ward powerpoint

By Jamie-Leigh Wade, Sahid Mohammed, Luke Jones and Anisah Younis

Over the years there has been different legislation passed through Parliament to help and support families. The Children and Families Act 2014 provided rules and regulation regarding adoptions, childcare, SEN, child welfare, family justice and parents rights. Working together to safeguard children 2015 which provided the early help team with ways of identifying families which would benefit from early intervention. (Gov, 2014,2015)

 Parenting voucher scheme 2016 which allowed parents up to £55 per week tax free to pay towards childcare. However this scheme is to be fazed out by April 2018 and replaced with tax free child care.(GOV UK, 2018) Improving lives: helping workless families, which states there plan is to set out the next phase of supporting troubled families, reduce parental conflict and set new expectations for job centre plus.

FEBRUARY 2015“ All NHS and local authorities in Greater Manchester signed a 5 year agreement with the Government to take charge of Health and Social care spending and decisions in our city region.”(Greater Manchester Combined Authority, 2018)

The Oldham locality plan was a result of the Greater Manchester devolution. Oldham council and NHS Oldham developed a plan to “achieve and sustain the greatest and fastest improvement in wellbeing and health for the 225,000 people of Oldham.” (Oldham Locality Plan, 2015). The plan maintains that the goal is to empower and encourage residents to manage their own conditions, live independently, take more control, adopt a healthy lifestyle and access care and support at an early stage.

“Troubled families are those that have problems and often cause problems to the community around them, putting high costs on the public sector” (Oldham Council, 2013). Troubled families are often involved in crime, they are unemployed and for children or teenagers they will truant by not attending school.

The early help team are in charge of the programme within Oldham. Oldham has a unique approach to the supporting troubled families programme, their goal is to help people help themselves as opposed to fixing families. Early help work with eligible families within Oldham. If a family has one or more of the troubled family indicators.

To check eligibility personal information is shared between Oldham council and their partner organisations such as Greater Manchester Police Oldham clinical commissioning group Greater Manchester probation Positive steps Local housing associations Department for work and pensions



Hollinwood is an old industrial suburban area in Oldham, Greater ManchesterHollinwood has a population of 11,248 as of the 2014 census.Geographically and politically Hollinwood is linked with Failsworth.Fun Fact: Hollinwood was once home to Albert Pierrepoint, a famous hangman in WWII.

Hollinwood has a younger population than the rest of England with 25% of the population under 16 years of age compared to the whole of the UK population under 16 is 18.8%.Hollinwood is made up of;-25% under 1661.5% 16-64’s13.5% 65+As the area has a younger population it could indicate an increase in crime. The Daily Mail (2012) also suggests that “young offenders are responsible for more than a million crimes in just one year”, therefore showing that most crimes are committed by young people.

Hollinwood used to have a large majority of white occupants, however since 2001 the ward has become more diverse. It is still a majority white ward with 86.9% white residents 5.6% Pakistani, 2.4% Bangladeshi and 5.1% other non white residents.

Hollinwood has 5 schools within the ward which consist of 2 primary schools, a special needs school and two academies.Within the ward there is only one children's centre.Put into perspective that is 2821 children to one children’s centre.There are barriers that residents face when trying to access some services provided by Early help. A lot of the services are in the town centre and therefore inaccessible for certain families.

Education and skills is a factor within Hollinwood that needs improvement. Statistics show that there are currently 38% of adults with no qualifications within Hollinwood compared to an average of 29.6% in Oldham. There are also 10.7% of adults with a degree within Hollinwood compared to an average of 18.6% in Oldham. (Oldham council, 2018). The statistics show that Hollinwood is below average levels and is suffering compared to the other wards in Oldham within this section. Oldham Council (2018) states that although the Education and skill levels in Hollinwood are poor, 63.2% of children reach a good level at the Early Years Foundation Stage compared to an average of 57.3% in Oldham. Hollinwood have recognised this problem and planned construction of more schools within the area. (Oldham Government, 2018).

Also, there are only two Childcare centres within the Hollinwood and Failsworth district. This can potentially lead to parents and carers taking days off work to look after their children. These two childcare centres can only take care of a certain amount of children, therefore parents who have to take care of their children may face financial difficulties. Also, locals from Hollinwood may find it difficult to travel out of Hollinwood to go to a child centre. This may be because they do not have enough income to travel. This may set barriers for children in the future as they will not benefit from what childcare centres have to offer such as developing their confidence and providing opportunities for creative and imaginative play which can build their self-esteem (Small Wonders Childcare, 2018). Building these skills while young can assist children in the future and allow them to pursue their goals.

Hollinwood has the highest percentage of lone parent households within the whole of Oldham. Hollinwood also has a high proportion of families with three or more childrenLone Parent- 20.6%3 or more children- 9%Overcrowded – 8.5%

The median household income in Hollinwood is £18,633 compared the rest of the UK £27,600. Hollinwood has a high percentage of unemployment with 47.1% unemployed residence. And 19.3% claiming unemployment benefits.These statics are an indication of the financial support needed within the supporting troubled families programme.Furthermore, families are likely to go through stress due to the low income, which can lead to alcoholism or even domestic violence.

Hollinwood has a large number or households claiming housing benefit and/or council tax support 40.2%.And 12.8% of households are in fuel poverty.Energy UK (2018) defines a household in fuel poverty as a home which spends 10% of its income on keeping the home ‘adequately warm’.

20.3 % of Residents have long term health problems and 38.9% of year 6 children are over weight or obese.32.6 % are smokersOldham Council do not want to just fix things, they want to provide a good quality health service, designed to intervene at the early stages of difficulty for “at risk” families. According to Oldham council (2018) The STF Agenda aims to decrease all negative health statistics by providing families with highly qualified professionals, who can target the specific health care needs, for example, breastfeeding, within Hollinwood, only 27.7% of babies are breastfeed from birth which is significantly below the average in Oldham (37.5%). To tackle this problem, Oldham has funded several breastfeeding support groups known as Baby Bistros.Council, O. (2018).

Within Hollinwood, there is a very high crime rate. Statistics show that there is a total number of 1242 crimes (risen 36.2% since 2014) including 86 crimes of burglary (risen 16.2% since 2014) and 843 Anti-social behaviour offences which has risen 10.9% since 2014. (Oldham Council, 2018).These statistics show that Hollinwood has a high crime rate which is continuing to rise over the years.

Oldham Council (2018) suggests that youth centre can help decrease the crime rates caused by young people. CYC (2015) states that youth centres aim to develop children enhancing their life skills, build community capacity, assist welfare in wider communities, provide social interaction and develop situations to local problems. Youth centres also aim to reduce crime rates and Anti- social behaviour offences by keeping children and young people occupied with social interactions by allowing them to invest their time elsewhere. Although opening a youth centre may solve a few of the issues within Hollinwood, children may find it difficult to attend youth centres as they may feel nervous about meeting new people. However, within a safe environment such as a youth centre, children may be given the opportunity to nurture their socialising skills and build strong relationships within the organisation with staff and other children their age. Youth centres encourage learning and development opportunities and this will assist children to develop their skills and aptitudes for their personal growth. (Solent Youth Action, 2018).

Stated by Oldham Council(2018) Hollinwood reached a turnout of 27.7% within all wards of Oldham. The youth centres that are situated in the area allow people to gain the opportunity to volunteer and get involved, as everyone is able to co-operate within the community. Overall 55% of people are satisfied with the local area, even though there are a majority of the community who feel like they want to get involved.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/article s/overviewoftheukpopulation/february2016https://www.energy-uk.org.uk/policy/fuel-poverty.htmlhttp://www.oldhampartnership.org.uk/partnerships/oldham-ward-profiles/Greater Manchester combined authority, 2018 retrieved from http://www.gmhsc.org.uk/delivering-the-plan/https://www.oldham.gov.uk/info/200148/data_protection_and_freedom_of_information/1402/early_help_and _troubled_families_programme/2http://www.oldhampartnership.org.uk/devolution-new/greater-manchester-health-and-social-care-devolution/https://www.gov.uk/help-with-childcare-costs/childcare-vouchers