Briefings and responses

The LGA has long highlighted that adult social care exists to enable adults of all ages and with a range of conditions to live their best life and an equal life.

The LGA can see the potential benefits of the Care Workforce Pathway for adult social care but, in order to realise them, consideration must be given to the issues raised below. By working together to address these issues, we are hopeful that the pathway can be a success and deliver some of the changes that are needed to bolster this critical workforce.

Smoking remains the leading preventable cause of ill health and mortality in England. Councillors and officers recognise the harm that smoking inflicts on their communities and the importance of continuing to drive down smoking prevalence.

Loneliness is a problem for people of all ages throughout the life course. It does not just affect older people.

We strongly support a preventative, assets-based approach to health, which recognises that the essential components of good health go far beyond NHS treatment and care.  An assets-based approach supports repeople to make healthy choices and enables them to live healthy, independent and productive lives. If they have health and social care needs, our approach is to provide community-based and person-centred care and support which enables them to live independently and live their lives as they choose.

Smoking is the single largest cause of preventable death and the biggest cause of cancer worldwide. As well as impacting upon health, smoking places a significant burden on the public purse, to the tune of £12.6 billion each year.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the scope and effectiveness of section 75 arrangements. We have chosen not to answer all 30 specific questions included in the supporting document to the call for evidence. Instead, the high-level views of the LGA about the scope and effectiveness of section 75 financial flexibilities are summarised in paragraphs 5 – 19.

Research commissioned by the LGA found that whilst there have been a raft of successive policies and strategies to improve mental health outcomes for children, there has been a missed opportunity to significantly ease pressure on the system by increasing the availability of preventative and early intervention support. Early intervention has been highlighted as a central aspect in many of these policies, however, this focus has not translated through to action with the system leaning towards prioritising specialist and complex treatments rather than early intervention and prevention.

The LGA's response to the Government's open consultation on creating a smokefree generation and tackling youth vaping.