Pride Partnership 2010 - 2011

Pride Partnership 2010 - 2011

Pride Partnership, the Local Strategic Partnership for Rochdale brings together the Council with other public bodies such as the Police, Health Services, Fire and Rescue Service, Private Businesses and Voluntary Groups in order to improve the quality of life for residents in Rochdale Borough. 2010 - 11 was a challenging year for the Partnership due to the significant financial constraints faced by our partners and its impact on delivering much needed services to our residents. However, these challenges have inspired our partners to work more closely together. Our partners have been working extremely hard over the last 12 months, resulting in some fantastic achievements being made as a result of joint working. The Partnership is proud to highlight some of these achievements. If you would like any further information about these achievements, please contact Miladur Rahman, Partnership Development Officer on 01706 924334 or email Miladur.rahman@rochdale.gov.uk

Huge increase in Apprenticeships in Rochdale Borough

The number of Rochdale borough residents who have started an apprenticeship has increased by a massive 45% in one year. The increase equates to 1135, 16-24 year olds, who chose to take an apprenticeship as a route into work in 2010. Councillor Donna Martin, Portfolio Holder for Children, Schools and Families said, In Rochdale we are aware of our problems regarding high levels of worklessness and low skills. We have been working with our partners to put in place a number of initiatives to overcome some of these problems. One of these has been promoting the benefits of apprenticeships to local people and businesses. We have seen 200 more Rochdale borough companies recruiting apprentices in 2011 than in 2010. The success is mainly down to Rochdale Council Skills Team and Training Providers who deliver the apprenticeships, working closely together to increase apprenticeship numbers. A unified approach to arranging events such as, Apprenticeship Summer Schools and recruitment events, plus collaborative marketing materials, has helped to raise awareness of apprenticeship vacancies. The Council Skills Team and Rochdale Apprenticeship Alliance work closely together to jointly promote apprenticeships within schools, colleges and to parents. A regular list of apprenticeship vacancies from local training providers is shared with schools and Connexions, as well as being available on, www.radama.co.uk A recent campaign, designed to recruit 100 new Apprentices in 100 days, shattered its target with 214 new starts, additionally identifying 20 new employers in the process. As a result of joint efforts, the number of young people taking up apprenticeships has increased dramatically since 2009. Our latest figures also points to 2011 being the best ever for Apprenticeship recruitment in the borough. More recently there has been a surge in Apprentices aged over 25. Donna also said, we are hoping to achieve the Greater Manchester target of 1 in 4, 16-18 year olds into an Apprenticeship by 2020. This is an ambitious target that we are well on track to achieve thanks to the collaborative and innovative work of the Council Skills Team and our Training Providers.

Stop Smoking with a little bit of help

Since 2007, 5,804 people quit smoking after accessing their local Stop Smoking service, above its target of 5,379. This year alone, Stop Smoking services helped 1,840 smokers to quit compared to 1,798 the previous year. NHS Director of Public Health, Jane Rossini said, Smoking is the single greatest cause of preventable illness and premature death in Rochdale. Thats why its really encouraging to see so many people are accessing our services and taking the steps to quit smoking. Evidence shows that people are up to four times more likely to stop smoking if they get help and support from Stop Smoking Services compared to going it alone. The boroughs multi-agency Tobacco Free Alliance, led by the Council and NHS, has been instrumental in helping residents to quit smoking. The Alliance has assisted in getting front line staff trained to be able to give brief intervention advice when they come into contact with young people and families. The Alliance has also delivered a number of health events and workplace visits, resulting in staff attending stop smoking sessions within their own place of work. Several marketing campaigns have also been successfully delivered. For example, the Take Seven Steps campaign, encourages smokers to smoke outside of their home to avoid the risks of second hand smoke affecting other members of the family.

A lot of work has also been carried out in creating the environments that support people to stop smoking and prevent people from starting. For example, school and nurseries have all been encouraged and supported to have comprehensive smoke free policies that extend far beyond the requirements by law. The Council has also been working closely with retailers to ensure that cigarettes and chewing tobacco are not sold to people under the age of 18. In total, 676 businesses were visited and almost all the premises were complying with smoking legislation. Further work has been carried out with midwifery services to make new parents aware of the dangers of smoking to babies. Last year the percentage of pregnant women who were smoking during pregnancy reduced to 21.08% compared to 22.8% in 2009/10.

A healthier life for our residents

Thanks to the hard work of our partners working together, the number of premature deaths from cardiovascular disease (CVD) has fallen by almost half from 319 deaths in 2004-5 to 177 deaths in 2010-11. This is a significant achievement, given that CVD is the biggest cause of preventable death in Rochdale borough. Dr Jane Rossini, Director of Public Health said, the causes of heart and circulatory disease are complex but smoking, poor diet and a lack of physical activity increase the risks and these are the areas we have some control over. Our programme of activities with our partners has helped to significantly reduce the risk factors associated with CVD. The Council and NHS Healthy Living programme has encouraged an incredible 8,500 people to take part in healthy cooking and physical activity classes. As part of the British Heart Foundation Hearty Lives programme, three cardiovascular specialist nurses have been funded to work with local communities in deprived areas to raise awareness of heart disease and help people to access services. In the first year, 507 people have been supported. Since 2006, vascular health checks have been carried out, targeting those who have a high risk of cardiovascular disease. More than 31,000 people have been checked and over 10,000 people have received help and support to manage and reduce their risk. During 2010/11, the Stop Smoking services helped 1,840 smokers to quit compared to 1,798 the previous year. This has helped to reduce the number of people who die because of smoking related illnesses such as heart disease and cancers. The Rochdale Gym Project designed to increase levels of physical activity amongst young people and the Healthy Weight Programme established to help overweight people get back into shape have supported over 6,000 people to lead a healthier lifestyle. Also health trainers across Rochdale have provided healthy lifestyle advice to 3,631 people this year. A further 1,300 people visited the Town Hall for the day for free interactive demonstrations and advice covering all aspects of healthy living. Rochdale Healthy schools programme is being delivered to children across all schools. Along with the support of the schools, there has been a reduction in the number of school children that are overweight. A 10.3m sports centre in Heywood opened in October 2010. Since opening, fitness memberships have grown from 561 to 3,795 and the total number of visits rose from 61,115 to 197,092. Furthermore borough-wide gym membership has increased by almost 50% (8,779) against 2009/10 (5,970). All these initiatives are helping to reduce the risks associated with CVD and preventing more people from getting heart disease.

Serious violent crimes falls in Rochdale

Rochdale has seen the biggest fall in violent crime across Greater Manchester - falling by 39% in 2010/11. In Rochdale there were 107 fewer victims of violent crime compared to the previous year. The success is partly due to a series of partnership initiatives between the Police and the Councils Public Protection Unit, focusing its activity on locations where there has been repeated incidents of violent crime and where incidents of crime are highly likely to occur such as fast food out-lets and taxi ranks operating during the night. Knife arch operations at various locations in the town centre have been carried out. Knife arches use magnets to detect knives when people walk through it, similar to those used in airports as passengers go through check-in. These operations provide high visibility of officers and deter potential offenders from carrying weapons or drugs into the town centre. Also visits to licensed premises and the introduction of poly carbon glasses in some venues to avoid the use of glass bottles being used as a weapon, have all contributed to the fall in violent crime.

The borough also has a number of strong Pub Watch schemes which take positive action against offenders and uses banning orders where applicable. The improved borough CCTV capacity has also helped with cameras being programmed to cover the hot spot locations in all town centres. Chief Superintendent John OHare says Alcohol misuse is a major factor contributing to violent crime incidents in the borough. Initiatives to reduce such offences include targeting town centres at night and increased checks at licensed premises. A lot of our success is due to strong partnership working targeted at those most likely to offend under the influence of alcohol. We are lucky in Rochdale to have such a supportive partnership that shares a mutual belief that together we can achieve more.

Making a Positive Start

More of Rochdales children are starting primary school with a good level of development. The percentage of five year olds achieving the expected level of attainment has risen significantly from 46% in 2009 to 54% in 2010. Rochdales level of improvement in Early Years attainment was amongst the best in Greater Manchester. The success is down to the quality of provision for children across all Early Years providers such as nurseries, childrens centres and schools. Councillor Donna Martin, Portfolio Holder for Children, Schools and Families said, High quality Early Years provision gives children the best possible start in their learning careers. Commitment to learning is instilled in the child and parents at the very start of their education, and they are taught through play that learning is fun. This encourages young people to reach their full potential from a very early age.

The Council Early Years Team work closely with all these providers to ensure high quality provision is available to enable all children to learn, enjoy and develop. The Team ensures providers have access to advice and guidance on delivering quality Early Years learning. This includes signposting providers to good practice, supporting new qualified Early Years staff and developing resources to allow providers to evaluate and improve the quality of their learning provision. The Early Years Team have been working closely with providers to ensure effective arrangements are in place for the smooth transition of children from an Early Years setting to primary school. Childrens progress in Early Years is monitored very closely by schools using a range of observational techniques and parents are regularly kept informed of their childs development. Independent assessments have judged Early Years provision to be good or outstanding in the majority of schools across Rochdale.

Getting Personal
Rochdale is making excellent progress in its drive to get more people to have more control over the care they receive. Over a third of all people eligible for social care support have now been given the opportunity to decide for themselves how to spend the money that has been allocated to them to meet their needs. Over 2000 people in Rochdale borough have now received a personalised support plan and a personal budget detailing the amount allocated to them to meet their social care needs, compared to only 375 the previous year; one of the largest improvements in Greater Manchester (6% to 32% in one year). Once the support plan and personal budget is in place, each person is then given the opportunity to decide for themselves whether to receive their budget as a direct payment so that they can manage their own care or whether to continue to receive support directly from commissioned services. They are also given the option of having someone else manage their direct payment for them, or to have a mixture of commissioned services and direct payment. Linda Robinson, Portfolio-holder for Adult Social Care said, Personal budgets can make an incredible difference to peoples lives. Whether people decide to receive a direct payment or not, the most important thing is giving people the option to decide for themselves. We aim to ensure that by 2013 all those eligible for social care are given the information and support to manage their own care with or without support, or allow the Council to provide or commission the services on their behalf. A number of successful actions have led to this significant increase in people receiving a personal budget. Those in receipt of social care and their families are provided with all the relevant information and support for them to decide whether a direct payment is right for them. Personalised plans to support each individual receiving a direct payment are put in place and regularly reviewed and audited to ensure that the payments are being used in the most effective manner. An independent assessment rating from the Care Quality Commission in 2010 identified Rochdale as improving and performing well in its work towards helping people to have more choice and control over the services they receive.

Independent Living
The elderly, disabled and vulnerable people in Rochdale have some of the best support available in the North West to help them live independent lives. During 2010/11, 89% of vulnerable people were helped to achieve independent living through the Supporting People programme compared to 71% the previous year; well above its target and performing better than all other areas in the North West. Furthermore, 85% of social care clients with mental health problems are being supported to live independently which is well above the North West Average. The success is down to an effective multi-agency approach in providing housing related support to vulnerable people in order for them to maintain their independence at home. The approach involves those in need of housing support to play a key role in deciding the type of support needed and how it is to be delivered. The Council and its partners also closely monitor vulnerable groups such as those with learning disabilities and mental health problems, ensuring that they remain in a stable environment in which they can maintain their own living. Linda Robinson, Portfolio-holder for Adult Social Care said, We want more people to live independent happy lives within the comfort of their own environments for as long as possible and by working closely together with our partners and the service users themselves, we are achieving this. Over 16,000 pieces of disabled equipment, including 1,000 items of telecare equipment are provided each year to those most in need to allow them to live safely and more independently at home. These include items which help people return home after attending hospital or from a residential care setting. Furthermore, a total of almost 2,700 major disabled adaptations to homes have been carried out to enable adults to live at home by altering their environment to suit their disability, including stair lifts, walk-in showers and through-floor lifts.