Case studies

Doncaster Council has worked with local NHS organisations and care providers to try to ensure high rates of flu vaccination uptake. There has been a particular focus on care staff in recent years after they were incorporated into the winter flu vaccination campaign. Work has also been completed with other groups including council staff and pregnant women.

Two years ago Leeds suffered an outbreak of measles. There were more than 30 confirmed cases in just three months, prompting an emergency response to contain the spread and get unvaccinated children immunised quickly. Since then, the city has worked hard to drive up vaccination rates more generally – and taking pro-vaccination messages direct to the public has played a key role.

Slough Borough Council has supported a local partnership, involving the fire service and school immunisation team, to run pop-up vaccination clinics.

Despite social care staff being eligible for the flu jab, uptake has remained low. In Wakefield only between 2 per cent and 7 per cent of staff have come forward for their jab in recent years. But that is now changing thanks to work by the council’s public health team and its partners.

The London Borough of Tower Hamlets has sought to be innovative in the way it promotes the benefits of flu and routine vaccinations to children and their families. This has included the use of online videos and storybooks.

A Birmingham-wide campaign, backed by 154 local organisations and with strong city council support, is encouraging friendliness and rekindling community street-by-street, helping to address social isolation and reduce the call on public services.

Consumer habits and retail trends are changing at an unprecedented rate, which poses a lot of challenges for town centres and high streets across the country. Despite these challenges councils across the country are eager to regenerate them and make them thriving community and economic hubs.

A new integrated adult Community Learning Disability (LD) Team has been uniquely co-located with children’s social care and education services in purpose-designed premises to improve outcomes for residents of all ages with disabilities.

Councils are leading the revival of our high streets and town centres. As leaders of place, they are offering a new wave of thinking around what the high street can offer to communities and delivering real local change.

The East Midlands Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) Network group commissioned a project on how to assess the risk of market failure at a regional and sub-regional level. This project was based on the premise that early communication between authorities can enable interventions to prevent market failure, or help manage the impact of any failure. The project was supported by the LGA through the Care and Health Improvement Programme (CHIP).