#ProudTameside ISSUE 80 I SPRING 2018 DISTRIBUTED FREE TO OVER 100,000 HOMES AND BUSINESSES IN TAMESIDE Our new Fitting farewell for Our budget IN THIS ISSUE: Executive Leader P4 Kieran P6 explained P12/13 Spring into Tameside FOLLOW US ON AND SPRING 2018 I THE TAMESIDE CITIZEN I PAGE 2 YOU’VE GOT THE SKILLS, WE’LL GIVE YOU THE OPPORTUNITIES To find out more about CHILDREN’S SOCIAL CARE JOBS in Tameside visit www.tameside.gov.uk/workingfortameside Supporting Successful Families Do you work with children? We need you! We’re recruiting foster carers and have flexible opportunities to fit around your life and other work. Call 0161 368 8865 or visit www.tameside.gov.uk/fostering SPRING 2018 I THE TAMESIDE CITIZEN I PAGE 3 Welcome to the spring edition of the Tameside Citizen AS the new executive leader of the council, it’s been a very busy start to the role and I would like to welcome you to my first edition of the Citizen to bring you up to speed with all the latest council news. Living in Tameside with my family, and having been a councillor for the Denton West ward since 2002 and executive member for adult services since 2008, I am very much rooted and committed to Tameside and to creating a better place where we can all live healthy and successful lives. You can read more about my priorities for the year ahead on page 5. It’s only right that we pay tribute to Cllr Kieran Quinn in this issue (page 6) as we sadly said goodbye to him in January following his tragic and untimely passing on Christmas Day. Kieran was full of innovative ideas and passionate about Tameside and we will follow his example as we continue to work in his memory. One of Kieran’s lasting legacies will be the Vision Tameside project. Vision Tameside will bring jobs and growth to the area as well as providing our young people with state-of –the-art learning facilities. Following the collapse of Carillion in January, we have worked quickly to ensure that all services have continued as normal – you can read an update on the new joint public service centre on page 9. One of my first tasks as the new leader was to deliver the budget for 2018/19. It’s a difficult decision to have to make, and ask of residents, but in the face of such a huge drop in recent years in the funding from government and rising demand on services for our most vulnerable residents, we have decided to raise council tax by 4.99%. This will generate an extra £5.6 million which will go towards the total budget of £186 million. Please take a look at pages 12 and 13 to see what this means for you and how the money will be spent within the borough. Retaining my role as executive member for health and social care is important to me having already progressed so far with this key work area. It is my ambition to see through the full integration of services and look at the innovative and new ways that that we can deliver care closer to home and within our communities. Pages 14 and 15 look at some of the work we are doing through our Care Together programme to improve access to care while pages 16 and 17 look at some of the steps we can take as individuals to live healthier lives and support others. As the first female leader of the council – appointed in the year in which we celebrate 100 years of women’s suffrage when some women first gained the right to vote – I want us all to celebrate the many inspirational women of Tameside through our Tameside Tied Together ribbon project where residents have been invited to write the names and stories of extraordinary women on ribbons that are then threaded together into a visual tribute. If you go to page 22 you can see other events we Contents have planned throughout the year to celebrate women’s suffrage as well as a useful calendar of cultural events and activities that take place for all the family to enjoy Priorities for the Year Ahead.........4/5 over the next few months (pages 20 and 21). Recently we have run a number of successful campaigns which have been recognised Fitting Farewell for Kieran.................6 as best practice and are changing the lives of people within our borough. You can read about how our Open Up campaign has been highlighting how one in six men Domestic Abuse #openup.................7 experience domestic abuse and encourages them to tell someone and get support (page 7). You can also read in our Proud Tameside section (pages 10 and 11) about Winter Weather Response ...............8 our Shared Lives’campaign which after a successful recruitment drive is making an extraordinary difference in supporting older people and adults with learning Vision Tameside.....................................9 disabilities. Spring may now be in the air but in early March, the Beast from the East met Storm Proud Tameside...........................10/11 Emma, which resulted in plummeting temperatures, heavy snow and high winds. We can all be proud how our public service staff and the local community came together Budget 2018/19.........................12/13 P7 during this period to keep our vulnerable residents safe and our main roads clear. You can read on page 8 about how teams stepped up during this time to keep disruption Care Together...............................14/15 to a minimum. Cancer Champions............................16 As you can see, there’s plenty to take in and I hope you enjoy reading this edition of P16 the Citizen. You can keep up to date via the news pages on our website, social media, Air Quality.............................................17 signing up for e-news or following my blog at www.tameside.gov.uk/LeadersBlog Innovative Young Hackers..............18 Tackling Hate Crime..........................19 What’s On.......................................20/21 Suffrage Centenary............................22 Cllr Brenda Warrington Tameside Council Executive Leader Are you Recycling Right?.................23 SPRING 2018 I THE TAMESIDE CITIZEN I PAGE 4 I want to follow Kieran in making Tameside a better place but I know that I will have ideas of my own and may be different in how I go about it. I will try to ensure that all communities are as involved as they can be in any changes going forward. Working together we will continue to strive to make Tameside a good and healthy place to live and improve the lives of residents. New Leader striving to make Tameside a better place COUNCILLOR Brenda Warrington says she will strive to It commits an extra £18million over the next three years make Tameside a good and healthy place to live after to support the continuing improvements in Children’s becoming Tameside Council’s first ever female leader. Services and protect vulnerable young people, £20million The Denton West councillor is also the first female chair over four years for highways improvements and £5million of the Greater Manchester Pension Fund in its 95-year to improve more than 25,000 streetlights in Tameside with history. At £23 billion it’s the largest local government energy efficient LED lighting. pension scheme in the UK. Cllr Warrington replaces Cllr Kieran Quinn, who sadly Cllr Warrington was elected following an 'extraordinary' passed away unexpectedly on Christmas Day at Tameside council meeting on 31 January. Hospital. Delivering her first budget, Cllr Warrington pledged to Her election as Tameside’s first female leader comes as ensure that all spending of council tax payers’ money is the nation marks 100 years of women’s suffrage – when done with clear purpose, to make residents’ lives better. women gained the right to vote. She highlighted how the budget is focused on both Cllr Warrington was first elected in 2002 and became services for the most vulnerable and universal services for executive member for Adult Services in 2008. She has all. served as the council’s lead member for Health and The budget set out priorities for 2018/19 including External Relations and Scrutiny as well as being chair of completing Vision Tameside, delivering the Wellness the Personal and Health Services Scrutiny Panel. Centre in Denton and work around housing, education and the environment. SPRING 2018 I THE TAMESIDE CITIZEN I PAGE 5 Priorities for the year ahead Continuing our good work on the Care Together Programme It’s my ambition to fully integrate and improve our health and social care system. Not just to look at new ways of delivering services that are sustainable, but to change lifestyles. We want people to live longer, happier and healthier lives. Should they need care we want to deliver that as close to home as possible, if not in the home. Children’s Services improvement Ofsted have noted progress through our new leadership team and the implementation of a new improvement plan which has raised the pace of our improvement journey. There is, however, still work to be done - we are determined and committed to meet and address the unprecedented levels of demand on the service and we are investing £18m over the next three years to help ensure we make the improvements needed to support our vulnerable children in the best way we can. Improving local Working closely with the infrastructure Combined Authority and Greater Manchester Mayor We are investing £20m for highways maintenance and improvements over the next four years. We have also made provision for Tameside will always be my main priority but £5m for LED lighting and £600,000 for children’s there are issues that affect us collectively across play areas to make sure that we have a safe and Greater Manchester such as homelessness, desirable borough for our residents to live, work air pollution, business rates pooling and town and enjoy.