Case studies

Our Deane Helpline is a service which has been providing a lifeline and response package to people for over 30 years, along with associated monitoring of Lifeline alarms across the South West. Its purpose is to support people to live as independently as possible within their own homes and to prolong their quality of life.

Project context About 1,500 people, predominantly men from Asian backgrounds, work as taxi drivers in Walsall. Research carried out for the project found that drivers faced a range of health and social problems. Drivers are often self-employed with extended family commitments. They tend to work long hours with busy periods over Christmas and Easter.

Tendring District Council (TDC) is undertaking a project to incorporate social value to its existing procurement process, based on the anchor institutions approach. Local authorities, other public bodies, and some large voluntary and private sector organisations form the ‘anchors’ in a place. Having seen examples from Preston, Manchester, and an emerging approach from Essex County Council , the desired outcome is to better communicate the procurement process to local companies and support them to understand how to bid into council contracts to increase the level of spend by anchors on local companies.

Through the LGA Productivity Experts Programme, expert advice was sought around the methodology and development of approaches, processes and skills for contract audit of contracts, recovery of overpayments, contract management and financial procedures to test for potential savings.

In 2020 the first sports-based SIB, the Chances Programme, was launched in England as part of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Life Chances Fund.

Supporting the council to create an economic development action plan which addressed the key issues and challenges and engaged all stakeholders in delivery and support activity and creating a new perception of Dengie as a place to grow businesses.

Digital technology can provide huge advantages to businesses in town centres and other places if take-up and future opportunities can be properly understood. The Digital High Street Project aims to help place managers understand and improve the ways that local consumer-facing business are adopting digital technologies. 

The Essex and Herts Digital Innovation Zone (DIZ), co-founded and led by Epping Forest District Council, is a cross-sector, cross-border partnership seeking to explore the opportunities of digital infrastructure, applications and innovations to future-proof local economies and the provision of health and social care. The DIZ is delivered in partnership with Essex County Council and Hertfordshire County Council as well as five district councils (Broxbourne, East Herts, Epping Forest, Harlow, and Uttlesford), and partners from the health, higher and further education, voluntary and community sectors and the private sector. The DIZ has an ambition to be recognised as a ‘beacon’ area for place-based digital innovation. applications and innovations, to future proof local economies and the provision of health and social care.

London Borough of Barking and Dagenham This article is the first in a series that will follow the progress made by the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham towards a new, borough-wide neighbourhood management (NM) service.

The Family Nurse Partnership (FNP) aims to improve the life chances of first-time young parents and their children by breaking the cycle of disadvantage.