tackling poverty in Salford

NO ONE LEFT BEHIND:

Year ONE progress report 2017/18

Year ONE progress report

Contents02 message from Salford’s City Mayor

03 key highlights 2017/18

05 priority one progress

09 priority two progress

13 priority three progress

16 Salford Poverty Truth Commission: Our Story So Far

“Our vision is for a fairer and more inclusive Salford where everyone is able to reach their full potential and live prosperous and fulfilling lives free from poverty and inequality”Salford City Mayor and Salford Youth Mayor

1

Message from Salford’s City Mayor

When Salford launched its Tackling Poverty Strategy (No One Left Behind) in February 2017, I was determined to drive forward action to address the damage caused by poverty in this city.

With the results of years of austerity, seeing more hungry families turning to food banks and rapid growth in the numbers of people forced into crisis, homelessness and rough sleeping, it was clear that we had to act quickly and boldly.

One year on from publishing the strategy, we have achieved a great deal. And this report provides a short summary of the progress made in delivering the strategy’s key commitments.

We have been working hard and closely with the Poverty Truth Commission and partners to improve support to people struggling in poverty. This is at a time when the council continues to face unprecedented budget pressures and the cumulative effect of annual central government cuts that has seen funding reduced by a staggering £198 million since 2010.

Despite this significant financial challenge, we have invested an extra £3 million this year in delivering vital services that directly support the city’s most vulnerable people. However, regardless of the achievements outlined in this report, there is still much more to do. And I am determined to go even further and faster over the next 12 months to build a local economy where wealth serves people and communities, as opposed to the other way round.

I am certain that if we continue to work together we will achieve our shared vision and ensure no one in Salford will ever be left behind.

Salford City Mayor Paul Dennett

snapshotKEYhighlights

2017-18

Increase in membership of the Salford Credit Union and growing fast

300Salford care

workers given a

well- deserved

pay rise

348 more affordable homes delivered

one of the best rates in Greater Manchester

3,308vulnerable households in crisis supported through Salford Assist a significant 62% increase from the year before

10.7%

106%

young care leavers exempted from paying council tax

53of Salford City Council’s direct spend (56%) is with Salford-based suppliers and growing

111million

Salford employers are now signed up to the city’s Employment Standards Charter

101 3,436people provided with free, independent and impartial welfare rights and debt advice

extra funding for services to help the city’s most vulnerable people

3million26accredited real Living Wage employers are now based in Salford lifting the pay of 1,242 employees

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Year ONE progress report

In the last 12 months we have:

Poverty proofing• Stopped the use of enforcement

agents (bailiffs) to recover council tax arrears from vulnerable, low income households in receipt of a council tax reduction to prevent further debt and alleviate unnecessary stress.

• Exempted 53 young care leavers aged 18 to 21 from paying council tax to give them a boost into independence. This will apply whether they remain in Salford or settle elsewhere.

• Retained the Council Tax Reduction Scheme at its current level for the third consecutive year – helping 25,732 people on low incomes pay their council tax bills, many of them pensioners and families.

• Become the first council in the north west to adopt the Local Government Association and Citizens Advice ‘Collection of Council Tax Good Practice Protocol’ as a public commitment to its principles of fairness, transparency and partnership working in local authority debt collection.

• Introduced new money advice drop-in sessions at the Gateway centres so that people can speak face-to-face with representatives from the Department of Work and Pensions, Citizens Advice, Salford Credit Union and the council about a range of money matters. So far 135 people have been supported with help and advice.

Supporting people who are struggling in poverty nowONE.

Priority

4 5

Year ONE progress report

Improving access to welfare rights and debt advice• Provided an extra £70,000 funding

for the council’s welfare rights and debt advice service; helping to support 3,436 people with specialist free help and advice and securing nearly £5 million in extra disposable income for Salford residents.

• Supported 19,879 people with free and independent advice through Salford Citizens Advice. This helped to raise £14.9 million in extra benefits and write off £2.6 million worth of debts.

• Trained 360 front line workers to provide enhanced advice and assistance to residents experiencing benefit problems.

Protecting the safety net • Invested an additional £300,000 in

Salford’s local welfare assistance scheme (Salford Assist). This has helped 3,308 vulnerable people in crisis access short term emergency help such as paying for food, electricity, gas and essential furniture, a significant 62% increase from the year before.

• Provided £10,000 funding for Salford Women’s Aid, which has helped to provide 66 victims of domestic abuse and 84 children with emergency accommodation, counselling and support services.

• Introduced a new supermarket food voucher scheme in partnership with Morrisons and Aldi to reduce pressure on the city’s overburdened food banks and give people more choice and dignity.

• Agreed to invest an additional £590,000 over the next four years to open seven new libraries and upgrade computer facilities in the city’s other 16 libraries - at a time when many councils are closing them.

Reducing the cost of essential living • Abolished burial and cremation

fees for children under 16 and this will be extended to children under 18 from 1 April 2018. We have also frozen all other burial and cremation charges for 2018/19.

• Invested £75,000 to strengthen Salford’s food crisis support services to help tackle food poverty in the city. This money will ensure the continuation of vital food crisis support for some of our most vulnerable communities.

• Waived the £11 charge for copies of birth certificates, for homeless people who were born in Salford. These certificates are vital in helping homeless people to secure the Identification they need to obtain benefits or housing.

• Invested an extra £33,000 in the Warm Salford scheme that has helped around 1,300 pensioners and low income households to heat up their homes and reduce their energy bills.

Increasing access to affordable credit and savings• Significantly increased membership

of the Salford Credit Union by an impressive 106% (732 new members) thanks to the £170,000 investment made by the council in April 2017.

• Increased the amount of affordable loans approved by 21.6% (to £913,500); helping to save members a hefty £1.6 million in potential high interest charges.

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In the last 12 months we have:Creating decent jobs with decent pay• Boosted the pay of 300 home care

workers by 10.7% to £8.30 per hour, well above the National Living Wage.

• Seen 1,393 new businesses start up in Salford in the first three months of 2017 – an 85% growth rate that is higher than both London and Manchester. If this growth is maintained, Salford is on course to welcome 5,286 more by the end of the year.

• Welcomed a number of leading multi-national companies to the city, including Kellogg’s, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Swinton Insurance creating a further 1,860 new well paid jobs.

• Continued to pay all council staff at least the real UK Living Wage (set by the Living Wage Foundation) – the only council in Greater Manchester to be accredited. And in April 2018, the council will once again implement the annual increase to £8.75 per hour.

• 26 accredited real Living Wage employers now based in Salford and 13 more with branches in the city – lifting the pay of 1,242 employees.

• 101 employers now signed up to the City Mayor’s Charter for Employment Standards that is designed to help improve pay and conditions for employees and businesses across the city.

Preventing people from falling into poverty in the first placeTWO.

Priority

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Year ONE progress report

Supporting more people into work • Supported 598 adults furthest from

the labour market to improve their skills and move into employment.

• Provided 5,741 young people and adults with specialist career information, advice and guidance.

• Supported 685 young people aged 16 to 24 to progress into education, employment or training.

• Joined forces with Barclays, Lloyds, Talk Talk and Good Things Foundation to support up to 8,000 digitally excluded adults to improve their digital skills and make the most of the city’s growing digital opportunities.

Improving mental health and wellbeing • Successfully raised over £130,000

from local businesses and the community to develop Salford’s new midwife-led birth centre at Ingleside in Oakwood Park. Due to open in Spring 2018, the centre will enable women to have access to the widest range of support during pregnancy.

• Launched MyCity Health – Salford’s new health and wellbeing website that enables residents to find a wide range of help and support for their mental and physical health.

• Improved mental health awareness training for volunteer debt advisors so they can provide better help and support for vulnerable people with mental health conditions experiencing debt.

Supporting people to stay in their homes• Prevented 593 households in

Salford from becoming homeless either through helping them to remain in their own home or move to suitable alternative accommodation within the city.

• Helped 1,967 vulnerable people struggling to pay their rent to maintain a tenancy by providing discretionary housing payments totalling £954,853.

• Launched a homelessness commission called ‘No Place Called Home’ that brings together people who have experienced homelessness with key public and voluntary agencies to explore ways of providing better and earlier support for those who need it.

Delivering affordable housing • Delivered an estimated 348 more

affordable homes, including a mixture of social rented, affordable rented and shared ownership homes - one of the best rates in Greater Manchester.

• Invested £2 million into setting up a new ethical housing development company (Dérive Ltd) as the first step towards building the city’s first council houses in years.

Harnessing the strengths of local communities • Launched the ‘Tackling Poverty

Pledge’ at the Salford CVS annual conference in June that encourages voluntary and community organisations to pledge three things they will do to help tackle poverty in Salford.

• Developed a network of neighbourhood food clubs across the city to support communities to improve their own food security, with four already established and four more being set up.

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Year ONE progress report

In the last 12 months we have:

Creating the evidence base for action• Launched the first research

report of the Salford Anti-poverty Taskforce exploring the lived experiences of tenants in the city’s private rented sector. The report (Precarious Lives) has proved a powerful campaigning tool, receiving widespread media coverage for its work highlighting issues around affordability, poor housing conditions and insecure tenancies that will form the basis of further research and campaigning in 2018.

• Undertaken research into the issue of sanitary poverty in the city that shows almost half of women (48%) surveyed have experienced difficulty affording sanitary products in the last year. A new awareness campaign will be launched in 2018 to highlight this issue and call on the government to make sanitary products freely available in all schools and public buildings.

Influencing the government and getting a better deal for SalfordThree.

Priority

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Year ONE progress report

Tackling high cost and Illegal money lending• Worked with the national Illegal

Money Lending Team and police to launch a week of action in November to raise awareness of the dangers of loan sharks. Free workshops were also held to give practitioners a better understanding of how loan sharks work in communities and how to identify and better support vulnerable people who may be affected.

Campaigning against unfair welfare reform • Successfully delivered all the

recommendations contained within the ‘DWP Benefit Conditionality and Sanctions in Salford’ taskforce report, that included the call for more investment in Salford Assist, Welfare Rights and Debt Advice services and the Salford Credit Union.

• Provided expert evidence and insight to the governments Work and Pensions Committee enquiry into the impact of Universal Credit and the benefit cap, via the city’s Financial Inclusion Practitioners Group.

• Launched a Universal Credit Taskforce to explore the real impact of the full service rollout on Salford’s vulnerable claimants. Working with Child Poverty Action Group, evidence gathered from the taskforce will feed directly into the Work and Pensions Committee through the early warning system.

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Year ONE progress report

Salford Poverty Truth Commission: Our Story So FarWhat if people living in poverty could take the lead in challenging Salford’s leaders to work with them on tackling poverty?

Would it make a difference to the decisions that are being made? Would new solutions be discovered?

Those were just a few of the questions that were being asked when Salford Poverty Truth Commission (PTC) was launched in July 2016. And in October last year, the answers were shared widely, at a moving and inspiring public event: Salford Poverty Truth Commission – Our Story So Far.

People from across Salford gathered at The Sanctuary in Salford Quays to hear moving, first-hand stories of how the commission has influenced and inspired change in Salford.

And the commission has achieved much. Listening to the voice and strong evidence of those with first-hand experience, we have worked closely with the council to influence key parts of the Tackling Poverty Strategy and revolutionise the way that it speaks with, writes to and meets with residents.

And in the last year we have inspired the council to: stop using enforcement agents when recovering debts from the most vulnerable residents; launch new face-to-face coffee drop-in sessions for people seeking help or advice on debt: re-write its standard letters to prevent “brown envelope syndrome” and even give full council tax exemptions for Salford care leavers. The council has also waived charges for copies of birth certificates for homeless people, enabling them to more easily obtain the official Identification they need to access benefits.

Politics is either done to us, or we shape it. PTCs are a powerful way for people to choose that second option.

Letitia Rose, Poverty Truth Commissioner

“Being a commissioner

has given me insight

into how grassroots

can engage with the

local community and

local government

to tackle issues of

poverty, emotional/

physical wellbeing,

education, isolation

and homelessness”

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tackling poverty in Salford

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