Harshest cuts City Council has ever faced | Leicester Mercury column

Column for the Leicester Mercury following the Comprehensive Spending Review.

When George Osborne delivered his Comprehensive Spending Review statement a week ago we knew it would be bad news. With this Government, it usually is. Like councils across the country, Leicester City Council is now faced with a further round of painful budget cuts.

Back in 2010, the coalition made clear their intention to make significant cuts to council budgets. What has happened since is unprecedented. Local government has taken more than its fair share of cuts. This ideological attack on councils and the services is now coupled with the cost of the Government's economic failure.

The Government is now making further cuts to council budgets, and other public services, because they have failed to get the economy back on track and are having to borrow more. Because of George Osborne's economic failure, local councils will pay the price, with millions slashed from our budgets in 2015-16. Leicester City Council has already planned to deliver spending reductions in our annual budget of £85 million since 2011-12.

This has meant very difficult decisions and changes to services. Last week's spending review, with a further 10 per cent cut in our budgets, means a further £60 million reduction in the council's annual spending by 2017-18.

In the next few weeks, we will be setting out our initial plans for council spending in the coming years and how we intend to respond to this further round of cuts. These plans will be discussed with council staff, trade unions, our partner organisations and city residents. The pace and scale of these cuts is unprecedented. We are faced with questions we have not had to ask before. We will need to consider new and different ways of delivering some services.

These cuts are unfair. Councils in more affluent parts of the country are not being asked to make cuts as harsh as those we face in Leicester and in similar areas. Combined with the impact of the benefit changes and the rising costs of living, there are some very significant challenges ahead for the council and wider public sector.

We are determined to retain a good range of locally-delivered services, responding to the needs and expectations of residents. This will not be easy. These are the harshest cuts the council has ever faced. Unfortunately, the Chancellor's balance sheet does not account for how much local residents value and trust local services.

This column first appeared in the Leicester Mercury, 4 July 2013.

Health & Wellbeing Board's first meeting

Last week I chaired the first meeting of the city's new Health & Wellbeing Board.

Health & Wellbeing Board's were formed following the government's NHS reforms and bring together local councils, Clinical Commissioning Groups, NHS England, HealthWatch and other partners.

At this first meeting we endorsed Closing the Gap, a new health strategy for the city.

Leicester Mercury article following the first Health & Wellbeing Board meeting.

New community gardening project in Eyres Monsell

We are pleased to be launching a new project in Eyres Monsell this week in partnership with BBC Radio Leicester.

As part of BBC Leicester's summer campaign to get more people growing their own food, we are launching 'Blooming Eyres Monsell.'

We want to get more people growing their own food in Eyres Monsell, which is good for health, can save money on shopping bills and is good fun for families.

BBC Radio Leicester's Ben Jackson and Ady Dayman will be visiting Eyres Monsell to give away seeds to local residents to help get thing started. These seeds are for tomatoes, lettuce, sweetcorn and runner beans. As councillors we have agreed to fund some gardening starter kits including pots and tools.

This project will also see the creation of a new community vegetable patch at Eyres Monsell Community Centre. We are looking for residents and volunteers to help with this.

To get your free seeds and to find out more about this project come along to Eyres Monsell Community Centre tomorrow (Wednesday 17 April) from 5:30pm.

BBC Radio Leicester's Ben Jackson and gardener Ady Dayman will be there to answer your questions and help get this project started.

With BBC gardener Ady Dayman, fellow
Councillor Virginia Cleaver and BBC Leicester's Ben Jackson
at Eyres Monsell Community Centre.

Our Healthy City: launching council's new public health work

From 1 April the city council took on new public health responsibilities. These responsibilities transfer to the council from the NHS Primary Care Trust as a result of the government's re-organisation of the health service.

The government's re-organisation of the NHS remains controversial and politically divisive. In my view the transfer of public health responsibilities presents an important opportunity for local government. There has been a close relationship between local government and public health ever since Victorian times; local government used to be responsible for public health functions.

In my view the big opportunity now is to embed a new public health approach across all the core services of the council. There are significant health inequalities in Leicester and I am determined that we adopt a renewed and determined approach to these trends. Health inequalities are interwoven with wider socio-economic inequalities, poverty and disadvantage. We need to see truly joined-up approaches across the council and that's what I am determined to see happen in Leicester.

Next week I will chair the first formal meeting in public of the city's new Health and Wellbeing Board where partners will adopt the new Health and Wellbeing Strategy for the city. This strategy sets out five strategic priorities. I will write more about this next week.

On Friday we launched the council's new public health agenda, Our Healthy City, with a live healthy cooking demonstration in Leicester Market. Our first public health campaign is about healthier eating, encouraging people to make small changes in their diet to eat more healthily. This campaign started yesterday with hundreds of free bags of fresh vegetables and recipe cards given away. There will be similar events over the next few months in communities across the city.

Launching Our Healthy City by cooking a
healthy curry at Leicester Market.

For more information about Our Healthy City, the new Health & Wellbeing Board and the council's approach to public health see www.leicester.gov.uk/ourhealthycity

The Our Healthy City vegetable curry recipe:

Living Wage: implemented today at Leicester City Council

Today (1 April 2013) 1100 staff at Leicester City Council will see their pay increase to the level of the Living Wage.

I have blogged previously on this here.

I am pleased that as a Labour administration we have delivered this. I argued for a commitment to the Living Wage in our manifesto for the city council elections in 2011. Adopting the Living Wage for the lowest paid council staff is the first step.

The next and important challenge is to work to encourage other employers, in the public, private and voluntary sectors, to do likewise. This will include exploring ways to encourage organisations contracted by the city council to pay the Living Wage as well.

Initially at the city council the Living Wage will be paid as a supplement to pay, this is the quickest way of implementing the Living Wage from the start of this financial year. It means that 1100 staff will see their pay increase from today, this includes over 280 kitchen assistants and over 270 cleaners.

Leicester Mercury article on Living Wage at
Leicester City Council.

Leicester Mental Health Summit

I was pleased to speak at the Mental Health summit on Friday organised by Jon Ashworth MP.

I have always felt very strongly about mental health and specifically the need for politicians, policy-makers and society in general to talk more about mental health and wellbeing.

I am determined that the new Health and Wellbeing Board in Leicester - which I chair - and the city council makes mental health a key priority. Mental health, wellbeing and emotional resilience will be one of the strategic priorities in the new Health Strategy for the city which will be published in the coming weeks.

In my speech I made clear the Health and Wellbeing Board's commitment to high quality provision for mental health and work to improve mental wellbeing across the city. I also called on all councillors to be champions for mental health.

At any one time around 30,000 people of working age in Leicester will have a mental illness. We have real expertise and innovation across the city's voluntary sector and the challenge is matching this provision with the statutory services to make sure we have broad, co-ordinated and high quality care pathways and provision meeting the needs and aspirations of service users and our communities.

Speaking at the Mental Health Summit
(photo, www.jonashworth.org)

Friday's summit in Leicester, which included participants from the statutory and voluntary sectors, was an important opportunity to discuss mental health provision and what more can be done.

For more coverage of the summit see Jon Ashworth's website.

News article from a visit I made to Network for Change in Leicester when I was cabinet member at the city council for adult social care, with then MP Peter Soulsby.

National Apprenticeships Week

As part of National Apprenticeships Week I met with city council apprentices earlier this week.

Through our Leicester to Work programme we will be investing in more apprenticeships. Apprenticeships are an excellent way for young people to combine paid work, on-the-job learning and achieve accredited qualifications. As we tackle the youth jobs crisis we need more apprenticeships across the public and private sectors.

I also believe that we need to think now about the role of apprenticeships and the form they take in relation to future skills and education policy. Nick Pearce at ippr has blogged some thoughts on this.

Over the last few months I have been visiting apprenticeship providers and employers to hear about their programmes and what more can be done to develop better pathways for young people into training and work. I would be interested to visit more projects, so please let me know if you would like to suggest an employer or project I should visit.

All of the city council apprentices I met this week spoke positively and enthusiastically about their apprenticeship.

A few links on apprenticeships:

• Leicester Mercury article on my meeting with city council apprentices as part of National Apprenticeship Week.
• My call last October for public sector procurement to help drive apprenticeships, following Ed Miliband's Labour conference speech, covered in the Leicester Mercury.
• New highways apprenticeship scheme at city council which I launched (from Leicester Mercury)
• Blog by MEP Glenis Willmott on our visit to meet rail apprentices.

Meeting rail apprentices with MEP Glenis Willmott.

Living Wage

From 1st April this year Leicester City Council will be paying the Living Wage.

I am really pleased that we have agreed to deliver this. I argued for a commitment to explore paying the Living Wage in Labour's manifesto for the 2011 city mayor and council elections.
Paying the Living Wage was also included in the recommendations of the Leicester Child Poverty Commission which I chair.

On Friday I signed the formal decision notice confirming that the council will be paying the Living Wage from 1st April this year.

Signing the formal decision notice confirming (see below)
that Leicester City Council will pay the Living Wage

Visit to STRIDE: action on youth jobs crisis

Today I visited STRIDE, a Leicester-based social enterprise providing apprenticeships, employment opportunities and training to young people. 

This visit came the day before 18 new apprenticeship opportunities at the City Council are advertised. These new opportunities will be in administration and customer services. Apprenticeships in IT and premises management at the Council will be advertised during February.

Levels of youth unemployment are too high. The Step-Up programme which we have launched in Leicester will see the City Council funding 160 six month work placements for young people with local employers. We have had a good level of interest from employers and the first set of vacancies under this scheme will become available in February. This scheme builds on the Labour Government's Future Jobs Fund.

It is also good to see the NHS providing apprenticeships. 20 apprenticeships have been created recently by the NHS in Leicester.

It was excellent to meet with apprentices at STRIDE today and tour the facilities which Dave Brazier and his team have developed.

At STRIDE in Leicester meeting bricklaying apprentice Alex.

UPDATE

It was announced on 15 February that STRIDE had closed and ceased trading. This news is obviously devastating for the people employed there and the apprentices, including those I met when I visited. Since this announcement I have attending a meeting convened to bring together many organisations who want to help find alternative opportunities for the apprentices and young people who were on courses at STRIDE. 

I have offered city council support, including funding, to help ensure the apprentices and young people are supported into new courses and opportunities. I understand that some of the former staff at STRIDE are working to set up a new company with the aim of continuing some of the apprenticeships and vocational courses and I hope this is successful. 

Youth jobs crisis

I am determined that we tackle youth unemployment.

As Deputy City Mayor I have prioritised youth unemployment and have worked to develop new programmes in the city to get young people into jobs. The Labour government's Future Jobs Fund was an excellent scheme and was popular with employers and the young people who it got into work.

I have met young people who benefited from the Future Jobs Fund and others who are currently benefiting from work-based training, including city council apprentices. Earlier this week councillors heard from apprentices working for the city council's housing department. Last year, when I was responsible for transport at the city council, I introduced a new apprenticeship scheme for highways.

Towards the end of last year we launched the Leicester Economic Action Plan including the Leicester to Work programme. I have led the development of the Leicester to Work programme which includes a range of measures to tackle youth unemployment including: creating 130 more apprenticeships; introducing Step-Up, a paid work placement scheme and creating graduate placements in local businesses.

We have had a good response from employers interested in participating in Step-Up and offering new opportunities to young people looking for work, with financial support for the job from the city council.

Meeting rail apprentices at Vital Skills with MEP Glenis Willmott.

I am looking forward to visiting Stride in Leicester next week. Stride operates as a social enterprise offering a wide range of training opportunities for young people.

It is crucial we avoid a lost generation and respond to the youth jobs crisis. Labour councils are working hard to do this, including in Derby and Nottingham. We need urgent action from the coalition government.

My article on youth unemployment for Labour Uncut can be read here.
A blog by Labour MEP Glenis Willmott on our visit to meet rail apprentices.

Leicester Child Poverty Commission: recommendations published

Yesterday the recommendations of the Leicester Child Poverty Commission were launched.

I chair the Leicester Child Poverty Commission, which I set up in June 2011. According to official figures there are over 26,000 children in Leicester living in poverty, with many more growing up in low income households.

The report published yesterday sets out 66 recommendations, including:

• Leicester City Council maintaining its network of Children's Centres across the city (despite the severe government funding cuts) - this is something Labour committed to do in our 2011 manifesto in the city elections.
• Payment of the Living Wage across the public sector.
• Piloting through a social enterprise or other provider the provision of packed lunches in place of free school meals during school holidays.
• Developing a partnership between the city council and other organisations to provide low cost loans for household essentials, such as beds and whitegoods.
• Automatic library membership for children starting nursery school in the city.

I am grateful to the members of the Leicester Child Poverty Commission and all those who have contributed to our work. The important work starts now as we work with partners to implement our recommendations.

With child poverty predicted to increase this challenge is urgent.

The recommendations can be read and downloaded from the commission's webpages.

The Leicester Mercury reported on the publication of these recommendations, and the paper's editorial supported this work.