Tag: Health and social care

Community centres have long stood as pillars of local life, but we are losing these spaces at pace and at scale. Summer Simpson explores why this matters.

7th May, 2025

Community assets • Community engagement • Community Power • Health and social care

Cllr Beverley Egan is a councillor for Thundersley in south-east Essex. In 2023, she was appointed to chair of Essex Council’s Caring Communities Commission, an ambitious two-year look at the future of health and social care, led by independent...

5th February, 2025

Community Power • Health and social care • Public Services

The complexities of transforming health services are vast with many different priorities and variables to consider. Place-based systems leadership can unlock barriers and open doors within services to help deliver change. One of the key factors in ensuring all...

11th November, 2024

Community Power • Health and social care • Integrated Health Systems

Using outcomes-focused relational working to reduce demand on statutory services can be difficult, but it has the potential to help local authorities effectively deliver preventative interventions.

5th November, 2024

Childrens' Services • Health and social care • Prevention • Public Services

New Local worked with partners in Yorkshire and Cumbria to develop a learning programme that puts communities at the heart of health and care.

5th November, 2024

Community Power • Health and social care

This practice review shares inspiring community-powered approaches to health and care, alongside the learning we can draw from them and practical actions to implement this learning.

25th June, 2024

Health and social care • The NHS

Adam Lent tackles some of the most common questions about community power in the public sector, from its benefits, to real-life examples, to its why its time has come in today's 'permacrisis'.

8th April, 2024

Community Power • Health and social care • Local government • Politics • Public Services

Mari Roberts-Wood, Managing Director at Reigate and Banstead Council tells us about what makes the council unique and what you can expect to find along Banstead’s majestic Narnia Trail (complete with a lion, a witch and a wardrobe).

27th March, 2024

Community engagement • Community Power • Health and social care • Local government

Jo Fitzpatrick and Jim Leyland explain how Wakefield Council had a Big Conversation with residents, training 100 ‘conversationalists’ to have over 1,300 face-to-face conversations with people across the district to find out what they like about their area and...

4th March, 2024

Community engagement • Community Power • Health and social care • Local government • Public Services

A former secretary of state is calling for Total Place style pooled budgets as the best use of public spending when there is no financial quick fix for public services. Place-based budgets would allow services and communities to allocate...

31st January, 2024

Community engagement • Devolution and reorganisation • Health and social care • Local government • Local government finance • Place-based budgets • Public Services

This report sets out a new approach to public service investment and reform in England. By identifying all public money spent within a local area, and enabling it to be used more flexibly, spending could be more closely aligned...

31st January, 2024

Budgeting • Central government • Community Power • Health and social care • Local government • Local government finance • Place-based budgets • Public Services

Dr Gillian Orrow is a GP and co-founder of Growing Health Together, an East Surrey initiative which helps Primary Care Networks collaborate with community members and local organisations to improve health and prevent disease. She reflects on three years...

16th January, 2024

Community Power • GPs • Health and social care • Healthcare

Our board member, Samira Ben Omar, has dedicated her career to addressing inequalities in health and other spheres. She talks about why the NHS needs to relate differently to communities, her groundbreaking work with health champions and what brought...

9th January, 2024

Community Power • Health and social care • Strategy and leadership

Adam Lent takes a look back at the ups and downs of 2023, shares his hopes for the year to come (and channels Marilyn Monroe).

19th December, 2023

Community Power • Health and social care • Local government • Public Services

The unrelenting demand crisis facing our public services demands radical innovation. This is what a Sussex NHS physio practice achieved with resounding success through a Community Appointment Day. We hear from the people who turned a bold vision into...

14th December, 2023

Community Power • Health and social care • Stronger Things

North Central London Integrated Care Board (ICB) recognised that some communities face barriers to accessing health and care services which plays a significant factor in widening health inequalities. They wanted to listen to those communities, understand their barriers and...

14th December, 2023

Community engagement • Community Power • Health and social care • Local government • Strategy and leadership

Five brilliant examples of what communities can achieve when money and decision-making power are in their hands.

11th December, 2023

Community engagement • Community Power • Health and social care • Local government

We explore the positive health and wellbeing impact of the Big Local programme - a hyperlocal community-led initiative.

11th December, 2023

Community Power • Health and social care • Healthcare

How can communities prevent illness and create their own good health? Could investment at the grassroots help ease the burden on the NHS?

10th December, 2023

Community Power • Health and social care

A vibrant community set around an ancient village on the edge of Darlington, Haughton and Springfield has its challenges. But a wealth of local pride and a strong voluntary network knits people together, say Darlington Borough Council’s Chris McEwan...

6th December, 2023

Community engagement • Health and social care • Local government

Helen Chicot from Rochdale Council introduces a three-year project which has used Good Help principles to tackle the council’s most pressing challenges, transforming the way the way it works and its relationships with residents.

24th November, 2023

Community engagement • Community Power • Health and social care • Local government • Public Services

Mila Lukic from Bridges Outcomes Partnerships spells out the problem with centralisation and why we need to think about service design and delivery in a very different way.

16th November, 2023

Community engagement • Community Power • Health and social care • Local government • Public Services

How can we tackle the growing crisis in the NHS? TPXimpact’s Iain O’Neil says shifting towards community-led approaches can protect the NHS’s future and improve health for all.

15th November, 2023

Community Power • Health and social care • Stronger Things • The NHS

We worked with Stockport Council and its partners to inform future neighbourhood working arrangements, particularly in relation to local area working among communities, health and social care teams.

20th October, 2023

Community engagement • Community Power • Health and social care • Local government • Strategy and leadership

We worked with Stockport Council, Healthwatch Stockport and the People and Community Voice Sub-Group in Greater Manchester to shape proposals for how people and communities can be put at the core of the new ICS model and Locality Board...

12th September, 2023

Community engagement • Community Power • Health and social care • Integrated Health Systems • Local government • Strategy and leadership

Is it possible to significantly reduce health and social care waiting lists overnight? It may seem like a policymaker’s – or patient’s – pipedream. But a new innovation from physios in Sussex suggests it is.

30th August, 2023

Health and social care • Healthcare • Strengths-based approach • The NHS

What can health professionals, councils, charities and communities do when they come together to work on reducing health inequalities? At Stronger Things, changemakers behind some of the most innovative practice come together to talk practical responses to one of...

5th July, 2023

Health and social care • Healthcare • Stronger Things • The NHS • Video

Building a community-powered NHS is urgently needed to overcome the current and future challenges facing the system. On the 75th anniversary of our much-loved health service, Laura Charlesworth delves into an innovative model of healthcare that puts community connection...

5th July, 2023

Commissioning and Procurement • Community Power • Health and social care • Public Health • The NHS

What does it take to bridge health inequalities that have been widening across the UK? We speak to the woman tasked with this formidable task, Prof Bola Owolabi.

4th July, 2023

Health and social care • Healthcare • Inequality • Integrated Health Systems • The NHS

Big Local is a Lottery funded programme that committed £1m each to 150 neighbourhoods across England. These communities were given 10-15 years to spend the funding, at their own pace and according to their own plans and priorities. The...

29th June, 2023

Community engagement • Health and social care • Wellbeing

The Islington Inequality Taskforce was established to develop recommendations for how Islington Council could address inequality and poverty, taking account of residents’ hopes and aspirations.

16th June, 2023

Community engagement • Community Power • Health and social care • Inequality • Local government • Strategy and leadership

Hear why we think Stronger Things might just be the most valuable eight hours of your year.

21st April, 2023

Central government • Community Power • Health and social care • Local government • Public Services • Stronger Things

In recent years we’ve seen a continued and increasing link between health and economic outcomes, brought into sharp focus by COVID-19. Imran Hashmi and Laura Charlesworth examine what this means for the UK labour market and for levelling up.

14th March, 2023

Covid-19 • Disabilities • Economy and business • Employment • Health and social care • Inequality • Mental health • Public Health

We are working with What Works Centre for Wellbeing, the National Lottery Community Fund and People’s Health Trust to explore the impact of agency and control on community wellbeing.

2nd March, 2023

Community Power • Health and social care • Wellbeing

We are looking for examples of community centred approaches to health across the UK.

7th February, 2023

Community Voices • Health and social care

Drawing on recent work in Edmonton, North London, Nicola Steuer charts an impactful and cost-effective route for Integrated Care Systems to tackle health inequalities.

17th January, 2023

Community engagement • Community Power • Community Voices • Health and social care • Participation and co-production

Shane Devlin shares the learnings from Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire health and care system in their new community engagement approach.

15th December, 2022

Community engagement • Health and social care

Laura Charlesworth unpacks what the Autumn Statement means for a health and care system in crisis.

18th November, 2022

Budgeting • Central government • Health and social care

Practice needs to shift in the council itself, in the local system and in working with communities to develop a community-focused approach to addressing health inequalities.

18th October, 2022

Health and social care

Building a community-powered NHS that is capable of supporting good health in neighbourhoods and reducing demand pressures on hospitals has never been more needed. But it goes against all the instincts of our top-down system of managing healthcare, writes...

4th October, 2022

Community Power • Community Voices • Health and social care

We know the diagnosis: the NHS is at risk from ever-increasing demand. We need a new approach to healthcare that makes prevention a reality – by putting communities first.

4th October, 2022

Community engagement • Community Power • Explainer • Health and social care • Video

In response to the Chancellor’s Growth Plan, we set out some of the key announcements that could impact councils up and down the country.

23rd September, 2022

Budgeting • Central government • Economy and business • Health and social care • Levelling Up • Local government

Jessica Studdert on a new way of treating healthcare: one that puts communities – and therefore prevention – first.

12th July, 2022

Community engagement • Community Paradigm • Community Power • Health and social care

The NHS could cease to be fair and free at point of use, unless it shifts focus to building health in the community, new research has found.

12th July, 2022

Community Power • Health and social care

As the NHS faces ever-rising demand, its founding principles are under threat. But there is a solution: a radical shift towards a healthcare system focused as much on preventing illness as treating it. Working collaboratively with communities in the design...

12th July, 2022

Community Power • Health and social care • Public Health • Research Reports

Meet the UK's first Community Heath Workers, local people attached to a GP's surgery who check-in on the health of the neighbours. And who are already showing a different possible future for primary care.

25th April, 2022

Health and social care • Public Health

The NHS is embarking on the biggest reforms of a generation - creating an integrated system that should usher in joined-up care and improved outcomes for patients. As new guidance on local partnerships is published, Prof Donna Hall diagnoses...

12th April, 2022

Health and social care

Structural reform can only go so far. Claire Kennedy looks at why effective population health management means accepting that we don’t know exactly what that means – and working together to create better outcomes.

11th April, 2022

Health and social care • Leadership • Public Health • Public Services

5 lessons from 15 years of supporting better outcomes by developing effective place-based partnerships.

25th March, 2022

Health and social care • Participation and co-production • Place building • Public Services • Stronger Things

The government’s new health white paper sets out steps towards what ‘joined-up care’ will really mean, finally recognising the centrality of place. Claire Kennedy finds much to celebrate, as well as big questions to be answered.

16th February, 2022

Governance • Health and social care • Public Health