New government-wide drive and funding to tackle loneliness

The Prime Minister has set out how government is tackling loneliness and combating social isolation, as the government accepts a series of recommendations from the Jo Cox Commission on Loneliness.

These include appointing a ministerial lead on loneliness. The Minister for Sport and Civil Society Tracey Crouch will lead a cross-government group which will take responsibility for driving action on loneliness across all parts of government and keeping it firmly on the agenda.

Work has also begun on:

• a dedicated fund which will see government working with charitable trusts, foundations, and others to:
  • stimulate innovative solutions to loneliness across all ages, backgrounds and communities
  • provide seed funding for communities to come together to develop activities which enable people to connect
  • scale-up and spread existing work offering practical and emotional support to help lonely individuals reconnect with their communities
• developing a cross-government strategy on loneliness in England to be published later this year. This will bring together government, local government, public services, the voluntary and community sector and businesses to identify opportunities to tackle loneliness, and build more integrated and resilient communities
• developing the evidence base around the impact of different initiatives in tackling loneliness, across all ages and within all communities, led by the government’s What Works centres
• establishing appropriate indicators of loneliness across all ages with the Office for National Statistics so these figures can be included in major research studies

For further information, visit www.gov.uk