Long COVID - lessons for local government employers
Sarah Gilzean explains why local government must set the standard for dealing with Long COVID in the workplace.
Why ditching the checklist has helped us tackle homelessness in Plymouth
27/07/2021 Gary Wallace explains how Plymouth City Council has adopted a new way of managing public services: Human Learning Systems. |
Vaccinated social care staff no longer required to self-isolate
19/07/2021 Health leaders have been left divided by the Government’s announcement that fully vaccinated social care staff and NHS workers who have been told to self-isolate will be allowed to continue working. |
MPs call for urgent council finance reforms
19/07/2021 Councils should be given more flexibility to raise their own taxes and social care funding urgently needs to be reformed, MPs have said. |
Council criticised for increasing care admin costs 200%
15/07/2021 The London Borough of Bexley has agreed to revise its social care charging policy after the administration costs for one resident’s care increased 200%. |
Have social services been negligent?
14/07/2021 Saara Idelbi and Conor Monighan consider the liability of local authorities in negligence where it is argued that social services should have intervened more quickly to remove children from their family homes. |
Reserves used to meet ‘avalanche of need’
14/07/2021 A third of councils have resorted to using reserves to meet adult social care overspends, an extensive survey has found. |
St Helens MBC: Dream team looks to a bright future
12/07/2021 St Helens is reinventing itself with a new breed of council and radical projects that will revitalise the borough |
Support workers 'undervalued' by nearly £7k a year, warns report
09/07/2021 Frontline social care workers are paid nearly £7,000 less per year than their peers in equivalent positions in other public funded sectors, a new report has uncovered. |
IoT technology: Benefitting local authorities and councils
02/07/2021 Nick Sacke outlines some of the primary challenges being faced by local authorities and how technology can help. |
Councillors back call for social care priority in Government
25/06/2021 More than nine in 10 councillors have called on the Government to give greater priority and funding to social care, according to a new poll. |
Two million requests for care have been rejected in past two years
18/06/2021 Two million requests for care have been turned down by local councils since the Prime Minister pledged to 'fix social care', new research has revealed today. |
Ministers appear 'complacent' over care home closures, MPs warn
16/06/2021 The Government ‘seems complacent’ about the risk of care homes collapsing in the wake of the pandemic, MPs have warned today. |
Working in partnership to get more people with disabilities and complex needs into employment
14/06/2021 Cllr Lorraine Dean explains how a pilot partnership project with housebuilder and contractor, Durkan, has created a blueprint for supporting more people with disabilities and complex needs into employment. |
Staff burnout in social care and health at 'emergency level'
08/06/2021 Workforce burnout in social care and the NHS has reached an ‘emergency level’, MPs have warned today. |
Eight in 10 councils forced to overspend on children’s social care
03/06/2021 More than eight in 10 councils were forced to overspend on children's social care budgets last year due to soaring demand, new research has shown. |
Children’s social care services ‘creative’ during pandemic, study finds
03/06/2021 A new study has found that children’s social care services have been ‘flexible’ and ‘creative’ in their responses to supporting care leavers during the pandemic, but it also found COVID-19 has exposed fragility in current systems. |
CQC launches new ‘dynamic and flexible’ strategy
27/05/2021 The health and social care regulator, Care Quality Commission (CQC), has launched a new strategy which places more of an emphasis on how well local health and care systems are working and addressing local challenges. |
Councils to pilot new self-isolation support scheme
24/05/2021 Nine local authorities have been chosen to pilot new ways of supporting people needing to self-isolate. |
Council chiefs warn lack of social care reform could ‘destabilise’ health care
14/05/2021 Local authority leaders have warned that the absence of a long-term, fully funded plan for social care could destabilise other health and care reforms. |
Council chiefs call for care ‘fix’ after lockdown impacts mobility of millions
11/05/2021 The ability of one in four older people to do everyday activities has worsened during the pandemic, research from the charity Age UK has revealed. |
'Health is made at home, hospitals are for repairs'
06/05/2021 Lord Nigel Crisp says coalitions of local interest have a vital role when it comes to improving lives. Councils as guardians of places will always have a key part to play, ‘whatever the future arrangements for managing health and social care’. |
End blanket ban on care home visits, MPs say
05/05/2021 MPs have urged the Government to change the law to ensure an end to the blanket ban on care home visits. |
Public call for underlying inequalities laid bare by COVID to be addressed
05/05/2021 More than three quarters of UK adults are calling for action to address the underlying inequalities exposed by COVID, a new poll has revealed. |
Letter urges '1948 moment' for adult social care
28/04/2021 The Prime Minister has been urged to give adult social care a '1948 moment' ahead of the Queen's Speech next month. |
Call to tackle 'mental health crisis' in care sector
27/04/2021 Three quarters of care workers have experienced worsened mental health as a result of the pandemic, new research has warned. |
PM told to 'urgently' reform sleep-in shift rules
20/04/2021 Unison has warned that a Supreme Court ruling that sleep-in carers should not be paid the minimum wage for the hours they are asleep could be seen by some as ‘an opportunity to cut costs including wages’. |
Professionals back use of standalone supervision orders
12/04/2021 Nine out of ten professionals think standalone supervision orders should continue to be an option in care proceedings, according to a new survey. |
A singular opportunity for the social care workforce
01/04/2021 Better pay is crucial to stopping workforce ‘churn’, says Stephen Chandler, vice-president of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS). |
Council chiefs call for ‘1948 moment’ for social care
29/03/2021 Local authority leaders have called for ‘immediate action’ on social care as part of a long-term plan to build back better from the pandemic. |
Commission calls on councils to improve digital services for social care
23/03/2021 Not enough local authorities or care providers are using the available technology within social care to keep people safe at home, a new study finds. |
Smokers in England cost local care services £1.2bn each year
23/03/2021 Smokers in England need care 10 years sooner than non-smokers, which places a considerable burden on local social care services, research reveals. |
Sleep-in shifts legal battle ends
19/03/2021 A long-running legal challenge by care workers over pay worth £400m has been rejected by the Supreme Court. |
Government told to end ‘25 years of inaction’ and fix social care
18/03/2021 Social care leaders have called on the Government to end what they describe as over two decades of ‘inaction’ over the UK’s social care crisis. |
County council criticised for overcharging for respite care
17/03/2021 Lincolnshire County Council has agreed to refund some people it charged for short-term residential care following an investigation. |
Care recipients report deteriorating health due to ‘lack of care’
15/03/2021 Carers have called on the PM to bring forward reforms aimed at fixing social care as a new survey reveals more than a quarter of care recipients said their health had deteriorated because of a lack of care. |
MPs launch inquiry into adult social care funding
05/03/2021 An investigation into the long-term consequences of COVID-19 on adult social care will be conducted by MPs. |
Council accused of neglecting man with dementia’s ‘human rights’
04/03/2021 Nottinghamshire County Council has apologised to the family of a man with dementia who was placed in a care home as a temporary measure and then left for five months. |
Budget 2021: Failure to fix 'broken' social care system
04/03/2021 The chancellor has faced criticism for failing to address the social care crisis in his Budget yesterday. |
Think tank calls for collaboration in face of ‘stark’ health inequalities
22/02/2021 A think tank has called on health and care organisations across London to continue working together closely after the pandemic in order to tackle health inequalities across the capital. |
Care home visits to resume in March
22/02/2021 Care home residents in England and Wales will be allowed one regular visitor from 8 March under plans to ease lockdown restrictions. |
Government bans unregulated accommodation for vulnerable children
19/02/2021 Placing vulnerable children under the age of 16 in unregulated accommodation will be made illegal from September, the Government has announced. |
LGA responds to white paper plans to radically reform the NHS
11/02/2021 Council leaders have warned that local government needs to be an equal partner in the design of any national oversight of social care as the Government sets out its white paper plans to overhaul the NHS. |
Care workers were left without PPE during first wave of COVID-19, watchdog warns
10/02/2021 Social care providers were left without adequate PPE at the start of the pandemic, the public spending watchdog has warned today. |
Pandemic has exposed how 'fragile' social care system is, report warns
29/01/2021 The Government must urgently deliver on its pledge to fix social care, a coalition of 15 national health organisations has warned today. |
Leading Greenwich through crisis
28/01/2021 Cllr Danny Thorpe outlines how Greenwich RLBC changed its processes at pace to support residents throughout COVID-19 – at times branching out into the unknown. |
Pushing for real reform
21/01/2021 The pandemic was a game changer for the central/local government relationship, says Joanne Roney, who has started her two-year stint as president of Solace. |
Council chiefs welcome £120m boost to social care workforce
18/01/2021 Local authority leaders have welcomed a multi-million-pound funding boost from the Government which is aimed at supporting the social care workforce. |
Social care directors warn of 'exhausted' workforce
14/01/2021 Social care needs an immediate cash injection to support exhausted staff and ensure services don’t collapse, service directors have warned today. |
Scottish councils call for fair funding to avoid 'damaging consequences'
12/01/2021 Council leaders in Scotland have called for an end of small ring-fenced pots of funding and no cap on council tax in this year’s Budget. |
Commission proposes third option on integrated care
11/01/2021 The Health Devolution Commission (HDC) has called for a third 'health and prosperity' model of Integrated Care Systems. |
Care services hit by staff shortages due to COVID-19
11/01/2021 Care providers across the country are finding individual services hit hard by staff absences caused by COVID-19, an association for social care providers has warned. |
Major incidents over COVID declared
04/01/2021 Essex, Oxfordshire and Berkshire have declared major incidents amid fears the rapid rise in COVID-19 cases could overwhelm health services. |
Babies ‘largely invisible’ in pandemic response
21/12/2020 Babies and young children have been forgotten in the Government’s response to the pandemic, health visitors warn. |
Top 100: Our most popular local government stories of 2020
16/12/2020 Although the dispute over council pay caused the most stir in the local government sector this year, the impact of dealing with the pandemic obviously dominated the headlines as well. |
Survey shows public trusts councils more than Government on COVID
30/11/2020 The findings of a new opinion poll show the public trusts councils more than Government on the response to COVID, says APSE. |
Spending Review: 'Risk all sits on local government'
26/11/2020 The Spending Review failed to tackle key issues such as reforms to local government funding, sector experts have warned. |
Spending Review: NHS receives £3bn funding boost
25/11/2020 The chancellor has announced £18bn will be spent on preventative coronavirus measures next year, including vaccines, testing and PPE. |
London boroughs face £600m adult social care shortfall by 2025
23/11/2020 Local authorities in London have called on the Government to ensure adult social care receives the same funding increases as the NHS in the upcoming spending review. |
Social services directors report unprecedented demand for help
23/11/2020 Directors of adult social services have reported a sharp rise in demand in the wake of the pandemic, according to a new survey. |
Care home study to test immune response to COVID-19 ‘tripled in size’
19/11/2020 The Government has announced that it is expanding the Vivaldi study to test thousands more care home staff and residents for immune response to coronavirus. |
Ombudsman tells council to review its housing allocations policy
19/11/2020 East Lindsay District Council agreed to review its housing allocations policy to ensure it meets its equality duties following investigation by the Ombudsman. |
County councils warn of insolvency risk without frontline cuts
12/11/2020 Only a fifth of England's largest councils are confident they can deliver a balanced budget next year without dramatic reduction to services, a new survey has revealed. |
Think tank calls for new health and social care tax
11/11/2020 A new health and social care tax raising £17bn should be the centrepiece of sweeping tax increases to raise £40bn a year, according to a new report from think-tank the Resolution Foundation. |
Charity calls for wage parity between care and NHS workers
09/11/2020 Care workers should be paid the same as people doing the equivalent job in the NHS, a charity has said. |
Coalition calls for pay rise for social care staff
02/11/2020 A £3.9bn emergency support fund is needed to get the care sector through the second wave of the pandemic, a coalition has said today. |
Council chiefs welcome proposed £7bn social care investment
22/10/2020 Local government leaders have welcomed a call from MPs for a £7bn annual increase in social care funding as a first step towards fixing the ongoing care crisis. |
Housing-with-care is 'critically low', report warns
22/10/2020 The UK has an ‘acute’ lack of housing-with-care for older people, a report has warned. |
More than 110,000 job vacancies in social care, report finds
21/10/2020 Analysis shows that 7.3% of adult social care roles in England were vacant in 2019/20, equivalent to 112,000 vacancies at any one time. |
Government launches £3m supported housing pilot
20/10/2020 The Government has announced that £3m will go to fund pilots in five areas aimed at improving the quality, enforcement, oversight and value for money in supported housing. |
Unpaid carers 'desperately worried' about further lockdowns, survey reveals
20/10/2020 Unpaid carers are being pushed to 'breaking point' due to reduced services, a charity has warned today. |
COVID 'magnifying' health and care inequalities
16/10/2020 The coronavirus pandemic has ‘exacerbated’ existing problems in social care and magnified health inequalities, a report has warned today. |
Welsh councils spend ‘several millions of pounds’ extra on shared electronic record
15/10/2020 The implementation and roll-out of a community care information system in Wales is taking much longer and proving costlier than expected, auditors say. |
Carers added to list of occupations hit by migration restrictions
30/09/2020 Senior care workers should be added to a list of occupations which will be able to employ migrants to make up for labour shortages once freedom of movement ends, an advisory committee says. |
Starmer vows to tackle the 'decade of drift' on sorting social care
22/09/2020 Government failure to protect care homes during the pandemic is a ‘national scandal’, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer told his party’s virtual conference today. |
A perfect storm for care homes
16/09/2020 Iain MacBeath, strategic director, health and wellbeing at Bradford City Council, looks at the challenges facing the adult social care sector. |
Ombudsman calls for 'level playing field'
15/09/2020 ‘Weak’ social care providers are avoiding public accountability, the local government ombudsman has said. |
Care home providers warned of Covid-19 rise
14/09/2020 Department of Health & Social Care has written to care home providers in England warning them of the risk of a rise in coronavirus cases in the care sector. |
Councils 'deeply concerned' about fall in children's social care referrals
07/09/2020 The number of children being referred to social care services fell by a fifth during lockdown, council leaders have warned. |
Social care spending is £600m lower than in 2010, finds TUC
07/09/2020 Adult social care spending in England is £600m lower per year compared to a decade ago, new research has found. |
Think tank proposes pension-style social care system
01/09/2020 A pension-style model is the most effective way of fixing the social care crisis, a new report from a think tank has argued. |
Countywide unitaries ‘could save £3bn’
27/08/2020 Replacing two-tier counties with one unitary authority could deliver almost £3bn savings over five years, according to research published by the County Councils Network (CCN) today. |
NHS leaders call for urgent action on social care
20/08/2020 Patients could be stranded in hospital and routine operations could be delayed unless the Government addresses the social care crisis, leading health organisations have warned. |
Obesity stigma fuelling ‘severe impact’ on adult social care
20/08/2020 Weight-related stigmas need tackling to help prevent rising levels of obesity having a significant impact on adult social care, local authority leaders say. |
Kent reaches capacity to safely care for migrant children
18/08/2020 Kent County Council has warned it has reached its capacity to safely care for any more unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. |
Employers call for more support to keep unpaid carers in work
11/08/2020 Two-thirds of employers have warned that a lack of support for unpaid carers is impacting their workforce, according to new research. |
Researchers warn about 'lost decade' in adult social care
10/08/2020 Adult social care has reached breaking point after policymakers failed to act on alarms raised back in 2010, researchers have warned today. |
Councils warned about discriminating against autistic children
06/08/2020 More than 40 councils have been criticised for unlawfully discriminating against autistic children. |
Progress on health and social care pledges to be rated under new system
05/08/2020 The Government's progress on health and social care pledges will be evaluated under a new rating system, the Health and Social Care Committee has announced. |
Extra £50m funding for Scottish social care
04/08/2020 Social care in Scotland will be given a £50m funding boost to help meet the cost of the coronavirus crisis. |
Adult social care in Wales gets extra funding boost
03/08/2020 Adult social care providers in Wales will receive an extra £22.7m in funding to help cover the cost of the coronavirus crisis. |
Adult specialist care 'robust' in face of pandemic
31/07/2020 Adult specialist care has ‘stood up well’ to the challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic, a report has found today. |
Counties warn oversight of social care must remain with councils
30/07/2020 County councils have warned against a ‘knee-jerk’ centralisation of the social care system in the aftermath of the coronavirus crisis. |
Care technology can no longer be a managed leap of faith
30/07/2020 Robert Turnbull explains how Hampshire CC is using cobots to improve adult social care during the pandemic. |
Thousands of people 'wiped out' by care bills, charity warns
24/07/2020 Fourteen people a day are being wiped out financially by care bills, new research has revealed today. |
Third of social workers looking to quit profession, survey reveals
10/07/2020 A third of social workers are are thinking of leaving the profession putting the system at risk of collapse, new research has warned. |
New support for 'unseen' vulnerable children
09/07/2020 A new service to help vulnerable children and young people who don't meet usual social care thresholds has been launched by a coalition of charities. |
Government 'failed to prepare' on PPE, say MPs
08/07/2020 The Government has failed to ensure there is enough personal protective equipment (PPE) in the event of a second wave of coronavirus, a watchdog has warned today. |
Care chiefs reject Boris' COVID claims
07/07/2020 Care chiefs have rejected claims by Boris Johnson that it was their lack of vigilance that led to a high number of coronavirus deaths in care homes. |
Care homes were an ‘afterthought’ during pandemic, watchdog warns
12/06/2020 A new report has warned that around 25,000 people were discharged from hospital into a care home without being tested for coronavirus at the height of the pandemic. |
Older carers ‘forgotten’ by care system says charity
12/06/2020 Older carers have been ‘forgotten’ by authorities despite them bearing the brunt of the pandemic, a charity has warned today. |
This issue of Public Property examines how how flexible workspaces can lead the way in regeneration for local authorities, Why local authority intervention is key to successful urban regeneration schemes and if the Government’s challenge of embracing beauty is an opportunity for communities.
The March issue also takes a closer look at Blackburn with Darwen Council's first digital health hub to help people gain control over health and care services.
