A Fairer Redbridge the Final Report of the Fairness Commission
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A Fairer Redbridge The Final Report of the Fairness Commission Members of the Redbridge Fairness Commission1 The Redbridge Fairness Commissioners were: Cllr Ian Bond Cllr Paul Canal Ross Diamond, Redbridge CVS Cllr Farah Hussain Jacquie Grieve, Redbridge Faith Forum Vanessa Guthrie, Redbridge Citizens Advice Bureau Geoff Hill, Redbridge Chamber of Commerce Dr Syed Raza, Redbridge Clinical Commissioning Group Cllr Mark Santos (co-chair) Julia Slay, New Economics Foundation (co-chair) Sue Snowdon CBE, Beal Multi-Academy Trust Jason Tetley, Liberty Credit Union Two members of Redbridge Youth Council A Fairer Redbridge The Final Report of the Redbridge Fairness Commission 3 Members of the Redbridge Fairness Commission 3 Foreword from the co-chairs 6 Executive Summary 7 Summary of Recommendations 8 Chapter 1: Why is now the time for a Fairness Commission? 13 Redbridge – a snapshot 14 What would a fairer Redbridge look like? 15 Wellbeing 16 Co-production 17 How did the Redbridge Fairness Commission work? 19 Chapter 2: Health & Wellbeing 21 The unfairness of funding 22 Public services in an era of super-diversity 22 Independent Living and Accessibility 24 Living with long term conditions 25 Older people 27 Recommendations 28 Chapter 3: Home 31 How did we get here? 32 The local housing crisis 32 Paying the price 33 By accident or on purpose? 34 The Problems Facing Housing Associations 35 Regeneration 36 Doing the Impossible 37 Recommendations 38 4 A Fairer Redbridge The Final Report of the Redbridge Fairness Commission Chapter 4: Economy 41 For an inclusive economy 42 Building resilience 43 Making an impact 43 Recommendations 45 Chapter 5: Community 47 The voluntary sector and community assets 48 Fairness for young people 49 Community cohesion 51 Contents Contents Domestic Abuse 51 Migrants 51 Sex work 52 Recommendations 52 Concluding remarks 54 Appendices 55 Appendix A – Acknowledgements 56 Appendix B – Measuring wellbeing 59 Appendix C – References 60 A Fairer Redbridge The Final Report of the Redbridge Fairness Commission 5 Foreword from the co-chairs Executive Summary This last year has been a real journey for members of the Redbridge Fairness Commission. A journey that has involved trying to understand the inequality and unfairness that exists in Redbridge, in order to work out how best to tackle it. We considered hundreds of pages of written evidence, from a huge range of individuals, many of whom generously shared their own stories. We have discovered not only some grave inequalities and lack of fairness but also, more positively, inspiring examples of how individuals, organisations (including the Council) and communities are delivering services in ways that start to get to the heart of the problem. Though many of the drivers of inequality sit at a national level we have discovered some ways in which the council can tackle poverty and inequality and have made recommendations where we feel this can be tackled. This report and its 19 recommendations are our response as a Commission to what we heard. At its heart, we believe, is the Council leading by example in making Redbridge a fairer place. This means the Council using the opportunity of its responsibilities in delivering and commissioning services, relationships with other significant stakeholders and as the democratically representative voice of local residents to be an agent of change creating a fairer Redbridge. We make no boast to have found the complete answer and believe our recommendations are a start of a change process addressing inequality. This is the start of an ongoing journey to make Redbridge a fairer place for all its residents. Julia Slay, New Economics Foundation Cllr Mark Santos 6 A Fairer Redbridge The Final Report of the Redbridge Fairness Commission Foreword from the co-chairs Executive Summary The Redbridge Fairness Commission was set up by the Council’s Cabinet in January 2015 in order to investigate how the Council uses its resources to tackle poverty and inequality as it approaches a major crossroads due to continuing cuts to its budget. The Commission was made up of 14 members, drawn from Councillors, local third, public and private sector organisations and a think tank. Seven public work sessions were held to consider evidence from a range of local and national experts and a review of Council held data, open public meetings, community group meetings, and a peer research programme. This report makes 19 recommendations based on its findings. The first chapter of this report argues that building a detailed picture of community wellbeing is important at a time when making the most out of every public pound matters more than ever. The Commission also suggests that the Council should make sure residents and their communities are at the heart of all of its activities by designing and delivering services closely with them. Chapter 2 deals with a number of health related challenges including long term conditions, independent living and disability, and issues facing older people. Chapter 3 discusses the urgency of the local housing crisis and recommends a range of measures such as embracing schemes like Community Land Trusts. Chapter 4 suggests what an inclusive local economy could look like, and suggests how the Council can use its influence as a major local procurer and employer to tackle local inequalities. Finally, Chapter 5 discusses the contribution of the voluntary sector and suggests how the Council could address a number of important community concerns. The Commission hopes that this report will provide Cabinet with a range of useful ideas rooted in local priorities that will help to make Redbridge a fairer place for its residents despite the challenging times. A Fairer Redbridge The Final Report of the Redbridge Fairness Commission 7 Summary of Recommendations Health & Wellbeing 1. Put wellbeing at the heart of the Council’s activities The Council should co-produce an outcomes framework and move towards an outcomes based approach. By ‘outcomes framework’, the Commission means a set of positive changes that the Council wants to achieve with and for local citizens and their communities. These should be developed together with local residents and their communities through wide reaching and accessible engagement. As budgets tighten, having these priorities in place would mean that the Council could justify how every project or service it commissions meets the aspirations set by local people. It would create space for innovation by opening up dialogue between different services and sectors about collaboration and shared goals. It would help the Council to understand how to get the best possible impact from across its services, and make sure that every public pound spent locally is in line with what the local authority wants to achieve for local communities. The Commission also notes that the Welfare Reform and Work Bill will, if passed, remove the duty on local authorities to produce a joint child poverty strategy with other organisations in their areas. Given the profound impact that material deprivation in the early stages of life can have on life chances, the Commission suggests that at least one of these outcomes focuses on child poverty. The Commission further recommends that co-production and measurement of wellbeing is built into every step of how services are commissioned, and wherever possible in the assessment of Council and contracted services. A brief outline of how wellbeing can be measured has been included in Appendix B. 2. Take action on independent living, accessibility, social isolation and long term health conditions The Council should: a) Develop a ‘Redbridge Disability Charter’: this charter would be a set of principles that sit across and inform commissioning processes across the Council in co-production with key local organisations to improve the quality of life for residents who are deaf, hard of hearing, vision impaired and/or disabled. The Charter will serve as a set of recognised competencies and ways of working which can be used to influence other local organisations and encourage wide-reaching local adoption. b) Work with local disability rights and advocacy groups to develop accessibility standards for customer service to be used in all customer-facing interaction across the Council. These should be shared with local businesses and GP practices. c) Review and ensure progress of the Redbridge Dementia Plan. The review should include a movement towards Redbridge becoming an Alzheimer’s Society accredited ‘Dementia Friendly Community’. d) Build on the groundwork established by the Redbridge First Response Service to develop a local social prescribing scheme in partnership with the CCG and local NHS. The scheme should have at its heart investment in the community and voluntary sector to provide a range of community based activities, information and advice, befriending and community transport services in order to improve the health of people with long term conditions and other groups who may benefit. 8 A Fairer Redbridge The Final Report of the Redbridge Fairness Commission Summary of Recommendations e) Work with the CCG, local NHS and RedbridgeCVS in order to improve the provision of local specialist disability welfare advice on a wide range of issues including: housing and council tax, the new ‘personal independence payments’, disability grants, employment and support allowance and application for Blue Badges. f) Become a Living Wage Borough by extending the London Living Wage to employees of contractors who provide services for the Council. Within a year, we would expect the Chief Executive and relevant Director to have entered into discussions with the top five contractors to begin negotiations about the implementation of the London Living Wage by 2018/19, with a view to further rollout across all contracts subsequently.i 3. The Council should commission a ‘digital mentoring’ scheme as a volunteer led, peer-to-peer support network, based in community venues across the Borough which can help residents share skills and support each other to get online.