SECTION 1 - INTRODUCTION AND CONTEXT
Opening Statement
1. Salford welcomes the opportunity to take part in the Comprehensive Performance Assessment process. We are an organisation determined to respond positively to the changing nature of local government. We want to be open about how we are performing in meeting the needs of our communities. Our Strategic and Best Value Performance Plan (BVPP) is a frank and honest analysis of our current situation and sets out what we are striving to achieve in the future and much of this document relates to it.
2. It also reflects closely the findings of the Improvement and Development Agency's Peer Review Team who visited the Council in October 2001. We have responded positively to the issues raised by the team, have established four improvement teams and recently approved and are implementing an improvement plan.
3. We know that Local Government is complex by nature, it is a balance between meeting community needs and aspirations and addressing national priorities whilst ensuring we are living within our means.
Salford - The City
4. Situated at the heart of the regional centre, Salford covers an area of 37 square miles and boasts a thriving University, a major teaching hospital, a Super League rugby club and a multi-million pound arts and theatre complex at Salford Quays. The Lowry, which houses the world's largest collection of works by the artist LS Lowry and has two major auditoriums, is the National Millennium Project for the Arts and is now attracting in excess of one million visitors annually.
5. Salford is a city of contrasts ranging from a dense urbanised core at the heart of the Greater Manchester conurbation to the east, through established suburban housing areas, to areas of high value housing and green belt to the west. We are a proud and thriving city with some major successes already achieved, but with significant challenges still to overcome.
Historical Context
6. The Salford of today was established following local government reorganisation in 1974 and comprises the former county borough of Salford and the Boroughs of Eccles, and Swinton and Pendlebury and the Urban Districts of Irlam and Worsley.
7. However, it was the coming of the Industrial Revolution some two centuries earlier that really established the physical, social and economic status of the City. Throughout the 19th century, Salford's industry continued to expand and diversify. In 1800 it was estimated that the population of the `old' Salford was 7,000 - by 1900 that had increased to 220,000. This rapid increase was hardly exceeded anywhere else in the country and resulted in vast areas of back to back `slum' housing. The scene in Salford in the first half of the 20th century has been vividly depicted in books such as, `The Classic Slum', `Love on the Dole' and `A Taste of Honey' and portrayed on canvass by L.S. Lowry.
8. In the 1960s and 70s, the City Council undertook a massive slum clearance and house re-building programme. Whilst this transformed physical conditions, underlying social problems were to emerge which were exacerbated by significant increases in unemployment which peaked in January 1986 at 20%, with some wards in the City as high as 40%.
A Profile of the City Today
9. Salford today has a population of approximately 224,300. The black and ethnic minority population in the 1991 census is 2.18% though there is evidence that this understates the current position. The age profile of the city is set out in the figure below.
10. Within easy access of trans-pennine and west coast motorway intersections, the City enjoys excellent road, rail and air links. The modern tram service - Metrolink - provides an efficient and environmentally friendly link between Eccles, Salford Quays and Manchester City Centre.
11. The current unemployment rate is 3.8%, though some wards including Broughton and Blackfriars are experiencing rates of over 8%. Long term employment is a particular concern with current rates at 13% for the City. We have experienced a 21% employment increase from 1991 to 1998, compared to 4% for Greater Manchester and 8.2% nationally. The City is acknowledged for its highly successful and innovative regeneration programme with notably successes in Salford Quays, Trinity and Chapel Street. This has been supported by the attraction of significant levels of external resources - (over £220 million in the last five years supporting our physical and social regeneration programmes). Furthermore, it has been calculated that The Lowry has attracted £300m of public and private sector investment into the area since 1996 and that a further £250m of investment is already in progress for completion over the next four years.
12. Deprivation and poverty in the City are still major causes for concern. The 2000 Local Index of Deprivation placed the City as the 28th most deprived authority in England and Wales. Of the 20 wards in Salford, the 2000 index revealed that 8 wards were in the worst 7% nationally and a total of 15 were in the worst 20%. Further to this:
· For income deprivation, 8 wards were in the worst 7% nationally and a total of 15 were in the worst 20%.
· For child poverty, 7 wards were in the worst 7% nationally and 12 wards were in the worst 20%.
· For a series of health indicators, 13 wards were in the worst 7% nationally and 19 wards were in the worst 20%
· In the 1998 Standard Mortality Rates, 3 wards have a SMR rates over 200, 6 wards have SMR rates between 150 – 199, 9 wards have rates between 100 – 150 and only 2 wards fall below national average of 100.
· Crime rates for Salford show that it ranks consistently high for burglary and vehicle crime compared to other local authorities and the rate of youth offending is the second highest in Greater Manchester.
Our Approach to Service Delivery
13. "Innovation", "working in partnership" and "working with our communities" are three distinctive approaches we use to help us achieve our objectives. This is illustrated with some examples below.
Innovation
14. Despite facing massive social challenges and against a background of financial constraints, Salford has consistently sought to be innovative and creative, some examples in recent times include;
· Pathfinder status for Regeneration and E-Government utilising new technology;
· a national pilot for Homeswaps;
· the early establishment of a city wide strategic partnership;
· establishment of Job Shops to remove barriers to unemployment and reduce unemployment;
· establishment of special unit to tackle crime in the City – the Community Safety Unit;
· piloting Participatory Appraisal (PA) in New Deal for Communities;
· piloting and rolling out Witness Support services;
· developing joined up services with the NHS and PCT including learning disability services and a joint forum for delivering and planning children’s services.
Working in Partnership
15. The City Council and its partners recognise that we cannot tackle the issues facing the City by working separately. The Salford Partnership (established since 1994) is now fully accredited by Government as Salford's Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) and has produced the City's first Community Plan. The Plan provides a clear vision of what all partners want to achieve for the City and our Strategic and Best Value Performance Plan (BVPP) sets out the activity the City Council aims to deliver, which will in turn contribute to the achievement of the overall Community Plan.
16. We have established and are continuing to develop joint working with our partners in the health services. This includes the joint appointment of a new Director of Public Health and the proposed co-location of Health and Council services in key locations across the City through SHIFT and LIFT. We have a number of joint venture partnerships with the private sector to bring investment into the City, as in Higher Broughton and Chapel Street.
Working with our Communities
17. In 1992, the City Council developed a Community Strategy aimed at ensuring that local people participate in local decision-making and shape local service delivery. This placed Salford at the forefront of developing models of community participation. The City has been divided into 9 service delivery areas, a Community Committee serves each area, and these are now well established. Local Community Action Plans with local priorities have been developed together with devolved budgets of £1 per head of population that allow the Community Committees to progress their Action Plans. More recently Community Committees have begun playing a crucial role in terms of scrutinising and advising on local service delivery.
18. The Community Strategy is integral to Salford Partnership's Community Plan and is the main vehicle for translating strategic partnership policy into action on the ground.
Resource Constraints
19. Despite the levels of deprivation outlined in paragraph 12, Salford has been constrained in recent years by lower than average SSA increases (despite increases in demand e.g. services for young people and the elderly). To exemplify the under-resource, if Salford had received the average SSA increase over the last four years, this would have resulted in additional funding now equating to £13.5m per annum, which could have been used either to enhance services or reduce the Council Tax by approximately £200.
20. In August 2000 a fundamental review of the main issues facing the City Council and the impact they would have on service delivery was undertaken (and subsequently reported in the press!). The outcome was to begin a programme of positive change refocusing on certain basic principles:-
· living within our means
· investing in priorities
· funding quality services at a price we can afford
· being visionary
· supporting our staff
21. Demand for capital investment also outweighs the resources available to us. We use our Capital Investment Strategy to provide a framework for forward planning, prioritisation and decision making. Our Capital Investment Strategy received a "good" rating from Government Office for the North West. The Strategy in turn is informed by the Asset Management Plan and linked to the objectives and priorities of the City Council.
22. Set against a background of limited local authority resources, the public are demanding instant and quality services - which they have every right to expect and which this Council is committed to deliver. That is why our Mission is to:-
"Create the best possible quality of life for the people of Salford".
SECTION 2 - THE ASSESSMENT CRITERIA
CRITERIA 1 - WHAT THE COUNCIL IS TRYING TO ACHIEVE
(a) Ambition and Prioritisation
In seeking to achieve our mission statement, we have tried to develop a clear vision for the City to identify what can be achieved in the short and long term and how we and our partners will contribute to our joint goals. We strive to display active, visible and effective management and leadership, recognised by staff, members, partners and stakeholders. The City Council and partners (through the Salford Partnership) are enthusiastic and committed to achieving the priorities set.
(b) Strategic Plans
23. Since the mid 1990's the Council has recognised the need to balance national and strategic goals alongside local priorities. Recognising the benefits of setting clear priorities and working with partners to develop a joint agenda for change, we subsequently produced our first regeneration strategy, `Building Sustainable Communities' (1998). This strategy was nationally recognised by Government and the City was awarded Pathfinder status (only 22 authorities achieved this).
24. The City's first Strategic Plan for service delivery was produced in 1997 and it set out an ambitious ten year programme for change. Achievements, targets and milestones were subsequently updated in 1999. We combined our Strategic Plan and BVPP in 2001. Later that year, the City Council launched six pledges to drive and focus on key issues. The 2002 BVPP integrates details of our Pledges, Community Plan, and our Public Service Agreement. The synergy between national and our local priorities is shown in figure x.
(c) Communicating our Pledges
25. The Pledges are the key drivers for the City. They have been widely communicated across all Council Directorates and services, e.g.
· The Council's newsletter (Salford People) was distributed to every household in summer 2001;
· Every employee has received an individual copy of the Pledges and their targets;
· The Pledges are on our web site;
· Banners and posters have been erected across the City so that our citizens are aware of the commitments we are making in terms of service delivery.
(d) Public Service Agreement
41. Salford has negotiated a Local Public Service Agreement with Government under the theme of `Growing our Future'. This `stretches' 12 performance indicators set out in the Strategic and Best Value Performance Plan, again tackling areas of national and local concern.
(e) Prioritisation - How we arrived at our Six Pledges
Our Base – we have used a composite of different sources to build our priorities. This includes the Indices of Deprivation for 1998 and 2000, responding to national directives such as the National Strategy of Neighbourhood Renewal and the need to improve educational standards and environmental conditions. In addition, we have used the experience garnered from the implementation of regeneration programmes and policy across the City.
Building on this – we use the local Community Action Plans developed and endorsed by our 9 Community Committees to inform us of the desires and wishes of residents and service users. To support this we also consult with our extensive network of tenant associations and key strategic partners on priorities in their business plans.
Adding to this – a variety of consultative techniques have been employed on special issues. This includes crime and disorder, where all households were invited to comment on the Crime and Disorder Reduction Strategy and regeneration where Participatory Appraisal (PA) has been adopted (this work received special commendations from the government’s Neighbourhood Renewal Unit.) Additionally, there has been service user consultation and a quality of life survey.
Overlaid with – performance information on our own services, for example Performance Indicators and Best Value Review feedback;
Wrapped around all of the above is our own knowledge of national priorities including the government’s national floor targets.
This is set against the background that we accept we cannot do everything at once. We recognise the need to plan in the short, medium and longterm. An example where we have achieved short term improvements is in March 2002, following a poor Benefit Fraud Inspection Report, we have implemented 60% of the recommendations. The verification framework has been implemented and the administration has been centralised. This has resulted in a significant improvement in performance.
Other improvements take longer to achieve largely due to the need for structural change, such as setting up an Arms Length Management Organisation for our Housing Services and transferring services out to Trusts.