services used to be the responsibility of the NHS, but the Government has been transferring some of those to local councils since 2012 and after the General Election announced £200m worth of cuts to the overall budget.

It is not clear if the cuts will be applied uniformly or if local deprivation levels are taken into account, but Middlesbrough calculates that if it was a uniform cut it would amount to the aforementioned £1.169m reduction.

Stockton Borough Council faces an £870,000 cut, Hartlepool £521,000 and Redcar and Cleveland £746,000.

The Royal College of Nursing, (RCN), the nurses' union, has expressed concern at potential cuts to school nursing and specifically mentioned Middlesbrough as an area where cuts to such funding is being considered to 'plug gaps' in other areas.

The nursing union also says that five more children aged under 14 die every day in the UK compared to Sweden, a much smaller country.

Middlesbrough Council denies that it will cut the school nursing service.

The town's elected mayor Dave Budd said: “Child health is of paramount importance and it simply isn’t the case that we are cutting school nurse funding to ‘plug gaps in other areas of public health.’

"Just last month the council’s Executive agreed to a ten per cent funding increase until the end of March while we undertake a procurement exercise to secure the future delivery of public health nursing services for children and young people.

"I’m sure that the RCN would agree with us that the Government’s sweeping six per cent cut to public health budgets is putting the resources at our disposal under unprecedented strain."

Middlesbrough Council last month approved a plan to combine budgets with Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council and tender for public health services. The authorities have been responsible for school nurses since 2013, but must now also take responsibility for family health visits for newborns and children aged under five. The councils will ask South Tees Hospital Foundation Trust to continue providing services for six months from October 1 until a private service provider can be found to do the work. If no service provider can be found, the councils will provide an in-house service.