Briefings and responses

Loneliness is best tackled by a system wide approach involving all partners, particularly the voluntary and community sector, under the strategic leadership of a Health and Wellbeing Board.

It is essential that the new Act clearly recognises the local leadership role of councils and identifies the roles and responsibilities of councils in respect of both statutory and non-statutory mental health duties, working in partnership with the NHS and local voluntary and community services.

The Mental Health and Wellbeing Plan is an important opportunity to recognise local government’s leadership role in improving the mental health and wellbeing of our communities.

Any new requirements arising from implementation of the new Act and outlined in the guidance will be new burdens for councils and will need to be funded accordingly. This could include training costs.

The LGA can see the potential benefits of the Care Workforce Pathway for adult social care but, in order to realise them, consideration must be given to the issues raised below. By working together to address these issues, we are hopeful that the pathway can be a success and deliver some of the changes that are needed to bolster this critical workforce.

This response summarises the LGA's general views on the overall objectives of the proposals, as well as commenting on specific proposals where relevant to our membership.

The LGA's submitted written evidence to the Government review of integrated care systems, led by the Right Hon Patricia Hewitt.

Everyone should have access to healthy and affordable food. The strategy response represents a missed opportunity to tackle the underlying causes of a variety of issues, many of which will continue to be exacerbated by the growing cost of living crisis. Unless the government takes urgent action, health inequalities will widen and its ambition to halve childhood obesity by 2030 will be missed.

Integrating care: next steps to building strong and effective integrated care systems.