www.northtyneside.gov.uk
CAA
Comprehensive Area Assessment
Organisational Self Assessment
horizons widening
Introduction from Andrew Kerr, Chief Executive
Over the past few years, North Tyneside Council has been on a journey of rapid improvement. As you’ll see throughout this document, we’ve combined the achievement of record efficiency savings with proven service improvement and big increases in customer satisfaction. We’re in the fourth year of our value for money and efficiency programme. By the end of this year, cumulative savings of over £50 million will have been achieved and built into the Council’s base budget. Our Children’s Services have been rated as amongst the best in the country. Previously poor performing services like Adult Social Care have improved radically, moving Adult Social Care from a One-Star to a Three-Star rating. Our service improvements have led to big improvements in customer satisfaction over the past few years. Overall satisfaction with the Council increased from 56% in January 2007 to 69% in January 2009, which is above national performance.The percentage of residents who believe that the Council gives good value for money increased from 33% in January 2007 to 43% in January 2009. This is among the best performances of the comparators used for the Residents’ Survey. While we’re rightly proud of everything we’ve achieved to date, we’re always dedicated to getting better.Working with our new Elected Mayor and Cabinet, we’re prioritising areas where we need to deliver more for less.We already think we’re one of the best places to live in the country and we’re confident that together we’ll soon be one of the best councils in the country.
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About the Council
About the council
The motto of the Council is ‘we serve’ and we’re proud to serve a borough where the population is growing.This demonstrates what people who live in North Tyneside already know: this is a fantastic place to live.We share the pride of all North Tynesiders in our attractive coastline, our industrial heritage and our strong and diverse economy. We have 20 wards, with 60 Councillors. Unlike most authorities, North Tyneside has a directly Elected Mayor.This means we can have a Mayor who does not have a majority on the Council and this was the situation until the Mayoral election in June.We now have a Mayor supported by a majority in Council. Over 9,000 people currently work for North Tyneside Council and 69% of them live in the borough.We have 21 service areas divided between four Strategic Directorates and the Chief Executive’s Office.
“It’s great to meet a council that are so commercially aware.’ ” Sainsbury’s July 2009
“Words can hardly express my pleasure at seeing it! It’s beautiful, enlightening, absolutely perfect for the space, …” About the art at Quadrant
According to our annual residents’ survey, seven in ten people (69%) are very/fairly satisfied with the way the Council runs things, up 5 percentage points since 2008. Almost nine in ten people are satisfied (86%) with their local area as a place to live, in line with the previous survey from 2008 (87%). 64% of people agree that the quality of Council services is good overall while more agree than disagree that the Authority provides value for money (43% versus 26%). Seven in ten (72%) residents say they feel informed by North Tyneside Council about the services and benefits it provides.
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What we’re most proud of this year
Making significant progress on regeneration: this included the further expansion of Cobalt Business Park, with new business including Formica; improving our cultural offer with Waves (Whitley Bay Leisure Pool), new parks, the new skate park and Whitley Bay Playhouse; reconnecting communities with our work on Burn Closes Bridge and rapid progress on the Decent Homes Standard. It involved a record £108 million spend. Capacity building within the borough: this included bringing in significant investment on future developments for the Borough such as Older People's Homes for the Future; our Economic Resilience Initiative supporting the capacity of the borough through the economic downturn; our work on Construction and Housing Repair Joint Venture and supporting businesses and residents during the downturn, for example by being one of first authorities to offer the Mortgage Rescue Scheme. Improved performance: this included significant improvements in community satisfaction and continued significant improvement in Adult Social Care performance. Improved environmental impact: this included reversing the growth in waste and reducing the waste produced by 40kg per head in 2008-09; increasing recycling with our new recycling scheme which delivered 83,776 new bins and resulted in doubling the amount of recycling waste collected from households in the first month of its full rollout and the impact of the Big Spring Clean campaign, which removed 1804 tonnes of rubbish and involved 28 groups from local communities. Our internal improvements: including our efficiency savings, the move to better, more efficient accommodation at Quadrant and our improved Individual Performance Review.
North Tyneside Fact:
197,000 people live in North Tyneside and we’re the only place in Tyne and Wear expecting population growth.
“The mobile steps in the pool are very good. I have severe arthritis. They are excellent and much appreciated.” Lakeside Centre
“Thank you for making this a memorable occasion.” Registrars
Our regional activity: including leading on Employment and Skills and leading the Regional Improvement and Efficiency Partnership work on social care and engagement.
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Improving how the Council works internally
We’re focussed on improving service delivery and quality of life for our residents.We know that to deliver for our residents we need to work well as an organisation.That’s why we’ve identified things we don’t do as well as we should and are aiming to improve them. Our Human Resource (HR) management has not been sufficiently strategic in the past. Building on our work over the past few years, our HR strategic blueprint outlines the areas we need to improve. We’re going to modernise our terms and conditions; simplify our HR policies and procedures; integrate HR information with payroll and finance data; reduce bureaucracy and drive management accountability.We need to continue to work to make sure we cope well with the consequences of Job Evaluation and ensure we have an organisation which is fit for purpose.
We’re improving our approach to equalities and diversity and expect to reach Level 3 of the Local Government Equality Standard this year. Health and Safety has previously been a weakness, but although we’re still not where we want to be, we’re making considerable progress.We’ve comprehensively reviewed our approach and have a new management framework in place.We’ve made a significant investment in additional training for managers. Accident reporting was historically quite poor and a new reporting system is enabling better monitoring across the Council.
High quality performance management is essential both to understand how the Council is doing and to enable us to plan services effectively for the future.We need to strengthen our performance management as, although we have some good arrangements, standards are not consistent across the authority. Our new monitoring scorecards are helping to develop a corporate approach. As part of our five-year business plan, we’re developing a new strategy to ensure every area of the council manages its performance consistently.
“… could you pass on to Norcraft service users and staff our enormous thanks for their excellent work. We would certainly recommend them for their excellent customer service … “ Norcraft
“It is incredibly helpful for you to have provided such a fast response, which goes way beyond what I might have hoped to receive ... Many, many thanks.” Customer Liaison Office
“… they were very good at this job. The jobs they did were very good. No mess. I had nothing to do but sit and watch. Very good workers.” NT Homes
Having identified pockets of poor data quality, we’ve worked hard to improve and are now convinced that our strong cross-Council arrangements will deliver high quality data for the future. A crossCouncil Information Governance group has put new arrangements in place, including process mapping performance indicators to make sure we know how they are calculated.We’re also begun developing understandings with our partners which ensure we know how they obtain, process and store their data. Our 2007 CPA assessment said that,‘poor behaviour among a minority of councillors takes up too much officer time and affects the reputation of the Council.’ While the politics of North Tyneside are robust and challenging, we believe this does not have a negative impact on the authority’s ability to deliver improved outcomes for the borough.
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Transparency and Information Governance
In the past, we haven’t always been perceived as a transparent organisation and we want to ensure that in the future the public has the information it needs to hold the Council to account. We’ve begun by inviting members of all parties to sit on our Audit Panel. Previously only members of Cabinet sat on the panel and the new arrangements mean more effective assurance for the Council. We’re the first authority in the area to publish a Freedom of Information disclosure log, ensuring everyone can access the answers to FOI requests on our website. Over 500 people accessed the log in its first month online.We’ll soon begin publishing statistics on our performance in responding to information requests on the website (we delayed doing this until we had the recommended format from the Ministry of Justice).
“… what a great new website for the council, much easier to navigate! The marriage matching of certificates is also brilliant for family history assistance.” Web design team and Registrar
“Thank you for your prompt reply, couldn’t have asked for a better service.” Information Governance Team
We were one of the first local authorities in the country to sign up to the Information Commissioner’s Information Promise, which commits us to the highest quality handling of personal information. We were the first authority in the region to be accredited with Government Connect’s CoCo connection.This means we have rigorous information security processes and ICT controls. We’re about to begin publishing quarterly details of all Councillors’ expenses. Our online Information Observatory has been launched. It provides online data and information about the borough, ensuring everyone has access to the most up to date statistics the council is using. We’re going to keep increasing the amount of data and information we publish there. Over 300 people viewed the Observatory in its first month of operation.
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Our families and children
All Children and Families Services are rated as at least good and the percentage of our schools rated good or outstanding by Ofsted is higher than both the national average and similar authorities.The percentage rated as good or outstanding are: primary schools, 71%, secondary schools, 79%, sixth forms, 82% and special schools, 83%. We’re investing in new schools and children’s buildings across the borough. A new special school, Beacon Hill, described in its first Ofsted report as having ‘many outstanding features’, and three new Children’s Centres have opened.Work has been completed on the new building for Monkseaton High School, which will open in October. Last year our exam results at all key stages were above the national average.We’re just starting to get very provisional results for this year’s exams. At A-Level, both average point score per entry and average point score per student have improved from 2008 to 2009, with average point score per entry up by 9.4 points. Our GCSE results have risen for the fourth year running. 54% of pupils gained five or more A*- C grades including Maths and English, an increase of 4% on last year. Our provisional Key Stage 2 results show a slight dip from last year, which has taken us marginally below the national average.We are still waiting for around 100 Key Stage 2 papers to be remarked. Attendance in our schools continues to be better than the national average and permanent exclusion rates are currently zero. 87% of users are satisfied with our secondary schools, up 6% on last year. We’re one of only a few areas offering the full range of 14-19 diplomas and this is part of our plans to increase attainment. Achievement of Level 2 (GCSE or equivalent) by 19 has gone up by eight percent in five years. However, we’re not meeting our targets for attainment of Level 3 (A-Level or equivalent) qualifications by 19. We’re working with partners on plans for a learning village in Wallsend, which will deliver high-quality Higher Education within the Borough. We have done innovative work with our partners to consider a whole system transformation of education, linked to our Building Schools for the Future plans.
North Tyneside Fact:
Around 30,000 children and young people attend schools in North Tyneside
“… your enthusiasm for this project is inspirational …” Safeguarding
“I have attended Boogie Books at Forest Hall library today. I was very impressed with the effort and high quality of this event. The librarians were all very enthusiastic and encouraged the children to participate …” Serving Communities - Libraries
We’re strongly committed to our corporate parenting role, ensuring that our Looked After Children and care leavers have the support they need. For example, we pay the fees and living expenses of Looked after Children who progress to Higher Education.We’re also exploring how we can be an employer of care leavers through apprenticeships. 90% of Looked After Children achieve a qualification at the end of year 11.This is more than any other authority in England.
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“Party at soft play for my two year olds’ birthday was brilliant. All children really enjoyed it. Party room decorated brilliant as well a great time had by all.” The Parks
“I just wanted to write and say thank you so much for a fantastic day on Wednesday. The students and staff had a fantastic time I think it was a really enriching visit for all involved.” Rising Sun Country Park
“Well-organised and nice clean surroundings, the staff were very courteous and really helpful.” Marden Bridge Sports Centre
We’re piloting innovative programmes to improve the lives of children in the borough, including: • 0-7 Partnership Pilot: This looks at exploring different ways to help young children and their families, especially as they make the transition from early years to school. • Right 2 B Cared 4: This gives young people aged 16 the right to stay in their residential setting up to the age of 18. • Aiming High - Transforming Short Breaks for Families with Disabled Children Pathfinder: This will improve short break care opportunities for children and young people with special needs. • ‘Find Your Talent’: This initiative gives young people the chance to encounter a range of high-quality cultural experiences for five hours a week and is delivered both in schools and professional art settings. It is a partnership project with Customs House Theatre and South Tyneside Council. We’re one of ten authorities designated as a special educational needs hub of best practice. We’re developing 28 public play areas and an adventure playground. Seven new playsites have already been built and eleven refurbished, with children and young people contributing to their design. The playsite at Whitley Park won a Local Government News award and was particularly praised for considering the needs of children and the local community. However, as in most areas, resident and young people satisfaction surveys still show concerns over the facilities available for young people and this will be an ongoing focus. We’re also regenerating our four main parks.We’ve got stage 1 approval for a £3m Heritage Lottery Fund grant to support our plans for Wallsend Parks. We’ve dramatically improved quality and access to leisure services. We opened Waves, the redeveloped Whitley Bay Leisure Pool, on March 31st and it had 111,000 visitors by the end of June. We’ve achieved 4 QUEST accreditations (QUEST is the UK quality scheme for Sport and Leisure), retained our Green Flag Award for the Rising Sun Country Park and begun work on a swimming pool for Wallsend.We are the only Sports Development Team in Tyne and Wear to obtain Quest status.With a score of 77% we are in the highly commended category. Satisfaction among users of swimming pools has increased by 15% between 2007 and 2009.
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We offer free swimming to children under-17.These sessions are held at scheduled times and currently attract around 22,000 visits each year. Free swimming is part of a wider discount package for juniors.With an EASEcard they can also access Action clubs for 25p, trying activities like trampolining, football, badminton and multi sports across the borough. Over 100 children attend these on a weekly basis. Since 1st April 2009 over 60s have been swimming for free at pools across the borough.There have been over 9,000 visits in the first quarter, a 41% increase on the same time last year.This is part of our plans to help older people stay active and fit. We have issued over 85,000 EASE cards since the launch of the scheme in 2004 and in five years our Contours gym membership has increased from 900 to over 5000 live memberships in 2009. We also use EASE to target groups such as children in foster care and carers both young and old.We have a scheme currently operating where Looked After Children can access activities free of charge to help build confidence and activity. Our Globe Gallery is the only contemporary art gallery in the country hosting one of the Government's national ‘vinvolved’ programmes to encourage young people to undertake volunteering activities, and has already achieved double its target with over 1,700 people taking part.
“During these last few difficult months Sheila has given us great support. Her attitude is always to be helpful and nothing is too much trouble.You have an absolute star in your employment who treats everyone in the same helpful and approachable manner.” NT Homes
“A fantastic day. The children have thoroughly enjoyed it and learnt so much. Thank you. No improvements to suggest, everything was spot on.” Cultural Services
We’re investing £130 million in improving the quality of Council Housing for our tenants. In 2008/9 we upgraded 1,700 kitchens and bathrooms, and 2,210 heating systems.We’re also improving accommodation for vulnerable young people, for example at Maritime Court in Wallsend. Our survey of tenants showed that 78% of tenants are satisfied with the overall service provided by North Tyneside Homes.This is a 3% increase on the 2006 results and is above the national average of 69% for council tenants.
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“I am just writing to let you know how grateful I was when a member of your team Shirley Rowntree came out to discuss my case. She was very helpful, polite and explained everything in a very clear manner. I would just like to let you know that I really appreciated what she done for me, and would ask that you pass on my thanks once again to her.” Adult Social Care
“A very big thank you to all those who attended to my mam in her hours of need. Your service is invaluable to both people like my mam and also to their relatives, so on behalf of myself and my mam once again thank you very much you deserve a pat on the back (and a pay rise!).” Care Call
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Our Adult Social Care services have continued to improve, moving from a previous one-star rating to three-stars (the highest possible) in 2008/9.This is having a real impact on the communities we serve. For example, permanent admissions to residential-nursing care for older people have decreased by 21% since 2006.This means more people are able to remain in their own homes for longer. We’ve also reduced Occupational Therapy waiting times and maintained zero delayed discharges from hospitals. Our new contract for home care services focuses on the importance of time spent with clients, extending care slots from 15 minutes to 30 minutes where it’s needed.We’re also increasing the quality and capacity of residential care.The introduction of Personal Budgets for new customers from April 2009 allows customers and their carers to exercise choice and control over their support planning. Since 2007, user satisfaction with services for older people has improved by 19%, to 87%.
Economic prosperity
North Tyneside Fact:
Nearly 3,300 businesses in the borough provide around 60,000 jobs.
“Whitley Bay has been in need of financial help for some time and this has led to negative press for the area. Local businesses have been asking the council for help and North Tyneside Council has come up with the goods. They have offered an excellent grant for renovating the shop fronts and signage in the area, the application process was extremely simple and they have provided help and support throughout to ensure a quick and smooth claims procedure.” Pantrinis, local business
Whitley Bay, August 2009
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Like all areas, North Tyneside has felt the impact of the current economic downturn. So far though, the impact in North Tyneside has been much more limited than in other areas. Our Economic Resilience Initiative is both flexible and forward thinking.The initiative has three strands: employment support, business support and inward investment. Examples of activity under each strand include: Employment Support • Future Jobs Fund - national scheme worth £22 million to the Tyne and Wear City Region, obtained under the leadership of North Tyneside. Our share is £2.7 million and is expected to create 179 jobs by March 2010. • Raising Enterprise - we have secured an ERDF grant of £748,000, matched by the Council, to fund business start-ups in our disadvantaged areas by encouraging people to become entrepreneurs. Business Support • Retail Centre grants - supporting our towns as centres of commerce and employment with the introduction of a grant scheme to assist with capital expenditure.This has been welcomed by the retail community. • Hardship Rate Relief - to complement existing business support measures by setting up a Council fund to enable key businesses to receive significant business rates relief.This is to be targeted at businesses in key growth sectors and those located in or close to our disadvantaged areas. Inward Investment • Findus.This production plant closed in December 2008 with the loss of over 400 local jobs.We are leading a multi-agency response group to work with the new owners of the factory to secure national (capital) funding and assist with the recruitment and inhouse training of a new work-force. Current expectations are that the factory will re-open before the end of 2009. • Tesco Personal Finance.We are working with regional partners to secure up to 1,100 jobs in a new operation. An announcement by the Tesco Board is awaited. • Data City.We are working with Highbridge and Data City to create a nationally significant ICT facility.This will support highlevel IT employment and act as the catalyst for further high-value investment in related fields.
• Biomass Power Station. Plans to build a £500m wood-burning biomass energy plant in North Tyneside have been unveiled. It would provide electricity for 600,000 homes in the NE and create 150 permanent jobs. MGT Power, the firm behind the scheme, is now preparing to submit an application to the Department of Energy and Climate Change. Our Economic Resilience Initiative is having a demonstrable impact as the latest Job Seeker Allowance figures show that, at 4.9%, our unemployment rate remains the lowest in Tyne and Wear and below the regional average of 5.3%. We’ve a strong track record of delivering major regeneration and capital investment projects, such as the Battle Hill and Longbenton programmes and the new Waves leisure centre and refurbished Playhouse,Whitley Bay.We also have a very strong history of successfully attracting external funding, such as the investment in our Housing PFI/Older People’s Homes for the Future project, which will provide new or refurbished housing for 1000 older people. Our Strategic Investment Plan focuses our planning ten-years into the future.
“Not only was the rate relief a welcomed aid but it has also allowed us to enter into discussions of further investment into our plant … we cannot stress how grateful we are for the support and concern shown.” Architectural Doorsets Ltd, local business
Businesses find North Tyneside Council easy to work with. At Cobalt Business Park, we have attracted companies like Procter and Gamble, Orange and GE Money and over half of the current total of 9,000 jobs are held by local residents. Around 10,000 jobs have been generated to date in the A19 corridor, with this figure expected to rise to 15,000 by 2010. Our ambitious plans for the River Tyne North Bank are about to move into a further stage of consultation.The plans cover a 660 hectare area and we’re working with GVA Grimley on the regeneration. We’ve been awarded Housing Growth Point status, demonstrating our ability to accommodate additional housing and population growth. Our innovative Tyne Gateway partnership with South Tyneside Council, which has just started, aims to tackle the causes and effects of child poverty by training twenty parents to become 'community entrepreneurs'.
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“Thank you so much for yesterday, please pass on my thanks to Tony and the rest of your team for putting together a great day.” Sustainable Development Unit
We carried out a project on the Local Multiplier (LM3) to look at what happens to the money we spend. In 2005-06 North Tyneside Council spent approximately £115.2m on the procurement of goods and services. Every £1 spent within the borough resulted in the circulation of £1.72 in the local economy.This contrasts with spend outside the local area, which results in a benefit of only 25p to the local economy per £1 spent. Our Procurement Strategy therefore contains a commitment that the Council will work with local small/medium enterprises (SMEs) and the Third Sector to improve their ability to compete for contracts.We’re also committed, where possible, to sourcing local food. For example, the Council uses Northumbrian beef in its kitchens; locally sourced organic milk, fruit and vegetables in its leisure centres and buys locally grown plants and flowers. In the future we’ll be expanding the amount of local sourcing we do. We’re working hard with business to improve the retail offer in our town centres and we’re using external advice to support this. We’ve been looking at things like transport and movement in the town centres, to see how people travel to and move around shopping facilities.We’re keen to increase free car-parking in town centres, to help retailers compete with out of town shopping centres.
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A safer, cleaner, greener North Tyneside
“Now some housing groups are a bit nervous about using eviction notices – North Tyneside isn’t. But they don’t actually evict that many people; actually just serving a warning notice changes people’s behaviour.” Mike Craik, Chief Constable
29th August 2008
“I would like to praise the refuse collection team that collect in my area. They are always helpful, polite and happy. People complain about so much these days. I thought I would praise the great service they provide. Well done.” Clean Neighbourhoods
We’re working hard to improve the local environment, delivering litter campaigns, such as the Big Spring Clean, which led to the removal of 1,804 tonnes of rubbish. Our performance on NI 195a, which measures the number of surveyed streets with unacceptable levels of litter, improved from 17% in 2007-8 to 10% in 2008-9. We’ve also delivered significant improvements in grounds maintenance, including our increased grass cutting, and introduced new standards for floral displays, grass cutting and street cleansing, which tell residents what they can expect. Resident satisfaction with grounds maintenance rose by 11% this year and street cleansing by 5%. Overall calls to Envirolink, which residents use to report problems with street cleanliness, waste etc. have halved, a strong indicator of increased customer satisfaction.We’ve achieved 4 stars in the Clean Britain Awards and retained 3 Blue Flags for our beaches. We reduced the amount of waste going to landfill by 40kg per household in 2008/09. Our new recycling scheme with wheeled, lidded bins is proving very popular with residents. 83,776 new bins have been delivered and the amount of waste recycled doubled in the first full month of its roll out. Resident satisfaction with doorstep recycling has already increased by 9%. In the space of only five years, our recycling rate has increased by 659%.We’re also offering £30 cashback to parents who use real nappies instead of disposables, with 50 people getting this grant last year. The House of Objects at Rising Sun Country Park is unique in the North East and uses the internationally recognised Reggio Emilio model to combine creative recycling, the arts and early years practice. The Council is working in partnership with Newcastle City Council for reprocessing waste materials, providing procurement savings and a volume discount. Material from the two authorities is now being treated at a Material Reprocessing Facility in North Tyneside. Our 5:50:500 campaign was launched as part of World Environment Day. It sets out what we will do to be green and how we as a council will also help residents to do their bit.To date 65% of the 50 promises have been completed and the rest are on track. All our diesel vehicles now run on 5% bio-diesel and we’re trialling speed limiters on our vehicles, to further reduce emissions. At 6.9 tonnes of carbon emitted per person, we’re already well below the national average for carbon emissions.
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1500 members of staff now access IT through a Citrix thin client device, which offers a 50% power saving compared to a PC equivalent. It also enables users to log in from any site and secure access from home, which reduces fuel miles. We’re working with our partners to tackle our key crime targets of anti-social behaviour, violent crime and volume crime. Our projects have included: • The Youth Project – Right Trax - a 12-week GCSE equivalent course, making young people aware of their responsibilities in relation to safety and maintenance of motorbikes; • Positive Futures – bike maintenance initiative - a garage workshop at Wallsend Boys Club where young people can learn how to repair, restore and maintain pedal cycles; • Sanctuary Scheme - the provision and fitting of security equipment to help protect victims of repeat domestic violence who choose to stay in their home. We’ve also had joint visits by Trading Standards and Police to off-licence premises, and premises selling knives; the development of a graffiti tag database; a cocaine and alcohol misuse awareness campaign in pubs and clubs in Whitley Bay and Wallsend and a joint initiative between Police Community Support Officers and council staff to clear bonfire sites. In 2009, 55 bonfires consisting of 22 tonnes of waste were removed.
North Tyneside Fact:
The overall crime rate for North Tyneside is 62.6 per 1,000 population, well below the Tyne & Wear average of 81.9 per 1,000 population.
“Councils ‘Were Prepared for the Snow’. The LGA has highlighted examples of good practice in councils around the UK, citing North Tyneside Council which gritted 240 miles of road.” Clean neighbourhoods
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Getting more for less
This (2009/10) is the fourth year of our value for money and efficiency programme. By the end of the four-year period it is projected that cumulative savings of over £50m will have been achieved and built into the Council’s base budget. Since 2002/03 and the introduction of the mayoral system, we have spent within budget every financial year.That period has also seen a continuing strengthening of the council’s balance sheet, whilst at the same time major external financial pressures such as equal pay claims and the implementation of single status have been addressed. At the close of financial year 2008/09 the Council had total reserves of over £50m, the highest level ever shown on the balance sheet. We’ve a policy of continually assessing financial risk and taking prompt action to address any issues which could affect financial stability. Following the economic downturn of 2008 and the election of a new mayor, we’re currently undertaking a review of our financial position.This review is being undertaken to reflect the changing economic environment of the future and how the administration’s objectives are to be delivered within limited resources. It includes the ongoing implementation of our VFM programme, the capital programme and its financing, our revenue budget and our levels of reserves going forward. It covers both the short and long term to ensure that financial stability is assured and the borough’s residents get maximum value for each pound spent.
North Tyneside Fact:
We have more metro stations than any other part of Tyne and Wear.
“Thank you for all your kindness and excellent care looking after my sister.” Intermediate Care
In the short term we’re strengthening our strict budget management process, with the frequency of monitoring reports being increased from quarterly to bi-monthly.The 2010/11 to 2014/15 Business and Resource Planning Process which is now underway will, as usual, look in detail at Council and Mayoral priorities and available resources. We’ve radically changed the way we interface with the public, moving to a Hub and Spoke model of building provision.The Hub was completed this year when we expanded our new corporate headquarters, Quadrant, increasing the number of staff based at Quadrant from 1,000 to over 1,500. The Spoke part of our strategy is our new customer service centres, which bring together a range of Council and partner services under one roof, giving customers easier access with longer opening hours. Customer service centres at the White Swan Centre (Killingworth), and John Willie Sams Centre (Dudley) have opened recently.
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“I would like to congratulate your officer for the manner in which he dealt with our recent council tax problems. He was informative, courteous, extremely helpful and professional. Without his input our stressful situation seemed to be spiralling out of control.” Team Revenue
A temporary centre opened at Unicorn House in North Shields and we plan to open a permanent North Shields centre by 2011. New centres will open later this year at Battle Hill and Howdon and we’re looking at possible sites for centres in Whitley Bay and Wallsend. The network of local service centres across the Borough will ensure that no resident lives more than 2 miles away from access to council services and 95% of them within 1 mile. We’re one of the first authorities in the country to have completed the full process of job evaluation, which means we’ve made sure all our staff are paid fairly. Importantly, it also means we’ve already fully accounted for these costs and won’t be facing unexpected financial issues in the future. We’ve maintained council tax and business rate collection rates, despite the challenging economic climate and in June this year we’re ahead of target for collection of both. Our rate of council tax increase remains consistently below the national average. We’ve set up a central Business Support Service (BSS) to integrate the routine financial and admin work that had previously been performed in individual directorates.The service has saved significant sums this year through, for example, reducing staff and moving from weekly to monthly pay for staff. Our Financial Inclusion Strategy aims to address financial exclusion and financial education. Its objectives are to see that all people in the borough: are financially aware and capable; have the knowledge and ability to budget and manage their money and finances; have choices about how they handle their money and finances; are able to make informed decisions, and have access to all their entitlements using appropriate advice services where necessary. An example of activity is fact sheets which help families and carers identify where they may be able to get financial assistance with the costs of bringing up children.
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Giving power to communities
“I would like to thank you for all you and your department’s excellent work and I hope someone who needs it will benefit from the adaptations of the flat. In this day of most people only writing to complain I wanted to congratulate and praise you and NTC for all the help support & adaptations that my mother had, it was an excellent service, well done & keep up the good work.” Adaptations
“It is incredibly helpful for you to have provided such a fast response, which goes way beyond what I might have hoped to receive … Many, many thanks.” Customer Liaison Office
We work with our communities to ensure they can influence what the council does. Every year we undertake a survey of North Tyneside residents aged 18+.The research is conducted face-to-face, in-home, by ICM on behalf of North Tyneside Council and North Tyneside PCT. Our most recent survey took place in early 2009. This year 72% of people say they feel very or fairly well informed about the Council. However, only 27% feel they can influence decisions affecting their local area.We’re therefore working with our new Mayor and Cabinet to further develop our approach to involving our communities, with a strong focus on area working. We’ve worked closely with the IDeA as part of national Network of Empowering Authorities. North Tyneside is one of only 18 councils in the Network of Empowering Authorities. We refreshed our residents’ panel, which now has over 1,500 members. One example of the way we use the panel is to ensure our documents meet the needs of residents. Panel members were asked to review our Anti-Social Behaviour Strategy to ensure it clearly explained our plans. We’ve invited our partners to sit alongside Cabinet, ensuring we take joined-up and well-informed decisions. We work with vulnerable and hard to reach groups to ensure our services meet their needs. For example, our engagement on Adult Social Care identified priorities for resource allocation and involved a variety of disabilities groups including the Alzheimer’s Society. Our Revenues and Benefits Team’s economic well-being work included an event designed to engage young people, in a fun and interactive way, on the serious subject of financial management and to encourage social responsibility. We’ve worked in neighbourhoods to ensure that what we’re doing in their area meets their needs. We listen to what residents tell us. For example, our new recycling scheme was developed after residents told us they didn’t like the old ‘black box’ system.This year the residents’ survey highlighted roads and pavements as a significant concern for residents.We therefore engaged with local communities and local people on what should be done and where.To support this a million pounds was identified in this year’s budget to begin to address their concerns. Initial projects have been identified and future decisions will be driven by our Area Forums.
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We have a Youth Council and a Looked After Children Council. The young people of North Tyneside recently elected our first Young Mayor. We’ve received Regional Improvement and Efficiency Partnership funding to build capacity of 10 groups to be involved in engagement in the future.
"I look forward to continuing to be a member of the panel. Friendly atmosphere and felt valued." Residents Panel Welcome Event
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A thriving coast
With award-winning beaches, the iconic St Mary's Lighthouse and the spectacular remains of Tynemouth Priory and Castle, our coast is rich in natural beauty and heritage. STEAM, a system used by local authorities to calculate the economic value of tourism suggests that tourism is worth £240 million to North Tyneside, supporting 4,629 jobs.The ferry passenger terminal in North Shields handles 400,000 visitors per annum and we’re keen to keep developing North Tyneside as a tourist destination. We know we need to further improve the facilities in our coastal towns to do this.
“I would like to express my sincere admiration to all the staff that acted in both a professional and precise manner. Without the knowledge, training and experience, this incident could have resulted in an unfortunate ending.” Waves
We’ve opened Waves in Whitley Bay and the newly refurbished Playhouse will open in September, with a strong line up of shows already scheduled. SMG Europe, one of the world’s leading venue management companies, is operating the flagship venue on our behalf and working closely with community groups to ensure they can make best use of the new facility. The groundbreaking appointment of artist Keith Barrett as Artistic Director for Whitley Bay Regeneration has placed the arts at the heart of the regeneration process. We’re looking again at our plans for the Spanish City Island in Whitley Bay, to ensure we make the best use of this iconic site.The refurbishment of the dome itself is well underway and the results are visible for all to see. We’re increasing visitor numbers at St Mary’s Lighthouse. Last year 6,400 people paid to visit the lighthouse and just four months into 2009/10, over 7,300 people have visited. We’re working to build on Tynemouth’s growing reputation as a surfing destination, with support to the surf championships which are scheduled to be held in Tynemouth again this year. The former open-air swimming pool at Long Sands is currently disused and we’re looking at potential future uses. In Cullercoats, we’ve just designated a new conservation area, to help preserve the historic character of the village. We’re delivering visitor events including the Mouth of the Tyne Festival (85,000 visitors), Xperience 08 (20,000 visitors), Coast 09 (8,000 visitors) and the North Shields Christmas market (30,000 visitors).
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North Tyneside Council
Quadrant East The Silverlink North Cobalt Business Park North Tyneside NE27 0BY
www.northtyneside.gov.uk