Case studies

Councils up and down the country have been training increasing numbers of colleagues to have healthy conversations, whether it’s about excess smoking or drinking but also, particularly about mental health.

How do we make the most of each and every opportunity to help people improve their health and wellbeing? Making every contact count (MECC) is an approach to improving health and reducing health inequalities developed by the NHS and local government.

A self care strategy was published two years ago in Manchester. Since then the city council and its partners have started implementing changes that should see a revolution in self care. This forms part of our resource on self care.

The Manchester Healthy Weight Strategy identifies Black and Asian residents as being a cohort particularly at risk of obesity. So, after noticing low uptake of weight management support among South Asian women, Manchester City Council has helped to fund a programme specifically targeting them.

Manchester developed a tracking system to identify the number of people who have declined vaccines to enable GP practices to recall eligible individuals.

The Dundas Shopping Centre in the heart of Middlesbrough town centre is the Live Well Centre, a one-stop shop for healthy living run by the council’s public health team.

Milton Keynes takes part in the national Self Care Week. But as well as running events around the district, the council and CCG have also run a super local version on one of the most deprived estates in the area. This forms part of our resource on self care.

Newcastle operates a Health in All Policies (HiAP) approach in which health and wellbeing is embedded across the council.

An element of drug and alcohol recovery support has been run from a community library since 2019 in Newcastle.

To help tackle the low vaccine uptake in Newcastle's working age men, Newcastle City Council and the local NHS worked closely with the city’s football club to help increase vaccination rates.