Case studies

At the beginning of April 2020, North West ADASS network leads in the 23 member councils began discussing the possible mental health and wellbeing impacts of COVID-19, not just on the adult social care workforce in the council, but on those working for care providers and unpaid carers who may also be in employment.

Gateshead Care and Health System has drawn on its history of strong relationships to support residents during the COVID-19 pandemic. System partners have shared their experience of using their collective system leadership approach with the Care and Health Improvement Team as they reflect on what they want to keep and build on.

The West of England Combined Authority embraced digital and social media marketing to raise awareness of their ‘Future Bright’ skills service.

The combined authority argues that a devolved approach has made it easier to create stronger links and have more strategic conversations about how and what is delivered, based on need.

The devolution of employment and skills led to the profile of these areas being raised within both the local authority and the LEP and has resulted in the creation of a fully resourced and funded team to manage programmes and strategy.

Through the development of a Work Local model, the council wants to improve employment, skills and workforce development opportunities. By engaging with small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to understand their future workforce needs, and working with local partner agencies, the city council is building a support offer for local residents to develop job opportunities and career pathways.

Managing funding locally through devolved budgets has increased scrutiny of how money is being used to meet local skills needs.

The collaborative working of the South Ribble partnership and the Lancashire Mental Health to Businesses (MH2B) Building Blocks Partnership has allowed South Ribble to be a representative sample of the wider Lancashire area, meaning that the focus on the development can be on a much smaller area, with recommendations able to be rolled out over a larger area.

The combined authority argue that devolving the skills revenue and capital funding in the UK Shared Prosperity Fund would better allow it to align all funding streams and produce a linear model which would offer support to people from transitions into work to progression in the labour market.

Dedicated training for staff in Care Homes, residential and nursing, to promote and embed improved End of Life Care. This case study forms part of our end of life care guide for councils.