Briefings and responses

While the LGA welcomes the money to pilot new approaches and build on existing good practice, we question whether the scale of the investment matches the scale of the ambition. Any positive outcomes emanating from the pilots must be given sustainable long-term funding.

The LGA has long highlighted that adult social care exists to enable adults of all ages and with a range of conditions to live their best life and an equal life.

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 perilous state of adult social care funding, and its serious consequences for people who draw on social care (or may need to do so in the near future), is unquestionable. Recent survey work by the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) shows that just 12 per cent of directors are confident that they have the resources required to deliver all of their statutory duties.

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.

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.

Smoking prevalence analysis: methodology summary by the LGA Research and Information Team

This briefing for practitioners is based on a literature review published in the Journal of Adult Protection in March 2022.

Achieving the scale of ambition set out in the White Paper will require substantial and long-term commitment not only from Government but from local government and NHS leaders at every level – national, regional, system, place and neighbourhood. We look forward to seeing this reflected as the ICS and wider reforms are rolled out in practice.

The LGA broadly supports the Bill’s focus on improving the health and wellbeing of the population through greater integration between NHS organisations and between the NHS and local government.