annual report 2015/16 - st helens · wellbeing portfolio annual report 2015/16 your council cllr...

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Annual Report 2015/16

www.sthelens.gov.uk

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Welcome to our Annual Report 2015/16 which looks back over the last year at the highlights and successes, in particular the work done in support of our key objectives for St. Helens.Also included is a summary of our finances and the money we have spent to deliver local services, as well as an outline of where we are heading and our plans for the future.As a Council committed to supporting and protecting the most vulnerable within our Borough, 2015/16 proved a very challenging year. Increasing demand pressures, notably in adult and children and young people’s care services come at a time when like many northern authorities the Council continues to suffer severe and disproportionate cuts in government funding.Although we face the certainty of further reductions in grant funding, our strengths and stability as a council have seen us retain our ability not only to deliver effective value for money services, but to continue to invest in the future of St. Helens and its communities. Yes the challenges remain great, but so does our ambition.We now find ourselves at a crossroads and for us to realise this ambition we must be bold and innovative.This past year we have begun the process of change by reorganising our structure and setting out plans for new ways of working - a programme of transformation that will develop and progress over the coming year and beyond as we move towards 2020.

The focus will be on ensuring that St. Helens is a place of aspiration and ambition that is well connected, with a growing economy, and a system of health and social care capable of properly meeting the needs of its communities well into the future.There is a lot to look forward to and some of the many exciting developments on the horizon are briefly set out towards the end of this report.At the same time it is right that we pause to reflect on the many successes and significant progress made during 2015/16, whilst acknowledging the hard work and commitment of staff, Members and partners. I look forward to our continued joint working under a reinvigorated partnership in the year ahead.We have achieved a lot and although much more remains to be done, together I am positive we can embrace the challenges that lie ahead and remain optimistic about a strong, fair and equal future for our great Borough.

Foreword

Barrie Grunewald Leader, St.Helens Council

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The Councillors are elected every 4 years by the local residents. You can contact the councillor for your area for advice or help by calling our Contact Centre on: 01744 676789, by email to: [email protected], or by looking at our website to find out more about how you can make your views heard.The Full Council of all 48 members meets every 2 months and is responsible for making decisions on issues including Council policy, finance, budgets and Council Tax levels. We have a cabinet style of governance, with our Leader, Cllr Barrie Grunewald, chairing the Cabinet, which meets approximately every 3 weeks. At these meetings decisions about the effective running of the Council, and plans for its future direction are made.

There are 10 Cabinet members, who have the following responsibilities. They are:

Cllr Barrie Grunewald (Leader)

Leader’s Portfolio

Cllr Andy Bowden (Deputy Leader)

Children, Families, Young People and Education Portfolio

Cllr Lisa PrestonCommunity Safety

(incl. Housing Services) Portfolio

Cllr Anthony JohnsonCorporate Services

Portfolio

Cllr John FulhamGrowth (incl. Planning)

Portfolio

Cllr Anthony BurnsLiverpool City Region Engagement Portfolio

Cllr Jeanie BellPublic Health and Wellbeing Portfolio


Your Council

Cllr Marlene QuinnAdult Social Care

and Health Portfolio

Cllr Richard McCauleyChange and Transition

Portfolio

Cllr Seve Gomez-AspronGreen Smart and

Sustainable Borough Portfolio

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We deliver a wide range of services to residents, businesses, schools and visitors to the Borough either directly or through contracts and partnership arrangements.The services we deliver include care services for older people, vulnerable adults and people with disabilities, children’s centres and early year’s services, school support and improvement, support for children with special educational needs, fostering and adoption services, public health, waste and recycling, street cleansing, housing and homelessness support, planning permission, environmental health and trading standards, benefits administration, maintenance of highways, footpaths, parks and open spaces, and many more. We have a senior management team, who support the Cabinet in its decision-making and overall running of the Council.The team is led by our Chief Executive and includes 3 Strategic Directors.

Mike PalinChief Executive

Ian RobertsDeputy Chief Executive and

Strategic Director of Corporate Services

Mike WyattStrategic Director of People’s Services

Paul SandersonStrategic Director of Environmental and Trading Services

Serving the local community we have a dedicated and effective workforce of approximately 6,600 who provide our frontline services and necessary administrative support.

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Strengths

A Growing Economy increasing numbers of new business developments and growing numbers of business start-ups

Well Connected geographically at the heart of the North West with growing transport links by rail and road

Improving Education and Skills Levels increasing numbers of schools rated ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted

• Heart of the North West and well connected

• Growing economically• Good place to live• Some challenges which we

are positive we will overcome

Key messages

ChallengesAn Ageing Populationcreating increasing demand for services

Poor Healthover 8% of people stated their health is bad or very bad health (Census 2011)

Worklessnessthe proportion of adults aged 16-64 years in work in St Helens is less than the national picture

Demands on Children’s Serviceshigh numbers of children in the care system and children in need

More Housesover 1200 new homes built since 2014

More Green Space13 parks and open spaces awarded the prestigious Keep Britain Tidy Green Flag Award

Low Crime Ratesfewer burglaries and thefts in 2015/16 than our nearest neighbour group average

Strong Communitymany people give their time as volunteers and unpaid carers


St. Helens - The Place

For further facts and figures about St. Helens and its communities please visit our local information site: http://share.sthelens.gov.uk/IAS

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We pride ourselves on being an effective, efficient and caring Council and have high expectations of our customer service responsibilities. We will always listen to and learn from our customers, and tailor services to meet individual need where we can. We are always pleased to receive feedback through our Contact Centre. Below is a small selection of the positive comments we received during 2015/16.

St.Helens Council is the BEST! They help me take care of my elderly father from here in America, thank you.”

The banisters were f itted yesterday. I cannot thank you enough! My son is over the moon with them and for the f irst time ever has made his way up and down the stairs independently. You have made one of my dreams come true and as a parent I seriously cannot thank you enough.”

“Thank you for remembering Holocaust Memorial Day. Well done for showing future generations how we should show compassion to those in less blessed circumstances.”

“We thoroughly enjoyed an afternoon in the sun at Victoria Park yesterday, listening to a musical event at the new bandstand organised by the Park Rangers. Well done!!!”

Well done and many thanks for all the help and continued support to veterans on Armed Forces Day.”

“Please thank the Parks and Gardens team for their colourful floral display at Banks Park, Billinge, it looks so bright and cheerful.”

Love, love, love the new recycling rewards scheme. Thank you from the future generation.”“I have just got off the phone to two of your departments, Building Control and Planning what a wonderful service they had provided nothing was any trouble to help me with what I needed.”

We attend the Chester Lane library regularly; my 4 year old son describes it as his favourite place in the world. The staff are always friendly and the craft events are brilliant.”“Today the council sent someone to clean the area inside the alley gates at the rear of our house, and what a good job they did. Just wanted to say a big thank you!”


How we made a difference in 2015/16

Holocaust Memorial Day

Victoria Park

Recycling Rewards Scheme

Year of Reading Project

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Highlights & Successes 2015/16

Being Healthy and Active

A wide range of services, campaigns and community events were delivered to promote healthy living and help people lead healthier lives. Some of the good work undertaken includes:• We were praised by Public Health England for the

quality of our public health campaigns.• More than 6,800 people in St. Helens signed up to the

national Dementia Friends campaign in 2015/16 to raise awareness about the condition.

• We approved new plans and action to improve mental health and wellbeing in St. Helens. Our ‘Time to Talk’ campaign resulted in over 20,000 minutes of conversations taking place to allow people to talk about their mental wellbeing and receive support.

• Our new early help service for children and young people experiencing poor emotional health was launched, offering both face to face and on-line counselling. In the first 8 months it received 665 referrals.

• Our ‘Pirates, Pop and Pupils’ campaign was shortlisted for a national award after successfully promoting healthy lifestyle choices for children, young people and their families.

• We launched our Youth Health Champions scheme, with young people aged 13 to 19 volunteering in schools, colleges and youth centres to inspire and encourage others to look after their health and make healthy, safe lifestyle choices.

• Our schools catering service was awarded Bronze Status Food for Life Accreditation in recognition of the freshness and nutritional value of its school lunches. The service provides 13,000 lunches a day to local pupils.

• Our Sports Development team won a national award for their Youth Sports programme, which provides a varied programme of weekly activities to young people across the borough.

• We developed and approved the Master Plan for the new Ruskin Drive sports complex site.

Improving People’s Lives

Over the course of the year we continued to work closely with partners to improve health and wellbeing for all people in St. Helens.

We were praised by Public Health England for the quality of our public health campaigns.“ “

Launch of the ‘Time to Talk’ campaign

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Life changing art


Highlights & Successes 2015/16Being Healthy and Active

Our amazing Cultural Hubs programme really is changing lives.During 2015-16 this exciting project continued to transform our libraries into innovative spaces delivering high quality music, theatre, drama, poetry and story-telling performances, as well as exhibitions and join-in arts activity. Cultural Hubs has created opportunities for local artists and made arts accessible to all. Local residents have helped plan events, with over 3,000 people attending

performances, nearly 4,000 visiting exhibitions and installations and over 1,600 participating in projects and workshops. In total 174 artists benefitted from the programme, 49 performances were held across 13 libraries and 392 workshop sessions took place.The projects are also having a positive impact on health and wellbeing. ‘Creative Alternatives’, a 12 week programme of creative activities for people with mild to moderate depression, stress or anxiety was delivered to 60 adults.

Our Cultural Hubs project won the 2016 National Lottery Awards for favourite arts programme, while our Library Service was nominated for the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals Award: Libraries Change Lives. Cultural Hubs will run until March 2017.For more information sign up for our Arts Ezine or follow our Twitter feeds for libraries @STHLibraries and arts @sthelensarts

Schools sports competitions - 293 hours of sport!

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Being Skilled and Educated

At the same time we continued to invest in the future by delivering or supporting a number of initiatives to improve the skills and ambitions of local people to promote access to employment opportunities. Our achievements include:• The standard of St. Helens Primary schools remained

very high, with over 90% of schools graded as ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted.

• The standard of St. Helens Secondary Schools and Special Schools saw a big improvement following the support we provided. 67% of Secondary schools and 100% of Special Schools are now graded as ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted.

• Our new 3-year School Effectiveness Strategy demonstrates our commitment to further improving school standards and our high ambitions for local children and young people’s futures.

• We opened a new purpose built education facility for our ‘Launchpad Service’, which will provide a safe learning environment for young people with complex

needs or medical conditions who are unable to access mainstream education.

• We were selected by the Department for Education as a Champion for Best Practice in encouraging the take up of Free Early Education Entitlement for 2-year olds, following a sharp increase in take-up.

• Our Schools Library service was one of just 20 across the country to be chosen by the Department for Education to extend the ‘Chatterbooks’ programme, which aims to create a culture of reading and interest in books in Years 3 to 6 school children.

• Effective joint working with partners saw numbers of young people aged 16 - 18 not in employment, education or training continue to fall.

• We were successfully awarded external funding totalling £4.89 million for the ‘Ways to Work’ programme, which will provide support to help local adults and young people into employment.


During 2015/16 effective working through our School Improvement Board provided support to schools to ensure high standards and raise the attainment and aspirations of children and young people across St. Helens.

Students celebrate exam success

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We continue to kick-start careers for local young people - creating opportunities for 16 - 24 year olds to gain work experience, qualifications and full time employment. The latest Graduate Work Experience programme saw 23 of the 26 young people recruited secure permanent jobs with the council by December 2015.

Our apprenticeship schemes have also proved successful. An in-house scheme offers a 12 month training contract in a range of council departments. In 2015/16, this rolling programme, recruited 37 young people.A wider scheme, delivered by St. Helens Chamber, was fully subscribed by November 2015, with 201 young people expected to complete an apprenticeship with local businesses by November 2016.

A further 130 high quality local private sector apprenticeships were delivered by our Economic Development team. We’ve helped people improve their skills and find employment by securing European Social and Youth Employment Gateway funding - and established the £4.9 million Employment Support Programme 2016-18, which aims to create 800 jobs and assist 3,700 people.

Kick starting careers

Highlights & Successes 2015/16Being Skilled and Educated


“Over the last two years we have invested £1.5 million of council funding in apprenticeship and graduate programmes. I am extremely proud of the successes that we have had and the difference it is making to local young people, many of whom come from the more deprived areas of St.Helens.”- Council Leader

Barrie Grunewald

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Launchpad service -new specialist tuition facility

Council Apprenticeship programme

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Independent and Empowered


Our commitment to prioritising the delivery of effective services to those who need them most has been maintained during 2015/16. In response to the challenges of increasing financial pressures and growing demand for services we created a new People’s Services Department and throughout the year continued to review and transform both children’s and adults services. Working closely with partners our focus has been on supporting people to remain healthy and independent in their own communities, keeping children and adults safe from harm, and helping children in care and leaving care reach their full potential. Some of our successes include:

Jane Kennedy, Merseyside Police & Crime Commissioner meets Children’s Social Care staff

• Our Adult Social Care services have continued to provide effective personalised care and support services to over 9,000 of the Borough’s most vulnerable people. Our performance compared to other councils remains very strong.

• National survey results again showed high levels of satisfaction with our services for adult social care users and carers, demonstrating that we are continuing to help people to enjoy a good quality of life and achieve the things that are important to them.

• We were one of the best Councils in the North West for making sure that people with a learning disability are in settled accommodation and are supported to find paid employment.

• External review of our arrangements for ensuring vulnerable adults are safe from harm, abuse and neglect was very positive, acknowledging clear policies and procedures, with all statutory responsibilities being met.

• Our Children’s Social Services worked closely with partners to bring about an improved approach to providing early help to families in need and it is hoped that in time this reduces the numbers of children in need and children entering the care system.

• We successfully increased the number of children safely leaving care by increasing the number of adoptions to 50 in 2015/16, 20 more than the previous year.

• We took further action to tackle and address the issue of child sexual exploitation (CSE). We successfully promoted the ‘Listen to My Story’ campaign and worked with partners to raise awareness of CSE and bring about greater sharing of information to tackle the issue and pursue offenders.

• An innovative new ‘app’ - ‘tootoot’ to prevent all forms of bullying was rolled out by our Children and Young People’s services to every school in the Borough. Tootoot allows young people to report incidents securely on-line, helping us better understand and effectively tackle this issue.

• We launched a travel training facility at Mill Green Special School to allow children and young people with special needs to acquire the skills and confidence needed to be able to get out and about and use public transport independently.

We were identified by ‘Which?’Magazine as one of the best performing councils in the country for the information and support we provide to carers.“

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Our Independent Access St. Helens (IASH) Reablement service has achieved some remarkable results - helping vulnerable people to stay in their own homes and preventing admission to hospital. It’s a multi-disciplinary team consisting of occupational therapists, physiotherapists, nurses and care workers, who work closely with people who have recently been discharged from hospital or are at risk of losing

their independence due to illness or frailty. Clients follow a short term programme, specially designed by the team, to meet their needs. It can include help with increasing mobility, personal care tasks, confidence building, improving diet and healthy living. During 2015/16 the service dealt with 910 referrals.The service has helped to significantly relieve pressure on local hospitals. Its work helped St. Helens record,

provisionally, the best performance in the North West for ensuring people weren’t readmitted to hospital within three months of leaving. Delays in people leaving hospital have also been minimised.A patient experience survey revealed 280 people (92 per cent) were ‘extremely’ or ‘very satisfied’ with the service. The 2016 Care Quality Commission inspection rated the service as ‘Good’ in all areas.

Boosting independence

‘Toot Toot’ app - tackling bullying in schools


Highlights & Successes 2015/16Being Independent and Empowered

Taxi drivers complete CSE awareness training

THE MORE YOU KNOW THE MORE YOU SEECHILD SEXUAL EXPLOITATION

WWW.LISTENTOMYSTORY.CO.UK

- Reablement service user, 2016

Lovely staff encouraged me to get better and helped me to recover.I don’t know if I would have come through this without the Reablement Service”

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Mill Green School travel training facility

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A Cleaner, Greener and Accessible Place

• Investment in green technology, such as electric vehicles and other energy saving measures has seen us reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by nearly a quarter since 2009/10.

• A total of 13 of our parks and open spaces were awarded the prestigious keep Britain Tidy Green Flag award in 2015/16, recognising their beauty, cleanliness and value to the local community.

• We launched our Recycling Reward scheme in October 2015. More than 9,000 households signed up by year end and the average weekly recycling tonnage has increased by 13 tonnes. During the year we also introduced textile recycling and recycling for flats. Our recycling initiatives have seen household recycling rates increase by more than 10% over the last 4 years.

• We retained our Environmental Wardens service after a successful 12 month pilot. The service introduced a new initiative to tackle the problem of fly-tipping in household alleyways. Twelve problem areas were identified and joint working with residents, combined with enforcement measures where necessary, are successfully keeping the Borough clean.

• We continued to work with a number of partners to ensure strong progress against a number of key transport infrastructure projects including the redevelopment of Newton-le-Willows Rail Interchange, major investment into local stretches of the M6, and the improvements to the Windle Island junction.

• We lobbied hard to ensure the approval for new long-distance direct rail services from St. Helens stations to key cities including Leeds, Newcastle, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

• We received £1.58 million of STEP funding from the Liverpool City Region to deliver improvements to sustainable transport in the Borough, including pedestrian and cycling routes. During the year, our 6 fantastic cycle hubs delivered a range of free events, activities and opportunities to promote cycling within the Borough.

Creating a Better Place

Over the course of 2015/16, we worked hard to improve all aspects of the local environment and enhance transport connectivity both within St. Helens and beyond our borders. The creation of a new Environmental and Trading Services Department has provided us the opportunity to reshape services to further our ambitions for a cleaner, greener and accessible St. Helens. A selection of our achievements include:

Electric vehicle charging points across St. Helens

Newton-le-Willows interchange - artist’s impression of new rail stationRecycling Rewards Scheme launch

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As an innovative and efficient council we are always looking at ways of using the latest technology to improve services. As far back as 2009 we first began to collaborate with European partners to help shape a new approach to providing low energy street lighting. Since then we have literally become a leading light in this field, as our ‘Invest to Save’- Street Lighting project is bringing huge reductions in our energy bill

along with significant environmental benefits. In 2015/16 we completed phase 1 of the project - £1.7 million scheme that saw the replacement of over 4,400 lower wattage lamps and the installation of 5,285 new LED units, bringing predicted annual energy savings of £232,000. The success of the project led to approval of phase 2, which will invest an additional £3 million in replacing a further 9,700 units, bringing

estimated savings of £420,000 a year. It is energy saving investment in technology of this kind that has seen the council’s greenhouse gas emissions fall by 22 per cent in the last five years. At the same time, the scheme has also brought major improvements to the quality of light on our highways and in our residential areas, helping prevent accidents and increasing people’s feelings of wellbeing and safety.

Highlights & Successes 2015/16A Cleaner, Greener and Accessible Place


The Future’s bright

“ Since 2009 we have literally become a leading light in this field

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Cycle Hub - Wheels For All scheme

After Before

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A Safer and Stronger Place


Our leadership of St. Helens Community Safety Partnership has seen continued close working with the Police and Crime Commissioner, Merseyside Police and other agencies to tackle crime and disorder and ensure that the people of St. Helens feel safe. Although in 2015/16 some crime rates saw an increase due to improved police recording practices, levels of crime and disorder remained comparatively low compared to other similar areas. Some of our successes include:• St. Helens Councillor for Billinge and Seneley Green, Sue Murphy, was selected as the Deputy Police and Crime

Commissioner for Merseyside and will take the lead on community safety issues and victim support across the Liverpool City Region.

• Our Community Safety team continued to successfully coordinate a series of campaigns to discourage anti-social behaviour (ASB). This included ‘Operation Safer Space - Not in our Parks’, with its emphasis on the illegal use of scrambler bikes and ‘Operation Good Guy’, which targeted ASB in the run up to Bonfire Night.

• Our 2015 Community Safety Survey showed increasing levels of residents feeling safe in their local area, with 4 out of 5 people stating that they felt safe or very safe.

• Our ‘Compass’ programme continued to work closely and successfully with the most hardened offenders within St. Helens. The number of offences committed fell from 248 in 2014, to 168 in 2015, a 32% reduction. As a result the number of domestic burglaries and vehicle crimes also showed significant reductions.

• Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation’s inspection of our Youth Offending Service showed many positives, judging the quality of the work with children and young people to be good with improvements made since the previous inspection. The number of young people entering the youth justice system showed a further significant reduction due to the strong work of the service.

• We came together with Merseyside Police, Merseyside Fire and Rescue and other agencies to deliver the annual ‘Crucial Crew’ event to over 2,000 primary school children to promote the life skills needs for a safe and healthy future.

• Our Young People’s Drug and Alcohol service teamed up with performing arts students from St.Helens College to develop a hard hitting drama to raise awareness amongst young people about the risks associated with drug and alcohol use. The play ‘Intoxicated’ was performed to all Year 8 secondary school pupils and was well received by students and staff.

• Our Trading Standards service undertook a number of public awareness raising campaigns to protect local people, particularly the most vulnerable, against scam phone calls, scam e-mails, and copy-cat websites.

• We organised a number of events that brought people together in both celebration and remembrance, strengthening both community cohesion and understanding. These included the Holocaust Memorial Day, VE Day and Armed Forces day events.

Crucial Crew event - learning life skills for a safe and healthy future

Tackling vehicle nuisance Cllr Murphy appointed Deputy Police & Crime Commissioner

VE Day Memorial Service

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Uniting against domestic abuse

Highlights & Successes 2015/16A Safer and Stronger Place


National evidence suggests it is widespread, affecting one in three women and one in six men. During the year we continued to play a vital role in co-ordinating a zero tolerance approach to the problem.Our commitment to addressing domestic abuse was renewed in November 2015 on White Ribbon Day - a national campaign seeking to eliminate violence against women. Employees from the council and other agencies turned out in support, some swapping shoes for stilettos, for the ‘Walk a Mile in Her Shoes’ event, whilst residents were encouraged to sign the White Ribbon pledge to vow never to commit, condone or remain silent about violence against women.

To further raise awareness, the council and its partners supported the ‘Be a Lover Not a Fighter’ campaign - which focussed on children as the often unseen victims of domestic abuse. Our approach to providing effective early support for children experiencing domestic abuse was also strengthened through ‘Operation Encompass’.Meanwhile our Independent Domestic Violence Advocacy Service continued to provide advice and support to victims, with high risk cases receiving specialist assistance. For further information about our efforts to tackle domestic abuse and the support available please visit our Safer St.Helens website.

The consequences of domestic abuse are serious, and often devastating.

Our approach to providing effective early support for children experiencing domestic abuse was also strengthened through Operation Encompass.

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‘Intoxicated’ - powerful drama about risks of excessive alcohol use

White Ribbon event - Walk a Mile in Her Shoes ‘Be a Lover Not a Fighter’ campaign

Trading Standards tackle scam emails

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A Thriving, Vibrant and Competitive Place


During 2015/16, there was renewed support for economic development and growth within the Borough as we continued to invest in the local economy and make the most of the opportunities before us through close working with a wide range of partners. We can point to a number of major successes over the course of the year:• We were one of the 6 Merseyside Councils that approved the Liverpool City Region Devolution agreement, providing

us with more control over planning, transport and economic development and securing the best financial deal possible for the future of St. Helens.

• We began to develop a new ‘Local Plan’, which will set out our planning priorities for the Borough, including the allocation of sites for future housing, employment and retail developments along with green space.

• Work was ongoing through the joint venture company on the redevelopment of the former Parkside Colliery, into a major employment site. The first stage of the West Point leisure and retail site was completed. There was a significant progress in the creation of employment land in 2015/16 with over 700,000 square foot of land either completed, under construction or with a live planning application ongoing.

• The performance of our planning services over 2015/16 was confirmed as being the quickest in the country when dealing with major planning applications and 8th best in the country for minor and other planning applications, giving developers confidence in St. Helens as a great place to do business.

• Our £1 million Business Grant Programme continued to support the growth and development of local business. Between its launch in July 2014 and March 2016, the programme has supported 70 new business start-ups, provided micro-grants to 40 existing business and given support grants to 63 local companies.

• We continued to show strong support for St. Helens Town Centre, with the appointment of a town centre manager and we funded a study ‘Shaping the Future of St. Helens Town Centre. The number of retail vacancies was less at year end than the previous year and a number of major retailers including H&M and TJ Hughes were attracted to St. Helens.

• Close working with developers saw the number of new houses built continuing to rise, with a total of 575 new homes completed, 122 of which were affordable. Additionally we worked to ensure over 100 empty private sector properties were returned to occupation.

• We continued work hard to reduce fuel poverty. Our Winter Warmth scheme provided 6,000 winter survival packs to older and vulnerable people in the Borough, whilst the Warm Homes Discount project saw over 1,200 households reduce their winter energy bill by £140. Our energy switch project also provided large savings to residents’ energy bills.

Cllr Glover (Mayor) opens new Town Centre store

New industrial units

Council Leader Barrie Grunewald supports local business

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In October 2015 we teamed up with telecoms giant O2 to launch an ambitious new Digital Communities pilot project designed to help local businesses and residents embrace new digital technology. During the three month project, eight local businesses were given free specialist advice and the latest technologies to help them grow. As well as supporting larger companies, the programme also aimed to support smaller enterprises and boost new business start-ups.From its Digital Hub in the Hardshaw Shopping Centre, the project team delivered over 40 free workshop sessions for the whole community, including technical tutorials and digital career clinics for young people. Over 1,200 visitors called in and seminars were delivered in local schools, colleges and libraries. Part of the project included O2’s ‘Think Big’ programme which helps young people launch ideas that use technology to benefit the places where they live. In total 15 grants were given to ambitious young people who were supported through mentoring to turn their digital ideas into reality. A legacy of the project has been the new free wi-fi hot-spots in the town centre.

Highlights & Successes 2015/16A Thriving, Vibrant and Competitive Place


Digital O2 project

Super connected St. Helens

Our partnership with O2 has been inspirational, boosting the confidence and aspirations of local businesses, young people and the older generation. It has really opened eyes as to the possibilities of digital technology and improved connectivity, and its potential to bring significant additional growth and wider community benefits to support our future vision for St. Helens is huge.

- Chief Executive Mike Palin

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New homes at Eccleston Grange

Summer Streets Festival

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Despite the many challenges, over the course of 2015/16 we continued to work to our strengths as an efficient, effective, caring council that gets things done. Here are some of our wider organisational achievements:• We revised the over-arching

structure of the Council, based around 3 key Departments and a Chief Executives Unit, creating a number of savings and efficiencies. At the same time we involved all our staff to look at the future role of the council by 2020 and how we are to successfully meet the challenges of the years ahead.

• We were praised by our external Auditors Grant Thornton in our Annual Audit Letter for our financial

management practices and our efficient and effective use of resources to meet our objectives.

• We consulted widely with all interested parties on our future budget and spending plans. We continued to provide a Budget Simulator to allow people to have their say and used the feedback to inform the final budget process.

• We continued to demonstrate value for money by again setting the lowest average Council Tax level on Merseyside for 2015/16.

• Our benefits services operated effectively over the course of the year, delivering over £15 million of Council Tax support to over 18,000 households through our local Council Tax Reduction scheme.

• We were successfully re-assessed and awarded a prestigious 3rd consecutive Investors in People Gold Standard for our management processes and the support and development provided to staff.

• We introduced further changes to our pay structures during the year in line with our commitment to fully introduce the Living Wage.

• We successfully undertook a number of customer services improvements, including the introduction of a new online Council Tax and Housing Benefit customer services portal, a new payments kiosk in our Contact Centre reception and a redesigned website.



Delivering Effectively Together

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We delivered a total of £13.5 million of savings over the course of 2015/16, whilst still providing a wide range of effective services and investing in the future of St. Helens.

Self-service kiosks in Council Contact Centre

Mike Palin, Chief Executive St.Helens Council

For further information about the performance of the Council and its services, please visit our Performance page at: www.sthelens.gov.uk

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Over the coming year and beyond we will push ahead with an ambitious programme of organisational change and transformation that will deliver our 2020 vision and allow us to meet the future needs and aspirations of the people of St. Helens. Although great challenges lie ahead, as a stable and well managed council we feel we can look positively towards the future and make the most of the opportunities before us. Some of the exciting developments and key programmes of work we have planned include:

• We will create a new ‘People’s Board’ to aim to become the most effective borough based partnership in the country, with all partners working collaboratively as one to make a real difference to people’s lives.


Looking Ahead

2016/17 and Beyond

We will produce a vision and change strategy to take us forward towards and beyond 2020, setting out our aspiration to become a truly innovative council, capable of ensuring St. Helens is an attractive, modern, progressive and inclusive Borough.

AdaptiveInnovator

Efficient

Effective

Caring

Innovative

Connected& Networked

Evolve& Adapt

Collaborative

Aspirational

Empowered

Effective

Caring

Partnership

Under Pressure

At riskfrom shocks

Well managed

At a cross roads

Risk averse

Efficient

Positive

• We will drive growth and employment within St. Helens through a new Economic Growth Strategy. We will promote St. Helens as a key centre for logistics and continue to bring forward potential sites for development. The development of Parkside remains a priority and we will work through the joint venture company to complete a masterplan and submit a planning application.

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• We will invest £3.2 million in a ‘Children’s Priority Fund’ to allow us to take action to improve the lives of children and young people. In doing so we will look to set up a Learning Partnership that will work to provide the highest standards of education and encourage high aspirations in our children and young people, and redesign children’s social care by developing a range of effective services that manage the pressures of high demand, keep children and young people safe from harm and neglect and reduce the need for them to be cared for by the Council.

• Working jointly with St. Helens Clinical Commissioning Group and other key partners, we will improve the lives of local people by tackling the challenges of high demand and cost on health and care services. We will continue to bring services even closer together, whilst ensuring that are designed around fully meeting the needs of our communities.

• We will build and drive a new cultural partnership, working with the Arts Council and local partners, so that high quality arts and cultural opportunities are accessible to all and able to positively help change the way in which people think about their place and live their lives.

• We will undertake a programme of work to improve St. Helens the place. We will build on our town centre strategy to ensure its long-term future. We will produce our new Local Plan, which will set out how we will develop the borough over the next 15 years in terms of housing, employment and retail and green space sites. We will place a new emphasis on ensuring the environmental quality and cleanliness of the Borough through effective enforcement and education.

Looking Ahead2016/17 and Beyond

The Steve Prescott Bridge

Bold Forest Park

School improvement success

Integrating Health and Care

Apprenticeships increasing aspiration


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During 2015-16 the Council overall (gross) spend on delivering services was £421m. This was funded from council tax, general government grants, retained business rates, fees and charges and specific grants and contributions. Gross Spend Gross Income Net Spend

£’000 £’000 £’000

Cultural and Related Services 11,041 -2,936 8,105

Environmental and Regulatory Services 12,911 -5,274 7,637

Children and Education Services 185,014 -146,455 38,559

Adult Social Care 73,723 -30,080 43,643

Highways and Transport Services 14,094 -2,791 11,303

Housing Services 77,773 -70,300 7,473

Public Health 14,670 -14,369 301

Other Costs 31,278 -6,370 24,908

Net Cost of Services 420,504 -278,575 141,929

Key Spending Areas

Looked After Children

Schools and Education Services

Supporting People

Housing Benefits

Waste Collection

and Recycling

Highways and Parking

£17.3m £164.6m £6.2m £70.0m £5.3m £12.9m

Where the Money Comes From


Summary of our Finances

Our Spending in 2015/16

Over the course of 2015/16, ongoing reductions in government funding saw the Council continuing to face significant financial pressures and risks. During the year the Council’s general grant was reduced by £13.8 million, whilst other government funding was also heavily cut. Despite these pressures the Council’s strong financial management allowed the delivery of effective, value for money services.

27.7%

16.8% 4.3% Dedicated Schools Grant

Housing Benefit Subsidy

Business Rates Top-Up Grant

Retained Business Rates

Fees and Charges and Other Specific Grants

Revenue Support Grant & Other Government Grants

Council Tax

14.1%

5.6%

21.8%

9.7%

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Capital AssetsAt 31st March 2016 the Council owned capital assets in relation to land, buildings, infrastructure, vehicles, plant, furniture and equipment to a value of £418m.

Reserves and Balances

Capital SpendingDuring 2015/16 the Council spent £13.9m investing in the purchase, construction and improvement of land and property and other assets, e.g. vehicles. This was paid for by government grants, contributions, capital receipts from the sale of surplus assets and contributions from revenue.


Summary of our Finances

At the 31st March 2016 the Council had £92.8m (excluding schools balances) available to spend. This includes £17.8m general balances which is considered a sensible level and is held to protect the financial position of the Council from any adverse unforeseen events. Other balances are set aside to promote specific projects, including service modernisation, regeneration and employment within the borough and also to support future capital investment.

45.3%

14.4%

6.1%

19.8%

14.4%

Highways & Transportation Schemes

Disabled Facilities Grants

Vehicle Replacement

Schools

Other Capital Schemes

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1600248M

Contact CentreWesley HouseCorporation StreetSt.HelensWA10 1HF

Tel: 01744 676789Minicom: 01744 671671➜ www.sthelens.gov.uk/contactus

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