BOLTON Council is set to fund a five-strong health visiting team costing more than £200,000.

It comes after the council has taken control of “health visitor funding” from the government and will use ring fenced cash to fund the new posts.

The roles will cost a total of more than £211,000 — with the rest of the cost being covered by unfilled posts in the wider health team.

The council said it has been short-changed by the government after no new money was made available for what it said are “vital” posts.

In 2012, the government’s Health and Social Care Act transferred the responsibility for public health to local authorities.

Bolton Council currently commissions a £13 million programme of health services for the borough, which now includes more than £5 million for health visiting services — but as yet the authority has not had a “dedicated commissioning resource.”

Health visitors are qualified nurses or midwives who visit people in their home to assist or advise those with very young children or people who are chronically ill.

The council has now signed off plans to create a new commissioning team including a manager and four officers.

The £211,483 expenditure will include the team’s salaries and pension and national insurance contributions as well as covering other costs such as I.T equipment.

Deputy leader of the council, Linda Thomas, who has responsibility for children, adult and health services said: "When the Government transferred public health to local government in 2012 those with expertise on commissioning were not allowed to transfer and so no funding for such posts was allocated to Bolton Council.

“This was a false economy by the government when you consider public health commissions £13M of services which now includes the transfer of £5M to commission health visitors in Bolton.

“As contracts now require retendering it is necessary that we have officers with the necessary legal and financial knowledge of procurement to ensure value for money.”

“They will also require knowledge of the tendered services as they will be required to monitor the quality of the commissioned services too.”

Cllr Thomas pointed out that public health money is “ring fenced,” adding: “Funding for these posts has come from within that budget by holding vacancies. No new money has been allocated for these vital posts — local government has been short changed once again by this government."