The pledges - promoting inclusion

The council provides a range of care and support services to children, families and vulnerable adults in the city. In particular we provide care and support for older people, adults with physical or learning disabilities or mental health needs and carers who look after a dependent adult. We also co-ordinate local fostering and adoption services.

Social exclusion and neighbourhood renewal are very important issues for the council. It is a priority to achieve our ambitious goals on health, crime, education, employment and work, housing and other factors relating to quality of life.

What went well in 2009/10

• The community based Unity Group in Little Hulton, helped by the council, won a Mayor's Award for their work in bringing together newly settled refugees and established residents and community groups.
• More same sex couples have been encouraged and supported to become adopters resulting in more opportunities for looked after children.
• The council worked with a group of residents with disabilities to make green spaces more accessible through the Access 2 All Areas programme.
• Our website was named Local Authority Website of the Year in this year's Good Communication Awards. The website was commended for being easy to find information on and for its use of social networking sites.

Our challenges

• We will be encouraging community cohesion so that all residents have a better quality of life, regardless of their situation, and have the chance to achieve their full potential.
• We also believe it is important to involve the public in designing services that meet their needs.

What we will do

To maximise community involvement we will:

• Produce a neighbourhood charter showing what core services will be provided locally with a clear way for residents to hold the service providers to account.
• Stage a civic garden party.

To reinforce community cohesion we will:

• Provide opportunities for different communities and groups to mix, for example running activities involving different age groups such as bowling at Albert, Peel and Winton parks.
• Tackle extremism with two community engagement projects, one in Eccles and one in East Salford, working with Manchester and Trafford councils.

To deliver services that are fit for people we will:

• Provide housing advice and support services at one location.
• Enable residents to manage their dealings with the council from home at their own convenience by developing website technologies.

This page was last updated on 6 May 2011