South Tyneside Council leader reveals borough's pre-Budget wish list

Targeting support to make things fairer runs through everything we do as a council.

Despite our limited finances, we make sure that every penny counts and that it is targeted in the right way to try to reduce those inequalities we have across the borough.

Examples of that might be subsidising the cost of school milk and meals for all children, our free events programme that makes arts and culture accessible for all, retaining a welfare support service that helps claim millions in benefits for those who need it or directing funding into projects like our hard-working foodbanks, community shops and support to get people the skills they need to get back into work.

As a post-industrial, coastal community, we have some complex challenges related to skills, health and deprivation that hold back growth and hamper outcomes for our people.

So, what do we want from the Chancellor when she gives her first Budget?

The easy answer is more money but we know the challenges faced by our Government. But it’s more than that, we would like money in the right places, from the continuation of funding that is helping those who are struggling to the funding of game-changing growth projects.

South Tyneside is a prime candidate for investment, and we already have exciting plans to stimulate growth and opportunity in South Shields through the relocation of South Tyneside College and the development of a cultural quarter, along with plans to boost growth in Jarrow and Hebburn and to build on our renewable energy schemes.

This is on top of the huge investment happening in places like the Port and IAMP, creating jobs of the future, and there is a real opportunity to drive clean energy, create jobs and deliver on the Government’s growth mission.

In the short term, we are hoping to see the Household Support Fund will continue past March next year.

That funding has had a significant impact in helping local families and those on the lowest incomes, and has included food vouchers for children on free school meals during school holidays; school uniforms vouchers; food banks; the community food bus; welfare support team; and dedicated support for care leavers.

Over the longer term, we want to see the Family Hub model, based on Sure Start, to continue.

When government funding for Sure Start ended in 2010 we were one of the few councils that continued investing because we knew the value in supporting parents and providing targeted services.

In the last year, our Family Hubs have seen over 50,000 contacts from 8,500 children, young people, parents, and carers accessing everything from

parenting support and infant feeding support to regular classes and activities.

We want that continued investment to boost outcomes, just as Sure Start did.

We want the funding to support our Holiday Activity and Food (HAF) programme which has brought together the exceptional organisations within the borough to deliver enriching, engaging and fun activities for children, young people, and families.

In 2023/24 a staggering 28,603 sessions were delivered across the spring, summer, and winter school holidays with 6,250 children and families attending at least four activities.

Set against a backdrop of the cost-of-living crisis HAF proved to be a much-needed resource during the school holiday period.

To help boost skills and training, we would also like the UK Shared Prosperity Funding (UKSPF) to continue in some form. We’ve used this funding to support twenty projects enhancing life chances with things like our Care Academy, Community Shops, and pre- employment support to help those furthest away from the jobs market improve their life and skills. short-term cycles of funding that we’ve seen from past governments.

We welcome Government’s commitments to long-term funding and to a Comprehensive Spending Review in the Spring, something we have been campaigning for years.

As a council, we have been under considerable pressure for well over a decade, we’ve absorbed huge increases in demand for adult social care and children’s services driven by rises in social care need, looked after children, young people with SEND, home to school transport, stubborn and persistent high levels of inflation and cost of living pressures facing households.

The majority of our discretionary budget, over 70%, goes towards adult social care and children’s services and that keeps going up. We cannot keep finding savings.

We know it is tough for many of the people living in this borough, but we will always do the best we can with the money we have. We want to shift from crisis to prevention.

We need robust national strategies aimed at tackling the root causes of poverty, not just the symptoms, to improve life chances and outcomes.

This Government has made a fantastic start on this and we would like them to look into this further where possible with policy changes that will boost South Tyneside, targeting support, just as we do as a council, to the areas that need it most.