Agenda item

ORDERED that Executive:

 

1.     APPROVES the introduction of the Neighbourhood Model within Middlesbrough.

2.     APPROVES the Transformation Programme funding from the flexible use of capital receipts to fund the following posts for a 2 year period at a cost of £1.021m per annum:

a.     8 Neighbourhood Navigators to take on a caseload (2 in each of the 4 areas) - Grade K

b.     8 Community Development workers to build community capital and engage with the community, schools, voluntary and community sector and local businesses (2 in each of the 4 areas) - Grade J o Community Safety Co-ordinator - Grade K

c.     4 Neighbourhood link workers to be embedded on rotation within partner organisations such as schools and hospitals.

3.     APPROVES a capital allocation of up to £5m for improvements to the neighbourhood focused community hubs funded by Transformation Programme funding from the flexible use of capital receipts.

4.     APPROVES that an analysis of IT requirements takes place in respect of both infrastructure and reporting/ management programmes and that this is fed into the IT refresh requirements.

5.     APPROVES that annual reports are submitted to Executive to inform them of its achievements and any further development requirements.

The Mayor submitted a report for Executive’s consideration.

 

The purpose of the report was to seek approval for the introduction of a Neighbourhood Model as a key part of the Council’s core operating model and to agree the funding to support its introduction.

 

The Council recognised that, in order to provide high quality and modern services within an affordable budget, it needed to transform into an organisation that worked with the community to achieve its aims and objectives. To achieve this the elected Mayor of Middlesbrough had set out his ‘Recover, Reset and Deliver’ transformation programme.

 

The Neighbourhood Model was part of the transformation programme and aimed to ensure partners (both internal across Council departments and external partners) worked together, doing things ‘with’ communities and not ‘to’ them. The Council also needed to understand what people really wanted and needed to thrive in their lives.

 

The vision for Neighbourhoods was ‘to make Middlesbrough a cleaner, safer, stronger, and healthier place to live through proactive, intelligence-led partnership work and by building community resilience, doing things ‘with’ communities and not ‘to’ them.’ This vision was routed in the 2024 – 27 Council Plan which set out the Mayor’s vision and ambition for the town.

 

The Neighbourhood Model sought to achieve a joined-up system change centred on a recognition that the Council needed to reconfigure relationships between statutory organisations, voluntary sector, the private sector, residents, and businesses to achieve change by developing collaborative approaches that addressed the underlying causes of community problems. The model aimed to strengthen community resilience with a focus on prevention, building social capital, and making better connections across the community.

 

As well as focusing on the community and building social capital, the model also recognised that teams across the Council and partners needed to work closely to deliver a multi-agency response and this was best achieved by working together on the ground in each neighbourhood. The model would also see the introduction of several Community Navigator posts that would deliver intensive interventions within a multi-agency environment aiming to intervene at the earliest opportunity.

 

One of the key principles of the Neighbourhood Model was prevention and early intervention that helped to reduce escalations. The Navigators would work with partners and apply a ‘whatever it takes’ attitude to engaging and supporting people who needed help and support. In Adult Social Care for example, there has been a shift towards supporting people to stay in their homes for as long as possible, which saved public services money and provided better outcomes for people. The work of the Neighbourhood Model could accelerate this, by reinforcing the support that was available within community settings. The enablers (e.g. policy, research, finance, data, etc.) would also help with evaluation and understanding the business case for better outcomes and lower spend.

 

The Navigators would work with partners to identify high intensity users of services and look at how collectively the Council could better support them with community links.

 

Link Workers would work within key partners to break down barriers with their service users and in particular work to reduce the resistance of some service users to contact the Council.

 

The Council had recently adopted a tiered Customer Model that aimed to provide an improved journey for the Council’s customers, and this would work closely with the Neighbourhood Model to provide customers with a more consistent and streamlined experience.

 

The current Neighbourhood Model was established in 2024 having learned from the Locality Working pilot (2020 – 2023) and brought together several community and environmental services. Four Neighbourhood Managers were appointed to oversee the work that needed to take place in order to understand the community, learn what needed to change, what role each key stakeholder needed to play (including the community) and help to create the conditions that were needed to facilitate the changes needed.

 

The Neighbourhood Managers were currently stretched due to the fact they were also responsible for managing large service areas such as Area Care, Community Safety, and the library and community hubs. The need to make fiscal savings management and supervisory support had been removed from these areas and this needed to be redressed if the model was to be successful. This would be resolved through the addition of the Neighbourhood Safety Co-ordinator and a number of internal reviews.

 

The Executive Member for Finance welcomed the creation of the Neighbourhoods model and commented that elected Members were a vital stakeholder within the model as they were the link between the Council and communities.

 

It was also discussed that the Neighbourhoods Model would place communities at the heart of Council work and would help to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour.

 

OPTIONS

 

The other alternative was not to introduce the Neighbourhood Model. However, this would act against the Council’s Target Operating Model approach and would prohibit gaining the benefits that could be achieved through Neighbourhood Working.

 

ORDERED that Executive:

 

1.    APPROVES the introduction of the Neighbourhood Model within Middlesbrough.

2.    APPROVES the Transformation Programme funding from the flexible use of capital receipts to fund the following posts for a 2 year period at a cost of £1.021m per annum:

a.    8 Neighbourhood Navigators to take on a caseload (2 in each of the 4 areas) - Grade K

b.    8 Community Development workers to build community capital and engage with the community, schools, voluntary and community sector and local businesses (2 in each of the 4 areas) - Grade J o Community Safety Co-ordinator - Grade K

c.    4 Neighbourhood link workers to be embedded on rotation within partner organisations such as schools and hospitals.

3.    APPROVES a capital allocation of up to £5m for improvements to the neighbourhood focused community hubs funded by Transformation Programme funding from the flexible use of capital receipts.

4.    APPROVES that an analysis of IT requirements takes place in respect of both infrastructure and reporting/ management programmes and that this is fed into the IT refresh requirements.

5.    APPROVES that annual reports are submitted to Executive to inform them of its achievements and any further development requirements.

 

 

REASONS

 

Neighbourhood Working was a key transformational strategy within the Target Operating Model. Over the medium-term, its intention was to increase efficiency and reduce demand pressure.

 

Neighbourhood Working would provide better outcomes for the citizens of Middlesbrough.

 

Neighbourhood Working would become the operational model that addressed the entrenched challenges within the neighbourhoods of Middlesbrough.