Local councils play an enormous role in designing our communities which inherently impacts the lives of its residents. This can be as simple as having green spaces to walk and cycle in; community spaces to hold meetings in and being able to be social with neighbours. Therefore, the health of residents should be at the epicentre when considering planning and neighbourhood plans.

Additionally, local councils are becoming increasingly responsible for delivering services and running assets within the community. The majority of which, will directly affect the health and wellbeing of residents. By focussing on health and wellbeing, these services and assets can be run with residents at the heart. Examples of which can be seen below.

What can councils do?

Neighbourhood plans

Increasingly, more local councils are producing a neighbourhood plan. This allows councils to play an active role in constructing their communities to make sure that: there are places for residents to meet in their community; ensure that the community is guaranteeing an active lifestyle for residents by encouraging walking and cycling and by supporting local services and public transport; by implementing open spaces to encourage residents to eat healthily by providing allotments, orchards and growing spaces and, providing homes and neighbourhoods that meet the needs of all people, including the elderly and disabled.

Allotments

Local councils have a long history of organising allotments in their communities. Allotments promote a healthy lifestyle by promoting being outside, moving and being active and a healthy diet. NALC believes that local councils should encourage residents to use local allotments.

Gyms

Many local councils have introduced an outdoor gym to their local park. Outdoor gyms promote a healthy lifestyle for residents through keeping fit and being in green spaces. This may encourage more people to attend the park if the asset is underutilised.

Healthwatch

Healthwatch is the independent national champion for people who use health and social care services. They find out what matters to people, and help make sure their views shape the support they need. Healthwatch England supports local Healthwatch to find out what people like about services, what could be improved, and they share these views with people in power to make change happen.

Find out more about the health issues in your area

Find your local Healthwatch

Leisure centres

The uses of leisure centres are a positive way to encourage a healthy lifestyle for residents. A number of local councils run their own leisure centres which provide residents with the use of a number of sport courts. This allows citizens to socialise as well as enjoy sports together. Leisure centres also bring people together of all ages and encourage a community spirit.

Parks

A lot of councils have control over parks or green spaces in their communities. This encourages residents to walk and cycle in green a space which is essential for a healthy lifestyle. NALC encourages all local councils to publicise their green spaces and to make sure that they are kept clean and tidy.

Planting trees

The health and lifestyle benefits of having access to trees and green spaces are well written about, (see NHS Forest and The Woodland Trust for more information). Trees are known for their calming benefits and their ability to improve air quality. If you or your council is passionate about trees and green spaces then please see NALC’s links with The Woodland Trust through The Tree Charter.

Skate parks

Owning and running a local skate park is a great initiative to encourage younger generations to be outside partaking in social and healthy activity and is low in cost to the council. There are numerous examples of local councils setting up their own skate parks and is a great initiative for the health and wellbeing of our communities.

Transport

Transport, in rural communities especially, is important to link residents to the town or city centre. It decreases the chance of isolation and loneliness amongst residents and provides a safe and easy way for people to meet each other. Increasingly, more local councils are funding their own community buses and transport to ensure that its residents have access to shops, hospitals, green spaces and a reliable way to meet their friends and family.

Resources

• Putting Health and Wellbeing at the Heart of Neighbourhood Planning by All Things Neighbourhood Planning
• Creating healthy places: Perspectives from NHS England’s Healthy New Towns programme edited by Chris Naylor
• Neighbourhood Planning and Community Health and Wellbeing by Ed Dade and Gurvynda Paddan-White
• The Good Councillor's guide to transport planning
• The Woodland Trust
• The Good Councillor’s guide to neighbourhood planning
• Planning explained
• Locality
• Homes 2019  by Secured by Design
• Creating healthy places  by NHS's Healthy New Towns Programme
• Prevention Matters: how elected members can improve the health of their communities by the Local Government Association 

According to Crohn’s and Colitis UK, Crohn’s disease and Ulcerative Colitis are the two main forms of inflammatory Bowel Disease affecting more than 300,000 people in the UK. As a hidden disease, Crohn’s and Colitis can isolate people into their homes out of fear and embarrassment.

NALC has been lobbying Parliament to introduce The Public Lavatories Bill so that residents can have better access to toilets in their communities. The bill sets out the need for easy access to toilets.

NALC, therefore, believes that toilets which are in publically owned buildings should not pay business rates. NALC believes that easier access to toilets will help people, who need increased access to toilets will feel more comfortable venturing out in public. 

What can councils do?

• Support the Save our Loos campaign
• Make sure that residents know where accessible public toilets are and create a map of your community to demonstrate this

Resources

• Public Lavatories Bill
• Crohn’s and Colitis UK
• Save our Loos

Has your local council done something similar on toilets? Let NALC know at 

Dementia-Friendly Communities guide

The document, which has been endorsed by the prime minister, Boris Johnson MP, aims to help local councils support people living with dementia in their communities. It contains case studies, recommendations, resources and statistics, and a message from Gary Streeter MP who has supported turning South West Devon in a dementia-friendly constituency.

Between January and May 2020, NALC surveyed England's 10,000 local councils to find out what steps they have taken to support people living with dementia in their communities. This research provided the foundations for the publication.

The Dementia-Friendly Communities guide has been written in collaboration with Ian Sherriff BEM, academic partnership lead for Dementia at University of Plymouth and Cllr Liz Hitchins, chairman of Brixton Parish Council and chairman of Dementia-Friendly Parishes around the Yealm.

Read the Dementia-Friendly Communities publication

Dementia describes symptoms that may include memory loss and difficulties with thinking, problem-solving or language. Dementia is caused when the brain is damaged by diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease or a series of strokes. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia, but not the only one.

The specific symptoms that someone with dementia experiences will depend on the parts of the brain that are damaged and the disease that is causing dementia. According to the Alzheimer’s society, there are more than 42,000 people in the UK under 65 living with dementia. While in total, there are roughly 850,000 people in the UK with dementia (Source: The Alzheimer’s Society).

As a terminal illness, Dementia cannot usually be treated with medicines, it is therefore typically down to the support they receive from loved ones and caregivers to ensure a good quality of life.

NALC believes that local councils can play a large role in supporting those in their communities with dementia by providing quality social care through social interaction and support groups. Councils can support people with dementia by becoming ‘Dementia friends’ and a Dementia-friendly community.

What can councils do?

What are Dementia-friendly communities?

 “A city, town or village where people with dementia are understood, respected and supported, and confident they can contribute to community life. In a dementia-friendly community, people will be aware of and understand dementia, and people with dementia will feel included and involved, and have choice and control over their day-to-day lives”.

Become a dementia-friendly community

Becoming dementia-friendly

• Shaping communities around the views of people with dementia and their carers 
• Challenging stigma and building awareness
• Ensuring that activities include people with dementia
• Empowering people with dementia and recognising their contribution 
• Ensuring early diagnosis, personalised and integrated care is the norm 
• Befrienders helping people with dementia engage in community life 
• Maintaining independence by delivering community- based solutions 
• Appropriate transport 
• Easy to navigate physical environments 
• Businesses and services that respond to customers with dementia 

Make your organisation dementia-friendly by following these steps.

Five simple steps to becoming dementia-friendly

1. Sign up to become a dementia-friendly community on the Alzheimer’s website
2. Set up training for councillors and residents in order to signpost symptoms of Dementia 
3. Ensure that your council buildings are checked to be suitable for people with Dementia 
4. Set up community groups for your community which is easily accessible for people living with dementia, such as walking, arts and crafts or singing
5. Work with neighbouring communities to help promote becoming a dementia-friendly area

Resources

• NALC and the Alzheimer’s society strategic document
• For information about local branches of the Alzheimer’s Society — please email 
• Become a dementia-friendly community
• Alzheimer’s Society
• Age UK
• NHS
• Dementia Friendly Parishes around the Yealm
• Kent Association of Local Councils
• Regional Alzheimer’s Society Officers
• Local authorities guidance for local councils
• How to become a dementia-friendly community

Epilepsy is a condition that affects the brain. When someone has epilepsy, it means they have a tendency to have epileptic seizures.

Anyone can have a one-off seizure, but this does not always mean they have epilepsy. Epilepsy is usually only diagnosed if a doctor thinks there’s a high chance that the person could have more seizures.

Epilepsy can start at any age and there are many different types. Some types of epilepsy last for a limited time and the person eventually stops having seizures. But for many people, epilepsy is a life-long condition.

What can councils do?

Become Seizure Savvy

Use the three C’s campaign to make sure that everyone knows what to do if they see someone having a seizure. 

Calm, Cushion, Call

• Stay CALM and stay with the person who is having a seizure.
• CUSHION their head with a coat or cardigan to stop them injuring themselves.
• CALL an ambulance if the seizure does not stop after five minutes.

Most seizures are self-limiting and will stop of their own accord within a couple of minutes. The person will need to be looked after until a friend or family member is called, but they may not need an ambulance. We want to make sure everyone is #seizuresavvy.

Resources

• Epilepsy Society
• NHS
• Epilepsy Foundation
• Epilepsy and driving
• NALC teams up with the Epilepsy Society
• Information for employers by the Epilepsy Society

Healthwatch is the independent national champion for people who use health and social care services. They find out what matters to people, and help make sure their views shape the support they need. Healthwatch England supports local Healthwatch to find out what people like about services, what could be improved, and they share these views with people in power to make change happen.

Find out how to link with your local Healthwatch chapter

Find out what health issues are important to your local area

Everyone in our communities, from the youngest to the oldest, need connections which matter. Being lonely can affect anyone at any time in their life. People can also be lonely but not necessarily live in isolation.

In October 2018, the Government launched the first-ever loneliness strategy. Loneliness is now incorporated within various ministerial portfolios including the Ministry for Housing, Community and Local Government and Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

Loneliness can have an impact on mental and physical health and wellbeing, as well as in the way that people engage and interact with wider services and the local community it is vital that we lay foundations for change towards shaping a better-connected society.

At a local level, parish and town councils are already contributing to tackling loneliness and NALC wants to build on this work by encouraging partnership working across local government and the health sector towards making a real difference in ending loneliness.

What can councils do?

Local councils are at the forefront of community life where most needs are visible, but loneliness is not so easy to identify yet it can have a profound effect on health and social care services and contribute to a disconnected community – this can add pressure on services which already have limited capacity and resources – having much wider detrimental impact on a local community and access to key services.

Local councils can make a difference in connecting the local community and encouraging residents to look out for their neighbours. Playing a vital role in identifying people who are lonely and helping to raise awareness and signpost to support.

Building on a successful track record of joint work with the Local Government Association, NALC has jointly published with vital funding from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government a guide to help local and principal councils tackle loneliness.

The guide presents a real opportunity for local and principal councils to make a difference in a wide range of practical ways with potential outputs including:

• Finding ways to reach and understand the needs of those experiencing loneliness
• Providing services that directly improve the number and quality of relationships that people have
• Providing support such as transport and technology to help sustain connections
• Creating the right structures and conditions locally to support those affected by, or at risk of, loneliness

The guide is easy to read and includes a range of resources, in practice examples, case studies and action planning checklists and top tips.

Resources

• Reaching out by NALC and the Local Government Association (LGA)
• Making Communities Healthier
• Government Loneliness Strategy
• One Community Guide by NALC and the LGA
• LGA Health and Well Being in Rural Areas
• Health Education England Population Wellbeing Portal — a free to access e-learning resource, providing training and education in population health, wellbeing and prevention
• Age UK and Jo Cox Loneliness Commission
• Campaign to End Loneliness
• Red Cross
• Let's Talk Loneliness Campaign
• Youth Lets Talk Loneliness
• Making Every Contact Count
• 50 loneliness case studies by NALC
• Laying the Foundations for Change

According to Mind, the mental health charity, every year one in four of us will experience a mental health problem. While mental illness affects one-in-ten children.

Mental health issues can be devastating to our communities and link to other issues such as loneliness.

According to NHS England, improved mental health and wellbeing is associated with a range of better outcomes for people of all ages and backgrounds.

These include:

• Improved physical health and life expectancy
• Better educational achievement
• Increased skills
• Reduced health risk behaviours such as smoking and alcohol misuse
• Reduced risk of mental health problems and suicide
• Improved employment rates and productivity
• Reduced anti-social behaviour and criminality
• Higher levels of social interaction and participation

What can councils do?

NALC believes that local councils play a role in the solution in caring for our communities and residents. Local councils can: provide training; a place for the community to meet and, activities to create a social hub, which in turn, will support members of the community who are experience issues with their mental health.

Mental health can have numerous symptoms and affect people in a variety of ways. Learning about how mental health symptoms manifest will gear councils with the understanding of how to signpost people who are affected with mental health issues. Whilst also gaining the ability to understand how to care for their mental health better. 

Mental health in the workplace, by the Mental Health Foundation, outlines ten steps to follow to protect your mental health:

1. Talk about your feelings
2. Keep active
3. Eat well
4. Drink responsibly 
5. Keep in touch
6. Ask for help
7. Take a break
8. Do something that you’re good at
9. Accept who you are
10. Care for others

Resources

• Mind 
• CALM
• SANE
• YoungMinds
• NHS England
• Age UK
• Independent Age
• Mental Health Apps
• Support mental health at work by the Mental Health Foundation
• Prevention Matters: how elected members can improve the health of their communities by the Local Government Association