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.
In response to the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, the Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) board in Warwickshire sought to review and understand the emerging needs of victims and survivors to prioritise resources and determine their strategic focus.
In 2019, Central Bedfordshire identified that domestic abuse was part of a complex picture of need, with at least 30 per cent of all children’s services assessments carried out having an element of domestic abuse.
Parental domestic abuse was a prominent feature in approximately one third of families who had a social work assessment. Norfolk recognised that early identification was key to reducing the number of safeguarding concerns and children going into care or receiving child protection plans.
Chelmsford City Council implemented a local support hub for domestic abuse which co-located community safety, public protection, business compliance and housing with greater integration into public health and the local police.
City of York Council is creating an extensive community woodland on 78 hectares of land to the West of York with the ambition to plant 50,000 trees by 2023 as a nature based solution to climate change mitigation.
Twenty five partner organisations, led by Devon County Council, including all eleven councils and two national park authorities, are collaborating on the production of a Devon Carbon Plan to show a pathway to getting Devon to net zero by 2050 at the latest.
The London Borough of Sutton has adopted an ambitious Environment Strategy and Climate Emergency Response Plan. Supported by the council’s Transformation Programme, they are taking action to increase domestic retrofit, develop a zero carbon technical standards guide for all council led developments, and prevent the physical impacts of climate change through increasing access to green spaces.
Warwickshire County Council has committed to reducing carbon emissions to net zero by 2030 and is supporting its communities to do the same by 2050 at the very latest. To overcome barriers to action and to enable communities to deliver their own local solutions, the council created a £1 million fund Community Climate Change Fund called Green Shoots.
Hampshire County Council are working in partnership to deliver community projects on climate change, have set up an expert forum to engage with community groups and launched residential projects that will support efforts in reducing Hampshire-wide carbon emissions.