Councils may cut social care provision due to underfunding, LGA says

Older and vulnerable people could stop receiving vital help to get out of bed, washed and dressed, because the underfunding of social care has become so severe, councils have warned.

Leaders of 370 local authorities in England and Wales fear that some councils are finding it so hard to provide the right level of support they could face a high court legal challenge for breaking the law.

The Local Government Association said care visits could become shorter, carers could face greater strain and more people could be trapped in hospitals, making NHS services even busier as a result. The LGA estimates that there will be a £2.6bn gap by 2020 between the amount of money social care services need and their budgets.

Cllr Izzi Seccombe, the chair of the LGA community wellbeing board, said: “The intentions and the spirit of the [2014] Care Act that aims to help people to live well and independently are in grave danger of falling apart and failing, unless new finding is announced by government for adult social care.”

The act, which came into effect in 2015, was intended to ensure that councils provided help with basic everyday tasks to anyone who was struggling to undertake at least one of them on their own, because of a physical or mental impairment. But the purpose of the legislation is at risk because councils cannot afford to meet demand, the LGA told the Treasury in its submission ahead of the budget in March.

Only 8% of council directors of adult social care said they were confident that they could fulfil their full duties under the act in 2017-18.

Barbara Keeley, the shadow social care minister, said: “It is deeply worrying that councils are now having to spell out the risks that this lack of funding is causing. We should not tolerate the fact that growing levels of basic needs are going unmet, care visits are shorter and there is increased strain on unpaid family carers.”

A government spokesman said: “Local authorities have a duty to implement new rights introduced in the [2014] Care Act and while many are already providing high-quality social care services, we will continue to challenge and support those not currently doing so.

“We have provided councils up to £7.6bn of dedicated funding for social care over the course of this parliament, significant investment to ensure that vulnerable people get affordable and dignified care as our population ages.”

Councils may cut social care provision due to underfunding, LGA says

Four in five UK councils struggle to provide older people"s care – survey

Four in five UK local authorities have insufficient care for older people in their area, with the shortage most acute for some of the most vulnerable in society, research suggests.

The Family and Childcare Trust surveyed councils across the country and found they are struggling to meet needs amid a background of growing demand, budget cuts and recruitment difficulties.

The survey is published on the same day as an undercover investigation by BBC Panorama is to be broadcast, exposing shocking neglect at two Cornwall care homes, including vulnerable people being left unattended and a nurse saying she will use morphine to “shut up” a resident.

The deficit identified by the Family and Childcare Trust means more than 6.4 million people aged 65 and over are living in areas that do not have enough older people’s care to meet demand.

Only one in five councils reported having enough older people’s care in their area to meet demand, the survey found.

Just under half (48%) of the 182 councils (out of 211) that responded said they had sufficient availability of home care and a similar proportion (44%) reported having enough places in extra care homes, which allow people to live independently with 24-hour emergency or on-site support.

Only a third of local authorities said they have enough nursing homes with specialist support for dementia, which is predicted to affect one million people in the UK by 2025.

Claire Harding, head of research at the Family and Childcare Trust, which works closely with the government and local authorities, said: “It is inexcusable that vulnerable people are left unable to find the care that they need.

“We urge government to make sure there is enough care for everyone who needs it. In order to do this, we need robust data on where there are gaps in care, a funding system that truly meets the cost of providing care, and clear information for families.

“Without these steps, families will continue to struggle to find care and to meet the numerous care costs on their shoulders.”

The survey also highlighted large regional variations, with just 7% of outer London councils reporting enough older people’s care to meet demand. The only area where more than half of local authorities reported sufficient care was the north-east, where 57% responded positively.

The findings will add to the sense of crisis surrounding social care, with delayed transfers of care – when patients are medically fit to leave hospital but unable to be safely discharged – at record levels.

Council and NHS leaders, as well as the Care Quality Commission, have called for urgent action, with the chancellor, Philip Hammond, facing pressure to increase social funding in Wednesday’s autumn statement.

Inner London councils pay the highest rates for residential care for older people, at £649 a week per place, compared with the lowest rate of £464 in north-west England, according to the survey. The UK average for a residential place was revealed to be £27,113 a year.

A Department of Health spokeswoman said: “This government is committed to making sure older people throughout the country get affordable and dignified care. That is why we are significantly increasing the amount of money local authorities have access to for social care, by up to £3.5bn by 2020.”

Monday’s Panorama sees reporters go undercover at Clinton House in St Austell, and St Theresa’s, in Callington, near Plymouth, both owned by the Morleigh Group.

Hidden camera footage captured one resident left on a bed pan for 40 minutes and an out-of-date prescription supplement relabelled for use by another resident.

Clinton House is being closed as a result of safety concerns and St Theresa’s is under investigation by authorities along with two other Moreleigh Group homes.

Moreleigh Group said it had already removed the staff involved and reviewed its systems and procedures, prior to receiving information from Panorma. Cornwall council apologised for the failings.

Four in five UK councils struggle to provide older people"s care – survey

Councils failing to monitor most British schools for dangerous air pollution

Councils are failing to monitor most schools in Britain for dangerous air pollution despite government advice, freedom of information requests have revealed.

All Britain’s 433 local councils were asked by the British Lung Foundation (BLF) whether they placed pollution monitors within 10 metres of school grounds. Of the 322 which replied, only 140 said they did.

In urban areas identified by the World Health Organisation as having harmful levels of particulate pollution, nearly half were found to be monitoring only one or two schools. Less than one in three local authorities monitored more than two schools.

Air quality monitoring guidance for the UK is drawn up by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). The government does not insist that schools are monitored and local authorities are left to implement and interpret results and take action where needed.

The survey showed “alarming discrepancies” in council behaviour, said a BLF spokeswoman. Some used very simple diffusion tubes to measure only NO2 gas, but others monitored for different-sized particles called PM10s and 2.5s which are spewed out by traffic and industry, she said.

Equally, some authorities monitored the air close to school playgrounds, but others measured air quality hundreds of metres away.

“The guidance on monitoring that Defra gives local authorities needs to be revised and strengthened. Parents should be able to tell what their children are breathing, especially if they have conditions like asthma,” the spokeswoman said.

Concern about children’s health has grown following new scientific research which has shown lung capacity can be permanently impaired by pollution at very early ages.

A study of 2,400 children at 25 schools across east London found children had 5-10% less lung capacity, with an increased risk of diseases such as asthma and bronchitis.

According to the BLF, nearly 1 million schoolchildren up to 15 years old have been diagnosed with lung conditions.

“Children and teaching staff are not being made fully aware of the health risks posed by air pollution. Local authorities need clear guidance to monitor the air that children breathe as well as more resources and funding to tackle it,” said Russell Hobby, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers.

“Children’s lung health is particularly vulnerable to air pollution, yet they are not being protected by the government’s air quality monitoring guidance. There is a huge discrepancy in the levels of monitoring outside schools across the country, with many schools in the most harmfully polluted places not being monitored,” said Dr Penny Woods, chief executive of British Lung Foundation.

A an LGA spokesman said: “Councils follow guidelines on monitoring air pollution which are laid down by central government. These are to take a risk-based approach – monitoring those locations where members of the public might be regularly exposed.

“As well as schools this could also include residential properties, hospitals and care homes – depending on which area is at greatest risk. Many schools are actually some distance from busy roads and therefore unlikely to have high air pollution levels.”

He added that the “real issue” was for councils to move from monitoring pollution to acting on it, which would take government support.

A report that was commissioned but not published by London city hall under Boris Johnson showed that the number of primary schools in the capital breaching EU pollution levels had fallen from 433 in 2010 to 357 in 2013.

Another report, for the mayor of London, found children at nearly 90 secondary schools in London regularly breathed illegal and dangerous levels of air pollution.

Research by the Campaign for Clean Air found that 1,148 schools in London are within 150 metres of roads carrying 10,000 or more vehicles per day, and a total of 2,270 schools are within 400m of such roads.

“Children across the UK are exposed to illegal levels of air pollution on a daily basis. Air pollution is an invisible problem and parents have a right to know if their children are breathing dirty air, so it should be monitored,” said Andrea Lee, healthy air campaigner at environmental law firm ClientEarth.

Councils failing to monitor most British schools for dangerous air pollution

English care homes dealing with monetary ruin, say councils

Care homes in England are are “teetering on the edge of financial meltdown”, in accordance to county councils, even prior to the government hits them with an estimated £1bn bill for additional wages when the chancellor’s “national living wage” kicks in.

The greatest homes will more and more grow to be a preserve of the wealthy asprivate firms reduce the number of areas funded by local authorities, the councils have warned the overall health secretary, Jeremy Hunt.

Better-off people who do not qualify for regional authority assistance are already paying over the true level of care to assist care houses stability their books, according to a letter from the County Councils Network (CCN) to Hunt noticed by the Guardian.

Connected: Nationwide residing wage threatens United kingdom care sector, George Osborne informed

Local authorities and the businesses that run the properties say people institutions that can’t attract a lot more folks who shell out their very own charges could go out of enterprise.

The letter to Hunt was launched to the Guardian as the greatest suppliers taking council-supported residents – Four Seasons Health Care, Bupa United kingdom, HC-One particular, Care United kingdom, Barchester, and Care England, representing a range of companies – advised that the added affect of the nationwide living wage across the sector could reach yet another £1bn, because a lot more than 60% of the charges of care had been taken up by workers costs.

Beneath the move in the spending budget final month, employees aged over 25 will be paid a minimal of £7.twenty an hour from April following yr, increasing to £9 by 2020.

About 400,000 older people are in care residences in England. But the companies say a crisis in the care sector would put extra costs on the NHS far past those incurred via flu outbreaks or winter pressures on hospitals.

Martin Green, the chief executive of Care England, stated the sector welcomed the national living wage, but added: “It is not sustainable for us to meet the improved value of care when nearby authorities are already paying effectively beneath the true price of care.”

County councils say they are presently £630m short of paying out the accurate value of care this 12 months, and other fiscal pressures indicate they are virtually £1bn brief overall. A additional £1bn in added expenses could hit all nearby authorities by the finish of the decade as the expenses of paying the new nationwide living wage.

They have named on the government to invest the whole £6bn saved by a 4-12 months delay in a social care shakeup from subsequent year to 2020 on “stabilising” the immediate crisis as an alternative.

Citing analysis by monetary analysts LaingBuisson, the CCNis warning Hunt that care properties “are teetering on the edge of economic meltdown and collapse”.

Individuals who spend their very own care house fees are “cross-subsidising” the fees of care as a direct end result of the underfunding of county social care companies at a time of unrelenting demand, the letter says.

The councils also warn that care residences supported by regional authorities would quickly only have accessibility to a “lower high quality segment of the market”.

County authorities say they are dealing with difficulties earlier than individuals in cities since a far increased proportion of their populations are more than 65 – 1-fifth – compared with one particular-seventh in the cities.

David Roe, a consultant for LaingBuisson, advised the Guardian that the financial position was serious even just before far more current concerns in excess of the costs of paying workers the nationwide residing wage.

Polarisation was previously rising, he explained. “The huge danger is that this is going to get a lot worse. Suppliers are going to stay away from putting men and women from local authorities so there will be fewer areas (for this kind of folks) and the areas there will be a lot more high-priced.”

Unison, which represents care employees, stated government cuts had “starved” neighborhood councils and the NHS of income. The union’s general secretary, Dave Prentis, explained: “Ministers should make enough cash offered so that all homecare and care residence suppliers can afford to give their workers the minimum wage enhance next April, with no cutting jobs.

“Losing more care employees could lead to tragic consequences and could include additional stress on an previously overstretched NHS. Some 200,000 care workers really don’t at the moment earn £6.50 an hour – the current minimum wage fee – as they don’t get paid for the time they invest travelling amongst support users. Ministers need to consider urgent action to ensure all care companies comply with the law.”

The charity Leonard Cheshire Disability also warned of declining standards “and in some locations declining safety”.

Its chief executive, Claire Pelham, mentioned:”This is not just a challenge for councils and care companies. It is specially challenging for the a lot more than 70,000 disabled individuals right using their personal care staff on quite tight budgets, who will have to meet the expense of two pay rises for their staff in much less than 6 months.”

Pelham extra: “For numerous disabled folks this will mean they shell out far more for significantly less care – limiting their independence, and in some instances risking their safety.”

The Division of Well being stated the nationwide living wage would advantage hundreds of thousands of care staff. “The general fees of offering social care will be deemed as part of the investing overview later this yr and we are operating with the care sector to realize how the modifications will impact them,” it said.

The £6bn referred to by the councils is funds probably freed up by the government’s decision to defer a cap on lifetime care expenses set at £72,000 for folks above pension age. This was due to be launched up coming April but now will not take result until finally 2020.

A rise in the sum of assets at which individuals would be eligible for state aid with residential care fees, irrespective of the cap, from £23,250 to £118,000, has also been delayed.

The Conservative manifesto prior to the election had promised these would be introduced up coming spring and had been partly made to stop older men and women getting to sell their homes to shell out for care.

English care homes dealing with monetary ruin, say councils

English care homes dealing with monetary ruin, say councils

Care houses in England are are “teetering on the edge of financial meltdown”, in accordance to county councils, even just before the government hits them with an estimated £1bn bill for extra wages when the chancellor’s “national living wage” kicks in.

The ideal homes will increasingly become a protect of the wealthy asprivate companies minimize the amount of areas funded by neighborhood authorities, the councils have warned the well being secretary, Jeremy Hunt.

Better-off men and women who do not qualify for local authority assistance are previously having to pay above the accurate level of care to assist care houses balance their books, according to a letter from the County Councils Network (CCN) to Hunt observed by the Guardian.

Relevant: Nationwide living wage threatens Uk care sector, George Osborne informed

Regional authorities and the companies that run the properties say people institutions that are not able to attract much more people who pay their personal expenses could go out of business.

The letter to Hunt was launched to the Guardian as the biggest suppliers taking council-supported residents – Four Seasons Wellness Care, Bupa United kingdom, HC-One particular, Care Uk, Barchester, and Care England, representing a range of providers – recommended that the added effect of the nationwide residing wage across the sector could reach one more £1bn, considering that more than 60% of the costs of care have been taken up by workers charges.

Under the move in the price range last month, workers aged in excess of 25 will be paid a minimal of £7.twenty an hour from April next 12 months, growing to £9 by 2020.

About 400,000 older individuals are in care houses in England. But the firms say a crisis in the care sector would put further fees on the NHS far past those incurred through flu outbreaks or winter pressures on hospitals.

Martin Green, the chief executive of Care England, mentioned the sector welcomed the nationwide residing wage, but extra: “It is not sustainable for us to meet the increased value of care when nearby authorities are presently paying effectively under the correct expense of care.”

County councils say they are presently £630m quick of paying out the correct cost of care this year, and other fiscal pressures mean they are almost £1bn short general. A additional £1bn in added charges could hit all local authorities by the end of the decade as the charges of paying the new nationwide residing wage.

They have known as on the government to devote the complete £6bn saved by a 4-year delay in a social care shakeup from following 12 months to 2020 on “stabilising” the quick crisis rather.

Citing analysis by monetary analysts LaingBuisson, the CCNis warning Hunt that care houses “are teetering on the edge of financial meltdown and collapse”.

People who pay their personal care house charges are “cross-subsidising” the charges of care as a direct result of the underfunding of county social care services at a time of unrelenting demand, the letter says.

The councils also warn that care homes supported by neighborhood authorities would soon only have access to a “lower quality section of the market”.

County authorities say they are dealing with troubles earlier than those in cities because a far higher proportion of their populations are more than 65 – one-fifth – in contrast with one particular-seventh in the cities.

David Roe, a advisor for LaingBuisson, informed the Guardian that the monetary position was serious even prior to much more recent concerns in excess of the fees of paying out workers the national living wage.

Polarisation was presently growing, he explained. “The large danger is that this is going to get a great deal worse. Providers are going to stay away from putting folks from regional authorities so there will be fewer places (for such men and women) and the places there will be more high-priced.”

Unison, which represents care personnel, mentioned government cuts had “starved” local councils and the NHS of cash. The union’s basic secretary, Dave Prentis, said: “Ministers need to make sufficient money offered so that all homecare and care home suppliers can afford to give their personnel the minimum wage enhance following April, with out cutting jobs.

“Losing a lot more care workers could lead to tragic consequences and could add extra pressure on an presently overstretched NHS. Some 200,000 care employees don’t currently earn £6.50 an hour – the recent minimal wage price – as they do not get paid for the time they spend travelling among services consumers. Ministers must take urgent action to guarantee all care providers comply with the law.”

The charity Leonard Cheshire Disability also warned of declining specifications “and in some areas declining safety”.

Its chief executive, Claire Pelham, stated:”This is not just a challenge for councils and care providers. It is particularly demanding for the much more than 70,000 disabled individuals straight employing their own care staff on very tight budgets, who will have to meet the price of two shell out rises for their staff in significantly less than 6 months.”

Pelham additional: “For several disabled men and women this will imply they spend more for significantly less care – limiting their independence, and in some cases risking their security.”

The Department of Well being stated the national residing wage would benefit hundreds of 1000′s of care workers. “The general expenses of offering social care will be considered as component of the investing evaluation later this yr and we are doing work with the care sector to recognize how the adjustments will impact them,” it said.

The £6bn referred to by the councils is cash probably freed up by the government’s determination to defer a cap on lifetime care fees set at £72,000 for individuals above pension age. This was due to be introduced next April but now will not take impact till 2020.

A rise in the sum of assets at which folks would be eligible for state assist with residential care costs, irrespective of the cap, from £23,250 to £118,000, has also been delayed.

The Conservative manifesto prior to the election had promised these would be launched subsequent spring and had been partly made to prevent older people getting to promote their homes to pay out for care.

English care homes dealing with monetary ruin, say councils

Councils and NHS companies should function collectively to share dangers and savings

Public health, social care and neighborhood government solutions must prioritise reductions in emergency admissions, says Richard Vize. Photograph: Getty Photos

The most significant ever push to integrate wellness and social care is in critical problems. What has gone wrong with the Better Care Fund and can it be fixed?

The issues stems from the reality that half of the basic £3.8bn fund, meant to support integration tasks in 2015-16, has been stripped out of budgets for acute health services. The hospital lobby argued that this risked pushing companies additional into monetary difficulty. The government has responded with a clawback mechanism which will keep £1bn of it largely in the NHS and make it dependent on achieving locally agreed reductions in hospital admissions.

In response, David Sparks, in his very first speech as the new Labour leader of the Neighborhood Government Association (LGA), advised its yearly conference on Tuesday: “We are seeing Whitehall striving to strangle [the fund] at birth.”

The increasingly bitter tone of the dispute displays the substantial fiscal stress facing each the NHS and nearby government. It is akin to drowning sailors fighting in excess of a lifebelt. But it is also a clash of cultures and perspectives.

Neighborhood government resents that, even though it has been coping with a loss in government grant of nearly 30% with the bare minimal of shroud-waving, hospitals have gone bleating to ministers the 1st time they have to deal with something approaching a lower. Councils are baffled by the way growing numbers of trusts are operating deficit budgets instead of obtaining sustainable solutions. They bristle at social providers getting handled as an extension of the hospital discharge technique. They can’t realize why trusts are so inward hunting alternatively of seeing the larger picture.

Trusts are annoyed that the mirage of ring-fenced and even growing funding is obscuring deep cuts in acute services’ revenue. They have tiny faith in schemes that guarantee to throw many years of development in A&ampE admissions into fast reverse in a matter of weeks. Some companies have observed their nearby council turn into a rallying stage for opposition to badly necessary reconfiguration ideas, paralysing change in nearby well being economies that desperately need to have reform. Unlike social care, the NHS cannot control demand by raising eligibility criteria – it largely has to treat what comes through the door.

The true function has not even began. Relationships across the method need to be received back on track before the fund goes dwell next April. The option is to permit the inevitable difficulties and setbacks to trigger recriminations and division.

There requirements to be agreement on what integrated care implies, and it has to be broader than just decreasing emergency admissions and speeding up discharge from hospital. It needs to be developed about empowering the patient and giving them a coordinated service. Excessive claims about cutting admissions require to be replaced with realism. In numerous locations, just stopping growth would be a triumph.

Simplistic assumptions about substituting low-cost social care for expensive medical care must be replaced by an understanding that the two are largely complementary.

Public overall health, social care and the entire variety of nearby government services need to prioritise reductions in emergency admissions, particularly through reducing obesity and alcohol abuse and escalating physical exercise.

Crucially, the two NHS trust regulators, Keep track of and the NHS Believe in Improvement Authority, need to cease judging providers largely in isolation from each other and the wider care method. Driving NHS leaders to think in terms of institutions rather than programs is obstructing integration and encouraging fragmentation.

A lot more demands to be carried out to share risks and cost savings among health and nearby government. Nearby organisations need to have greatest freedom to agree their personal solutions to this. The offer by NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens, speaking at the LGA conference, to create pooled personal budgets for four groups – people with extended-phrase conditions, kids with complex needs, folks with understanding disabilities and these with serious and enduring psychological health issues – is a promising move. It will inspire integration strategies to focus on the support consumer rather than institutions and promotes technique thinking.

Above all, councils and neighborhood NHS companies require to unite close to shared objectives that tackle the most hard issues confronting them. There merely isn’t the money to do anything else.

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Councils and NHS companies should function collectively to share dangers and savings

How councils can perform a crucial position in tackling UK"s growing diabetes crisis

If folks at risk of acquiring variety two diabetes can be encouraged to eat more healthily then they stand a good possibility of preventing it. Photograph: Murdo Macleod

The number of folks with diabetes has risen dramatically above the previous decade and a staggering three.2m people in the Uk now have the situation. If this rise continues then the amount of individuals with diabetes could reach 5m by 2025.

This has worrying implications for the two the nation’s wellness and its finances. At least £10bn was spent right on diabetes in excess of 2010-11 – a figure that is very likely to rise a excellent deal over coming decades.

How councils can assist fight increasing ranges of diabetes
Regional government wants to be at the forefront of diabetes treatment method and prevention if there is any possibility of managing this crisis.

The excellent news is that these rises are not inevitable. Type-two diabetes accounts for 90% of instances. By focusing on preventing it, we might be ready to end the issue in its tracks.

I was concerned with a report on the NHS Well being Check – a programme that checks absolutely everyone in England aged 40 to 74 for danger of kind-two diabetes. This scheme has huge potential since about 80% of instances of this sort of diabetes can be delayed or prevented however life-style modifications.

eing overweight is the largest danger issue. If people people recognized as getting at higher risk of sort-two diabetes can be alerted to their threat and encouraged to eat more healthily then they stand a great likelihood of delaying or avoiding diabetes.

Councils such as Leicester, Blackpool and Stockport have completed a great work of rolling out the NHS Health Check programme and there have also been some other fantastic innovations. In Wandsworth, for example, the public overall health team has commissioned pharmacies to supply the programme, making it more available for communities.

But overall the picture is less rosy. Just half the individuals in England who are supposed to be getting the Well being Verify are obtaining it. It really is essential that these identified as being at higher threat are consistently presented powerful interventions to make life style changes.

There are other methods to tackle this
Public wellness need to be at the forefront of the organizing process because having towns and cities in which it is effortless to stroll or cycle and lots of parks and open spaces can make a real variation to people’s activity levels, assisting reduce obesity.

There may possibly also be spot-specific action councils can consider – promoting neighborhood markets or contemplating the overall health implications of licensing schemes, for illustration.

Nearby authorities are often one of the biggest employers in their region so can make a huge distinction by promoting a healthy workforce. Ultimately, the causes for substantial weight problems rates are challenging and touch on various factors of our lives. So councils’ broad selection of responsibilities mean they have an crucial position in addressing variety-two diabetes, regardless of whether by way of the NHS Overall health Check out or obesity prevention.

Barbara Youthful is chief executive of Diabetes Uk.

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How councils can perform a crucial position in tackling UK"s growing diabetes crisis

Happiness is good for your well being, so what are councils undertaking about it?

The New Economics Basis has recognized 5 ‘ways to wellbeing’: connect, be active, take observe, hold learning and give. Photograph: Priscilla Gragg/Mix Images

Public well being has been in the hands of local government for a minor over a year now, spawning some exciting projects if couple of instant results. From a ban on super-power ciders in Ipswich to totally free accessibility to sport in Islington, it’s been a rare possibility for councils to exert some personality in excess of their choices.

So far most public health function has targeted on clear locations of need: cease smoking campaigns, sexual well being guidance for youthful individuals, new ways to tackle developing charges of obesity and stem the rise in diabetes diagnoses. It truly is all important, and should carry on, but although budgets are tight there is even now one thing missing.

The marketing and advertising bumf that local authorities generate on public well being talk not only about wellness problems with measurable costs of good results – a stem in the increasing tide of type two diabetes diagnoses, for example – but the broader situation of general wellbeing. But is anything at all truly being completed about it?

To answer that query we need to have to realize what wellbeing is. The New Economics Foundation has carried out analysis seeking at how wellbeing impacts men and women, communities and businesses and its influence on economic performance. It identifies five “approaches to wellbeing”: connect, be energetic, consider observe, keep understanding and give.

These concepts assist people comprehend the straightforward steps they can take to improve their lives, but they also have critical roles to perform in wellbeing at operate or in colleges. Offered that councils now say they are accountable for bettering neighborhood wellbeing, it truly is also fascinating to apply them straight to the public overall health agenda.

Two of the 5 are previously accounted for. Trying to keep communities energetic is the mainstay of public well being agendas with most councils locating new techniques to get the nation’s potatoes off their proverbial and literal couches and out into the community, regardless of whether through cost-free entry to gyms and sports activities centres or new local community exercise groups.

It truly is not just the public overall health crew that help us to connect with one yet another organizing departments style open public area to inspire interaction, library services deliver us collectively, schemes aimed at certain groups (older men and women, youthful mothers) support us make new ties with like-minded nearby folks. Where more can be accomplished is in cementing people relationships and actively stopping isolation.

Jonathan Carr-West makes an exciting point when he suggests it will become the task of councils to aid us make close friends. Library bookgroups and other particular interest gatherings start doing this work – why not launch an equivalent of singles nights where nearby individuals, especially individuals new to an location, can meet every other and build links?

That still leaves 3 concerns unaddressed, but they are all interlinked. Lifelong finding out is also usually sidelined as part of additional schooling policy, but it is critical for all residents to have accessibility to new approaches to learn and develop. 1 way people can understand new skills (and meet new individuals, for that matter) is by volunteering, receiving concerned in neighborhood brings about – and that also affords a room to reflect and believe about ourselves and other people, to “consider discover” of what goes on close to us and within our communities.

All these factors could be achieved by generating simple projects which, by no coincidence, support councils to tackle the funding crisis in crucial public solutions this kind of as social care. Here’s an example: let’s inspire residents to give an hour of their time a week to consider component in a skills-sharing group activity which limits isolation for older folks. You could even give participants a council tax discount for taking part. This, not just avoiding teenage pregnancy, is the task of public health.

For individuals who feel all this is new age bunkum, investigation suggests that wellbeing has as much of an influence on our general health than earnings. Large amounts of private wellbeing can add seven and a half many years to your lifestyle expectancy. Bad wellbeing, meanwhile, can result in several of the problems that public health is attempting to conquer such as alcohol and drug abuse. It needn’t value considerably, but thinking creatively about how to access folks and aid them accomplish the “five ways” is firmly within the remit of public health.

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Happiness is good for your well being, so what are councils undertaking about it?

Council matchmaking: should councils aid us make friends?

Relationships are very good for us in a lot of techniques. Some of them blindingly apparent, others less so. Photograph: PhotosIndia.com LLC te /Alamy

Should government care about our relationships? Traditionally this question has been framed in terms of social conservatism and liberalism, an argument about whether or not the state need to privilege specific forms of relationships, notably marriage and the nuclear loved ones, over other people.

Increasingly we are seeing that rather of this social and moral argument there are great factors why government (and neighborhood government in certain) need to be concerned about the variety and top quality, although not, in truth, the kind of our relationships.

That’s since relationships are good for us in many techniques – some of them blindingly obvious, other folks much less so. Whilst it could be clear to us how intimate relationships, household and friends contribute to (or occasionally detract from) our nicely becoming, research more than the past decade has proven how relationships and social networks also support a selection of public items.

The American social scientists Christakis and Fowler have proven how both positive phenomena such as happiness and offering up smoking, and adverse ones such as weight problems, are transmitted through social networks. Investigation by the University of Brighton and others has proven that amounts of social interaction are 1 of the biggest determinants of wellbeing in previous age, far more critical even than physical health, and a vital portion of assisting men and women to dwell independently for longer.

Communities with substantial amounts of social capital, that is large levels of social connection, have greater outcomes in relation to wellness, educational attainment and social cohesion than communities in which social ties are weaker.

The nature of these relationships is not important: what counts is their variety and their strength.

This matters because we want a wholesale preventative shift if we are to handle the extended term crisis of demand and resource in public solutions. This is particularly accurate for neighborhood government which is responsible for those policy regions: care of the elderly, public well being, developing regional economies, in which innovation is most required.

Put crudely, if the last twenty years has been about regional government moving from delivering solutions to commissioning them, the up coming 20 many years will be about moving from commissioning companies to working with communities so that fewer providers are essential.

But even though public bodies are happy to advise us about consuming our five a day, cutting out the cigarettes and booze and investing in our pensions, they do not see it as their place to counsel us to commit a lot more time with our close friends, invest in our social networks and nurture our families.

But, arguably, these items, much more than any other people, will contribute most to our wellbeing (and reduce our need for pricey state assistance) above the lengthy term. So probably nearby councils ought to feel as much about relationships as about companies.

Of program, there are also useful factors that neighborhood authorities can do to construct sociability into communities, by way of planning, housing and the management of public space, and through versatile occupation creation and financial growth techniques. They can shift to the sort of personalised care that makes it possible for social speak to to be commissioned as an outcome, and they can look for to greater understand the networks of informal care and help that already exist in every single neighborhood and “piggyback” public providers on these.

But all of this requires a distinct way of considering about what a local authority is and what it is for. This contemplating is still in its infancy, but it’s getting to be more and more urgent.

Jonathan Carr-West is the chief executive of the Local Government Information Unit.

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Council matchmaking: should councils aid us make friends?

What can councils do to combat loneliness? – live debate

Jeremy Hunt, the wellness secretary, has stated it is a supply of ‘national shame’ that as many as 800,000 men and women are ‘chronically lonely’. Photograph: Alamy

Loneliness is twice as negative for health as obesity, according to research published by the University of Chicago.

Its findings showed that severe loneliness in older people increases the likelihood of early death by 14%. This contrasts with investigation displaying that weight problems increases mortality chance by 7%. Jack Neill-Hall, campaign manager for the Campaign to End Loneliness, stated lonely folks are far more very likely to smoke, drink to extra and have a poor diet plan, and are much less likely to physical exercise. So, what function can councils perform in creating positive men and women will not feel isolated?

Neill-Hall stated nearby authorities had been increasingly recognising the require to invest in companies that aid to keep folks linked to their communities and build friendships. Even so, a lot more essential to be carried out, he added, and much more than half of all overall health and wellbeing boards had not recognised loneliness in their published strategies.

Jeremy Hunt, the wellness secretary, mentioned it was a supply of “national shame” that as several as 800,000 men and women in England are “chronically lonely”. Join us four April 12 noon-2pm to discuss the role of councils in combating some of the stresses associated with men and women feeling disconnected from their communities. We will tackle the following queries:

• Is loneliness deemed a priority for neighborhood authorities at the second – and ought to it be?
• What position ought to councils consider in tackling isolation?
• How can councils function with charities and local health authorities to combat this problem?
• Can new technologies assist?
• What perform is under way in this location?

Jack Neill-Hall is a campaign manager for the Campaign to Finish Loneliness.

Dominic Harrison is director of public health at Blackburn with Darwen borough council.

Christina Victor is professor of public overall health and associate deputy of investigation at Brunel unviersity’s college of health research.

Lizzie Greenhalgh is policy researcher at the Nearby Government Information Unit.

Gregor Henderson is director of psychological well being and wellbeing at Public Overall health England.

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What can councils do to combat loneliness? – live debate

Chewing the fat: what can councils do about the obesity epidemic?

What can councils do to get men and women lively and reduced ranges of obesity? Photograph: Matt Cardy/Getty Images

You can’t argue with the facts. Virtually two thirds of grownups are now obese or obese and we know that lack of exercising can contribute to early death – the statistics bear that out.

From a purely political stage a see, a healthful and actively engaged population concerned in council projects and programmes sounds like a type of utopia, the rewards of which councillors would reap in abundance.

Councils had been told just final week that if they tackled a United kingdom-broad “inactivity pandemic” they could support conserve the economic system a staggering £1.2bn. Attaining this, in accordance to a latest research, would require cutting inactivity ranges by just one% a 12 months for five years.

But how hard is this to attain? Most councils presently run referral physical exercise schemes free of charge of charge, but these depend on the NHS to determine participants and targets support on the most obese or vulnerable. They are centered on people, not total populations.

Number crunching demonstrates that some cities and regions face a greater challenge: in Copeland, Cumbria, 3 quarters of individuals are obese. In Doncaster, the 2nd biggest town, 74% of folks are an unhealthy size. These figures are troubling, not least since the enterprise of public wellness has been out of council hands for 4 decades now they have the difficult process of choosing up the pieces. Little schemes for hand-picked men and women at particular chance are not going to remedy the dilemma rapidly adequate.

In the US, the mayor of Oklahoma virtually showed the way. Overweight himself, he committed to shedding the extra flab and asked his fellow citizens to come on that journey with him. By opening himself up, generating himself vulnerable, he aided the folks of Oklahoma to connect with him. They shared his ambitions for themselves, and for the wellness of their city. And it worked: collectively they misplaced a million lbs.

Uk initiatives have been relatively significantly less ambitious so far. Stoke-on-Trent is preparing to devote £10,000 sending a series of text messages to 500 folks who indicator up to a digital bodyweight-reduction programme which will final ten weeks. The missives will remind subscribers to consume a lot more fruit and greens and send them motivational mantras to preserve their willpower up. But the council has presently faced criticism for the expense, which does seem substantial given that digital engagement is developed to save authorities sparse money.

Exactly where attempts have been much more regarded as, the benefits are surprising. Wigan is really one particular of the better performing council places when it comes to the fat index 65% of adults are obese, but 5 many years ago the borough was considered 1 of the fattest areas in the country. It truly is “lose fat come to feel wonderful” programme brought with each other a amount of services in 1 place, tailored its help to various groups of men and women dependent on their circumstances, and delivered it all in local local community halls and at lower or no value. It even made a support referred to as “trim down, shape up” especially for guys reluctant to identify themselves with some thing a lot more akin to a Fat Watchers session.

As the two the Oklahoma and Wigan examples have shown, albeit in diverse approaches, if you request local individuals to adjust their behaviour you have to adjust your very own behaviour. Developing overall health and wellbeing services that are isolated from the rest of the council’s work – which authorities have always naturally carried out – won’t make a variation. If absolutely everyone within the town hall plays their function in turning out to be one% a lot more lively, you can greater anticipate citizens to stage up and play their very own component.

Local government occasionally requires a shove to get it moving in the correct course. Public wellness budgets have been roughly allotted final yr primarily based on require (and disputes understandably followed). Let’s see potential allocations based, at least in portion, on achievement: not on achievement – cultural elements indicate London will often measure up slimmer than other cities – but on real change, to waistlines, to routines and to lifestyles. If fat fighting policies function, large sums of money will be saved elsewhere from the public purse. What greater incentive for councils to see it diverted back to them?

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Chewing the fat: what can councils do about the obesity epidemic?

Motivate people to exercise, councils are told, and save the economic system £1.2bn

Is there an inactivity pandemic?

Regional authorities have been urged to decrease physical inactivity by 1% a yr for 5 years – a move that could conserve the Uk economic system £1.2bn.

This comes soon after a new review showed hundreds of thousands of men and women are not working out routinely. A not-for-revenue health organisation looked at neighborhood authority data across England, obtaining that in boroughs exactly where individuals are not doing exercises routinely there is a increased degree of early death.

Poor boroughs bear the brunt of government cuts

Investigation shows that the poorest regions are bearing the brunt of regional government cuts as richer areas get much more income.

Poor boroughs in Liverpool, Middlesbrough, Manchester and London will lose 10 instances more from the government than a lot more affluent locations.

Councils in the most deprived locations encounter 25.3% cutbacks on average from the time period 2010-eleven to 2015-sixteen this can be in contrast to two.54% cuts in the least deprived regions. Labour mentioned data demonstrates that the government was hitting the poorest hardest.

The shadow local government secretary, Hilary Benn, said: “These figures are shocking. They present the direct influence of David Cameron and Eric Pickles’s unfair policies.”

Council of Europe says Uk benefit degree is ‘inadequate’

The Council of Europe in Strasbourg has mentioned the advantages paid in pensions, jobseeker’s allowance and incapacity benefit falls under 40% of the median cash flow of European states and is “manifestly inadquate”.

Ian Duncan Smith dismissed this as “lunacy” and stated the findings, in an annual evaluation of the UK’s adherence to the council’s European social charter, are just to be “taken into account” by British courts when assessing claims.

Report exhibits that councils could save £125m from welfare administration fees

A report by the Audit Commission shows that councils could minimize the quantity they invested on welfare payments by as significantly as £125m.

They found that regional authorities spent £827m administering the benefits on behalf of the Department for Operate and Pensions (DWP) in 2012-13. DWP gave £466m in direction of this price and councils were anticipated to fund £361m themselves.

Jeremy Newman explained: “Soon after taking into account the size of their caseload, the Audit Commission found there was a fantastic deal of variation in the amount councils spent. Greater-investing councils might be capable to carry their costs down.”

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Motivate people to exercise, councils are told, and save the economic system £1.2bn