There is a quiet revolution of “social prescribing” taking place – with Conservative councils taking the lead 5 February 2018 During the winter months, the focus on the NHS is always more acute with more people admitted to hospital increasing pressure on beds. It gives...
Social care. May ducking TV debates. Fox hunting. What sank our candidacies in the West Midlands 13 June 2017 It is hard to remember now, but on May 4 the Conservative Party was 20 points ahead in the opinion polls, and that lead was vindicated by a hugely...
Local government must be more than the sum of its parts 2 May 2017 In Victorian times local government used all their public health tools to prevent ill health caused mainly by severe poverty. They cleared the slums...
Districts play an important role in combating mental ill-health 6 April 2017 According to the King’s Fund the direct costs of mental ill-health for the NHS and social services in England are now around £22.5 billion a year...
Parliament cannot solve homelessness through legislation alone 1 March 2017 Homelessness is a terrible problem that blights peoples’ lives in a way that is hard to imagine without experiencing it first-hand. It is an...
Alone again 10 January 2017 The problem of loneliness was highlighted over Christmas - as quite rightly we all want to make sure no one is alone as we celebrate the festive...
District councils need a place at the STP planning table 12 December 2016 Across the country various footprints (made up of clinical commissioning groups and upper tier local authorities) are publishing their STPs...
Are district councils the key to unlocking hospital bed blocking? 20 October 2016 We keep reading in the press about how delays in discharging patients from hospital after treatment could be costing the NHS nearly £1bn a year...
District Councils ‘seriously underestimated’ when it comes to mental wellbeing 12 September 2016 Saturday 10 September was World Suicide Prevention Day. The World Health Organisation estimates that over 800,000 people die by suicide each...
Local government must be set free to tackle homelessness 30 August 2016 The House of Commons: Communities & Local Government (CLG) select committee recently published its Homelessness Report that it intends to follow...
Government misses a trick in forgetting council role to tackle childhood obesity 22 August 2016 It is a shame that the government’s recently published report on childhood obesity has more or less overlooked the role that councils, and in...
District Councils are the missing piece of the STP jigsaw 1 July 2016 Local NHS areas have been tasked to submit convincing strategies known as Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STP) to dramatically improve...
