The LGA is delivering a weekly lunch and learn series over the Spring to continue showcasing innovative best practice across the public health sector.
Following the LGA/ADPH Public Health Conference in February 2026, the LGA is delivering a weekly lunch and learn series over the Spring to continue showcasing innovative best practice across the sector. Sessions range from building healthy high streets, to the importance of play, to impactful approaches to coproduction and addressing inequalities.
Sessions will showcase real world examples from local government and partners. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions and discuss their own experiences, and will come away with practical tips and learning which they can implement in their own places.
Sessions will take place weekly on Thursdays at 12.00pm - 1.00pm, from 19 March.
Attendance is free. Find out more about each session and and register below:
We know that health outcomes are shaped by the places which people live and work in. Healthy high streets support the ambitions in the 10 Year Health Plan to shift from sickness to prevention, and from hospital to community, by bringing preventative measures close to home.
As part of the LGA Public Health Lunch & Learn series, this interactive session will explore how local authorities can use the 'building blocks' of a healthy high street to achieve better health and wellbeing outcomes for residents in their place.
Delivered by the Royal Society for Public Health, the session will include:
A brief introduction on how places influence the population’s health outcomes, and how town planners and local authorities’ staff can use the building blocks of a healthy high street;
Case studies to demonstrate how the building blocks can be used by local authorities;
An opportunity for practice sharing, and discussion of current opportunities and challenges.
Attendees will leave with practical and usable tools and feeling empowered to drive change and deliver healthy high streets.
How can councils embed community voice into public health service design?
How can we make the case for qualitative feedback alongside quantitative data to achieve better service outcomes?
As part of the LGA's lunch and learn programme, this session will highlight how Wirral's Qualitative Insight team has influenced organisational delivery, advocating for the importance and impact of qualitative insights.
Attendees will hear about practical tools, including the Qualitative Insights toolkit, launched in 2024, and the Qualitative Insights Repository, launched in January 2026. These resources are used by internal colleagues and partners to support more meaningful and effective community engagement for service evaluation, in turn directly feeding into service design and improvements.
The session will conclude with an overview of the team’s sustainable approach to community involvement and maximising value for money. Attendees will come away with practical tips and tools for empowering community voices within decision-making, in turn reducing health inequalities and achieving better public health outcomes.
On International Day of Play, this webinar explores how children’s capability to play and be well are shaped by the places and conditions around them. Join us to hear how play sufficiency powers healthier communities, and gain practical insights on how play can be embedded in a whole system public health strategy. This is an interactive session as part of the LGA’s Public Health Lunch and Learn series, with speakers from University of Gloucester, Ludicology and Sandwell Council.
How can local authorities transform from being research-consumers to research-creators?
As the public health landscape evolves, the ability to generate and apply evidence locally is a strategic priority for reducing health inequalities and driving "Local Leadership in Action."
As part of the LGA Public Health Lunch & Learn series, this interactive session explores the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR)'s commitment to building public health research capacity within local government. We will showcase how the RSS Specialist Centre for Public Health (SCPH) works nationally to support officers working in local authorities to conduct public health research.
The session will provide an overview of NIHR public health research activities and dedicated support for local authorities. Mini case study presentations will showcase practical examples of the impact of this support in councils. There will be time for Q and A and panel discussion.
This session brings together experts from Essex County Council, Anglia Ruskin University, and Bremner and Co to explore the national early years nutrition policy landscape, share findings from the Nourishing Our Future research, and bring the evidence to life through lived experience case studies that centre the voices of practitioners from early years settings across Essex.
The session will explore questions including:
Why does early years nutrition matter, and what can local government do to influence this agenda?
How can councils collaborate across departments and sectors to create lasting change?
What does coproduction look like in practice, and how can it drive real impact for children and families?
Presenters will share insights on the strategic and political context for early years nutrition, innovative and cross-disciplinary research methods, and how to translate findings into meaningful practice at scale. The session will conclude with a panel Q and A, offering attendees the opportunity to explore what these insights could mean for early years policy and practice in their own local area.
Join us for this LGA lunch and learn to hear about the importance of the first 1,000 days of a child’s life, which are vitally important for mental, physical and social development. The session will cover the Healthy Child Programme (HCP), an initiative developed by the UK Government which seeks to reach every child in the country and is a key way to promote healthy child development. You will also hear about the role of local authorities, which spend over £850 million on HCP delivery each year, and the importance of making best use of this investment and supporting the skilled professional workforce, including health visitors.
The session will also outline how, in England, every family is entitled to five free health and development reviews delivered by health visitors at distinct time points, from before birth until the child is aged 2.5 years. It will include learning from two NIHR PHIRST evaluations with local authorities that have added extra reviews to the core schedule – in Rotherham, where families are offered an additional sixth visit at three to four months, and in the London Borough of Camden, where families are offered eight visits in total - three more than the standard schedule.
The evaluations explored whether there are differences between families who take up visits and those who do not, including barriers to participation, as well as the impact on staff delivering additional visits and any impacts on child outcomes.
Speakers include:
Lorna Quinn, Public Health Intelligence Principal, Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council (Chair)
Nathan Davies, PHIRST Light team, University of Nottingham
Sarah Janac, PHIRST Elevate team, University of Edinburgh
As part of the LGA Public Health Lunch & Learn series, this session, led by The Food Foundation, will focus on how local councils can take a more coordinated and strategic approach to improving food environments. We will hear from a number of councils employing different, but equally impactful, joined-up, food systems approaches.
We will then open up the discussion to explore what frameworks can help bring together work across public health, procurement, planning, climate, and community development, supporting councils to move from isolated interventions towards a more systemic approach.
We will also explore how councils are designing and implementing these plans, how they align with wider local strategies, and how councils are working in partnership to turn plans into practical action.
Finally, we will test ideas around potential policy asks of national government to support long-term, embedded approaches to food at the local level, as set out in The Food Foundation’s call for a national Food Bill.
Speakers:
Leon Ballin, Place-Based Food Systems Manager, The Food Foundation
Alice English, Senior Project Officer, Local Food Systems, The Food Foundation
Two councils taking differing, but effective, approaches to local food system change