Forthcoming express briefings

May

TBC

The Council's Finances 2012/13 to 2013/14

The Council's finances for the coming year are being agreed by Full Council on 6th March. This session will tell you all you need to know about the council's budget in 30 minutes.

Any enquiries regarding this session should be directed to
Jane Alexander on 0121 569 3297

The report to Full Council (6th March) on the Council finances can be found here

The express briefing presentation is shown in the box on the right. You can download a pdf version here.

The Local Government Finance topic page can be opened here.

Improving the Health of Sandwell

Health Inequalities can be defined as the "avoidable differences in health, wellbeing and lenght of life". The Marmot review Fair Society, Healthy Lives showed that these inequalities in health are still prevalent in our society and are associated with deprivation.

This report is particularly pertinent to Sandwell, the 12th most deprived local authority in England. For instance, life expectancy in Sandwell is 3.4 years less for men and 1.6 years less for women than in England.

Another measure of the health of a population is the disability free life expectancy, how long people can expect to live without a long term illness or disability. For Sandwell this shows that as well as not living as long as in the rest of England, people in Sandwell tend to spend more of their lives ill and with a disability.

To know more about health in Sandwell, please visit the dedicated Health pages in Sandwell Trends.

The Health Intelligence Portal page can be opened here.

The impact of poverty in Sandwell

Sandwell MBC has one of the highest levels of deprivation among local authorities in England (12^th out of 326, Index of Multiple Deprivation 2010).

The aspects of poverty which are highlighted in the Index include income, educational achievement, housing, health, jobs and environmental issues. They have a greater effect on children, older people, those with disabilities or those who are out of work, as well as people from ethnic minorities.

There are also communities in the borough, which experience more pressure from the effects of poverty than others.

Sandwell’s Anti Poverty Strategy is designed to help residents who are most in need, especially children and young people, vulnerable groups, and those affected by the recent economic downturn.

The Anti-poverty topic page can be opened here.

My Council Customer Intelligence

It is vital for council residents to receive good information about services, have trust in the organisation they are dealing with, and feel that its decision making process is both fair and in their interests.

As a customer service organisation, a thorough understanding of our customers needs to be central to planning our business. This understanding of the people who need and use our services is a characteristic of an excellent council that continues to learn.

At this time of significant resource constraint, knowing what our customers’ needs and aspirations are is even more important in helping us to make the right spending decisions.

Good customer intelligence will also drive the delivery of the Sandwell Scorecard and be the means by which we measure our performance. We must understand the make up of our communities in order to ensure fair access and opportunity and monitor the impact of our spending decisions.

The My Council Customer Intelligence topic page can be opened here.

Local Government Finance

The government has announced a series of reviews into financial arrangements that have an impact on local government. These reviews include:

• Retention of Business Rates
• Housing Revenue Account - Self-Financing Model
• Localising Support for Council Tax
• Transfer of Public Health services to local authorities

The Local Government Finance topic page can be opened here.

Localism and Open Public Services

The Open Public Services White Paper sets out the government’s programme for public services over the next few years and a comprehensive policy framework across public services. It brings together a series of proposals and actions that the government is already implementing or plans to bring in over the next year or two.

The white paper offers a more comprehensive view of the government’s current and future thinking around localism and the ‘Big Society’ with reference to public services. If fully implemented, the proposals in the white paper will have a massive impact on how public services are delivered.

The Open Public Services topic page can be opened here.