Brighter Futures Report 2021-22
The Brighter Futures in Banbury programme
Cherwell Local Strategic Partnership
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A message from Councillor Chapman
In my role as Portfolio holder for Healthy Communities, it gives me huge pleasure to be part of the Brighter Futures Partnership. It is a great way to be in touch with the many community partners who work together to promote health improvements, to raise aspirations for individuals and to develop strong healthy communities.
I have been impressed to learn of the many different ways partners work together to improve the lives and opportunities of residents, in an area where the evidence shows us that some residents need support to access happier, healthier lives. “Living your best life” moves from a cliché to a reality through the kind of work led by Brighter Futures partnership projects.
In the 2021/22 year on which we are reporting, there were still many difficulties and restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Some new organisations emerged, and others found it necessary to change their ways of working to adapt to the community’s needs. In this report, you will read stories which are personal, but also illustrate the type of work which goes on every day, making a difference in small and large ways to people’s lives. I hope you will be as impressed as I am when you read about the way that support is meshed around individuals and their communities in the Brighter Futures area, with different organisations and sectors coming together to provide opportunities for residents to access the support they have available.
Looking ahead, we know that many people are going to find paying for energy and other household necessities a real challenge, and this is where the partnership is focussing its effort for the coming year.
The Brighter Futures partners want to make sure that people have knowledge and opportunities to help them cope with this. Residents need to access advice, and we will be making use of the superb new pop-up space in Castle Quay (hosted by Cherwell District Council) as well as other venues in the communities we serve. We know that there is an impact on physical and mental health when people are under stress, and we will work to help residents access free and low-cost ways to exercise and for families to be together.
Local networking and partnership are going to be even more important than ever as we face the cost-of-living crisis. Brighter Futures has a strong foundation to work from with over 10 years of partnership behind us. We have nurtured new partnerships with residents through the Grimsbury and North Banbury Community Partnerships, and we are constantly learning and innovating to improve health and reduce income inequality.
Councillor Phil Chapman - Portfolio Holder for Healthy Communities
Background: where and how we work
Where we work
The Brighter Futures partnership work focusses on four wards in Banbury, which contain areas which rank on the lower end of the Indices of Multiple Deprivation. There are several areas in Banbury across the four wards of Hardwick, Ruscote, Neithrop and Grimsbury and Castle which rank amongst the 20 per cent most deprived in the country. The indices of multiple deprivation measure relative deprivation across small areas.
Why we work in this area
There is a huge amount of evidence that health inequalities are correlated with disadvantage and deprivation that results from social inequality. The Brighter Futures Partnership aims to increase life chances and raise aspirations within the area of Banbury which experiences the greatest levels of deprivation. We know this is a challenge at a time of great financial and other uncertainty, but we are determined that working together gives us the greatest chance of success.
How we work
The Brighter Partnership is co-ordinated by a steering group comprised of representatives from the anchor organisations working in the area, including, community and faith groups as well as the District Council and public health. The steering group meets regularly to bring together information and intelligence from both residents and service providers. Interaction with residents can be on a formal basis via the community network groups or informally via community groups and the professionals and volunteers who support them. This rounded view provides an insight into local residents’ ambitions and needs, which in turn leads to dynamic, responsive action planning, based on evidence. This is translated to the strategic vision as well as practical actions.
The partnership focuses on long-term change, looking at a wide variety of measures which support strength and cohesion in the community. The long-standing nature of the partnership has led to trust between the partners, and enables efficient working across organisations and sectors.
A wide group of organisations which are invested in the area is invited to an annual reference group for networking and shared insight. The event in February 2022 was the first opportunity for many partners to meet face to face following the pandemic. It led to some new relationships between organisations, and a range of pledges to support the work of the Brighter Futures partnership.
Our partnerships and support focus
- Individual
- macroi economics
- environment
- local economy
- community
- family
- jobs
- crime
- housing
- transport
- mental health
- personal finance
- employment
- health
- education
Strong local partnerships - Banbury and Grimsbury Network
The Brighter Futures in Banbury partnership places great importance on bringing the local partners and stakeholders working in these communities together regularly to ensure there is a consistent well-informed approach to the work being delivered in these wards. The North Banbury and Grimsbury networks both meet quarterly to discuss projects, initiatives and events that groups and organisations are currently delivering, to share good practice and resources and most importantly work together with a joined-up approach. This provides an immediate insight into communities’ perceptions of challenges that face them, as well as a place to develop innovative ways of helping residents achieve their ambitions.
Winter Wishes and New Year Wishes events are now firmly in the diary for these communities. Locally based partners come together to deliver an engagement event each year to consult in a fun way with residents, to hear from them about their priorities for where they live for the year ahead. This is how BFIB deliver consultation each year, with all partners using the same questions to help create an action plan for the community with voluntary sector partners, statutory organisations and the community itself working together to address issues, develop new initiatives and create a strong community for the future. The response rate is excellent as local residents are not put off by a formal consultation arrangement, rather, they feel as though they are sharing their concerns and possible solutions to them, as equals.
Key priorities developed from these two-way conversations include community partners working together to deliver events in partnership to engage all ages, joined up ways to promote opportunities, activities and information and making sure their communities are safe places where residents feel happy to live. The strength of these partnership can be seen in the success of now having a number of annual events each year with all partners joining to support the delivery, including Springfest, Grimsbury Play Day and Summerfest. These events act as great platforms to invite partners to join the day to promote information and advice around community safety, health and wellbeing, debt and money advice and education and skills. In addition, they provide free and low-cost ways for families to have fun together, building and improving their relationships.
The partnerships all produce a quarterly newsletter to bring together good news stories and information for residents, shared electronically and also held as a hard copy in all community facilities in these wards to help the community feel connected to what’s going on locally.
Who we are
The steering group has representatives from
- Cherwell District Council (including Safer Communities, Wellbeing, Housing, Performance and Insight)
- Department for Work and Pensions
- Sanctuary Housing
- The Sunshine Centre
- Citizens Advice
- Oxfordshire County Council (including Social Care, Public Health)
- Department for Work and Pensions
The influence and reach of this partnership stretch out to other professionals, organisations and community groups! If you would like to know more about being a partner to the Brighter Futures project, please get in touch.
How does the partnership tackle inequality?
- Working with residents to understand their ambitions and translate them into action
- Providing opportunities for a secure home and sustainable tenancies
- Helping families support their children into life readiness
- Improving access to healthy, affordable food for everyone
- Better opportunities to improve mental and physical health
- A strong local economy with sustainable job opportunities
- Understanding the causes of crime and anti-social behaviour, to provide locally sensitive solutions
Brighter Futures themes
- Stronger Communities and Volunteering
- Safer Communities
- Education and Skills
- Housing
- Healthy, Wellbeing and Physical Activity
- Economy
The work of the Brighter Futures partnership sits under the themes above, and staff from a variety of organisations take on the co-ordinating role of theme leads. However, the strength of the partnership shines through when these themes are set aside and partner organisations make contributions to improving residents’ lives in their complex entirety. We see the work the partners do as forming a web of support which crosses these boundaries.
Within our partnerships and support network, we offer a wide range including:
- Help with the cost of living
- Links to the Local Strategic Partnership
- Shared partnership information
- The opportunity to book community space in Castle Quay (the town’s main shopping centre)
- Increased connection with nature
- Employment support
- Access to activities to improve physical and mental health
- Informing the Emergency Plan
- Advice on road closures for community events
- Links for voluntary and community associations
- Community Grants
- Cherwell Lottery
- Shared applications for good-cause community grant funding
- Support for Ukraine
About the data
Please note that as the Census was done last year, the data is not available yet at ward level detail. We expect to have all the up-to-date data at ward and LSOA levels for next year’s annual report.
Looking ahead
Supporting residents with the cost of living
The Brighter Futures Partnership is looking ahead to a year where the cost of living is set to increase dramatically, through increased energy costs and inflation. We know that this has the potential to cause hardship and stress to residents and we are focussing all our efforts on a holistic approach to tackling this. Our mitigation will include bringing advice and information to where residents are, support to people to access healthy food and cheap ways to cook it, providing free and low-cost activities which support family and community bonding, and many more initiatives.
Supporting residents to improve their employment prospects
The Partnership will work to ensure that jobs and employment opportunities for both the current and future workforces were supported. This is important for the Brighter Futures in Banbury wards (which includes Banbury town centre and the industrial estates) as there are more than 1,500 businesses providing over 25,000 jobs.
Employment support schemes being delivered through Job Centre Plus (JCP) alongside local partners, with particular focus on young people and sectors important to local economy (eg construction and hospitality). We are aware of skills shortages in the area of construction and care, which may bring opportunities for local residents. DWP have a new focus on those over 50 to encourage people to work longer - It is critical that individuals have the choice and opportunity to work longer and save towards a financially secure retirement.
The objective is to enable those aged 50 and over, through early and targeted employment, skills and employer led support to stay in, progress or return to work and to build their future financial resilience and wellbeing.
Improving our understanding of residents's needs
We are looking forward to accessing the 2021 census data to help us tailor projects with the best local information. In addition, we will benefit from detailed analysis from community profiles of the Brighter Futures work.
The purpose of creating a community profile is to ensure we understand as fully as possible the health outcomes and factors that influence these outcomes within wards in Oxfordshire where residents are most at risk of poor health, or experience health inequalities. We are planning to work with communities to produce profiles to cover the wards identified in the Oxfordshire Director of Public Health Annual Report which have the greatest number of small areas (“Super Output Areas”) that were listed in the 20% most deprived in England in the Index of Multiple Deprivation update (published November 2019) and are most likely to experience inequalities in health. We will be creating a community profile that cover 3 wards within the Brighter Futures in Banbury area which include a profile for Grimsbury and Hightown, and also a joint profile for the Banbury Cross and Neithrop, and Ruscote area.
We are expecting that the profiles will include a range of quantitative data indicators along with qualitative information/community insight and assets for the area. The profiles will link to the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment and will be a useful mechanism to pull together all the data and insight available at a local level to help inform future action planning, and can shared with relevant boards such as the Oxfordshire Health and Wellbeing Board. We anticipate the profile will also be useful for local partners to help with data needed for funding applications, developing local initiatives and communities within those wards may also have other ideas about how the profiles can be used. We want to use the opportunity of undertaking these profiles to better understand the impact COVID-19 has had within these communities.
Steering groups have been set up for each of the Banbury profiles to help support their creation and they are expected to be completed in the spring of 2023.
Developing, listening and growing
The Partnership will continue to welcome input from new partners, to consult residents about their aims and ambitions, and to seek new ways of breaking the cycle of deprivation and health inequality. OxLEP interest in Levelling-Up from within Oxfordshire could bring resources to Brighter Futures in Banbury.
We are working together on projects on a dynamic basis. Recent events have shown us that circumstances can change rapidly, and so should we. We are constantly looking at the “deliverables” – the things that a combination of resident and partner intelligence inform us can make a real difference.
A guide to Who's who
- Councillor Phil Chapman, Cherwell District Council. Lead Member for Brighter Futures
- Nicola Riley, Cherwell District Council, Assistant Director: Wellbeing and Housing Services
- Jon Wild, Cherwell District Council, Community Development Manager
- Steven Newman, Cherwell District Council, Employment Theme Lead
- Tim Tarby Donald, Oxford United in the Community, Stronger Communities and Volunteering Theme Lead
- Michelle Hoffler, Department for Work and Pensions, Employment Theme Lead from 2022/2023
- Jonathan Mutchell, Cherwell District Council, Housing Theme Lead
- Charlie Heritage, Sanctuary Housing Group, Housing Theme Lead
- Tom Gubbins, Cherwell District Council, Health, Wellbeing and Physical Activity Theme Lead
- Kate Austin, Oxfordshire County Council, Health, Wellbeing and Physical Activity Theme Lead
- Inspector Iain Roberts, Thames Valley Police, Safer and Stonger Communities Theme Lead 2020/21
- Katey Humphris, Cherwell District Council, Safer Communities Theme Lead 2022/23
- Pat Coomber-Wood, Citizens Advice, Stronger Communities and Volunteering Theme Lead
- Kate Winstanley, Independent, Facilitation and strategic support
Our partners
This list is not exhaustive. If you would like more information, or would like to become a partner, get in touch.
- Activate Learning
- Active Oxfordshire
- Age Friendly Banbury
- Age UK
- Aquarius
- Banbury Aspirations
- Banbury Community Church
- Banbury Community Safety Partnership
- Banbury Food Bank
- Banbury Healthy Cooking Skills
- Banbury Madni Mosque
- BYCE
- BYHP
- Carers Oxfordshire
- Cherwell Theatre
- Community Dental services
- DCLG
- Dementia Oxfordshire
- Good Food Oxfordshire
- GP practices
- Grimsbury Community Network
- Home: Start
- Homes and Communities Agency
- Housing and Habitat for Humanity
- Job Centre Plus
- Legacy Leisure
- Lighthouse
- Living Streets
- Midwives
- National Careers Service
- NHS cancer screening
- North Oxfordshire Schools Sports Partnership
- Oxford and Cherwell Valley College
- Oxford United in the Community
- Oxfordshire Advice Project
- Oxfordshire Mind
- Oxfordshire Play Association
- Oxfordshire Smoke Free Life
- OxLEP (Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership)
- Restore
- Safeguarding Children In Banbury
- Science Oxford
- Solutions for Health
- Sunrise Centre
- Sunshine Centre
- The Hill Youth and Community Centre
- Turning Point
- Volunteer Connect
- Warriner Farm
Contact Brighter Futures in Banbury programme
By telephone: 01295 221980
By email: brighter.futures@cherwell-dc.gov.uk
By post to Bodicote House