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 can local authorities work together better to improve children’s outcomes and create a more innovative, responsive, and sustainable system for delivery?
East Riding of Yorkshire Council provides its sport, play and arts service and its leisure service inhouse. Other models have been considered and trialled in the past, such as outsourcing, but the services demonstrate high levels of success under the in-house mechanism.
Hull and Wakefield have used PHE’s online SHAPE tool to work out how best to invest money in dental services. SHAPE has allowed officials to map where practices are against areas of high deprivation as a proxy for poor oral health.
Derbyshire County Council has been working with local partners to develop and deliver a clear plan for use of the improved Better Care Fund. The approach is helping to maintain capacity across both social work and the independent sector, and supporting system flow and hospital discharges. This example of how local areas are working to implement overall system change forms part of our managing transfers of care resource.
Following a review by the Emergency Care Improvement Programme (ECIP) in October 2016, County Durham and Darlington Local Area Delivery Board has implemented a system-wide set of changes to improve performance. This example of a local initiative forms part of our managing transfers of care resource.
The challenge
Healthwatch Hillingdon’s role is to be an independent champion for people, making sure that those running services, put people at the heart. During a local authority review of child and adolescent mental health services, it seemed that there was a lack of engagement with children and young people.
Oldham Council was the first area in the country to pilot MH:2K, a powerful new model for engaging young people in conversations about mental health in their local area.
The Emotionally Healthy Schools Project is a partnership aiming to promote positive emotional health and wellbeing and develop stronger working relationships with agencies outside of the school environment.
Focusing on the positive difference local resources and people could make to improve mental health outcomes for children and young people proved an invaluable experience and lead to system changes at a strategic and operational level in Hull.