From the LGA's Chairman

Dear Colleague

The impressive roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines across the UK continues. In England, the Government is now within touching distance of reaching its target of giving all of those in the first four priority groups (anyone 70 and over plus those clinically extremely vulnerable to COVID-19 and frontline health and care workers) the offer of a first dose of a vaccine by Monday. NHS England has said today that regions could now move on to vaccinating people aged 65 to 69 if every effort has been made to contact and vaccinate those in the first four groups, and if there are enough supplies. 

The huge success of the roll-out so far is in no small part down to the fantastic role councils are playing in coordinating efforts on the ground. It was good to hear Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi rightly recognise your “extraordinary efforts” during the latest Ministerial webinar yesterday. Today we have also highlighted how councils have used their unrivalled knowledge and connections to get vaccination centres set up swiftly and used their links with their communities to get the word out about the vaccine, answer residents’ questions and dispel any myths. We have also shone a light on the way councils have introduced other helpful measures, where possible, such as providing free parking in council-owned car parks and offering lifts to those without their own transport to vaccination centres. We were pleased that Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick also offered his praise for councils in our press release, stressing the way you have “risen to the challenge” of supporting the vaccination programme.   

While the vaccine roll-out provides optimism for the future, figures out this week show just how tough the first part of 2021 has been. Almost one third of all patients who have needed hospital treatment for COVID-19 since the pandemic began were admitted last month. The second wave of coronavirus deaths in the UK hit a peak on 19 January, new figures from the Office for National Statistics suggest, when a total of 1,404 deaths involving COVID-19 occurred. Nearly half (45.7 per cent) of all deaths registered in England and Wales in the week to 29 January mentioned COVID-19 on the death certificate – the highest proportion recorded during the pandemic.    

Infection rates are coming down across the country but concerns remain around COVID-19 variants. Public Health England has said 170 cases of the South African variant have now been identified in the UK, including 18 that are not linked to travel, with further councils introducing surge testing to clamp down on cases in specific postcodes in their communities this week. The Government has set up a dedicated page with information on surge testing, including an up-to-date list of postcodes affected.  

The Government has also published its Health and Care White Paper and announced plans for how to protect leaseholders from costly repairs to remove and replace dangerous ACM cladding from their homes. We have more on these announcements below.  

Finally, just another reminder that the Government has asked billing authorities to hold off sending out business rates bills for 2021/22 until the Chancellor sets out his plans for any future relief at the Budget on 3 March.

COVID-19 case rates   

As mentioned above, it is good to see that COVID-19 rates are continuing to fall in all regions of England, according to the latest weekly surveillance report from Public Health England. In the West Midlands, the rate of new cases stood at 237.6 per 100,000 people in the seven days to 7 February – the highest rate of any region, but down from 326.8 in the previous week. South West England recorded the lowest rate of 120.3, down from 176.5.   

Case rates in England are also continuing to fall among all age groups. The highest rate is among 30 to 39-year-olds, which stood at 265.3 cases per 100,000 people in the seven days to 7 February, down week-on-week from 367.2. For people aged 80 and over, the rate fell from 294.6 to 200.5. 

Around one in 80 people in private households in England had COVID-19 between 31 January and 6 February, according to estimates from the Office for National Statistics. This is down from around one in 65 people for the period 24 January to 30 January.   

The COVID-19 reproduction number, or R value, has fallen below one for the first time since July and is now estimated to be between 0.7 and 0.9 across the UK. 

COVID-19 deaths 

New figures from the Office for National Statistics also show that six out of 10 people who have died from COVID-19 are disabled with the risk of death three times greater for more severely disabled people. As we said in our response, every death from this dreadful virus is a tragedy and it is particularly harrowing to see that disabled people have been so disproportionately affected.  

Vaccinations  

Latest figures show 14,542,318 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine have now been administered in the UK, this is an increase of 503,116 in the past 24 hours. A total of 14,012,224 people have received their first dose, with 530,094 also having received a second dose. 

Sir David Norgrove, chairman of the UK Statistics Authority, has called for more granular breakdowns of this vaccination data to show the age, ethnicity and priority group of those receiving COVID-19 vaccinations in a letter to the Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee. This is something we also continue to raise with the Government, in order to help inform local efforts to reach all areas of communities and achieve parity in the take-up of COVID-19 vaccines amongst priority groups. 

A separate report by the Public Accounts Committee published today has urged the Government to ensure plans are in place to respond to potential supply issues and tackle misinformation in order to meet its target of vaccinating the next five priority groups – including all over 50s – by May. MPs on the Committee also say there is a “strong case” for looking again at which groups should be prioritised after the most vulnerable have been vaccinated – especially frontline key workers who are often more exposed to community transmission of the virus. We have produced a briefing on the rationale behind the way people are currently being prioritised to receive COVID-19 vaccinations that we hope may be of interest. 

Vaccinating social care workers   

We know that Stuart Millar, Director of Adult Social Care Delivery at the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) and Sir David Pearson, Chair of the Social Care Sector COVID-19 Taskforce, have written to councils to confirm some additional actions to ensure all eligible frontline social care workers can access an appointment for a first COVID-19 vaccine as soon as possible. This includes the online National Booking Service for vaccinations being made available for employers and eligible staff to book an appointment for the next two weeks. A separate letter this week from Sir David and Emily Lawson, NHS Chief Commercial Officer has asked councils to work with their Clinical Commissioning Group to ensure that this ability for social care workers to self-refer themselves for a COVID-19 vaccine has been shared with all Care Quality Commission (CQC) registered domiciliary care providers and care homes, as well as those employed in non-CQC registered settings.   

Some providers of registered and unregistered social care services have reported difficulties in identifying their local authority vaccination lead. To help, DHSC has created a consolidated list of all public points of contact that will be shared with providers. It has also produced a toolkit listing all of the resources available to help employers address any concerns that staff may have about having the vaccine.    

BSL vaccination resources 

The Government has published British Sign Language (BSL) videos related to the vaccination programme. There are also leaflets, posters and other resources available to download and paper copies available to order which you may find useful.  

Shielding cohort expansion 

You will be aware that the cohort of people deemed to be clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV) to COVID-19 is expected to be significantly expanded by the Department for Health and Social Care. We understand that an announcement about the expansion could be made in the Downing Street press conference as early as Monday. We continue to emphasise to government the need for councils to have as early notice as possible about the details of this announcement, given the potential impact of increased concerns, questions and possible requests for support from residents, as well as on vaccine prioritisation and roll-out.    

NAO on shielding programme   

The National Audit Office (NAO) has published a report into the national programme to protect and shield people who are clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV) to COVID-19. It says the scheme was set up swiftly but concluded that several problems arose when compiling the shielded patient list, including hospital records that were weeks out of date or with missing or inaccurate telephone numbers, meaning some people had to wait weeks before they were able to get deliveries of food or medicines. The NAO recommends that the Government should ensure there is easy, but secure, access to healthcare data, and set out the key data needed for any future pandemic or civil emergency. Protecting our most vulnerable people has been councils’ number one priority throughout the pandemic. As we said in our media response to the report, it is crucial that councils receive regular, secure access to data, so that they can reach out and support the right people at the right time.  

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is considering the NAO’s report and is currently accepting written submissions ahead of a forthcoming session with the Department for Health and Social Care, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. The LGA will be submitting written evidence ahead of the deadline on Monday, which will highlight the vital role councils are playing in providing support. 

Test and trace  

A total of 148,809 people tested positive for COVID-19 in England at least once in the week to 3 February, according to the latest NHS Test and Trace figures. This is down 24 per cent on the previous week and the lowest number since the week to 9 December. Of the 149,317 people referred to the Test and Trace system in the week to 3 February, 87 per cent were reached and asked to provide details of recent close contacts. This is broadly the same as the week before. 

Community-led testing   

Rapid coronavirus tests are being offered to workers even if they do not have symptoms in more than 70 per cent of local authority areas in England, the Department for Health and Social Care has said. So far, 2.2 million lateral flow tests have been carried out under the scheme and detected 44,000 positive cases. Councils are working hard to ensure that testing is accessible and available to all in their communities and we are collating community testing case studies in the COVID-19 hub on our website. 

COVID-19 symptoms   

A study of more than one million people in England has revealed that chills, loss of appetite, headaches and muscle aches are additional symptoms that are linked with having COVID-19. This is in addition to the classic symptoms – loss of sense of smell and taste, fever and a new persistent cough. The research is based on swab tests and questionnaires collected between June 2020 and January 2021 as part of the Imperial College London-led React study.  

Has COVID-19 changed the way communities behave?

To help councils with their COVID-19 recovery planning, we commissioned Britain Thinks to conduct qualitative research to better understand how the pandemic has changed public opinion and behaviour, and the local issues residents are most concerned about. The insightful results show that changes to people’s behaviour since the first lockdown - in relation to leisure time, shopping, travel and civic participation - has been highly varied. Although those who have significantly changed their behaviour are more open to sticking with these changes in the future, many do not want to and have a strong desire to “get back to normal”.  

Health and Care white paper   

The Government has published its plans to reform health and care services so they can work more closely together. The Health and Care white paper proposes allowing councils and NHS services to set up joint bodies in every part of England, to make decisions on how to better join-up health and care services. In his statement to parliament, Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock said the reforms would enable greater integration, reduce bureaucracy and strengthen accountability. In our media response, we said the plans provide a promising base on which to build stronger working relationships between local government and the NHS, as equal partners, but that proposals to put adult social care on a long-term, sustainable footing must be brought forward as a matter of urgency.    

We will be working with councils, the Government and NHS England to better understand the full implications of these wide-ranging proposals. We are also preparing a comprehensive briefing on the many measures in the white paper, which we will aim to share with you next week. 

PPE care home supplies  

Care home staff were left without personal protective equipment (PPE) during the first months of the coronavirus pandemic because the Government decided to prioritise the NHS, the Public Accounts Committee has said. Its inquiry - which we gave written evidence to - found that between March and July last year, the Department of Health and Social Care provided NHS trusts with 1.9 billion items of PPE – the equivalent to 80 per cent of their estimated need. In contrast, it supplied the adult social care sector with 331 million items – accounting for just 10 per cent of its requirements. Social care staff have been doing an incredible job in extremely challenging circumstances throughout this crisis. In our media response, we said it is good that social care now has a central stockpile and dedicated supply of PPE, alongside a government commitment to fund coronavirus-related PPE to the end of June 2021. 

Hospital discharge funding    

Matthew Winn, Director of Community Health at NHS England and NHS Improvement, has written to provide an update to health and social care systems on funding of post-discharge support for the remainder of the 2020/21 financial year. The Government has confirmed that the £588 million fund to pay for care and support for people being discharged from hospital can be used for new packages of care (up to six weeks for people with new or additional care needs) and payment for designated care settings that commence up to 31 March. No decision has been made about ongoing funding to support hospital discharges but we continue to lobby for a further extension of funding in recognition of the extreme ongoing pressures facing health and care services. 

Commission on Human Medicines 

It has been announced today that Professor Sir Munir Pirmohamed has been appointed by Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock as Chair of the Commission on Human Medicines (CHM) for a four-year term. The CHM advises ministers on the safety, efficacy and quality of medicinal products.  

Children’s social care flexibilities 

The Department for Education (DfE) has launched a consultation on the potential extension or amendment of flexibilities in children’s social care regulations to 30 September. The current flexibilities relate to medical reports for prospective adopters and foster carers; virtual visits; and Ofsted inspection intervals but they are due to end on 31 March. The DfE will also run public consultation events to discuss the issues in more detail, and the deadline to respond to the consultation is 28 February. 

SEND funding extension 

The Government has announced it will re-award current contracts and grants in 2021/22 worth £42 million, for projects to enable schools, colleges, families and local authorities to continue their work to provide practical support to disadvantaged families and children with special educational needs and disabilities.  

High needs funding formula 

The Department for Education (DfE) is seeking views on proposed changes to the high needs national funding formula (NFF). This consultation will consider how it can be improved in order to achieve the highest quality support for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or who require alternative provision. The consultation closes on 24 March. Please share your views with us also by emailing clive.harris@local.gov.uk.  

Local elections - schools as polling stations   

Schools Minister Nick Gibb and Lord True, Cabinet Office Minister, have written to returning officers and headteachers on the use of schools during the elections, following the confirmation that the local elections will go ahead as planned on 6 May. It confirms the Government’s expectation that alternative venues should be secured as polling stations to avoid further disruption to education. It says £31 million of additional funding will be made available to pay for alternative venues. If a school does need to be used as a polling station, then the funding can also be used to cover the cost of cleaning schools quickly before and after to minimise disruption. Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick also reiterated this during the Ministerial webinar yesterday when he urged councils to think “imaginatively and apply a high bar” before choosing schools as polling stations. We continue to raise with government the huge complexities and challenges around ensuring the local elections are COVID-19 secure, including the availability of suitable venues for polling stations.  

School attendance 

Department for Education figures show 16 per cent of school pupils were in class on 4 February, up slightly from 15 per cent the week before. Approximately 895,000 children of key workers were in attendance, up from 850,000 on 28 January.  

School testing   

More than 3 million rapid coronavirus tests have been carried out among school and college staff and pupils in England since January, latest figures show. A total of 1.7 million lateral flow tests have been taken on site in secondary schools and colleges, where students attending are offered two tests on their return and staff are offered tests twice-weekly. A further 1.7 million rapid COVID-19 tests have been taken at home by staff in primary schools and council-run nurseries. The Department for Education has said 97 per cent of schools and colleges in England are now ready to offer tests. 

Remote learning support   

A total of 424,428 laptops and tablets have been sent to councils, academy trusts, schools and colleges across England since the latest lockdown began on 4 January, new Department for Education figures show. This is an additional 59,160 devices compared to the same time last week. 

Teaching hubs 

The Department for Education has announced it will allocate £65 million in funding for 81 teaching school hubs across the country. The hubs, to be up and running by September, will aim to provide high-quality professional development to teachers and headteachers, as well as helping to “build up” trainees. Each hub will have its own defined geographical patch and will be expected to be accessible to all schools within that area, serving on average around 250 schools each.  

Get Help Buying for Schools 

The Department for Education has launched a consultation on its proposed Get Help Buying for Schools service to help schools and academies buy goods and services. The responses will be used to help the Government tailor its support for schools to achieve value for money on their non-staff spend, such as energy bills, catering and cleaning. The consultation is aimed at local authorities, governing bodies of local authority-maintained schools in England, academy trusts, church and other foundation trust bodies and private and public sector organisations supplying goods and services to schools. It closes on 11 March.  

Resettling young people    

The Justice Select Committee has published its second report on Children and Young People in Custody (part 2): The Youth Secure Estate and Resettlement. The LGA provided written evidence to the Committee which highlighted the challenges councils often face in resettling young people in communities. This includes often being made aware of release dates at short notice, which makes resettlement planning by the relevant Youth Offending Teams very difficult. It is therefore good that the Committee has recommended better planning and coordination between the Ministry of Justice and other agencies to improve resettlement planning and a national accommodation strategy for children released from custody.  

Domestic abuse funding allocations   

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has set out the methodology it will use to allocate £125 million in new burden funding to cover the cost to councils in 2021/22 of the new duty relating to the provision of support to victims and their children within safe accommodation. MHCLG has encouraged councils to check their allocation to see if they are as expected based on the funding formula and contact domesticabuse.review@communities.gov.uk with any queries. 

The LGA is organising two workshop sessions for local government officers to discuss the forthcoming statutory duty and funding allocation. These will take place on 24 February and 3 March. If you would like to register your interest in attending, please email Rachel.Phelps@local.gov.uk  

ACM cladding leaseholder costs   

Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick has announced a package of measures to protect leaseholders from the cost of removing unsafe ACM cladding from buildings. The Government will pay for the removal of unsafe cladding for leaseholders in all residential buildings 18 metres (six storeys and over) and higher in England. Non-interest loans will be offered to leaseholders in buildings between 11 and 18 metres (four to six storeys) with a guarantee that they will never pay more than £50 a month for cladding removal costs. The Government will also introduce an industry levy and tax to ensure developers pay to make their buildings safe.    

It is good that the Secretary of State has secured this funding to ensure leaseholders in high-rise blocks will not have to pay anything towards cladding remediation. This is an important step towards protecting leaseholders from the unfair cost of a crisis that is not of their making and something the LGA has long-called for. However, as our media statement sets out, no leaseholder should have to pay the costs of making their homes safe and everything should be done to force developers and product manufacturers to meet the costs they have imposed on the country through decades of failure on an industrial scale. In some areas, many building safety failures are not caused by dangerous cladding but other construction faults. It is important that these leaseholders can also be protected from the cost of any repairs to make their homes safe. 

Quality of new homes 

Launched this week, the New Homes Quality Board is a UK wide, independent body which is being chaired by Natalie Elphicke MP. Over the coming months, it will consult on a comprehensive new industry code of practice placing more responsibility on developers to deliver quality homes and the appointment of a New Home Ombudsman Service that will provide support for buyers in the event of a dispute. It has published a useful background paper on its role and remit alongside a Q&A.   

Toxic air 

Research for Asthma UK and the British Lung Foundation has found six million people aged 65 and over live in places where particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution exceeds World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended levels. PM2.5 pollution comes from sources such as traffic fumes, vehicles and wood burners. Their report warns that more than a quarter of care homes and a third of schools in England were in areas with toxic air. A separate report from the Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee suggests as many as 64,000 deaths are linked to dirty air each year. MPs on the Committee have called for the Government to promote public transport and reassure people that it is safe as pandemic restrictions lift, to help clean up toxic air. We submitted evidence to this inquiry in the summer, which has been quoted throughout the report, particularly our concerns about the impact of the pandemic on the commercial viability of transport operators and whether this will impact on plans to upgrade vehicle fleets to cleaner, less polluting vehicles.  

Roadside verges   

Freedom of Information data gathered and published by the Press Association news agency shows seven in 10 English councils are using mowing or management regimes alongside roads in their area to boost wildflowers and wildlife such as bees that depend on them. The responses show that the biggest driver for councils in changing the way they manage road verges is boosting biodiversity, particularly to provide habitat for pollinating insects such as bees. 

Nature projects   

Environment Minister Rebecca Pow and the Environment Agency have launched a new £10 million fund for businesses, local authorities, non-governmental organisations and other organisations to bid for up to £100,000 to develop new projects which tackle climate change, create and restore habitats, or improve water quality. The Government hopes that the Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund will create a pipeline of projects for the private sector to invest in, demonstrating the UK’s leadership in nature finance in the run-up to the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) being held in Glasgow in November. 

Biodiversity 

The Government intends to introduce a mandatory requirement for the planning system to deliver Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG). This is a planning approach which aims to leave the natural environment in a measurably better state than beforehand. This is expected to place new burdens on local planning authorities to deal with the increase in workload and professional expertise necessary to address the additional technical, planning and legal issues involved. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Association of Local Government Ecologists and the Association of Directors of Environment, Planning and Transport have launched a survey to better understand what the new burdens requirements will be. The survey should take about 15 minutes to complete, and the deadline is 26 February. 

EU settlement scheme   

The Home Office has announced that five million applications to the EU Settlement Scheme have now been received with four months still to go before the deadline of 30 June. It has announced £4.5 million for organisations across the UK who are providing support for individuals and groups who are vulnerable to help them apply to the scheme. This includes victims of human trafficking or domestic abuse, those with severe mental health conditions, those without a permanent address, and those who are elderly or isolated. 

Exit payments cap   

The implementation of a £95,000 cap on public sector exit payments, including employer contributions to pension costs, came into effect on 4 November last year. After an extensive review of the cap, which we have repeatedly raised issues around, the Government has agreed that the cap may have unintended consequences. The Treasury has today ruled that it will immediately disapply the regulations and effectively scrap the cap. We will update our guidance next week to reflect the immediate consequence of this for councils.  

Final Local Government Finance Settlement    

The final Local Government Finance Settlement was debated - and approved – by MPs in Parliament this week. It was good to hear the LGA’s briefing on the funding pressures facing councils referenced throughout the debate. In the press release that accompanied the settlement debate, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) announced an extension of the flexibility to use capital receipts to fund transformation projects. This flexibility was first introduced in 2015 and then extended to 2022. The latest announcement is to extend it for a further three years to 2025 with further details to be provided by the Government.   

The Government has also published details of capitalisation directions granted to a small number of local authorities that have requested exceptional financial support during the COVID-19 pandemic. We are aware that other councils are in continuing discussion with MHCLG about similar arrangements.   

2021/22 COVID-19 funding    

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has also published a policy paper on COVID-19 funding in 2021/22 following its consultation in December. It confirms allocations of the £670 million of local council tax support and that the extension of the sales, fees, and charges compensation scheme will use 2020/21 budgeted income as a baseline. The policy paper also confirms how losses in council tax will be measured in the local tax income guarantee scheme for 2020/21, with further details on the business rates losses scheme to be made available at a later date. The COVID-19 financial management survey will also continue to be collected.   

New Homes Bonus consultation   

The Government has published its consultation on the future of the New Homes Bonus setting out options for reform to be implemented from 2022/23 onwards. The deadline to submit views is 7 April. To help shape our submission to the consultation please email lgfinance@local.gov.uk with your views. 

National Fraud Initiative    

The Cabinet Office is consulting on proposals to allow the National Fraud Initiative (NFI) to extend the powers which allow it to conduct data matching exercises. Currently, NFI data matches can only be used for the purposes of detecting and preventing fraud. The proposal is to extend this by allowing data matches to be used to aid the police with solving crime other than fraud, assist with debt collection (including by local authorities) and help to reduce data error by public bodies generally. In order to help shape our response to the consultation, which closes on 10 March, please email us on transparency@local.gov.uk.  

Audit deadline   

As part of its response to the Redmond Review into local authority financial reporting and external audit, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has committed to amending the deadline for council accounts to be published to 30 September - for at least the next two years. This week councils received a consultation letter proposing the formal implementation of this plan and attaching a draft revised statutory instrument. The deadline for comments on these is 1 March and any views should be sent to localaudit@communities.gov.uk.  

Inspire People Professionals Academy   

In order to address some of the capacity and capability workforce issues that have been presented by COVID-19, we have worked with the West Midlands Employers and the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development to developed the Inspire People Professionals Academy. It aims to help HR professionals navigate ongoing financial pressures, restructures and skills shortages. The programme will take participants through eight modules spread over 12 weeks and the first cohort will begin next month. The deadline for applications is 15 February.   

Webinars  

We have several webinars coming up which I wanted to highlight to you:  

• Green economic recovery webinar
  Monday 22 February, 10.30am – 12.00pm
  This webinar will cover topics such as inclusive economic growth, and the opportunities presented by green and sustainable initiatives.
• Applying behavioural change techniques to COVID-19 and climate emergency responses
  Tuesday 23 February, 10.00am - 11.30am
  This webinar will explore how behavioural change techniques can be used in council services to work with communities and change their behaviour when responding to both the COVID-19 and climate change emergencies.  
• Local authority youth services Wednesday 24 February, 2.00pm – 4.30pm  This session will provide the opportunity for councils to come together and share their experiences of providing support for young people during the pandemic and good practice. Updates will also be received from partners such as the National Citizen Service, Barnardo’s and the National Youth Agency as well as the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. 
• Vaccine webinar: Equalities Thursday 25 February, 10.30am – 12.00pm  This will provide an update on vaccination roll out, and the implications for local authorities in engaging with their communities, with a focus on equalities. It will explore the good work being carried out and what lessons can be learnt. The webinar will be chaired by Cllr Ian Hudspeth, Chairman of the LGA’s Community Wellbeing Board, who will be joined by Kersten England, chief executive of Bradford Metropolitan District Council, and Joanne Yarwood, national immunisation programme manager at Public Health England.  
• Re-opening of schools: arrangements for March 2021 Thursday 25 February 2021, 2.00pm – 3.30pm  This workshop will allow delegates to hear more about the Department for  Education’s plans for the full re-opening of schools after the latest national 
• Leading Healthier Places webinar series
  In partnership with NHS Clinical Commissioners, we are holding a series of  weekly webinars during March for Health and Wellbeing Board (HWB) chairs  and vice chairs. Session topics include exploring current challenges and  opportunities for HWBs and how HWBs can tackle health inequalities. 
• T Levels workshops
  A host of interactive webinars will be held throughout February and March to  explore the opportunities new T-Levels present for councils to give   young people quality early experience in the workplace and helping them   to boost their career prospects. T Levels are a new two-year    national qualification which offer young people a 45-day work placement.

I hope this end of week update has been useful. As always, do continue to liaise with your Principal Adviser if there is anything further we can do to support your councils. 

Best wishes Councillor James Jamieson Chairman, Local Government Association @JGJamieson