Case studies

To date, SkillsHouse has supported more than 1,000 unemployed people to find work, while the wider Get Bradford Working programme has helped over 3,000 people into employment.

Like all areas, the results are fed back to schools via email and hard copies sent through the post. But two years ago the council decided to do more to link it in with the healthy weight programmes they were beginning to run.

Children in Lancashire and Cumbria have poorer dental health compared to children in other parts of England. The Smile4Life programme was developed in partnership with local authorities to address this problem.

Like many areas, Solihull has a comprehensive support programme in place for children identified as overweight and obese through NCMP. But with over 18 per cent of local children with overweight or with obesity in reception year, the programme has also prompted the council to start considering what can be done to support children pre-school. This case study forms part of our resource on the National Child Measurement Programme.

‘Grow our own’ is an important ethos at Somerset Council. T Level placements are one element of a variety of early career routes into the council, and T Level opportunities are making the council an attractive local employer to young people.

Southend Council has created a new steering group to coordinate the fight against county lines, ensuring the two safeguarding boards, community safety partnership and health and wellbeing board (HWB) are working together. It has already led to a public awareness campaign being run and other projects are now in the pipeline. This case study is an example of how councils are tackling youth violence.

SFSC is led by the Race Equality Foundation, and had an excellent reputation locally. In Southwark, the SFSC programme had been adapted during Covid-19 lockdown to offer online sessions which parents found very useful.

The 2015 Care Act and 2014 Children and Families Act gave young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities more rights to support and for longer. Whilst being a much needed and well received pieces of progressive legislation, they presented severe problems in a system primarily driven by resource limitations.

Ensuring children and families have access to support to enhance SLC development when a concern is raised is important. However, access to therapy services in Torbay is currently lengthy for families. Early timely support can enable children to ‘catch up’ with peers. A pathway of support has therefore been developed alongside Early Years Settings, Health Visitors and Children’s Centres.