Oxfordshire
The 2008 Annual Report from Oxfordshire’s Director of Public Health laid great emphasis on the need to break the cycle of deprivation perceived in parts of the County.
The Primary Care Trust was then instrumental in putting together a partnership of local authorities to take a 20-year initiative forwards:
- Cherwell District Council, focusing on parts of Banbury
- Oxford City Council, focusing on parts of south-east Oxford
- Oxford & Cherwell Valley College
- Oxfordshire County Council
- Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust
- Thames Valley Police
The two target areas chosen through high scores against the Government’s Index of Multiple Deprivation had several things in common, not least a high proportion of social housing, but they also had local distinctiveness, and two parallel local approaches were developed:
- Brighter Futures in Banbury
- Oxford’s Regeneration Framework
New housing under construction in Rose Hill, Oxford
A programme manager (myself) was appointed in March 2010 with Local Area Agreement reward funding. The first task was to confirm an agreed joint strategic approach, and the researched proposal was the subject of a conference in June 2010 – please follow the link below for the conference papers:
Breaking Cycles of Deprivation 24 June 2010
There were already steering groups established, for Banbury and for Oxford, and the work was split into themes, each with a “theme lead”. The next step was action plans for each theme linked to the overall objectives, and a number of Banbury and Oxford plans have already been published.
Meanwhile, the new Coalition Government public sector budget cuts had lead to unsettled conditions and ultimately some local authority reorganisation. As part of the response to this, Oxfordshire County Council was determined to preserve the focus on the deprivation agenda, and there are currently seven “early intervention hubs” in development around the county:
Wood Green youth centre, Banbury – venue now an early intervention hub
More information on the latest developments is available from Cherwell District Council (currently combining staff with South Northamptonshire) and Oxford City Council who are taking the local area initiatives forwards, but here is a two-page summary of the overall approach as at January 2011: