The council’s vision is 'Building a fairer, greener, healthier and more inclusive Salford for all.'
To help us achieve this vision we identified seven key priorities for the city to tackle the problems people in Salford are currently facing.
These priorities provide the focus of the council’s work over the next four years and are outlined in our corporate plan, This is our Salford, launched in July 2024.
This approach involves us working in a different way, being more open when we can about what we do, getting people involved, listening to their concerns and getting things done.
Our annual performance report
Our 2024/25 half year performance report has now been published and is available below.
The report highlights some of our key achievements during the first few months of delivering our priorities and what we have been doing to make a difference to the lives of people living and working in Salford.
We will continue to check progress in achieving our priorities and progress reports on how we are performing are available below.
Performance highlights for each priority
See below for highlights from each priority at a glance:
- In July, Salford was ranked third in a list of the UKs most AI-ready cities outside London by AI and analytics software firm SAS. This is further evidence of innovation across our city.
- Salford’s prestigious Grade A office development, 100 Embankment, was a finalist in the ‘Remote and Co-Working’ category at the Architizer A+ Awards.
- In September, our Cabinet approved the decision to wholly acquire Salford Community Stadium. Taking full ownership of the stadium and nearby development plots of land enables us to secure its future, further support rugby as well as wider sports and leisure in the city and deliver regeneration opportunities.
- We were shortlisted as finalists in two categories at this year’s Digital Leaders 100 awards! These were in the categories of ‘AI Innovation of the Year’ for our work on AI-Powered Planning and ‘Digital Skills or Talent’ Initiative of the Year for our Digital Help Finder.
- In September we launched The Salford Big Device Giveaway. This initiative provided free refurbished laptops, tablets, and SIM cards to eligible residents and enhanced their access to the internet, job opportunities, and educational resources. At the first event 200 digital devices and support with digital skills were provided to digitally excluded Salford residents with a further 424 given out by October.
- We won the Estates Gazette ‘City of the Year’ award 2024. This recognised our achievements in Salford, including economic growth, sustainability projects promoting green spaces and renewable energy and cultural sites like The Lowry and Ordsall Hall.
- In 2023/24 a total of 402 affordable homes were delivered, working with our housing partners and through the council’s own local housing company Derive. The council is working with local housing providers to deliver an extra 350 high quality, affordable and low carbon homes per year.
- Our Housing Strategy sets out the council’s plans to deliver housing and housing related services across the city. In September we launched our survey to get views from members of the public and make sure our new strategy reflects local housing needs.
- The latest round of support from our Household Support Fund opened in April 2024. The Fund is available to help Salford residents who need financial support with food, fuel and energy costs.
- In June our Welfare Rights and Debt Advice Service (WRADAS) won a prestigious Institute of Money Advisors (IMA) award in the ‘Innovation and Impact’ category. This recognition is in response to the exceptional work WRADAS is doing in collaboration with our Supported Tenancies team to prevent homelessness for those faced with rough sleeping and find long term solutions for those in temporary accommodation.
- We worked with our system provider (MHR) for the Project Genesis HR & Payroll system, to become a Real Living Wage employer, and as part of the procurement process, they agreed to commit to obtaining accreditation.
- In the first half of the year 32,277 meals were provided as part of the Holiday Activities programme supporting free school meals for children during the Easter and Summer holiday period. A further programme was scheduled for the festive period.
- Demand for specialist advice in the Welfare Rights and Debt Advice service rose significantly in 2023. It brought in over £9 million in financial gains for clients in 2023 and continues to support residents alongside Salford Assist who are processing four times the number of applications pre-pandemic.
- The Trafford Road Improvement Scheme was shortlisted in the Creating Better Places Award category by the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation’s (CIHT) national awards. Every junction, crossing and bus stop along Salford’s two-mile stretch of Trafford Road was improved and upgraded to ease traffic flow and make it safer for all users.
- In June, The Lowry published a social and economic impact report to evaluate its impact on the local community and the economy. The Lowry generated £90 million in visitor spending annually, supported over 600 jobs and delivered an estimated £22 million in social value.
- In June, the city’s biggest event ‘We Invented the Weekend’ returned to MediaCity and Salford Quays. Thousands of people enjoyed the wide range of activities on offer to visitors.
- On Thursday 6 June we held a special ceremony at the Civic Centre to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the D-Day Landings. This included a spectacular light projection show onto the Town Hall, special sermons, tributes and readings and was very well attended by members of the public.
- In September, improvements were made across our Gateway Centres to enhance accessibility for our deaf customers following a recent audit. This included improving displays and signage and ensuring effective use of hearing loops.
- In September, the council awarded a major project contract to transform the Chapel Street and New Bailey areas of the city. These works are part of a long-term plan designed to make the area safer for pedestrians and cyclists, with better road crossings and cycling facilities.
- Eight Salford parks and two cemeteries now have Green Flag Awards with Lightoaks Park as the latest to achieve this prestigious status. These awards are based on our parks meeting important criteria including cleanliness, safety and how well we involve our residents through community schemes.
- In July, our Workforce Panel members approved our new Fostering Friendly Policy which offers greater support and flexibility for our employees who are foster or kinship carers.
- Our recruitment and retention strategy for social care has had good impact; agency spend has reduced significantly through a permanent staff recruitment campaign. Ten agency social workers have converted into permanent employees.
- We have achieved £1.2m savings on budget position for placements in social care. Placement stability has improved.
- On 10 July, another six Salford Primary Schools were awarded School of Sanctuary status, becoming safe and welcoming places for all. These are Westwood Park Primary, The Deans Primary, St Paul’s CE Primary, Barton Moss Primary, St Andrews CE Primary, Eccles and Holy Family RC Primary schools.
- Lledr Hall, our residential activity and outdoor education centre in Wales celebrated its 50th anniversary in August. Since opening in 1974 the hall in Snowdonia National Park has hosted an estimated 90,000 young people and visitors, with over 1,800 children visiting every year. The centre also earned the prestigious Gold Standard from the Association of Heads of Outdoor Education Centres, achieving a score of 4.85 out of five in its inspection this year.
- 87% of secondary schools are now judged good or better – an improvement from 40% in 2021.
- A refreshed SEND (special educational needs and disabilities) strategy was produced which describes our strategic priority areas for the next three years. It describes our strategic vision and the outcomes we want for our children and young people with SEND. It supports developing the effectiveness of our approach to identifying children and young people’s SEND, meeting their needs and helping to deliver improved outcomes for every child and young person with SEND in Salford.
- Following wide consultation with partners the Attendance strategy was launched in August 2024. This increased overall attendance by 90,000 days last academic year.
- Our Care Leavers service (Next Step) is judged as outstanding and leadership support is being provided to other local authorities. The manager for this service was nominated for Employee of the Year.
- The proportion of families achieving overall successful outcomes following a whole family targeted early help offer from our Early Help Service remains above 70%. 78% of families sustain this success and remain at a universal level for a minimum of 12 months after the support.
- In May, we formally launched the flagship net zero office development, Eden at New Bailey. The scheme was developed in partnership with Muse and the English Cities Fund.
- Our solar car ports at Turnpike and Swinton Hall Road depots are now providing electricity to on site buildings, saving 270 tonnes of carbon every year.
- We added another electric vehicle to our Greener Salford fleet. With a new tipper truck, we now have 19 electric vehicles. Over the coming years, we’ll be investigating piloting more electric vehicles, including road sweepers, bin wagons and cargo vans – a significant step towards our sustainability goals.
- Salford’s Health Improvement Team celebrated its 20th anniversary in July. Key achievements over the years have included setting up outdoor gyms, community orchards and over 100 community groups. Since 2011 the service has delivered over 8,000 NHS health checks and continues to support Salford people with improving their health and wellbeing.
- To coincide with men’s Mental Health Week in June we offered staff the opportunity to have a free and confidential health check to help them have a healthier future.
- In conjunction with national Carers week, we held a Carers celebration on 13 June.
- In September we started merging our Healthy and Safety function with our Wellbeing team to create a new Health, Safety and Wellbeing service to ensure that we have a robust health, safety and wellbeing culture across the council.
- The Public Health Annual Report 2023/24 was produced and the wellbeing calendar refreshed for 2024/25.
- We are one of five councils to be in partnership with The Health Foundation on their Economies for Healthier Lives initiative. This supports organisations to integrate economic development activity with work to improve health and/or reduce health inequalities.
- Salford ran a successful campaign on behalf of the Greater Manchester Cancer Alliance, which significantly increased awareness about the importance of early cancer detection. Targeted health campaigns save lives, and we continue to work collectively to ensure people return for their next health screening and vaccination offer.
- Salford City Council, its partners, and communities have recorded England’s highest uptake of NHS health checks overall, especially for people with a mental illness. Salford’s quality improvement approach is viewed as an example of good practice in partnership working.
- On 2 May 2024 we successfully delivered elections for local councillors, our elected City Mayor and the Greater Manchester Mayor. Just a few weeks later, on 4 July we also delivered the voting process in Salford for the General Election. We had only six weeks to prepare for this election rather than the usual six months, so it was an amazing team effort by our staff.
- In July we launched our new Corporate Plan ‘This is our Salford’ which sets out our priorities for the next four years to help us achieve our vision to create a fairer, greener, healthier and more inclusive Salford.
- Our Internal Audit team’s outstanding work was recognised at the Public Finance Awards as they were shortlisted for ‘Excellence in Public Sector Audit’. The team also had a successful inspection outcome against national standards for public sector internal audit standards.
- We launched Project Genesis – an exciting business transformation programme to improve and transform our finance, Human Resources and Organisational Development, payroll and procurement activities. The programme will ensure that these services are modern, efficient and supported by the right digital and technology solutions so that our staff can work differently and smartly.
- In November, we won the Best Place to Work category in the Local Government Chronicle (LGC) Workforce Awards. This award recognised our strong values, supportive culture and the Spirit of Salford that helps everyone in the council achieve extraordinary things for our residents.
Downloadable documents
- 2024/25 half year performance report (Adobe PDF format, 320kb)
- 2023 to 2024 annual performance report (Adobe PDF format, 634kb)
- Productivity plan 2024-25 (Adobe PDF format, 178kb)
- Priority progress report, end of year 2023 to 2024 update (1 April 2023 – 31 March 2024) (Adobe PDF format, 585kb)
- Priority progress report, half-year 2023 to 2024 update (1 April – 30 September 2023) (Adobe PDF format, 476kb)
- 2022 to 2023 annual performance report (Adobe PDF format, 534kb)
- Priority progress report, end of year 2022/23 update (1 April 2022 – 31 March 2023) (Adobe PDF format, 577kb)
If you are unable to view documents of these types, our downloads page provides links to viewing software.
This page was last updated on 14 February 2025