Social prescribing offers an opportunity to raise the profile of physical activity in the community and across service sectors, enable more people to access local activities, and for physical activity to be built into health planning. Covid-19 has underlined the importance of this for mental and physical health.
The need to promote the wellbeing of children and young people during the pandemic and tacking mental health problems has grown during the Covid-19 pandemic. This briefing looks at recent reports on the issue.
Background In June 2018, Scottish Government and Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) re-launched the National Performance Framework (NPF) which supports a set of National Outcomes against which performance is reported. While a focus on these outcomes is at the core of the Government’s approach in ‘normal times’, it’s safe to say that the times…
The King’s Fund published a paper late last year entitled “The digital revolution: eight technologies that will change health and care”. This briefing outlines the King’s Fund’s findings and explores the potential challenges and risks to local authorities and other NHS bodies.
In February 2020 Professor Marmot described how health inequalities in England have increased over the last ten years. His December follow-up report details how Covid-19 and the response to it have had the greatest impact on people already experiencing health inequalities, and how this will widen the gap even more.
This briefing updates information provided in 2020 briefings (see related briefings) on the main sources of statistics on the Covid epidemic. The focus is on data available on a UK-wide basis, but as before, more localised data sources are signposted.
Background Public health responses to the pandemic have focused on preventing the spread of the virus, limiting the number of deaths and easing the burden on healthcare systems; the restrictions on daily lives and social contact have had widespread effects, particularly on peoples mental illness. Recent studies have found that people’s mental health worsened following…
The HSCSC published its report on the social care system later last year. It paints a bleak picture of a system on the brink of failure and details the effects on service users, carers, providers, commissioners and the wider funding environment. Will we see desperately needed reform this year?
This briefing examines the Troubled Families Programme (TFP), its impact, recent commentary and the future prospects for the programme. The TFP only ran in England, overseen by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and run locally by top-tier local authorities through a multi-agency approach. Troubled Families Programme 2012 to 2015 The first…
The health, public health and social care round-up summarises new policy, research and publications relevant to elected members and officers.
