Innovation in local government is about improving the lives of the people in our
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Middlesbrough Council was the first area in the UK to allow a trial to enable the use of private rented E-scooters on its Highway, following changes in legislation.
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.
Following the development of the wellbeing offer for NHS staff affected by COVID-19 in April 2020, the NHSE & I regional team in the south east of England felt that there needed to be a similar resource for social care staff.
With a series of key meetings due just as lockdown came into place, we moved quickly to prepare for virtual meetings without quite knowing what they would - or should - look like. As the council already uses the Google Suite of products for day-to-day working, we adopted Google Meet as our platform for virtual meetings, offered a Google Chromebook to all councillors and worked with Digital and IT colleagues to livestream our committee meetings via YouTube.
View all Efficiency and income generation articles
The private rented sector has grown considerably over the last two decades and following a stock modelling survey undertaken by the Building Research Establishment, accounts for approximately 29 per cent of the stock (over 58,000 properties).
The overall focus of the council’s policy is to improve the health and well-being of tenants in the private rented stock, as well as tackling the issues of poverty and deprivation faced by communities.
Work by housing and police officers in visiting targeted properties, talking with the occupants and assessing the conditions uncovered a range of criminal activity and poor conditions, including exploitation, fraud, sham marriages and human trafficking.