While noting the variation in performance outlined in the NAO’s report, the Department told us that local authorities broadly did “a great job of commissioning public health services.” The Department told us that it had published a set of guidelines through OHID to give more help to local authorities commissioning these services. We heard that it was working hard to spread good practice and that it hoped that its focus and additional investment would improve performance across the board. The Department thought that completion rates, which had remained stable despite budget pressures, indicated that local authorities had done a very good job of maintaining quality.49 The Department explained that OHID had a budget of around £30 million to run national public health awareness campaigns. It told us that recent campaigns had included obesity, smoking and mental health and gave the example of the beginners’ running campaign, Couch to 5k, as one that had been very successful. The Department noted the success of campaigns around smoking and said it did not think the public had as clear an understanding around alcohol harm. We were told that choosing where to spend the budget for public health campaigns was a decision for Ministers.50 Treatment workforce