Local government is pursuing many initiatives requiring youth involvement but there is lack of coherence across disparate engagement efforts. This is a key message from research by the Carnegie UK Trust and published the report ‘Empowering Young People’.
Despite the work in progress, local government still faces the challenge of how to build capacity across the wider workforce to foster youth involvement. 

GPs will soon be issuing ‘well notes’ as well as ‘sick notes’. This move, sponsored by the Department for Work and Pensions, will encourage GPs to offer fitness to work advice to patients and employers as part of the Government’s plans to reduce the 2.64 million people on incapacity benefit.
The evidence shows that a phased return to work can play a beneficial role in the recovery of people suffering from illness. 

The Guide has been produced by the Department of Health to support community engagement, with particular emphasis on engaging seldom-involved communities. The Pacesetters programme is a partnership between local communities who experience health inequalities arising from discrimination and the NHS and the Department of Health.