Guidance for councils
The government has set up a series of web pages to help local authorities prepare for Brexit. Areas covered include:
Health and social care - information includes:
- Brexit operational readiness guidance for the health and care system in England
- Children’s services – no deal preparations
- Actions for adult social care providers to prepare for Brexit
- Commissioners and providers of social care: Brexit planning update
- Health and care sector: update on preparations for a potential no-deal Brexit
- Letter to adult social care providers on medical supply
- Changes to nutrition legislation if there’s no Brexit deal
Schools and education providers – information includes:
- Brexit: no deal preparations for schools in England
- Brexit: no deal preparations for higher education institutions
- Brexit: no deal preparations for further education and apprenticeship providers
- Registering to claim Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps (ESC) funding
Access to public services – information includes:
- EEA nationals in the UK: access to social housing and homelessness assistance in a no deal scenario
- Eligibility to access public funds after free movement in a ‘No deal’ scenario
- Citizens’ rights - EU citizens in the UK and UK nationals in the EU
- EU citizens in the UK: benefits and pensions in a ‘no deal’ scenario
- UK nationals in the EU: benefits and pensions in a ‘no deal’ scenario
The EU Settlement Scheme – the Local authority introduction to the EU Settlement Scheme includes a number of useful resources for local councils, including:
- ID document scanner locations
- Information about the Assisted Digital Service
- Translations of communications and guidance
- A list of organisations funded to provide support to vulnerable and at risk EU citizens applying to the EU Settlement Scheme
- A postcode checker to help identify support provided by these organisations locally
Community engagement – information includes:
- Community engagement and Brexit: guidance for local authorities
- Civil society organisations and Brexit
Business support – information includes:
- Brexit guidance for businesses, including sector specific guidance and video guidance.
- Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) hubs
- State aid if there’s no Brexit deal
- Communications toolkit – business readiness for changes at the border
Regulatory services – information includes:
- UK Product Safety and Metrology Guidance in a ‘no deal’ scenario
- Food labelling changes if there’s a no-deal Brexit
- Provision of services regulations: guidance for UK service providers and Competent Authorities
- Health marks on meat, fish and dairy products
- Importing high-risk food and animal feed
- Labelling products and making them safe
- Exporting GM food and animal feed products if there’s no Brexit Deal
- Importing, exporting and transporting products or goods after Brexit
- Exporting and importing fish if there’s no Brexit deal
- Changes to trade mark law
- Find a professional to certify export health certificates
Statutory instruments which have been laid and identified as having impacts on local authorities are listed on a separate page: Brexit secondary legislation laid with impacts on local government. A full list of Brexit related secondary legislation can be found on the government legislation site.
Internal operations – information includes:
Council employees
Data
- Accessing data from the European Economic Area under no-deal Brexit - guidance for local authorities
- Data protection Brexit guidance
Procurement
Waste
Contingency planning - information includes:
- Local resilience forums: contact details
- Local authorities’ preparedness for civil emergencies
- Guide to local authority mutual aid
- Central government concept of operations – chapter 5
- Business continuity advice
Funding - information includes:
- The Stronger Towns Fund
- EU funding
- European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) no deal guidance
- European Social Fund (ESF) grants if there’s no Brexit deal
- European Territorial Cooperation (ETC) Funding in a no-deal Brexit
A network of nine local authority chief executives from across England has been established to engage with councils in their regions to share information on their Brexit preparations, and each council has also been asked to appoint a Brexit lead officer to work with central government and local services, businesses and residents in their area to plan intensively for Brexit. Our lead officer is Claire Porter at claire.porter@shropshire.gov.uk.
Please make yourself aware of the above information. You can find out more on the Gov.UK local government Brexit preparedness pages.
We've also set up a public facing Get Ready for Brexit webpage for residents and businesses.