Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Related legal acts

Key definition

Local authority definition

What does Local authority mean? In legal practice, a local authority is the elected council that provides local government for a defined area, exercising statutory functions including planning, housing, social care, education, highways, environmental health, licensing, and the collection of council tax or rates. The expression appears widely in legislation and case law; its precise scope is set by the relevant statute. England: county councils and district councils (including metropolitan boroughs), unitary authorities, London Boroughs and the Common Council of the City of London; parish and town councils are local authorities at the most local tier. Wales: unitary county and county borough councils. Scotland: the...

England local authority health and social care functions: Health and Wellbeing Boards, Local Healthwatch, scrutiny, complaints advocacy, Integrated Care Partnerships and integrated care strategies, and public health duties

Published by a LexisNexis Local Government expert

Practice notes

This Practice Note

This Practice Note sets out a range of Local authority strategic roles concerning health and social care services, covering obligations to discharge the following duties:

establish and run Health and Wellbeing Boards (HWBs) for health and social care
establish Local Healthwatch organisations to speak for people who use health and social care
examine and oversee health services across their areas
put in place processes for complaints from health service users and feedback handling
create an Integrated Care Partnership (ICP) with the Integrated Care Board (ICB) whose footprint aligns wholly or partly with the local authority area
draw up an integrated care strategy setting out how local needs will be addressed through the functions of the ICB in the area, NHS England, or the pertinent local authorities

Note: on 13 March 2025, the Health Secretary stated that NHS England would be abolished, with many functions returning to the Department of Health and Social Care over the next two years. These changes will unwind the 2012 NHS reorganisation, but implementation will take time, and they are likely to impact the arrangements outlined here as programme progresses and takes effect...

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Stephanie Townley

Addleshaw Goddard

Stephanie is an experienced senior member of the IPE team at Addleshaws. She specialises in complex public private procurements, advising both the public and private sector, in relation to health care, social housing, street lighting, schools and outsourcing. Recently she has acted on a range of matters relating to operational PFI projects including a number of variations, disputes and associated settlement agreements. Stephanie has advised on a wide range of projects with a variety of structures from joint ventures, LLPs and LEPs to PFIs and straight outsourcing arrangements advising clients in respect of the initial tender process including procurement issues through to reaching financial close and further in respect of operational matters post-close. ...

Anna Sweeney

Addleshaw Goddard

Anna began her career as a Commercial solicitor at Eversheds and has been a professional support lawyer/knowledge lawyer since 2007. She supports the Addleshaw Goddard Infrastructure Projects & Energy (IPE) team and is also the sector knowledge lawyer for the Energy and Transport sectors at AG. She has extensive knowledge of energy regulation and keeps the team abreast of legal and market developments in this fast-moving sector. She writes regular client updates on energy, transport and infrastructure developments....

Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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