Case studies

Wealden District Council has set up a range of initiatives to combat loneliness. It has worked with pubs to run events, held dementia-friendly cinema screenings and adult education courses in community venues, such as village halls and libraries. This case study shows how district councils have improved the health of their local areas.

This case study shows the excellent work that public health in local government is doing to commission for quality and best value across all areas.

At Warrington Borough Council a joint environmental and public health team was quickly set up to help businesses to adopt COVID-19 secure working practices and to deal with any outbreaks.   

Research and engagement is at the heart of our COVID-19 response and our Recovery Citizens Panel is one of the best examples of our approach. Representative of the diversity of our borough, it was formed to rapidly turn around insight to drive our strategic decision-making processes.

Waltham Forest has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. To help slow down the local rise in cases, the council launched a Stay Safe Champions scheme. First out on the streets, and now online, council officers and local volunteers have been directly engaging with residents, with the goal of informing, reassuring and supporting them. In parallel, our Play Safe Champions have been out on popular playgrounds to make sure children can safely access outdoor spaces and exercise.

In Wakefield the council and local NHS have set up a roving vaccination team to work with communities at risk of low uptake.

Joint health and care teams have been established in the West Yorkshire district of Wakefield. The teams work from community hubs, helping keep people out of hospital. 

Despite social care staff being eligible for the flu jab, uptake has remained low. In Wakefield only between 2 per cent and 7 per cent of staff have come forward for their jab in recent years. But that is now changing thanks to work by the council’s public health team and its partners.

To help educate primary and junior school children across the London Borough of Havering about the rewards of healthy eating, the in-house HES Catering Service developed Veggie Run, the first council-created app in England designed to teach children to dodge unhealthy foods through digital game play.

This pilot project focused on developing an intervention to reduce sugar consumption in schools through a series of personalised ‘sugar swap’ messages.