Innovation in local government is about improving the lives of the people in our
communities. Browse through our case studies to see the many innovative programmes councils are involved
in.
How public health became involved
When based in the PCT, public health was central to both NHS strategic planning and joint planning with the council. This role was maintained when it transferred to the council, with public health taking the lead for several aspects of the BCF and wider integration.
Hertfordshire based its work on topics jointly agreed as priorities rather than just what the public health team thought was important. Projects with too many barriers or dependencies were put back while higher priority and more deliverable projects were prioritised.
London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and the CCG are moving jointly towards an integrated outcomes-based adult community health and social care service. This aspiration now also includes mental health services and early thinking has started for children’s services
Somerset County Council and Somerset CCG have been developing joined up care for several years, and this has accelerated through initiatives such as joint commissioning, an integrated data system, and the BCF programme. A model for ambitious, whole-system reform is now being developed
Wakefield Connecting Care programme, which incorporates the BCF, is a partnership between the CCG and the council, working closely with NHS providers and the voluntary and community sectors. A key element of the programme is establishing integrated care hubs – care closer to people’s homes through integrated teams based around GP practices.
The public health team has contributed to a five year integration strategy bringing together a wide range of adult health and care services. An important public health role is to identify high-risk population groups whose needs impact significantly on both health and social care services, thereby revealing a mutual interest for both NHS and county council to develop integrated improvement and prevention services.
Faced with very poor oral health in young children and significant inequalities throughout the district, Bradford Metropolitan District Council has prioritised the oral health of young children, including it in its Health and Wellbeing Strategy and Inequalities Action Plan.
Waltham Forest has made early intervention a priority as part of its Prevent work. One of it’s flagship programmes is ‘Digital Resilience’, an education resource for secondary school children and staff designed to safeguard young people from potentially harmful information or views online.
Buckinghamshire County Council has engaged in a range of community action activities, at different scales of investment to enable local priorities to be determined and better met.
The living independently in later years (LILY) programme began in 2012 with the intention of helping older people access the right level of community-based support at the right times in their lives, to help them avoid triggering an event that will move them into high cost services.