Vital health services in Croydon are set to be hit by cuts of nearly £1.34m. 

School nurses, domestic violence prevention and mental health support could be among the council-provided public health services hurt by slashed funding from central Government.

The borough's £21.57m allocation for 2015-16 would fall to £20.23m under Department for Health proposals designed to save £200m nationally.

Control of public health services, which also cover sexual health, drug and alcohol support, suicide prevention, and help to lose weight and stop smoking, was transferred to councils from the NHS in 2013.

Every local authority will lose 6.2 per cent of its public health funding under the proposed cuts, on which the Government launched a four-week consultation on July 31.

It means services tackling obesity, teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases - which are all significantly above the national average - could lose funding.

Croydon Council, which will help to decide where the axe will fall in the borough, warned provision would suffer but said it would aim to protect the most vulnerable people.

A spokesman said: "The cut to public health budgets, which is imposed by central Government, will have an impact on public health services in Croydon and the resources we will have available.

"We will prioritise protecting areas of the borough where our public health outcomes are not as strong as in other locations with similar populations, or where we know there will be an immediate knock-on effect on other services."

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) warned the proposed cuts would disproportionately hurt London boroughs and worsen inequality.

Bernell Bussue, the RCN's regional director for the London, added: "It is no good claiming to protect the NHS budget but then making huge cuts to local authority services which are there to keep people well and out of hospital.

"The health service will in the long term end up paying for these savings many times over."

Life expectancy is 9.1 years lower for men and 7.7 years lower for women in the most deprived areas of Croydon than in the least deprived. 

A Department of Health spokeswoman said: "The NHS budget will remain protected but difficult decisions need to be made right across Government to reduce the deficit. 

"Local authorities have already set an excellent example of how more can be done for less to provide the best value for the taxpayer.

"A consultation will now be held with them to decide the best way of delivering the savings that need to be made."