The SalfordCity Council Plan

Our Corporate Plan 2010–2013

Creating the best possible quality of life

Contents / page
Foreword from the Leader and Chief Executive / 2
The council’s vision / 3
About this plan / 3
About Salford / 5
Beyond Salford / 6
Part one: Improving quality of life
Improving health in Salford (pledge 1) / 7
Reducing crime in Salford (pledge 2) / 9
Encouraging learning, leisure and creativity in Salford (pledge 3) / 11
Investing in young people in Salford (pledge 4) / 13
Promoting inclusion in Salford (pledge 5) / 15
Creating prosperity in Salford (pledge 6) / 17
Enhancing life in Salford (pledge 7) / 19
Part two: Improving as an organisation
One council - our values / 21
Think efficiency / 23
Financing our improvements / 24
Workforce development / 27
Research and intelligence / 28
Corporate change programme / 29
Strategic risk management / 30

Foreword by the Leader of the Council and the Chief Executive

Over the past year the council has been well-placed to respond to the recession and has developed programmes with our partners to ease the burden of the effects of the recession on residents where possible. However we are very aware that residents, young people and businesses in the city continue to face difficulties, which are now compounded by the severe cuts planned by the new government.

There is a clear mandate to reduce public spendingin the next three years and the in year reductions announced require this council to cut £3.5 million from its budget in 2010/11. Next year will be even harder for the public sector and the council and its partners will need to redouble efforts to achieve the vision that Salford, by 2024, will be a beautiful and welcoming city, driven by energetic and engaged communities of highly skilled, healthy and motivated residents.

We remain committed to making that vision real. In 2009/10, the council’s Cabinet Work Plan focused on helping people through the recession and that work will continue. In 2010/11 the Cabinet Work Plan, Beyond the Recession, focuses on issues still affecting the quality of life for our residents, young people and businesses. The four themes include ‘tackling child poverty’ an issue that the recession has particularly affected and which gives the council and its partners real concern, as this coupled with budget cuts in welfare and state benefits, brings more children and young people into poverty. The second theme affected by the recession concerns itself with community cohesion and there is a real need to gain back momentum and strengthen the work in this area.

The third theme is delivering services fit for people and the fourth theme is ensuring that residents, young people and businesses of Salford engage in the opportunities presented by MediaCityUK.

The Corporate Plan guarantees the delivery of the Cabinet Work Plan. This document outlines the functions and business plans which will ensure the right focus to ensure the delivery of the four strategic themes contained within the Cabinet Work Plan in conjunction with organisational development, performance management and continuous improvement of service delivery.

City Region status and the creation of a Combined Authority are the next steps in our evolution as a centre for business and prosperity. More devolved powers will mean that we are able to work together across a greater area to make better decisions about our collective future and will ensure that key issues are dealt with at the most appropriate spatial levels. We will work effectively together for the economic benefit of everyone who lives and works in Greater Manchester. We will be joining forces with other councils, businesses and public services to deliver collaborative programmes to achieve savings whilst providing a better service.

As the council budgets tighten, we remain committed to making improvements and continued efficiency drives will help to balance budgets. It is clear that there is a lot more to do in Salford to ensure that all that live and work in Salford receive the high quality services and value for money from the council.

Councillor John Merry,Barbara Spicer,

Leader of the CouncilChief Executive

The council’s vision

It is the council’s ambition to create the best possible quality of life for the people of Salford. We will do this by improving our own services and by leading Salford’s Strategic Partnership, Partners IN Salford, which provides strategic direction to help public, private, community and voluntary sector organisations work together effectively.

About this plan

The Salford City Council Corporate Plan sets out priorities and areas for improvement for 2010–2013. It outlines the council’s key activities to deliver on the things that matter to the people of Salford.

We have organised the corporate plan into two parts:

  • Part one: Providing the best possible quality of life - our activities and ambitions are arranged under the council’s pledges, which reflect what local people in Salford have told us are most important to them.
  • Part two: Improving as an organisation –responding to change, more value for money, developing our workforce, and ensuring that everyone can access our services.

This plan and other plans

This plan outlines what the council will do to improve our performance over the next three years.

The council’s Cabinet Work Plan details what we will do in this financial year (2010/11)to help people in Salford beyond the recession, showing activities that feature in the business plans of the council’s directorates.

The Corporate Plan, the Cabinet Work Plan and business plans all make clear how the council will contribute to the Partners IN Salford vision, which is set out in the city’s Sustainable Community Strategy – Connecting People to Opportunities 2009-24:

“In 2024, Salford will be a beautiful and welcoming city, driven by energetic and engaged communities of highly skilled, healthy and motivated citizens, who have built a diverse and prosperous culture and economy which encourages and recognises the contribution of everyone, for everyone.”

To achieve this vision, the partnership has adopted themes to organise its work. The council’s pledges reflect those themes.

Sustainable Community Strategy / Council pledges
A healthy city / Improving health
A safe city / Reducing crime
A learning and creative city / Encouraging leisure andcreativity
A city where children and young people are valued / Investing in youngpeople
An inclusive city / Promoting inclusion
An economically prosperous city / Creating prosperity
A city that’s good to live in / Enhancing life

The Salford Agreement 2008-11, our local area agreement, sets out the partnership’s 23 priorities for improvement over these three years.

The Local Development Framework is the city’s main set of planning policies and is central to our aim to deliver sustainable communities. The framework’s Core Strategy sets out the plan for use of land, how the city should develop, and how to protect and enhance the city’s environment over the next 20 years.

As well as aligning Salford’s aims and objectives to regional and sub-regional frameworks, we actively contribute to the delivery of nationally set performance and outcome frameworks, such as Every Child Matters and the seven national outcomes for adult social care.

Each council directorate develops a business plan that shows how it contributes to national, regional and local priorities. We will continue to refine our business planning processes to ensure close alignment with the Greater Manchester Strategy.

The links between the plans are shown in this diagram:

About Salford

Salford covers around 38 square miles to the west of Manchester city centre. It stretches from the very heart of Manchester out to the countryside. Its location at the hub of motorway and rail networks links it to the other city regions in the North, particularly Leeds and Liverpool, and to Europe and beyond as part of the North West European Trade Axis. It is only ten miles from Manchester International Airport, and its position as an economic hub is also strengthened by assets such as the Manchester Ship Canal and City Airport Manchester at Barton.

Population

Salford is home to over 225,000 people and projections indicate that the population will continue to grow in the future. The population profile will change, with a larger older population, and a more diverse population.

The 2001 census showed 3.87% of the population of the city as non-white. In 2007, the Office of National Statistics revised this to 7.99%. The data from our schools census suggests a continuing trend towards diversity: only 85.5% of Salford pupils were white British in 2010 compared to 96.8% in 2001.

Some communities of identity live in particular areas, such as the 10,000 Orthodox Jewish people in East Salford, the Yemeni community in Eccles and the Irish Traveller community in Little Hulton. Salford has a large student population concentrated in East Salford, particularly Irwell Riverside and Kersal wards, as shown by the relatively high proportions of young people there. Students’ transience creates particular challenges in these areas for improving environmental quality, community cohesion and access to services.

The city’s challenges

The council and its partners face different service needs and aspirations in different parts of the city. Salford’s central location in the conurbation strengthens its economic position but also presents challenges in terms of environmental sustainability and quality of life, and above all high social deprivation. In contrast, towards the west, Salford becomes increasingly suburban and rural with some of the most affluent parts of Greater Manchester, though there are also some of the most deprived communities in England here. The city has major tourism, heritage and waterside attractions. 35% of Salford is green belt land, all of which is in the west of the city.

One of the key challenges for the city is to narrow the gap between people living in deprived areas and the rest of the population. Salford is the fifteenth most deprived local authority area in the country as measured by the Index of Multiple Deprivation 2007. This is an improvement from twelfth in 2004, but still means that Salford is within the 5% most deprived areas in the country and second in Greater Manchester.

The Income Deprivation Indices for children and older people show that the most deprived live in three wards: Broughton, Ordsall and Langworthy. The 2001 Census indicated that 22.82% of the population had a limiting long term illness. However, this was not distributed evenly across the city, with a figure of 16.94% in Worsley, rising to 29.22% in Langworthy.

In some areas, the council’s response to deprivation involves regeneration such as the Salford West programme. In other areas, neighbourhood management ensures we listen and respond to community priorities and for three areas in the city we are participating in the Greater Manchester Life Chances pilots to improve life chances and outcomes for people facing multiple disadvantages.

Part of our response to tackling deprivation is ensuring that everyone can benefit from the major opportunities that the city enjoys. Our Housing Market Renewal and linked investment programmes enable us to continue major improvements to housing in Ordsall, Lower Broughton, Higher Broughton, Charlestown, Lower Kersal, Pendleton, Seedley and Langworthy. Our transfer of council housing in west Salford to the new City West organisation has allowed a multi-million pound decent homes programme supported by investment in schools, community facilities and open spaces.

The Salford West Strategic Regeneration Framework 2008-2028 identified the challenges and opportunities for the western two-thirds of the city. The area is looking to major investment in employment, schools and transport. We are tackling deprivation by opening up access to greenspace and waterside, heritage and tourism through the BridgewaterCanal. We are addressing post industrial decline through environmental improvements on the Liverpool Road corridor. Current activity provides a focus on town centres working to reinvigorate them and carve out new sustainable roles.

Multiple deprivation means that there are significant challenges for public services in improving quality of life for all residents. We must work in partnership to improve health, safeguard children and vulnerable adults and provide services which meet the varied needs of individuals in Salford.

Beyond Salford

Salford operates as part of the wider city region of Greater Manchester, within the North West and within a context and policy framework influenced by national government across England and the United Kingdom.

We are committed to improving the lives of people in Salford. Sometimes this means we need to focus on very local and individual needs. At other times we need to work much more widely with neighbouring authorities, other cities and with national partners to ensure the best results for residents locally.

Greater Manchester

The Greater Manchester City Region is economically the largest outside London and accounts for half of the North West’s total economic output. The ten local authorities in the city region won agreement from the previous government to extend their collective powers to improve the economy and environment. They are now in discussion with the new government about implementing that agreement.

Salford sits at the heart of the city region, making a significant contribution to its overall economic success. In turn the city will benefit from the city region’s further success. Salford’s contribution is in part driven by its proximity to Manchester and the fact that it effectively shares part of Manchester city centre. The main shopping area is in Manchester, but the part of the city centre which stretches into Salford offers further non-retail employment and residential opportunities.

The Greater Manchester Strategy expresses the city region’s ambitions for improvement, with these strategic priorities:

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  • Early years
  • Better life chances
  • The highly skilled
  • Attracting talent
  • Transport
  • The economic base
  • International connectivity
  • A low carbon economy
  • The housing market
  • Effective governance
  • Sense of place

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This Corporate Plan include examples of how Salford contributes to the Greater Manchester Strategy.

Part one: Improving quality of life

Improving health in Salford (pledge 1)

The council pledges to improve the health of individuals and communities in Salford, working with partners to improve life chances and promote healthy lifestyles. We will improve and redesign services to maximise access and to reduce inequalities. Poor health has an impact on the ability of communities to lead quality lives and to take up employment and skills opportunities.

Current position

  • Life expectancy in Salford is lower than average for England– people in Salford tend to live two years less than the national average.
  • Salford’s teenage pregnancy rate is higher than the regional and national averages and is not reducing as it is elsewhere.
  • Two thirds of adults and a quarter of children in Salford are overweight or obese. Without action, this will increase by 2050 to over 80% of adults and nearly 50% of children.
  • Smoking is still the largest cause of preventable ill health and premature death in Salford and is directly linked to life expectancy. About a third of adults in Salford smoke.
  • Nearly half of all people claiming Incapacity Benefit in Salford do so for mental health reasons, 10% higher than the England average.
  • An estimated 2,266 people in Salford have dementia and this number is expected to increase to over 2,461 over the next 15 years because of the ageing population.
  • Salford has the ninth highest rate for hospital admissions for alcohol related harm in England.

What we did between April 2009 and March 2010

  • We worked in neighbourhoods to promote healthy lifestyles, for example through stop smoking events, healthy eating cookery classes and health walks and provided healthy and nutritious meals in support of a ”meals on wheels service” for the elderly.
  • 5,000 people took part in council organised events and activities which involved at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity, for example health walks, cycle rides and conservation volunteering.
  • Environmental Services created the City’s first outdoor gym in Ordsall Park in partnership with the Primary CareTrust.
  • The council continues to implement the Parks for People Strategy, to improve the variety of leisure activities in parks.
  • We launched the Eats4U initiative in schools to encourage the further take-up of healthy school meals in support of the healthy weight strategy and provided 2.5 million healthy school meals in primary schools and secondary schools.
  • In the cold snap in January, staff volunteered during the evenings and at weekends, providing services and information to residentsand supporting operation Cold Call to contact over 1,300 older people to check that they had food, heating and medicine.
  • We opened the Humphrey Booth Resource Centre, a centre of excellence for dementia and national demonstrator site.

In 2010/11 the council wants to improve health in Salford and will: / Complete by
2010
Provide a more efficient major adaptations service for customers needing equipment in their homes. / October
Re-tender domiciliary care contract process to promote personalisation. (Cabinet Work Plan). / October
Support and assess the remaining 20% of schools to achieve National Healthy Schools Status. / December
Implement the Affordable Warmth Strategyand develop the Affordable Warmth Strategy Action Plan 2010 – 2016. / December
Hold at least 12 healthy living awareness sessions for older people in the community through sheltered housing sites. (Cabinet Work Plan) / December
2011
Assist 100 vulnerable residents to take up government Warmfront grants, and emergency heating grants to reduce winter deaths. / March
Create 14 new outdoor gym facilities in parks. / March
Develop contraception and sexual health services to reduce teenage pregnancy rates. / March
Provide tailored information and signposting to ‘at risk’ Change 4 Life families through the Call Centre and Advice Team to encourage healthy weight and physical activity. / March
Implement, and drive the implementation by other partners of, the Healthy Weight Strategy. (Greater Manchester Strategy) / March
Draw up and implement a parks and open spaces strategy to include volunteering opportunities for the public and a parks events programme that encourages participation from all members of the community. / March
Continue the expansion of the Ranger Service to support work with the PCT on health improvement and to promote inter-generational events within parks and open spaces. / March
Increase the number of allotments plots to promote healthy food and to increase opportunities for physical activities. / March
Implement the decent homes programme. / March
Between 2011-13 the council will:
  • Further reduce teenage conceptions.
  • Continue to improve services to support improved emotional health and well-being.
  • Support the 2011-12 implementation plan for the Healthy Weight Strategy.

Reducing crime in Salford (pledge 2)