Minutes:
In delivering his Annual Statement the Leader of the Council, Councillor McMahon stated that staff had worked incredibly hard in the past year to make a difference to people’s lives.
He reflected on the eventful year the Council had had and the many challenges that lay ahead at local, regional and national levels – whether that was cuts to Council funding, Greater Manchester devolution or the state of the economy and the new measures introduced in the recent Emergency Budget. The Council had undertaken a huge amount of work in the past twelve months to help ordinary residents deal with the issues that affected them.
A number of significant projects had been undertaken during the last year and the Leader highlighted the following:
· Oldham Foodbank, which had provided food for 3,716 adults and 1,620 children.
· Investment in the Welfare Rights Service ahead of the implementation of Welfare Reform.
· Get Oldham Working campaign had created 3,025 opportunities, including 1,672 jobs and 475 apprenticeships.
· Introduction of the Living Wage at Oldham Council, which had given five hundred and forty employees a new £7.86 minimum hourly rate from April 1.
· Signed up businesses to the Fair Employment Charter.
· Embedded ‘Social Value’ into all of the Council’s activity.
· Launched Our House in June: the country’s first-ever payment store run by a not-for-profit business.
· Introduced a licensing scheme for private landlords
· Warm Homes Oldham, had lifted more than 1,900 people out of fuel poverty in its first two years.
· Put plans in place for thousands of aspirational homes to be built here that would give real choice and variety to communities.
· Activated dormant trust funds in excess of £1 million, to let them be used for grassroots activities to improve neighbourhoods.
· Delivered the Oldham Youth Guarantee.
The Leader referred to the strategy for Oldham to ‘invest to grow’ and businesses were hugely important partners in all the plans.
Successful regeneration and a growing economy would mean that more businesses would be paying business rates and more residents in work would be paying Council Tax. This would help protect frontline and vital services that people depended on.
The Leader gave some examples of how the Council was helping local firms, which included:
· Warehouse to Wheels - more than 50 of the first trainees had graduated from this scheme.
· Independent Quarter - the scheme had been so successful that it was now being rolled out to help revive district town centres in Failsworth, Shaw and Lees.
· Oldham Enterprise Fund - had processed more than 90 applications and given a range of practical funding help and expert support to start-ups and existing businesses.
The Leader reflected that, last October, the Council had spun out its Adult Social Care operation into two services. Oldham Care and Support delivered adult care services bought by the Council on residents’ behalf and Oldham Care and Support at Home was actively taking on and competing with private sector companies in the home care and personal assistance market.
This year ‘Volunteering for All had been launched, a new project for residents who wanted to meet new friends or needed help with daily tasks. This included befriending, help with technology, shopping and everyday tasks, community clubs and travel companions. It was a vital voluntary contribution to improving lives for all who take part in it.
The Leader stated that there could be few better examples of co-operative working than the Oldham Dementia Action Alliance. The Council had teamed up with more than 30 organisations to create a scheme which had a target to sign up 500 people to agree to learn more about dementia in 45-minute training sessions. After just three months it had created an astonishing 2,592 Dementia Friends in the borough prompting Simon Stevens, the Chief Executive of NHS England, to visit Oldham to see its pioneering work.
The Leader referred to the many unsung heroes in the borough. People here were industrious and selfless. For every one flytipper or rogue landlord or tenant Oldham had dozens of fantastic people who deserved better and would play their part in improving the place. That was why the Council was working so hard to help them – and why it would continue to leave no stone unturned in making 2015/6 another successful year for Oldham.
RESOLVED that the content of the Leader’s Annual Statement be noted.