1⃣ The future financial sustainability of councils is on a cliff-edge. Without Government action, they will have no choice but to significantly cut the local services our communities – and economy – rely on. 🧵#SaveLocalServices 2⃣ Over the past decade, councils have already done more than their fair share of the heavy lifting when it comes to putting public finances on a more sustainable footing, with a £15 billion real terms reduction, almost 60p in every £1, to core government funding between 2010-20.

Yesterday, @Food_Foundation published new data on their Food Insecurity Tracker.

Key findings 🧵 One in four households with children (26%) have experienced food insecurity in the past month, affecting an estimated 4 million children.

The latest Healthy Start data was published in March 2022.

We are urgently calling on the Government to:

➡️ Publish the missing data for April-September 2022
➡️ Recommence publishing Healthy Start data each month
➡️ Resolve ongoing issues with the digitisation of the scheme

https://twitter.com/LGAWellbeing/status/1581586074517663744

❓ Why do we need this refreshed data?

Between October 2021-March 2022, the scheme moved from a paper-based voucher scheme to a digitised pre-paid card.

The government will announce a new drugs strategy on Monday.

Ahead of the launch. A 🧵 on drug treatment.

Local authorities commission drug and alcohol treatment services through the Public Health Grant. criminal justice partners. bbc.co.uk/news/uk-595338… It is a condition of the 2021/22 public grant that local authorities improve the take up of, and outcomes from, its drug and alcohol misuse treatment services, based on an assessment of local need and a plan which has been developed with local health and criminal justice partners

An unhealthy workforce negatively impacts our economy and society due to:
 
👉lost productivity
👉reduction in income tax receipts
👉increases in long-term sickness
👉increased informal care giving
👉increased healthcare costs Health, wellbeing and economic objectives should be explicitly aligned as part of a strategic approach to the ‘levelling up’ agenda.

33) At the beginning of 20th century tuberculosis was one of the biggest killers in the UK, responsible for more deaths than any other disease. The TB bacterium usually attack the lungs, but TB bacteria can attack any part of the body such as the kidney, spine, and brain. 34) During the 1920s one in every ten deaths in Northumberland was caused by TB, the County Council used around 75% of their health expenditure to tackle the disease.

1) The sexual and reproductive health of local populations depends on councils adopting a whole-system approach to service commissioning, in partnership with NHS colleagues. 2) Latest GUMCAD figures show there were 3,852,121 attendances at sexual health clinics in England in 2019, ⬆️up 23 per cent on the 2,940,779 attendances in 2013 assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…

As ⁦@Number10press⁩ prepare to launch their obesity strategy, up-and-down the country, councils are playing an important role in supporting people through commissioned weight management services. Check out the examples here👇 local.gov.uk/towards-health… These are targeted programmes free-at-the-point-of-access for people who are overweight or obese. Ambitious targets have been set for them with services expected to achieve 5 per cent weight loss in 30 per cent of cases.

1) The responsibility for health and wellbeing in local government is not new but has a long and prestigious history. From the Victorian Public Health Acts, it was local government that held the principal responsibility for the health and wellbeing of their populations. 2) Improving health in Victorian times concentrated on developments in sanitation, living and working conditions, and tackling infectious diseases. Local government was clearly best placed to do this and has continued to lead in these areas

1/5 👉What is contact tracing? Contact tracing is a tried and trusted approach that has been used for many years to prevent the spread of infection and to contain and stop outbreaks. 2/5 International and established evidence suggests that contact tracing during a major epidemic has significant benefits in reducing transmission and keeping (reproductive) R0 below one.