Local partnerships are crucial to the future model of healthcare and are central to the improvement initiatives necessary to build resilience in communities and support self care in its widest sense. Self care sits in the middle – actions by a range of authorities, on their own, or working together, can be seen to promote self care – if they follow the principles identified above.

In recent years, local authorities, often at the instigation of an innovative director of public health, have taken a lead in community wide support for self care. Examples include:

• Bracknell Forest Council engaging community groups and clubs
• Bradford Council creating an easy-to-understand self care campaign
• Cheshire engaging the whole community
• Huntingdonshire District Council getting cancer and cardiac rehab patients active with self care
• Milton Keynes Council promoting self care on a supra-local level.

Further information and examples of collaborative working can be found at Altogether Better.