Performance Update - Quarter 4 / End March 2023

In November 2022, following a period of comprehensive evidence review and stakeholder engagement, South Tyneside Council launched a new 20-year Vision for South Tyneside.

The new Vision – our South Tyneside: a place where people live healthy, happy and fulfilled lives – is supported by five core ‘Ambitions’ – the things we want to achieve for local people over the next 20 years and the things that will guide all that we do.

We want all people in South Tyneside to be:

And we want these things for every resident, so we are committed to:

To deliver the 20-year Vision, we will focus our efforts through a series of clear 3-year Strategies – the first iteration (South Tyneside Council Strategy 2023-26) is published on the Council’s website.

When Council approved the new Vision and Strategy in November 2022, and in line with our new PROUD Council Values around being ‘open and honest’ and ‘delivering what we say we will’, we set out a clear intention to regularly report on our performance and progress.

The Council’s delivery framework includes robust performance management (indicators, targets and benchmarking), programme management (delivery against project milestones), financial management and budget monitoring (using resources effectively and within budget), and risk mitigation (proactive approach to barriers to delivery).

Cabinet has regular financial oversight through the Quarterly Budget Monitoring Report. This brand new ‘Performance Update’ Quarterly Report will cover updates on our Key Performance Indicators, as well as progress with our key projects and other activity. Each January, we will also undertake an Annual Review of the 3-year Strategy and progress against the five Ambitions, and this will be presented to Borough Council.

The Council reviews many performance measures – some data is collected by us, some by partner agencies, like the Police or NHS, and some by Government or national bodies. This data is available at different times and different frequencies, for example monthly, quarterly, yearly, or less frequently.

We will therefore formally report on performance on both a Quarterly and Annual basis. The measures that are updated more regularly will be provided in the Quarterly Cabinet report, as they become available, and the full summary of all key measures will be provided within the Annual Review to Borough Council.

Below is the initial list of measures that will be reported - this list is under constant review and will be refined and added to, as appropriate.

South Tyneside Council serves a diverse population with a range of characteristics and needs.

The borough has a proud heritage, passionate and resilient communities, beautiful natural assets and huge growth potential through excellent connectivity, infrastructure, and business sector-growth. However, like other coastal regions with a strong industrial past, there are also some difficult and entrenched social, economic and health related challenges facing the borough.

These things are important context to our performance updates. Here’s a snapshot of our people and places:

Population

• 147,800 residents
• 48.5% Male, 51.5% Female
• 94.4% white; 2.9% Asian or Asian British; 0.5% Black, African, Carribean or Black British; 1.4% Mixed or Multiple Ethnic Group; 0.8% other Ethnic Group. (2021 Census)
• There are 22.94 people per hectare of land in South Tyneside, a high population density compared to the 3.08 per hectare for the North East and 4.34 per hectare for England.
• 16.8% of the population is under 15
• 62.3% are aged 15-64
• 20.9% are 65 and over

Health & Wellbeing

• 51% of our children with free school meal status achieve a good level of development at the end of Reception, compared to 48.7% regionally and 49.1% nationally.
• 59% of our pupils achieve the expected standard across reading, writing and maths at Key Stage 2, similar to the regional and national average.
• In 2022/23, 25% of children in Reception and 42% of children in Year 6 were overweight or obese.
• By adulthood, this figure more than doubles; 65.9% of over 18s were overweight or obese in 20/21, compared to 63.5% nationally and 69.7% regionally.
• The rate of deaths from drug misuse has nearly doubled in the last decade and an estimated 1 in 5 South Tyneside residents (aged 16+) suffer from depression or anxiety.
• We have a thriving voluntary community sector in South Tyneside and a real sense of belonging in our communities, award winning natural assets including 4 Green Flag Parks and a Sunday Times Beach of the Year, as well as affordable state-of-the-art leisure facilities - all things we know can contribute to good health and mental wellbeing.
• We have a high rate of domestic abuse in South Tyneside - with 5023 incidents reported in 2022/23.

Jobs & Skills

• 26% of jobs in South Tyneside are in the public sector
• South Tyneside's major strengths are in advanced manufacturing and the energy and offshore wind supply chain.
• 26.1% of the working age population has NVQ4 & above qualifications, lower than regionally (28.1%) and GB (33.9%).
• A higher proportion of the working age population have no qualifications (8.3%), than regionally (8.2%) and GB (6.6%).
• 4 in 5 businesses surveyed rated South Tyneside a Fair, Good or Excellent place to run a business.

Inequalities

• Average life expectancy in the borough is 76.4 years for males and 81.2 years for females, but we know this varies considerably per ward (up to 12.1 years difference for males).
• The 2019 Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) ranked South Tyneside as the 23rd most deprived authority out of England's 151 upper tier authorities.
• South Tyneside's gap in the employment rate between people with a physical or mental long-term health condition and the overall employment rate is 14.8 - larger than regionally (13.9) and nationally (10.7).
• Almost 45% of South Tyneside's population live in the most deprived 20% of England.

Communities

• Coverage of 4G networks, superfast and ultrafast broadband are all above the national average.
• Just over 7 in 10 residents surveyed said they were satisfied with South Tyneside as a place to live.
• Close to 9 in 10 residents say they feel safe in their local area during the day, less than half said they felt safe after dark.
• 7.1m visitors to South Tyneside a year.
• 399 metres is average distance to the nearest park, playing field or public garden in South Tyneside, less than half that of national figure of 983.1 metres.

Financial Wellbeing

• 30% of South Tyneside's working age population was economically inactive between January 2022 and Dec 2022, of which long term sickness was the leading cause (38%).
• In April 2021, half of full-time employees in SOuth Tyneside earned less than £450 per week.
• 32.9% of primary and 29.1% of secondary school children are eligible for Free School Meals, compared to 24% and 22.7% nationally.
• 5.9% of the working age population were claiming out of work benefits in September 2022, compared to 4.3% regionally and 3.8% nationally.
• 9.7% of people aged 18-24 were claiming unemployment benefits in April 2023, comapred to 6.2% (North East) and 4.9% (GB).

We have analysed the data from this quarter and this section provides the headlines of the areas where we are seeing strong performance and also where our services and communities are experiencing challenges. Further detailed analysis, as well as information on any improvement actions or next steps, is included in throughout the report.

Our performance

• Area of strong performance Performing better than other aeras or in the recent past.
• Some concern Performing worse than other areas or in the recent past.
• Concern Performing significantly worse than other areas or in the recent past.

• % of people claiming benefits

  The claimant rate in the borough rose to 5.9% in March 2023, 0.3% higher than December. The number of claimants is now 5,300, matching the rate in July 2022. The national claimant count rose by 0.1 percentage point, to 3.8%, and regionally to 4.3%. We still have the highest rate in Tyne and Wear, with Sunderland the next highest (at 4.7%) and Northumberland and County Durham the lowest at 3.4%.

  In March 2023, 7.5% of economically active residents aged over 16 in South Tyneside were claiming out of work benefits, this is higher than in the North East (5.5%) and in Great Britain (4.6%). However, South Tyneside’s rate has been steadily decreasing since mid-2021 and is now lower than levels seen immediately before the pandemic (March 2020 - 8.6%).

• The level of people claiming universal credit has risen by 3.9% since the end of 2022, when it was 17,862. In February 2023 it was 18,190. The level of in-work universal credit claimants has reduced by 3.3% over the same period and is now 3.9% lower than Quarter 1 of 2022 (6499). Note: people are in the process of moving from legacy benefits to universal credit which will be contributing to this rise.

• Rising levels of free school meals

  32.9% of primary school children in South Tyneside were eligible for free school meals in the January 2023 school census, up from 31.9% the year before. This is higher than the North East (30.8%) and similar areas (31.6%) and above the national average (24%). 29.1% of secondary school children were eligible, up from 26.7% the year before. This is close to the North East average (28.8%) and above the national average (22.7%) but below similar areas (31.3%).

What are we doing to strengthen outcomes and performance in this area?

• Over 70 ‘welcoming places’ are now open to residents to relax in a warm space, meet other people, and access a range of support and advice. Over 400 residents a month make use of these spaces and £6000 has been donated by local businesses to help support this offer.
• 18,400 low-income households supported through the Council Tax support scheme will receive an additional £100 Council tax rebate this year to help relieve the pressures of the cost-of-living crisis, and work is underway to introduce income bands that will maximise support for those on the very lowest incomes.
• The Welfare Support Team is continuing to provide support and advice to residents, with social navigators having directly secured an additional £82,408 in benefits or grants for residents between January and March 2023, and other specialist advisors within the team having secured residents a further £85,486 in the form of debts written off or new welfare benefits gained.
• Families whose children receive free school meals have been supported over the school holidays. 9000 families were provided supermarket vouchers over the Spring half term and over 2400 children accessed free holiday activities and food during the Easter break.
• The Council has worked with partners on campaigns to increase take up of various Government benefits and support amongst eligible households, including pension credit (which an estimated 2600 residents are eligible for, yet not currently claiming) and Alternative Fuel Payments.
• 10,500 residents will benefit from new ‘community shops’ that have been supported by part of South Tyneside’s share of UK Shared Prosperity Funding (£8.8m total); these ‘community shops’ will give local people struggling with the cost-of-living crisis a chance to top up their food shopping inexpensively while also accessing a range of financial, budgeting and cooking advice and support.
• 500 fuel-poor households will also benefit from advice and mentoring from the new Home Energy Advice Team.

Additional information

See the Financially Secure Action Plan, which is part of the South Tyneside Council Strategy 2023-26 as well as the Health and Wellbeing Strategy for more information about plans in this area.

Best start in life

Our performance

• Area of strong performance Performing better than other aeras or in the recent past.
• Some concern Performing worse than other areas or in the recent past.
• Concern Performing significantly worse than other areas or in the recent past.

• High levels of referrals into Children's Services

  Following a large rise in 2021/22, which saw a 23% rise above levels before the pandemic, the rate of new referrals starting in Children’s Social Care has been reducing since June 2022. There were 2101 new referrals in 2022/23 (707.5 per 10,000 children), down 9% from 2021/22 (780.7 per 10,000), but our rate remains 11% higher than pre-Covid 2019/20 (635.8 per 10,000) and well above the average rates across our statistical neighbours* (642.2), the North East (664.8) and England (537.7).

  The Police remain the highest source of new referrals, at 33% this is in line with the North East and nationally. (689 referrals) and is down 19% from 852 in 2021/22. The number of referrals started following contacts/referrals in from education/schools is 21% (449), up 8% from 17.4% in 2021/22.

  There were 9351 new contacts to Children’s Social Care in 2022/23 regarding children not already being supported by the service, which is in line with 2021/22 (9389). These contacts could be from the public or more formal referrals made by partners such as health or schools, other council services, or Child Concern Notifications from the Police. Most of these contacts do not require a new social care referral to be started by the council, and advice and information is provided or sign posting made to other appropriate services. A new social care referral is only started when contact requires more formal triage work, direct investigation or assessment. This is the case for around for 23% of children we were contacted about (the 2101 children with a referral above). Each child has their own individual referral and contact. Following this additional triage work a lower number of children, around 80%, will then have a full social work assessment. It should be noted that the approach to referrals and the point at which a contact is recorded as referral varies greatly across local authorities, with many only beginning a new referral if a full social work assessment is to be completed. Comparisons with other areas on this measure are provided therefore difficult and unreliable and the best approach is to compare against our own recent positions.

• Children in need

  There were 1,426 Children in Need in South Tyneside at the end of March 2023, 480.2 per 10,000. This is 12% lower than at year-end 2021/22 (544.7, 1,648 Children) but remains 8% up on pre-covid 2019/20. The reduction is largely linked to less children with referrals at our ‘front door’ being triaged or assessed than in March 2022.

  Our Children in Need number includes all cases with an open referral with Children and Families Social Care, e.g. children in assessment, triage, those with Child Protection Plans, Children Cared For and Care Leavers.

• Child protection plans

  186 children had a Child Protection Plan (CPP) at the end of March 2023 (63 per 10,000), down by 21 children from the end of December 2022 and 6 fewer children than March 2022. The current rate is 1% higher than pre-Covid 2019/20 (62.5) but the reduction means it is now just below our Statistical Neighbours (63.7) and the regional rate, which has risen 5% since March 2022 to 65.5 per 10,000. The rate remains significantly higher than in England (42.1). Child Protection Plans were started for 279 children in 2022/23, a rate of 93.9 per 10,000. This rate is up 6% on 2021/22 (88.9 per 10,000) and is 24% higher than the 2019/20 pre-Covid rate (57 per 10,000).

• Repeat Child Protection

  32% of the children starting a Child Protection Plan in 2022/23 did so for the second or subsequent time. This is higher than in 2021/22 (24.2%) and much higher than the pre-covid lockdown 2019/20 level of 15.8%. The level is higher than in the North East (which is 24.8%, having also risen from 21.2% last year) and in England (23.3%). The % of repeats has been impacted by a larger number of children in sibling groups starting plans than in 2021/22, some of which were large groups, but the number of families repeating has also risen.

• Children Cared For

  310 Children were Cared For at the end of March 2023. The rate, 104.4 per 10,000 children, is 9% higher in 2021/22 (96 per 10,000 - 284 children) but remains significantly lower than the average across our statistical neighbours (122.4) and the North East (114.6). South Tyneside’s rate remains significantly higher than England’s (67).

  18 of our Children Cared for in South Tyneside were unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC), this number has increased significantly, up from 5 at Year-end 2021/22, reflecting our accommodation of children in line with national resettlement schemes.

• Children becoming Cared For

  137 children became Cared For between April 2022 and March 2023. The rate (46.1 per 10,000) is 37% higher than in 2021/22 and 52% higher than 2019/20 and 51% higher than 2019/20, which was a low year, but in line with the region (45 per10,000) and across similar areas (46 per 10,000). There has been a trend in older children becoming cared for. 17% of children becoming cared for in 2022/23 were aged 16 or over, compared to between 9% and 12% in the preceding 3 years. This can be partly attributed to more unaccompanied asylum-seeking children becoming cared for in the last year.

• 17 children were adopted in 2022/23 which is 15.2% of the 112 children who left our care, a figure which is in line with 2021/22 (16) as well as in pre-covid 2019/20 (16). South Tyneside are now above the national (12%) and regional positions (13.6%).

• There has been an 8% increase in domestic abuse incidents reported in 2022/2023 with 4.988 incidents compared to 4,619 in 2021/22 (up by 369 incidents). There has been a rise across the Northumbria force area of 3% in overall reported incidents. South Tyneside had the highest increase and also have the highest rate per resident. 2446 incidents involved a child, a 5% rise on 2021/22 as compared to the 1.9% rise across the force area.

• 1,707 children and young people with more complex special needs were being supported through an Education, Health and Care Plan at the end of March 2023, an 8% rise on March 2022 (1574), this includes young people, older than school age and up to the age of 25. 4.6% of pupils in South Tyneside schools had EHC Plans in the academic year 2021/22, which is slightly above the region and similar areas (both 4.1%) and England (4%). 17.6% of South Tyneside pupils have additional Special Educational Needs, requiring additional support, which is also higher than in the North East (13.5%), similar areas (14.3%) and England (12.6%).

What are we doing

Other things we are doing to strengthen outcomes and performance in this area include:

• Following the recent Ofsted inspection of Children’s Social Care outcome (published in May 2023), the Council and its partners have been working hard on ensuring we make the necessary improvements as quick as possible. An interim leadership team has been appointed and we are in the process of appointing to permanent leadership positions. The multi-agency improvement board has been established and our improvement plan is in draft, due to be sent to Ofsted for review in July. We are in the process of developing smart dashboards via PowerBi and have established a comprehensive audit programme to enable us to improve our senior management oversight, continually track our progress, and measure outcomes for children and families. In addition to this, we have held a peer diagnostic with Sunderland Together for Children to gather further intelligence. Our next visit from Ofsted will take place later this year and will be a good opportunity to show the progress that has been made.
• Our highly successful, nationally recognised ‘Mockingbird’ foster carer support network continues to provide support to local carers and was recognised as an area of strength during a recent Ofsted visit.
• We are continuing to develop more placement capacity for children cared for. As well as the two new long-term children’s homes and new short-term residential assessment centre that are being developed, our Families First Service is supporting children and young people who are at risk of coming into care with short-term support to help them remain with their families.
• We have recently worked with a neighbouring authority to review our approach to our social care front door and practice, and we’ve invested in five new early help workers in our Front Door to help with early help intervention.
• Our domestic abuse service is already embedded into the Children’s Social Care ‘front door’ to support better triage work in relation to abuse and we are in the process of extending the approach by bringing in the young people’s substance abuse service and Youth Justice.
• As part of the ongoing review of domestic abuse services, in partnership with the Violence Reduction Unit, we have commissioned a programme working with perpetrators to change behaviours, which is being delivered by the Restart team within Children’s services.
• £20,000 has been secured from the Government’s Youth Justice Sports Fund to help provide a programme of free leisure and fitness activities (including boxing classes, football sessions and outdoor education qualification training) targeted at 120 vulnerable South Tyneside young people between the ages of 11 and 17 who might otherwise be at risk of becoming involved in crime or antisocial behaviour.

Additional information

See the 'Healthy and Well' Action Plan, which is part of the South Tyneside Council Strategy 2023-26, for more information about plans and activities to support this Ambition.

Age well

Our performance

• Area of strong performance Performing better than other aeras or in the recent past.
• Some concern Performing worse than other areas or in the recent past.
• Concern Performing significantly worse than other areas or in the recent past.

• Increase in number of people with Commissioned Services

  2985 people were receiving a Commissioned Service in Adult Social Care at the end of March 2023, up 2% from March 2022 and 6% from March 2020. Residential care has seen the biggest increase since 2019/20 (+194 people).

  Commissioned services are care, support or supervision that has been arranged and paid for on a client’s behalf by social care.

• Admissions of people aged 18-64 to residential or nursing care

  16 people aged 18-64 had their long term support needs met by being admitted to residential or nursing case in 2022/23 (18.3 per 100,000). This is a significant increase from the 7 admissions (7.8 per 100,000) in 2021/22 and 6 (6.7 per 100,000) in 2019/20. The current position for 18-64 admissions is also a little above the 2021/22 regional rate of 17.8 and above the national rate of 13.9 per 100,000.

• Admissions of people aged 65+ to residential or nursing care

  278 people aged over 65 were admitted in 2022/23. This is a a significant increase from the 251 admissions in 2021/22 and the 216 in 2019/20. The current rate for 65+ admissions in 899.9 per 100,000 which is above the 2021/22 North East rate of 738.6 and the national rate of 538.5. This means the rate of admissions has risen by 6% compared to 2021/22 (847.0 per 100,000); 28% on 2020/21 (701.0 per 100,000) and 32% on pre-Covid 2019/20 (679.9 per 100,000).

• People in long-term residential placements

  The overall number of people in long-term residential care placements has increased by 7% from 834 at the end of March 2022 to 891 at the end of March 2023. This is the number of people that were actually living in residential or nursing care on the 31st March 2023, whereas the new admission numbers show new people who have moved into long-term residential or nursing care between April and March.

• People in short-term residential placements

  At the end of March 2023, 143 people were in Short Term Residential/ Nursing Care, which is reduction on last year but remains higher than in 2020 and before. In 2018/19 the number of people was as low as 55; 2019/20 saw this increase to 124. This trend continued to 187 in March 2021 and was 184 in March 2022.

  The indicators above and the performance for this year (2022/23) remains under review as it has not yet been finally signed off or returned to the government as part of the statutory returns process which runs until later in the summer.

  As a result the data is potentially subject to changes pending the findings of wider year end data quality checks. The only outcome we would anticipate as a result of the review would be a small, positive decrease in the number of people who have been admitted within the period.

  Region and England comparison data is based on 2021/22 published data as all local authorities are also finalising their 2022/23 data returns, which will be published towards the end of 2023.

• 98.2% of the providers used by the Council for residential, domiciliary care, extra care, specialist care, complex care and supported living, are currently rated as ‘Outstanding’ or ‘Good’ by the Care Quality Commission, with only one residential care provider being rated as ‘Requires Improvement’. None are ‘Inadequate’. Of the 60 total providers, 3 are yet to be inspected at this time.

• 67.3% of people who use our Adult Social Care services were extremely or very satisfied overall with their care and support.

  This is above the levels in the North East (65.3%) and England (63.9%). This is also above 2019/20 (65.9%) and is in the top 25% of Councils. (Data for 2021/22 was published in 2022/23). When considering those who are also ‘quite satisfied’ this shows that 89.7% of people were at least quite satisfied; this is again higher than the North East (89.4%) and National (87.9%) averages.

• 50.9% of carers were extremely or very satisfied overall with their care and support from Adult Social Services, significantly above the North East (42%) and England (36.3%) and this places South Tyneside among the top 10% of Councils nationally for this measure. (Data for 2021/22 was published in 2022/23). When considering those carers who are also ‘quite satisfied’ shows that 74.5% of carers were at least quite satisfied, which is also above the North East (72.2%) and England (66.4%) and in the top 10% of Councils nationally.

What are we doing to strengthen outcomes and performance in this area

Live well - Health and Leisure

Our performance

• Area of strong performance Performing better than other aeras or in the recent past.
• Some concern Performing worse than other areas or in the recent past.
• Concern Performing significantly worse than other areas or in the recent past.

• 74.8% of children in Reception were of a healthy weight, up from 67.8% the previous year, above the North East (76.5%) and closer to England in the National Child Measurement Programme 2021/22 results, published in November 2022. This represents a significant improvement on the 2020/21 levels that were lower than both the region and England.

  57.9% of children in Year 6 were of a healthy weight, up from 49.2% the previous year, so the level is now back in line with the North East (58%), but remains below England (60.8%).

• 12.5% of mothers in South Tyneside were smoking at time of delivery at the end of September 2022, having reduced from 13.3% in 2021/22. The current level is slightly below that across the North East (12.6%) but remains above England (9.1%). Locally there has been a significant improvement in this measure over time, from 25.9% in 2014/15 (at a time the national position was 11.7%), with reductions achieved each year since then.

• Significant rises in leisure centre usage and concessionary usage

  At the end of March 2023, there were 8,307 leisure memberships, up 18% from 7,029 in March 2022 and the numbers are now 15% above those prior to the pandemic in March 2020. Members is also up from 2,235 last year to 2,810, supporting more older and disabled residents, carers, those with low income or employment related benefits and students. We have put measures in place to make our leisure offer more accessible, including competitive pricing and new online booking options.

What are we doing to strengthen outcomes and performance in this area

• Work has started on the installation of accessible play equipment at 11 parks and playgrounds across South Tyneside to support children with disabilities and sensory impairments.
• A new weekly junior parkrun has been established at North Marine Parkrun, providing a regular opportunity for children and young people to have fun while keeping healthy and fit.
• Over 58,000 bookings have been made using the new leisure services app in the first 3 months of it going live.
• £1.6m has been secured to imrpove walking and cycling routes in the borough, with plans drawn up to enhance the newly aligned Coast Road for cyclists and walkers travelling along the foreshore.
• Work has begun on a bespoke stop smoking pilot for local peple dealing with severe mental health challenges, with a high number of successful quits already achieved relative to other pilots in the region.
• A newly refurbished 'green gym' space has owned at Monkton Stadium following £70,000 investment in the facilities, which will help to reduce energy consumption by converting user movement into electricity.

Homelessness

Our performance

• Area of strong performance Performing better than other aeras or in the recent past.
• Some concern Performing worse than other areas or in the recent past.
• Concern Performing significantly worse than other areas or in the recent past.

• At risk homelessness presentations (mostly people contacting the Council concerned or at risk of becoming homeless, e.g. losing their private tenancy, people who do not currently have a permanent place of residence).

  The number of contacts to the Council increased by 27% in 2022/23 to 3109, from 2459 the previous year.

• There was a large rise in the number of rough sleepers in 2022/23 reaching a peak of 26 during November. This reduced to 14 people sleeping rough during March 2023. In 2021/22 the number was no higher than 6 during any month and in March 2022, there was one person sleeping rough. There has also been a rising trend in rough sleeping nationally.

  Rough sleeping rates are published nationally and compared in autumn as the level tends to be higher in warmer months and often reduces in winter. South Tyneside’s rate of rough sleepers was 2.7 per 100,000 residents in autumn 2022, up from 0.7 in autumn 2021. Our rate was below the region (2.3 per 100,000) and England (5,4 per 100,000).

  People sleeping rough are defined as those sleeping or about to bed down in open air locations and other places including tents and makeshift shelters. The snapshot does not include people in hostels or shelters, sofa surfers or those in recreational or organised protest, squatter, or traveller campsites.

What are we doing to strengthen outcomes and performance in this area

• South Tyneside, working with Gateshead Council, recently secured £1.8m funding over three years from the Rough Sleeper Initiative to work with rough sleepers. As well as helping to fund emergency and move-on supported accommodation, this has been used to commission a community provider to undertake outreach support with those on the street, providing advice, support and acting as an advocate for in-need residents. Outreach workers both react to reports of rough sleepers and also undertake regular proactive early morning and late-night visits of known hot spots to find and engage with individuals in need of support.
• The funding has also helped the Council to employ two new tenancy sustainment officers to work closely with those at risk of homelessness.
• The Council runs a fortnightly rough sleepers action group which supports partnership working with external and internal partners around individuals known to be sleeping rough or at serious risk of rough sleeping.
• A new Homelessness Prevention Group has been established, and in response to increased rough sleeping, and the Housing Strategy team is working to bring forward a new homelessness and rough sleeper strategy.
• An assessment of homelessness services is underway, with findings planned to support an Action Plan to promote prevention and support service statements.
• A review of private supported housing used by harder-to-house residents with substance abuse and other needs is underway to help bring up standards in this market.

Additional information

For more information on the wider activities planned around promoting health and wellbeing, please see the ‘Healthy and Well’ Action Plan, which is part of the South Tyneside Council Strategy 2023-26. South Tyneside’s Health and Wellbeing Board also oversees the delivery of the detailed Healthy and Wellbeing Strategy which includes comprehensive plans around themes including ‘Best Start for Life’, ‘Good Mental health and Social Networks Throughout Life’, ‘Financial Security to Lead Healthy Fulfilling Lives’, and ‘Safe and Healthy Places to Live, Learn and Work’.

At each Health and Wellbeing Board meeting there is a detailed exploration of one outcome. As of June this year, the Board has completed deep dives into ‘Best Start for Life’ and ‘Financial Security’, discussing and driving forward key initiatives such as Family Hubs and work on poverty and tackling cost of living pressures.

In July the Board will focus on mental health and wellbeing discussing initiatives such as social prescribing and mental health service provision. Health and Wellbeing Board papers are published online and see more information on health and wellbeing services and intelligence.

Our performance

• Area of strong performance Performing better than other aeras or in the recent past.
• Some concern Performing worse than other areas or in the recent past.
• Concern Performing significantly worse than other areas or in the recent past.

• There has been a rise in the level of 16-17 year olds who were Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET) to 205 (6.7%) at the end of March.

  This is above the North East (5.5 %) and statistical neighbours (5.9%) and England (4.8%). Our position is higher than in March 2022 (5.4%) when it was below the region and similar areas (both 5.6%). The figure is higher in Year 13 (Upper Sixth Form) at 8.4% compared to Year 12 (Lower Sixth Form) at 5.1%.

  132 young people were seeking education, training, and employment at the end of March 2023. We continue to see higher levels of young people who are not able to be in employment, education or training with their mental health being identified as the main barrier.

• 59% of South Tyneside's 19-21 year-old Care Leavers were in Education, Employment or Training (EET) in 2022/23.

  This remains much higher than in England (55%) or the region (52%) but is down on 2021/22 when 68% were EET, which was in the top 16 Councils nationally.

• The estimated employee rate in the borough at December 2022 was 62%.

  This is lower than the rate at September 2022 of 69.3% and is significantly below the regional rate of 70.5% and the national rate of 75.6%.

  This rate is based on an Office of National Statistics (ONS) survey of the population and a small local sample size (with the ONS stating there is potential for significant variation). Therefore, we have contacted the ONS to query the quality of the latest data given the large fall in three months (to the lowest level since 2010). New data for March 2023 is published in July and will be monitored closely and brought forward into the next Quarterly report.

  The estimated Unemployment Rate has increased to 7.4% at the end of December, up from 5.8% at the end of September and 6.2% at the end of June. As with the Employment Rate, the national data around this measure is being queired given the significant change. The unemployment rate remains higher than in the region (4.6%) and England (3.6%).

  The estimated fall in employment appears to be due to people either becoming unemployed (a rise of around 700 people) and, in larger numbers, leaving the labour market due to ill-health, retirement or caring responsibilities. The economic inactivity measure (of people away from the jobs market) has increased by 3,000 people (from 26.1% in Sept to 30.6% in Dec), with the main cause being long-term sickness. 27,800 residents are inactive, the largest number being 10,500 long-term sick (38% of those inactive, higher than regionally or nationally). An estimated 7,000 residents are believed to want a job (25.3%) which is a greater proportion than in the region (22.4%) and in England (18.1%).

What are we doing to strengthen outcomes and performance in this area

Other things we are doing to strengthen outcomes and performance in this area include:

• Around 200 organisations have now signed up to the South Tyneside Pledge and already, since the launch in January 2022, Pledgees have helped create over 50 new apprenticeships, and feedback shows that since signing up, 60% of pledgees have increased their use of local suppliers, 61% have put measures in place around climate change, 40% have taken place in school careers fairs, talks or other activities, and 55% have volunteered locally.
• South Tyneside Works supports over 2,500 individuals each year to participate in vocational courses and qualifications aimed at improving life chances and supporting progression towards employment and, in the last academic year, 60% of learners moved into employment related outcomes.
• South Tyneside is one of 20 local authorities to have been named as ‘Levelling Up Partnerships’ which will be able to access a share of £400m over the next two years to support local regeneration projects and activities.
• Over 1300 resident views have been considered to shape early plans for the next stage stages of the regeneration of South Shields Town Centre.
• 97% of prospective pupils moving to primary, infant, or junior school have been admitted into their first choice of school (a higher proportion than the national average of 92.2% of pupils).
• A campaign to promote recruitment and retention within the local hospitality sector has been undertaken, including a jobs fair, ‘hospitality awareness’ sessions for prospective hospital job candidates, and a ‘hospitality academy’ teaching candidates customer service and digital skills, application techniques and providing a food hygiene certificate.
• Work is underway on the next phase of plans for South Tyneside’s £8.8m allocation from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, including a potential open call for projects to help support people into work (likely to be issued summer 2023), as well as working with regional partners on business support programmes.
• The Council continues to work to attract inward investment, including working closely with the Port of Tyne (recently successful in attracting Dutch marine engineering company Van Ord to the Tyne Clean Energy Park) and progressing with plans for the International Advanced Manufacturing Park, which will create over 7000 jobs once it is fully developed.
• South Tyneside was the first local authority in the region to hold a public consultation to engage on the new ‘Minded to’ North East Devolution Deal (which if progressed will unlock £4.2bn in investment over 30 years and see additional powers transferred from Central Government to local decision-makers). A total of 3235 people took part in the consultation regionally.
• With the number of adult social care vacancies set to rise by 22% over the coming 12 years, progress has been made on plans to set up a South Tyneside Care Academy to promote and accelerate careers in the care sector, with this due to launch in the summer.

Additional information

For more information on the activities planned to progress this Ambition, you can access the ‘Connected to Jobs’ Action Plan, which is part of the South Tyneside Council Strategy 2023-26.

In addition, there are a suite of plans and strategies associated with this ambition area accessible online on the Council’s website, including the South Tyneside Economic Recovery Plan.

The South Tyneside Works website provides more information about local support available to residents looking to get into work, change career path or boost skills and Invest South Tyneside provides more information on inward investment activity and major job creation schemes.

Our performance

• Area of strong performance Performing better than other aeras or in the recent past.
• Some concern Performing worse than other areas or in the recent past.
• Concern Performing significantly worse than other areas or in the recent past.

Community Safety

• There were 14,911 crimes in South Tyneside between April 2022 and March 2023 up 8% from 13,867 in 2021/22. Across the Northumbria Police Force area there was a 5% increase in total crime. 'Violence against the person - without injury' was the highest crime in April 2022 to March 2023, with 4,188 offences and this has increased by 6% compared to April 2021 to March 2022, when there were 3945 offences (Force-wide this increased by 3%). South Tyneside had a 3% increase in 'Violence against the person - with injury' to 1,726 offences, whilst Force-wide there was a 6% increase.

• There has been an 8% increase in overall Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) Incidents in 2022/23 to 46,696 from 4362 the previous year.

Waste

• The total household waste collected in South Tyneside was 48,463 tonnes in April to December 2022 (latest), down 6% from 51,713 tonnes in the same period in 2021. Whilst this reduction is positive, there is still a lot to do to comply with the Government's Environment Plan which sets out mandatory targets for local authorities to reduce residual waste by 24% per person by 2028 and reduce overall waste tonnage by 25%.

• The level of residual waste produced per household between April to December 2022 (latest) has also reduced, by 5% to 453.3 Kilograms per household compared to the same period in 2021/22 (477.7 Kg). This follows on from a reduction in the full year April 2020/21 to March 2021/22 of -11%, to 624.82 Kg, to bring performance more in line with the North East (623 Kg), but higher than in England (546.8 Kg). The rate had previously been one of the highest urban areas nationally in 2019/20, at 703.8 Kg. Note: over 95% of this waste is not landfilled but is sent to produce energy at a specialist ‘waste to energy’ power station.

• 32% of all waste collected was recycled, reused or composted betwen April and December 2022, which is lower than the April - December 2021, when the position was 33.2%. This does not include the remaining residual waste re-used to create energy.

• At March 2023, 19.1% of recycling bin waste collected was contaminated due to recycling bins containing general or other waste.

  This is down on the March 2022 position of 20.95% but remains higher than in pre-Covid 2019/20 (14.8%).

What are we doing to strengthen outcomes and performance in this area

Other things we are doing to strengthen outcomes and performance in this area include:

• The Community Safety Partnership is targeting resources at anti-social behaviour hotspot areas as part of the local and regional response to HM Government ASB Action Plan. This is supporting improvements in hotspot enforcement, immediate justice measures and more preventative work to discourage anti-social behaviour. £40,000 funding has been secured from Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities via the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner to support the work of the new Community Responders Service. Eligibility has been expanded for the Turnaround Programme, which funds youth offending teams to work with young people on the cusp of the criminal justice system. Significant multi-agency work has also been undertaken to improve reporting of off-road motorbike nuisance and resident canvassing across local hotspot areas.
• The Council has declared an Ecological Emergency and agreed an action plan with cross-party support that will bring forward a series of ecological initiatives across service areas and has also launched an Animal Protection Charter to help promote wildlife and animal welfare.
• As part of efforts to reach Net Zero by 2030, the Council is taking steps towards further adding to its electric vehicle fleet (with non-electric fleet currently accounting for 17,000 tonnes of carbon emissions) by leasing and trialling a hired all-electric refuse collection vehicle.
• The Council takes a lead role in the Local Government Association Coastal Special Interest Group (SIG). Recently the SIG has worked with partners to provide a ‘Coastal Communities on the Edge’ report, which identifies the disadvantages of coastal communities and makes a call for an improved, longer-term funding framework, which has been well received by several parliamentary committees. (More info)
• A new dedicated community engagement team has been set up with the aim of engaging with and educating residents and businesses to tackle issues such as recycling, energy efficiency and crime and safety.
• A range of new domestic waste and recycling policies – from new larger bins for larger families, to free ‘used’ replacements for lost or stolen bins - have been brought in, alongside refresher training for staff, to help reduce contamination and ensure wider improvements across waste services which collect from more than 70,000 households each week.
• 10 new, high-energy-efficiency council homes are being built at Hindmarch Drive, Boldon, in line with the Council's Housing Strategy and efforts to residents have enough access to good quality housing.
• Activities have taken place as part of the new yearround ‘Democracy: A Year of Action’ programme of events, including engaging school pupils in ‘Starryland’ voting simulation event, and the Young People’s Parliament linking up with older members of the public to debate health and wellbeing issues in the annual Intergenerational Debate.
• Six Covid-19 memorials co-designed with community groups have been established at locations across the borough to provide a place for local people to reflect on the losses and challenges of the pandemic and to serve as a lasting reminder of the important work of Key Workers and communities during the lockdown period.

Additional information

For more information on the activities planned to progress this Ambition, access the 'Part of Strong Communities' Action Plan, which is part of the South Tyneside Council Strategy 2023-26.

In addition, there are a suite of plans and strategies associated with this ambition area that are accessible online on the Council's website, including the Sustainable South Tyneside Strategy, the Making Waves South Tyneside Cultural Strategy, the South Tyneside Local Plan, the Integrated Housing Strategy and the Community Safety Partnership Plan.

Within individual services, a huge range of work has taken place over the last quarter that will support improved access and inclusion for different groups of our community. This has ranged from work to install inclusive play equipment at parks and playgrounds around the borough, to work with young carers to develop a new ‘young carer’s passport’ to support greater education understanding of care responsibilities, to work to expand the Council Tax Support Scheme, and a campaign to raise awareness and take-up of pension credit and other under-utilised benefits. A further £1.5m has been allocated this year between the five Community Area Forums, to help fund targeted housing and environmental improvements and social and community initiatives across the borough’s towns and neighbourhoods.

The Council is leading by example, as work internally is underway to support and celebrate different identities and experiences across the workforce. A new faith room and new and expectant mothers room have been introduced for employees working within South Shields Town Hall; a new Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion Collaborative group has been established to support a range of EDI-related work; and a range of new identity specific forums and networks have been set up, including a Women’s Network (which in March led on an International Women’s Day celebration event), a Pan Disability Network, a Neurodiversity Network, an Ethnic Minorities Network, and an LGBTQIA+ Network.

In addition to this, work has also taken place over recent months to review the Council’s wider strategic approach to Equalities, Diversity and Inequalities and work is now underway to refresh the area’s Equality Objectives, in consultation with relevant partners and communities, and to bring forward a new Annual Progress Report on EDI related matters and performance.

Additional information

The new 'Our South Tyneside' report - has been published on the Council's website and made available to Elected Members, council employees and wider stakeholders, drawing together the latest data and intelligence on the local population, including demographics, health, independence, children and families, and the economy.

VIew the latest 'Targeting Support to Make Things Fairer' Action Plan, which is part of the South Tyneside Council Strategy 2023-26 for more information on the activities planned to progress this Ambition.

Additional publicly available data can be found here:

• The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities publishes a range of public health range and profiles, including some at local authority level, which can be explored using the 'Fingertips' tool.
• The Office for National Statistic's 'NOMIS' service publishes a range of official statistics related to population, society, and the labour market at national, regional and local levels, including data from current and previous censuses. View the latest Labour Market Profile for South Tyneside.
• The Local Authority Interactive Tool presents information on topics ranging from children looked after by local authorities, to pupil attainment, Ofsted judgements, youth justice statistics and more, in the form of interactive tables and charts with different local authorities rank and positions.
• The Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework contains a range of measures of how well care and services in different local authorities do on a range of quality of life measures.
• LG Inform is the local area benchmarking tool from the Local Government Association

Quarterly Report to Cabinet

4 October 2023

Annual Review

Cabinet 3 January 2024 & Borough Council 18 January 2024

Quarterly Report to Cabinet

15 May 2024

Care Leaver

The Care Leavers’ Association has a simple definition of a care leaver – any adult who has spent time in care. The legal definition of a care leaver comes from The Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000 which states that a Care Leaver is someone who has been in the care of the Local Authority for a period of 13 weeks or more spanning their 16th birthday.

Care Leavers EET

This indicator is the percentage of 19 to 21 year-old care leavers in education, training or employment. It covers young people whose 19th, 20th or 21st birthday falls between 1 April and 31 March (each given year) who were previously looked after for least 13 weeks after their 14th birthday, including some time after their 16th birthday, are considered. The national measure is based on the situation around the young person birthday.

Child in Need

Under Section 17 of the Children Act 1989, Local Authorities have a duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children within their area if they are in need. A child is in need when they are disabled, or they are unlikely to achieve a reasonable standard of health or development or if a child’s health or development is likely to be significantly impaired if services are not offered to him or her.

Child Protection

The safeguarding of children from violence, exploitation, abuse, and neglect. It involves identifying signs of potential harm, responding to allegations or suspicions of abuse and providing support and services to protect children.

Child Protection Plan

For all those children who have been identified at a Child Protection Conference as being at a continuing risk of significant harm, a Child Protection Plan will be created. This is a plan setting out what steps and provisions are needed to safeguard a child’s welfare and minimize all risks of harm to a child.

Children Cared For

Cared for children are children in the care of the local authority (also known as a child in care, looked after child or child looked after). They might be living: with foster parents; at home with their parents under the supervision of social services; in residential children’s homes; other residential settings like schools or secure units; or in 16+ provision such as supported lodgings or supported accommodation. They might have been placed in care voluntarily by parents struggling to cope.

Children's Residential Homes

A type of residential care, which refers to long-term care given to children who cannot stay in their birth family home.

Claimant rate

Claimant Count measures the number of unemployed people receiving unemployment benefits.

Commissioned service

Care, support or supervision that has been arranged and paid for on a client’s behalf by a public authority such as: In the case of personal care, a local authority adult social care department.

Community shops

Shops that trade as businesses, but they trade primarily for community benefit. An example of this could be Lucie’s Laundry, a launderette for anyone in the community to use free of charge.

CQC

Care Quality Commission. CQC is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England. CQC make sure health and social care services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality care and we encourage care services to improve. They monitor, inspect, and regulate services and publish what we find. Where we find poor care, we will use our powers to act.

Economically Active

Those aged 16 and over who are either in employment or unemployed. Economically inactive people are those who are neither employed nor unemployed; they’re not in paid work, but they’re also not looking for a job or available to start work (this includes people who are retired, looking after family or sick/disabled)

Education Health and Care Plan

An education, health and care (EHC) plan is for children and young people aged up to 25 who need more support than is available through special educational needs support. EHC plans identify educational, health and social needs and set out the additional support to meet those needs.

Employment rate

Employment rate: the employment rate is the percentage of the population who are working age (16-64) who who did some paid work in the reference week (whether as an employee or self-employed), including those who had a job that they were temporarily away from (e.g. on holiday), those on government-supported training and employment programmes, and those doing unpaid family work.

Enterprise Zones

Geographically defined areas, hosted by Local Enterprise Partnerships in which commercial and industrial businesses can receive incentives to set up or expand. Businesses locating to an Enterprise Zone can receive business tax of up to 100% over a five-year period.

Fuel poor

Households are considered fuel poor if they are living in a property with an energy efficiency rating of band D or below and after housing and energy costs, their income is below the poverty line.

Grades 9-4

GCSE Grades are now numbered with 9 being the highest grade. Grade 4 or above is the equivalent of a C, a strong C is a grade 5.

Harder-to-house

Residents whose special needs and multiple risk factors make them complicated to serve and who are involved in an organized supportive services program(s).

Homeless presentations

Those who have no home or permanent place of residence.

Legacy Benefits

A legacy benefit is a benefit which is being replaced by Universal Credit. There are six legacy benefits: income-based jobseekers’ allowance, incomerelated employment and support allowance, income support, housing benefit, child tax credit and working tax credit.

Liason role

A Liason facilitates communication between two or more parties to help their organisation reach a beneficial decision for their needs.

Long-term residential placement

Means a placement in a where there is an intention that the placement shall become the Resident's permanent residence.

Out of work benefits

Employment and Support Allowance and other incapacity benefits, and Income SUpport and Pension Credit.

Reablement facilities

Reablement is an intensive short service, which is offered to those recovering from an illness or injury or after discharge from hospital. The aim is to help recover some or all of their independence.

Referral

The referring of concerns to local authority children's social care services, where the referrer believes or suspects that a child may be a Child in Need, including that he or she

Residential Care

Residential care refers to long-term care given to people who stay in a residential setting rather than in their own home or family home. In Adult Social Care this includes residential care homes and nursing homes.

Rough sleepers

People sleeping rough are defined as those sleeping or about to bed down in open air locations and other places including tents and makeshift shelters. The snapshot does not include people in hostels or shelters, sofa surfers or those in recreational or organised protest, squatter or traveller campsites.

Short term residential care

A person moves into a residential or nursing home temporarily.

Special Free School

A school which is a free to attend and is specially organised to make special educational provision for pupils with SEN. EHCP’s replaced Statements for children and young people with additional needs under the Children & Families Act 2014.

The National Child Measurement Programme

A nationally mandated public health programme. It provides the data for the child excess weight indicators in the Public Health Outcomes Framework and is part of the government’s approach to tackling child obesity.

Unaccompanied asylum-seeking-child

A child who is under 18 years, does not have any parent or responsible older adult to look after them, and is making a claim for asylum can be described as an unaccompanied asylum seeking child (UASC). The local authority will be responsible for their care and providing them with a home if the child’s age is accepted as being under 18.

Unemployment rate

The unemployment rate is the proportion of working aged people (aged 16+) without a job who were available to start work in the two weeks following their interview and who had either looked for work in the four weeks prior to interview or were waiting to start a job they had already obtained. As Annual Population Survey estimates for local authorities are based on very small sample sizes, modelbased unemployment estimates produced by the Office for National Statistics, which also factor in Claimant Count figures, are used to get more precise estimates.