Children with autism ‘let down’ by system, report finds
‘Significant’ variations in rates of dental visits, study finds
Coventry ordered to implement clean air zone
‘Locked up’ children cost £300m to care for, commissioner says
How councils can improve support for independent living
Paul Smith outlines his five top tips on how councils can improve the outcomes for disabled people living in their area.
Cuts creating ‘care deserts’ across England, charity says
15/05/2019 Years of underfunding has undermined the care market and created ‘care deserts’ in England, an elderly persons charity has warned. |
Child poverty is the ‘new normal’ in Britain, campaigners warn
15/05/2019 An estimated half a million more children are having their lives ‘limited by poverty’ today than at the start of the decade, the UK’s leading child poverty coalition has revealed. |
Council pays out over £40,000 for ‘mistakes’ in respite centre closure
14/05/2019 Southampton City Council has paid thousands of pounds in compensation after an Ombudsman ruled that the authority had caused ‘avoidable distress’ when it closed a respite centre. |
Call to ‘rethink’ public health investment
14/05/2019 A culture change is needed in the way local organisations evaluate long-term investment in prevention, a report has argued today. |
Welfare reforms put pressure on struggling families, report warns
13/05/2019 A new study looking at the impact of welfare reforms on child vulnerability has found that a quarter of children in low income families are unable to make ends meet. |
Councils urged to apply for funding to improve health of rough sleepers
10/05/2019 Councils are being urged to bid for a share of £1.9m to help support rough sleepers living with a mental illness or substance abuse problem. |
Government launches £2m programme to tackle child exploitation
09/05/2019 The Department for Education has launched a new programme designed to provide specialist support for children at risk of criminal or sexual exploitation. |
Prevention work for tackling obesity under threat from cuts, council chiefs say
09/05/2019 Early intervention by councils is ‘vital’ for dealing with obesity, council chiefs say as new figures reveal a 15% increase in hospital admissions where obesity was a factor. |
Forty people investigated over child abuse in Rotherham
09/05/2019 Forty people have been arrested or interviewed over child sexual abuse in Rotherham in the past two months. |
Councils receive extra £30m to care for asylum seeking children
09/05/2019 The amount of funding councils receive to look after unaccompanied asylum seeking children is set to rise by £30m. |
Thousands with arthritis unaware of available council support, survey finds
08/05/2019 Thousands of people with arthritis are unaware of how to access support from their local council, a new survey has revealed. |
Charity calls for £2.4bn Dementia Fund
08/05/2019 A report calling for a new £2.4bn Dementia Fund has received backing from 68 cross-party MPs. |
Digital health hub to be rolled out after ‘successful’ pilot
01/05/2019 A digital health and wellbeing learning centre is to be scaled up across England after a successful pilot, NHS Digital has announced. |
Four Seasons Health Care slides into administration
30/04/2019 Funding has been found to prop up more than 300 care homes as Four Seasons Health Care enters administration. |
Green proposes reforms to fix the ‘unsustainable’ care system
29/04/2019 The cash-strapped care system should adopt the model of the state pension to help deal with its multi-billion pound funding hole, Damian Green MP argues. |
DWP pursues 80,000 carers for overpaid allowances
26/04/2019 The Government is pursuing thousands of carers for repayment of overpaid care allowances despite not knowing the impact this will have, auditors say. |
Adult social care is ‘in crisis’, study reveals
26/04/2019 The current system of adult social care is at 'breaking point', local government leaders have warned. |
Councils need more powers to tackle junk food adverts, campaigners say
24/04/2019 Campaigners have called for local authorities to be given more powers to push back against junk food advertising. |
Digital portal showing care home vacancies launched
16/04/2019 Local authorities have partnered with the NHS to provide a new digital portal which shows how many vacancies there are in local care homes. |
Primary schools to be provided with free sanitary products
16/04/2019 Free sanitary products will be offered to girls in all primary schools in England from early next year, the Government has announced. |
Council proposes introducing more smoke-free spaces
12/04/2019 Derbyshire residents could soon be asked to decide on whether they want more smoke-free places in their county. |
London councils agree to 4,000 extra places on HIV trial
12/04/2019 The capital’s boroughs have agreed to provide over 4,000 extra places on a trial of HIV prevention medicine. |
Nearly two thirds of councils cut mental health services for children
10/04/2019 Around 60% of local authority areas have seen a real-terms fall in spending on low-level mental health services for children, a new report has revealed. |
Khan hails 'landmark day' as London ULEZ begins
08/04/2019 London’s ultra low emission zone (ULEZ) – described by mayor Sadiq Khan as the world’s toughest vehicle emissions standard – began on Monday. |
Council chiefs call for ‘greater proportion’ of soft drinks levy
08/04/2019 Local authority leaders have called for a greater share of the soft drinks levy to go towards the public health budgets of councils. |
E-learning tools launched to ‘boost’ public health knowledge
08/04/2019 The Government has launched a series of e-learning tools to help boost health and care professionals’ knowledge of the biggest issues in public health. |
LGA urges chiefs to challenge children's services directors
03/04/2019 Chief executives should confront directors to ensure children’s services are well delivered, fresh guidance published by the Local Government Association (LGA) has suggested. |
Protections for people who lack mental capacity must be 'robust', MPs say
02/04/2019 A new definition of what constitutes 'liberty' will be included in the Mental Capacity Act to help protect vulnerable people, the Government has announced. |
NHS commits nearly £5m to digital adult social care projects
02/04/2019 Local government leaders have urged councils to bid for money to improve the use of technology for adult social care services. |
Council criticised for not carrying out ‘proper assessments’ in deprivation of liberty cases
01/04/2019 Council argues legislation dealing with when it is legitimate to deprive someone of liberty is not 'fit for purpose’ after being criticised by ombudsman. |
Quarter of care leavers experience 'low life satisfaction’, charity finds
01/04/2019 Young people leaving care are seven times more likely to be unhappy with their lives than their peers, according to new research. |
Charity calls for free personal care for elderly
27/03/2019 Campaigners have called on councillors to back a call for free personal care for the over-65s. |
Commissioner appointed to oversee Blackpool's children's services
26/03/2019 Essex CC has been appointed to take over Blackpool Council’s children’s services after an Ofsted report last year found it was ‘inadequate’. |
Inactivity linked to 70,000 deaths a year
26/03/2019 Spending too much time sitting around is linked to about 70,000 deaths a year in the UK, according to public health experts. |
Health experts have revealed a big rise in the use of crack cocaine
26/03/2019 Public Health England says the number of adults starting treatment for crack addiction in the last three years has gone up by 19%. |
Children’s home system ‘catastrophically failing children’, MPs warn
26/03/2019 MPs today launched a Parliamentary inquiry into the record number of children who are ‘farmed out’ to live in children’s homes miles away from family and friends. |
Tuberculosis at ‘lowest levels’ since records began
22/03/2019 New cases of TB in England have fallen to the lowest levels since records began in 1960, new data reveals. |
Health body announces £6m for alcohol treatments
22/03/2019 The Government today announced that £6m of capital funding will be made available to help councils increase access to alcohol treatments. |
Children’s social care ‘not financially sustainable’, MPs warn
22/03/2019 MPs have criticised the Department for Education for what they describe as ‘slow progress’ in improving children’s social care. |
Council refers hospital ‘shake up’ plans to health secretary
21/03/2019 Telford & Wrekin Council have referred plans to shake-up local health services to the Government over concerns the scheme ‘would not meet the growing and changing needs’ of the local population. |
Council chiefs call for ‘urgent investment’ in children's health visitors
21/03/2019 The health visiting service is ‘stretched to its limits’ due to underinvestment and a shrinking workforce, local authority leaders have warned. |
Children ‘not being protected’ by Stoke-on-Trent Council
19/03/2019 Children’s social care services are ‘inadequate’ at Stoke-on-Trent City Council, according to the findings of a new Ofsted inspection. |
Around 15,000 patients with neurological conditions ‘let down’ by care system
18/03/2019 Councils are not routinely recording whether someone they are providing services for has a neurological condition, making these patients ‘invisible’. |
Ombudsman publishes guide for handling social care complaints
15/03/2019 Directors of adult social services have welcomed the publication of a good practice guide for helping adult social care providers improve complaints handling. |
Councils forced to slash stop smoking services
15/03/2019 Government cuts mean only half of local authorities now offer smokers the best support to quit, according to campaigners. |
Charity warns people at risk of suffering poverty, ill-health and hardship in later life
13/03/2019 Action must be taken to create communities that enable older people to stay active, campaigners have urged. |
Women ‘bear the brunt’ of social care crisis, charity warns
08/03/2019 Women are paying the highest price for the Government’s continued inaction on social care, an elderly persons charity has warned. |
Public satisfaction with the NHS falls to lowest level in a decade, survey reveals
07/03/2019 A poll of nearly 3,000 people found that 53% of the those surveyed in England, Scotland and Wales were satisfied with services last year. |
Care home quality ‘worsens’ in a third of council areas
06/03/2019 The quality of care homes has worsened in more than a third of local authority areas over the last year, according to an elderly persons charity. |
Council tax rises will not fix ‘chronically underfunded’ care system
06/03/2019 Increases in council tax will fail to fix the ‘chronically underfunded’ social care system, local authority leaders have warned. |
The March issue of Local Government News explores alternative funding channels that are available to councils beyond the Public Works Loan Board, what hurdles merging councils face in coming together, and how local government is handling GDPR.
This issue also has a special highways and street lighting section exploring how councils can use lighting to embark on their smart city journey and using IoT technology to weather the storm.
