Gateshead Council Productivity Plan

Since the Government's austerity measures commenced in 2010, the Council has faced unprecedented cuts to funding while at the same time experiencing increased demand for support, particularly in social care, with an increasing percentage of its budget spent on social care to protect the most vulnerable residents in the borough. The Council has risen to the challenge, developing our over-arching THRIVE strategic approach and Health and Wellbeing Strategy, and continuing to deliver high quality services, and invest in the borough through our Capital Programme. Inevitably though, the Council has had to make increasingly tough choices over this period to enable it to deliver a legally balanced budget and since 2010 has needed to make cuts totalling £207.5m which represents 68% of the Council's current Net Budget of £306.277m, and the workforce has reduced by 40%. The process has been underpinned by strong leadership, sound governance arrangements evidenced through a Local Code of Governance, an annual review of the Annual Governance Statement, and a robust Medium Term Financial Strategy and Budget Approach, enabling the Council to remain financially sustainable. The Council must comply with its best value duty to make arrangements to secure continuous improvement in the way our functions are exercised, having regard to a combination of economy, efficiency, and effectiveness. The Council has received positive Value For Money assessments from its independent external auditors outlining our arrangements to deliver economy, efficiency and effectiveness in our use of resources. Setting a balanced budget is more challenging each year, however, we've adopted a longerterm approach to our strategic and financial planning to give us the best opportunity to minimise the impact of our reduced budget on our residents, manage our debt and replenish our reserves.

Corporate Plan

In November 2023, Council agreed our refreshed Corporate Plan 2023-28; The strength of Gateshead is the people of Gateshead. The plan sets out our priorities for the next five years and shows what we believe we can deliver to support the people of Gateshead and provide the conditions for the opportunity for everyone to thrive. Our priorities will undoubtedly change over time and as this happens, we will work with our communities and stakeholders to ensure they are right for the council and for the borough. The corporate plan sets out the priority actions we will take under the five Thrive pledges:

• People Gateshead - putting people and families at the heart of everything we do.
• Fair Gateshead - tackling inequalities so people have a fair chance.
• Communities Gateshead - supporting our communities to support themselves and each other.
• Prosperous Gateshead - investing in our economy to provide sustainable opportunities for employment, innovation, and growth.
• Future Gateshead - working together and fighting for a better future for Gateshead.

The plan sets the strategic approach and priorities for 2023-2028 so that all stakeholders understand:

• The strategic priorities of the Council, so that resources, delivery plans, strategies and operational activity can be aligned to them; and
• How the Council will continue to transform and drive improvement in services to deliver our priorities and operate as an organisation and partner in the most effective, productive, and impactful way.
• The plan outlines interconnected priorities of:
  • Inclusivity;
  • Customer experience;
  • Financial sustainability;
  • Culture;
  • Continuous improvement; and
  • Good governance

and is underpinned by numerous supporting strategies and plans including:

• Health and Wellbeing Strategy
• Local Plan
• Medium Term Financial Strategy
• Housing strategies and policies
• Workforce Strategy 2022-2025

Our plan will be subject to annual review and an annual performance report will be made available. The Corporate Plan will be underpinned and delivered through Group wide and Service Plans which are aligned to the high level priorities.

Transformation

The estimated costs and demand pressures in social care are the biggest element of the estimated funding gap in the Medium Term Financial Strategy. A fundamental part of the approach to financial sustainability will be to manage demand through interventions and service transformation in both Adults and Children's services.

The Integrated Adults and Social Care Strategy 2023-28 sets out a five year strategy focussing on:

• Prevent, reduce and delay:
  • Through information and advice;
  • Promoting independence through enablement;
  • Promoting independence through technology;
  • Strength based practice through community assets; and
  • Home first through developing housing options, and a vibrant domiciliary care market
• Caregivers
  • Commitment to improving and developing services to better support unpaid carers.
• Workforce
  • Continue to be a good employer to retain but also attract new colleagues. Create a culture of continuous learning and create opportunities for development.
• Commissioning
  • Effective commissioning driven by data-led, evidenced-based approach, promoting collaboration, integration, and innovation across the Gateshead System
• The Voice of People and Communities
  • The ambition to be a learning organisation that views people and communities as experts in their care and how they can be best supported to improve and maintain their wellbeing.

Partnership Working

Organisations and systems can be complex and difficult to navigate. By working in partnership with others we aim to make accessing support and services as easy as possible. In Gateshead we have developed a vehicle for integrated partnership working across health, housing and social care partners, known as the Gateshead System. Local health and care partners come together as a system board to deliver change, by working together to achieve better outcomes and reduce health inequalities for local people. The Gateshead System board is accountable to the Health and Wellbeing Board, and Boards of individual organisations.

There is a focus on reducing the need for children to come into the care system with a range of strategies and approaches focused on children on the edge of care.

Reducing the number of children in need of care

Strategy Early Help Strategy_2023-26

Support is available through Gateshead Family Hubs and we also offer a Virtual Family Hub.

Devolution

The North-East agreed a North-East devolution deal with the Government in December 2023. This was deepened in March 2024 to give more funding and flexibilities to deliver the region's priorities in areas including skills, transport, and business support. In May 2024, the North-East elected its first Mayor, Kim McGuinness, to deliver manifesto commitments. Mayor McGuinness has further outlined an economic plan with three priorities: improving the foundational economy, delivering on the green revolution, and boosting regional through investment in arts, culture, and sport. Gateshead is working closely with the Elected Mayor to achieve the three priorities.

As part of the wider governance arrangements for the North-East Combined Authority, Gateshead is working with the seven portfolio leads to deliver the wider devolution priorities. This will help ensure that local priorities dovetail in the delivery of the wider regional priorities.

Gateshead has identified four priorities to ensure that devolution delivers for local people and local businesses: securing regional and national financial support for the Gateshead Quays Arena and Conference Centre; growing the visitor economy; River Tyne renaissance; and influencing programmes to support sectoral growth, innovation, and investment, particularly the Digital Economy, Green Economy, Visitor Economy, and Local Economy.

The Gateshead priorities will in part be achieved through the delivery of the Gateshead Economic Development Strategy. The Strategy aims to deliver a fairer, greener, and more resilient economy that enables everyone to thrive and delivers good jobs, growing businesses and great places.

Measuring Productivity

Productivity is a measure of how efficiently inputs are used to create outputs and in the case of the Council can be defined as how well we use our resources to achieve our strategic objectives and outcomes. Due to the diverse nature of the services delivered by local authorities, a one-size fits all measure of productivity is not possible. However, the Council has developed a Performance Management and Improvement Framework outlining a suite of performance metrics with a clear focus on policy and priorities, delivery, measurement, and analysis of impact to support effective resource allocation and is based on Thrive and the Health and Wellbeing Strategy.

The reports outline the challenges, achievements, actions, and resources for each policy objective. It also contains performance data including strategic and operational measures and is informed by qualitative and quantitative assessment to inform policy and resource decisions.