Ref: PR 2443
Date: 09/12/2009

Organisations which make up the Wakefield Together partnership have been praised in the first Oneplace report, an independent overview of local public services.

The Area Assessment – which forms part of the Oneplace assessment – focuses on what partner organisations are achieving together across Wakefield. The second part is the Organisational Assessment on how the Council delivers services and manages its resources.

The Oneplace report says that Wakefield Together has a good understanding of the big issues affecting people in Wakefield and many of the things people have identified as important have seen big improvements.

For example crime has fallen, children do well at school, streets and public spaces are cleaner and more older people are able to live independently.

Green flags have been introduced to highlight major achievements and innovation by public bodies. Wakefield has been awarded a prestigious green flag for work in bringing communities closer together by developing nature reserves, including using ex-industrial sites.

In areas where action is needed, red flags are awarded and none have been awarded to Wakefield.

Cllr Peter Box, chair of Wakefield Together, said: “We are proud of achieving a green flag and no red flags. By working together we can do more for people across our district and this report shows how well we are doing collectively through the partnership.

“We all know there is more to be done and challenges to overcome, but together we can achieve this and bring about real improvements for everyone.”

The report highlights a range of achievements made by local public services in Wakefield district. Real progress has been made in all three priority areas of healthier communities, safer and stronger communities, and skills enterprise and work.

Successes include:

• good progress has been made to deliver regeneration projects
• fewer neighbourhoods are now among most deprived in England
• residents are happier with where they live in the district compared to two years ago
• Wakefield is becoming safer and crime is falling
• fewer young people are involved in crime 
• more people in Wakefield quit smoking in 2008/09 than anywhere else in Yorkshire and Humber
• the district is becoming cleaner and greener – litter, graffiti and fly-tipping is reducing and is now lower than most other areas in the country
• better access to nature and green spaces
• Wakefield is the second most active district in the region, with a quarter of all adults taking part in sport and active recreation
• when people are ready to leave hospital they are not delayed waiting for social care
• people now have quicker access to see health professionals like doctors and NHS dentists
• the quality of social housing is mostly good
• WDH is working well to improve the standard of its housing stock, going beyond Government standard
• over the last year the fire service and its partners have succeeded in reducing arson
• work is well underway on two new state-of-the-art hospitals in the district.
• young people enjoy education and the GCSE pass rate is above average
• public services work well together to create new employment opportunities

Areas for improvement include more work to tackle inequalities and perception of anti-social behaviour in the district.

Wakefield Together is the local strategic partnership (LSP) for the Wakefield district and brings together key agencies here who deliver services and activities that affect the lives of people who live, work, visit and do business in the area.

For more information on the reports visit www.direct.gov.uk/oneplace (see related linkss) or www.wakefieldtogether.org.uk (see related links) for partnership information.

Ends