Principles met

  • We will develop systems that enable citizens to be equal partners in designing and commissioning public services and in determining the use of public resources.
  • We will promote community-based approaches to economic development that focus on supporting the creation of jobs, social enterprises and other businesses and providing an environment for co-operative and mutual enterprises to thrive.
  • We will embrace innovation in how we work with local communities to drive positive change.
  • We will capture and ‘expand’ the experience and learning from individual projects and approaches in order to encourage broader application of co-operative principles within individual member Councils and across the Network.
  • We will support the development of a framework and criteria for social value, giving substance to the concept and supporting Councils with the tools to ensure better local social and economic outcomes.
  • In exploring new ways of meeting the priority needs of our communities we will encourage models, such as co-operatives and mutuals, which give greater influence and voice to staff and users. in designing and commissioning public services and in determining the use of public resources.

The onset of the Cost of Living Crisis put into sharp relief the issue of poverty in Tameside. The Local Authority began the process of developing a Strategy for the borough early last year but it was clear that this could not be done in isolation.
Tameside’s Health & Wellbeing Board took the mantle of generating the appetite for a joint approach to develop a Strategy which unlocked resource commitments from Partners across the system to better understand the picture in Tameside.

Firstly, to clearly describe the issue and provide a resource for all to use we developed a Poverty Needs Assessment. This work and the subsequent development of the Strategy were informed by a broad range of engagement and consultation:

  • Tames Poverty Truth Commission – The commission brought together grassroots commissioners, people with lived experience of poverty and senior civic, political and business leaders on an equal footing to identify a shape a series of recommendations
  • Focus Groups – Commissioned from an independent organisation, a series of focus with people from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds to examine in more granular detail some of the key issues.
  • Partnership Engagement Network – Poverty was the headline focus for a Partnership Engagement Network Conference with members of the public and Partners,
  • Inequalities Reference Group – With membership drawn from statutory and VCFSE Partners, this group produced a range of papers looking at topics relevant to this issue.
    Launch of Tameside Hub

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