annual

1. report annual 2013/14

2. review of the year

3. may june • Lewisham celebrated the achievement of over 50 apprentices who have completed their Apprenticeship Framework • the Glass Mill Leisure Centre opened to the public • the refurbishment of Catford Broadway commenced july august • the High Court ruled that the Secretary of State for Health acted illegally when he approved a reduction in the services offered at Lewisham Hospital • Lewisham Peoples Day celebrated its 30th year • Lewisham once again won 13 ‘Green Flag’ awards for its parks • Lewisham pupils achieved record A-Level and GCSE results a year of highlights 2013/14

4. september october • Lewisham school pupils elected Emmanuel Olaniyan as the 10th Young Mayor of Lewisham • Lewisham won an appeal in the High Court preventing the Government from closing services at Lewisham Hospital • Lee Manor Primary School was judged ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted following and inspection december • Ladywell Early Childhood Centre was judged ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted following an inspection • Beechcroft Garden Primary School was judged ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted following an inspection a year of highlights 2013/14

5. march • eight of the most outstanding apprentices, mentors, managers and teams were presented with awards as part of the Apprenticeships Awards ceremony at the Broadway Theatre in Catford • Doreen Lawrence was awarded the Freedom of Lewisham borough. Mrs Lawrence is one of only 11 people to have been honoured in this way a year of highlights 2013/4

6. Lewisham overview

7. £1.3bn gross public spending in Lewisham across various public agencies 318,000 Lewisham’s projected population by the time of the 2021 Census 286,180 Lewisham’s population in 2013 25% of Lewisham residents are children & young people aged 0 to 19 some 40,000 pupils attend Lewisham schools 25 40 60% 27 2,745 of Lewisham’s workforce are employed across London and beyond total headcount of Lewisham council employees Lewisham residents comprise people from 27 countries and five continents an overview in numbers

8. “These are things that Lewisham Council along with its partner organisations, large and small must do something about: intervening in the local housing market; creating opportunities for those seeking employment to enhance their skills and experience and using the power of the council as a service provider to create growth in the local economy. At the same time we have to make huge reductions in the Council’s budget.” - Sir Steve Bullock, Mayor of Lewisham • “The proportion of pupils making and exceeding expected progress by the end of Year 6 is high, compared with national figures. By the time pupils leave, they are exceptionally well prepared for their time in secondary school.” • Quote from Ofsted inspection report which judged Lee Manor Primary School as ‘outstanding’ • “This is an incredible day. We are delighted for every single person who has supported the campaign and those who will now continue to benefit from this extraordinary hospital. The support from thousands of people in Lewisham is a very real demonstration of the Big Society”. • Dr Louise Irvine, Chair of the Save • Lewisham Hospital campaign • “I really want to hear about what youths want and how I can help. Before winning the title of Young Mayor of Lewisham, I went around asking people in Lewisham what they would do if they were the Young Mayor of Lewisham for the day and how they would improve the borough they live in. This gave me a real idea of what they wanted their borough to be like”. • Emmanual Olaniyan, the 10th Young • Mayor or Lewisham ….and in quotes

9. key achievements

10. Lewisham has continued to demonstrate the value it places on partnership with the voluntary sector. Lewisham has retained a grant aid budget of £5.2m; • the council continued resident involvement in the local assemblies programme, with local people agreeing local priorities and working with the council to take action to improve their areas: • average attendances per assembly meeting are above target at 87; and • 92 per cent of attendees felt that they understood more about local issues following their attendance at a Local Assembly meeting. • older residents continue to participate in the Positive Ageing Council, giving their views on how to reduce isolation and work with local services to influence change. A total of 387 older residents attended Positive Ageing Council events and meetings. community leadership and empowerment

11. we have improved health outcomes for our most vulnerable children and young people. Over the course of 2013/14 (through coordinated action between Lewisham council and Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust) the percentage of Looked After Children who completed an Initial Health Assessment within 28 days has steadily improved to the point where we are regularly reporting 100 per cent success; • Lewisham has pioneered a system of Payment by Results for our Children’s Centre and Targeted Family Support Services. Created in order to drive an improvement in outcomes for our children, young people and families, the measures were developed in partnership with practitioners and providers across the Council, Health and voluntary & community sector; • Children’s Centres identified and worked with more than double the number of families with a targeted need from July 2013 to March 2014 compared to the same period in 2012/13. In addition, for the same period, the average performance of a Children’s Centre against its ‘reach’ target more than doubled in 2013/14 as compared to 2012/13; • as part of the Government’s Troubled Families programme Lewisham has ‘turned around’ more families than most of the local authorities in London to date, enabling the council to claim under the Payment by Results scheme; • Lewisham has been one of 31 SEND pathfinders supporting the development of the Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) process which will replace the Statement of Educational Need. The Pathfinder programme ended on the 31st March 2014. During the last year the Pathfinder has continued to work in partnership with families to refine the EHCP process, increasing the numbers of families who have applied for an EHCP and informing the path of national legislation. • the Young Mayor’s scheme has gone from strength to strength. More eligible young people voted in the most recent Young Mayor elections. Lewisham’s Young Citizen’s Panel now has 560 members able to contribute to the local decision making; • the majority of Lewisham’s primary schools are rated outstanding or good by OfSTED. There has been a focus on Level 5+ at Key Stage 2, particularly for those pupils eligible for Pupil Premium. young peoples achievement and involvement

12. Lewisham worked with partners and stakeholders to obtain 13 prestigious ‘green flag awards’ and four ‘community green flag awards’; • the council secured just over £500,000 of external funding for improving open spaces across the borough; • the council delivered a Mayor of London funded new tree planting project that saw the planting of 58 new trees in areas of low leaf cover in the borough; • the council achieved 100 per cent of all graffiti job removals within one day; • significant progress was made towards the start of construction on Lewisham Gateway which will be the single largest development within Lewisham town centre. The scheme involves the removal of the roundabout opposite Lewisham's railway and DLR stations, to be replaced by a new road layout and a new development which will make it easier for pedestrians to get back and forth from the stations to the town centre. When complete, Lewisham Gateway will include: • shops, restaurants, bars and cafes • leisure facilities • up to 800 homes • Confluence Place, a park where the Ravensbourne and Quaggy rivers meet • a town square opposite St Stephen's Church. clean, green and liveable

13. there has been a 49 per cent decrease in first time entrants to the criminal justice system since 2009/10; • the Triage initiative has helped divert low level offenders from receiving a criminal conviction and has reduced the number of young people coming in to the service; • the actual number of young people entering the youth justice system remains in decline at a rate of 22 per cent; • this year’s baseline custody data shows a significant decline in use of custody compared with last year. The rate per 1000 of the 10-17 population was 3.36 and this has reduced to 1.27; • an ongoing Home Office peer review on ending gang and youth violence identified 12 key strengths in Lewisham. The review will assist the Council to ensure that partnerships have effective structures and responses in place to address gang and youth violence locally; • a new Serious Youth Violence team is in place funded by the London Mayor’s Office Policing and Crime. The project averages 70 plus high risk referrals a year and represents excellent value for money. The cost of supporting a young person taken through the Young Victims’ Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC) process is around £1,700. When compared to the £18,000 that each incident of serious wounding costs the criminal justice system and health services. Over the duration of the project's existence Serious Youth Violence and knife crime have fallen by over a third; • Lewisham has seen a significant 8 per cent reduction in residential burglary, from 2,460 offences in 2012/13 to 2,262 offences in 2013/14. safety, security and visible presence

14. made strong links with Lambeth and Southwark on economic growth, employment and jobs through the three-borough ‘Community Budgets’ project; • implemented Youth Task Force employment projects principally getting 12 (out of 22) young people with learning difficulties or disabilities into employment; • launched the Employability Passport - evidence that a young person demonstrates employability skills and it is endorsed by the Department for Work & Pensions and employers • supported more than 100 apprentices; • performance on both ‘major’ and ‘minor’ planning applications for the year ending 2013 was in the top quartile in London; • developed the Council’s Business Growth Strategy for 2013 to 2023 which sets out how the Council will make Lewisham one of the fastest growing economies in London • the council’s Business Advisory Service and Local Labour & Business Scheme programmes helped: • 32 businesses to start up • 48 businesses to be ‘fit to supply’ • SMEs to secure over £1.36m of new work • to create 140 jobs, 15 apprenticeships, nine work placements and 198 training places strengthening the local economy

15. started the first council homes building programme in 30 years with six new homes built on the site at Mercator Road in February 2013, with a further 98 homes on five sites located throughout the borough agreed in principle by Mayor & Cabinet; • secured over £95m from the Government to improve Lewisham’s housing stock over the next few years; • successfully attracted nearly £5m worth of funding for 2 extra care schemes in Lewisham; • the council modernised well over 1,000 homes; • secured £155k funding for our Rogue Landlord project from Department for Communities & Local Government and Public Health to make it more difficult for rogue or criminal landlords to operate in Lewisham, resulting in successfully obtaining a Rent Repayment Order of over £40,000 against a rogue landlord. decent homes for all

16. the Single Assessment process, introduced in 2013 is working well with 100 per cent of cases completed within 45 days. All Child Protection reviews are completed on time, (outperforming London and England). Our strong performance in reducing repeat referrals means that the interventions that are put in place are working – avoiding the ‘revolving door’ for our most vulnerable children and young people; • the Partnership is improving its capacity to identify those families most at risk of being in crisis. A wider variety of organisations are now using the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) to identify issues and the appropriate support, with more CAFs brought to the attention of the Council’s Early Intervention Service; • the Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC) has seen an increase in referrals from Children Social Care when compared to this time last year indicating an increased expertise of Children’s Social Care staff in recognising the signs and referring the high risk cases onwards; • the Metropolitan Police are working successfully with our schools to make sure that all children in the borough feel safe and supported. From June 2013, every school in the borough has had access to a named School Police Officer to support them and their pupils; • improvements have continued in Early Years and at Key Stage 2 where outcomes benchmark favourably against national and statistical neighbours. protection of children

17. the percentage of people using social care who receive self directed support has increased to 69.4 per cent; • four neighbourhood multi-disciplinary teams have been established who work closely with GP’s to support people to remain living in their own homes; • enablement services are providing rehabilitative support to 100 people per month; • some 4,500 service users are supported by the council’s assistive technology scheme, which allows adults to live more independently. A total of 180 people are benefitting from stand alone equipment; • the council has established the Community Connections programme through the Investment Fund. The support offered includes leisure, personal support, services for carers, work and voluntary support, transport, advice and support and health and wellbeing. The programme has managed 155 referrals from social workers and health. professionals in the first 5 months of operation; • Lewisham has taken part in a national safeguarding pilot and Lewisham’s work has been identified by the national scheme as a model of best practice. caring for adults and older people

18. during 2013/14 Lewisham was successful at the London Youth Games winning the following events: Boccia, Boys Football and Inclusive Zone Basketball; • visits at Lewisham libraries have increased by an average of 30 per cent per month in the year to date. Customer satisfaction levels have significantly increased; • following the recent OfSTED inspection Community Education Lewisham’s overall rating moved from Satisfactory to Good; • the award winning Glass Mill leisure centre opened in Lewisham, and Wavelengths Leisure Centre in Deptford underwent a major refurbishment. Participation is up 29 per cent with over 359,000 recorded visits in Fusion Leisure’s Lewisham centres; • an improved range of free weight management programmes and support is now available for both children and adults such as Weight Watchers and Shape-Up and New Mum New You, Mend and Boost. In 2013/14 over 360 children and their families and 1460 adults accessed the services; • the UNICEF Baby Friendly community stage 2 award was achieved in February 2014; • number of NHS health checks offered is 18,543. The percentage uptake has gone up to 42 per cent from 36.7 per cent in 2011/12; • actions to reduce the prevalence of smoking in 2013/14 resulted in approximately 1,800 people quitting smoking in 2013/14; • the largest haul of illicit tobacco in UK in 2013/14 was seized in Lewisham (half a ton of hand rolling tobacco and more than 15,000 cigarettes); • Public Health have trained more than 20 peer educators on tobacco in 5 schools and reached more than 1,000 12/13 year olds. active, healthy citizens

19. the council maintained Lewisham’s top quartile performance to ensure that residents in receipt of benefits receive amongst the best service in London; • Lewisham has increased Council Tax collection year on year with an additional £8m collected in 2103/14; • created a self-financing Investigation and Collection Team whose work has secured £1.2m in unpaid Council Tax; • won legal challenges to overturn the Secretary of State’s decision to downgrade Lewisham Hospital; • supported channel shift by increasing the number of subscribers to electronic Lewisham life by 228 per cent; • delivered measured outcomes for Troubled Families –turned around 43 per cent (390 families) of our overall cohort (910 families). We were 8th in London and 27th in the country; • advanced preparations for Individual Electoral Registration (IER) in the borough including a successful ‘dry run’ exercise; • Lewisham was the only London borough out of 12 local authorities selected as a pilot to test the role local authorities may play in the face to face delivery of Universal Credit. The learning that was gained from testing the model has been fed back to the DWP and will be used to determine the role local authorities would play in supporting residents with the transition to Universal Credit; • over the year the council supported 94 households and moved 45 households by mitigating against the impacts of welfare reform. inspiring efficiency, effectiveness and equity

20. governance and management

21. council • consists of 54 elected councillors, three for each of the 18 wards • appoints the overview & scrutiny committee and other committees • approves the policy framework and budget statutory committees standards committee health & well being board • mayor and cabinet • the mayor • is elected by the • whole borough to lead • and speak up for the • whole borough; • chooses up to nine • councillors to form the • cabinet with specific • areas of responsibility; • sets out major decisions • to be taken in a Forward • Plan published monthly; • proposes budget and • key policy proposals to • council; • takes decisions to • implement policy • within agreed policy • framework; • considers • recommendations for • actions with officer • advice • the cabinet • provide advice to • the mayor; • jointly with the mayor • take decisions relating • to contracts • overview and scrutiny • meets at least once a year and is ultimately responsible for overview • and scrutiny; • delegates work to other scrutiny bodies - six select committees, two • business panels, all of which are formally sub committees of overview • and scrutiny; • the business panel co-ordinates the work programmes of select • committees; • the six select committees draw up work programmes each year to • hold the Mayor and senior officers to account for decisions; check • performance; examine issues in depth and make recommendations • for policy development; • responsibility for scrutinising health services and health issues with the • healthier communities select committee, which makes suggestions to • the local health trusts for action and improvements; • the safer stronger communities select committee has responsibility • for fulfilling the overview and scrutiny functions in relation to crime • reduction and equality of opportunity; business panel regulatory committees licensing (x2). These committees are responsible for all entertainment licensing and the provision of late night refreshment. planning (x4). The planning committees consider planning matters across the whole borough. The Strategic Committee only considers strategic regeneration proposals. other committees audit panel appointments elections health & safety pensions investment working parties constitution working party children & young people select committee healthier communities select committee public accounts select committee safer stronger communities select committee sustainable development select committee housing select committee

22. cllr Alan Smith deputy mayor & cabinet member for growth regeneration cllr Joan Millbank cabinet member for the third sector cllr Rachael Onikosi cabinet member for public realm Sir Steve Bullock (Lab) mayor of Lewisham cllr Damien Egan cabinet member for customer services cllr Janet Daby cabinet member for community safety cllr Chris Best cabinet member for community services mayor cllr Paul Maslin cabinet member for children & young people cllr Joe Dromey cabinet member for policy & performance cllr Kevin Bonavia cabinet member for resources and cabinet

23. cllr Alan Hall (Lab); chair overview & scrutiny business panel cllr Gareth Siddorn (Lab); vice chair cllr Obajimi Adefiranye (Lab) chair of council cllr John Muldoon (Lab); chair healthier communities select committee cllr Jamie Milne (Lab); chair public accounts select committee cllr Pauline Morrison (Lab); chair safer, stronger communities select committee cllr Liam Curran (Lab); chair sustainable development select committee cllr Carl Handley (Lab); chair housing select committee cllr John Paschoud (Lab); chair children & young people select committee overview & scrutiny business panel council

24. gender workforce 38.5 per cent of council employees are male 61.5 per cent of council employees are female The council employs about 2,745 full-time staff ethnicity age disability 57 per cent of council staff are White and 37 per cent are Black and Minority Ethnic 69.7 per cent of the workforce are aged 40 and over. This compares to 30.3 per cent who are under 40. About 3.7 per cent of council staff describe themselves as disabled workforce profile* (*excluding schools staff) *excluding schools

25. Levels of sickness absence have fallen from an average of 7.63 days per employee in 2010-11 to 7.24days per employee in 2013-14 7.63 days 7.24 days 7.23 days 7.19 days 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 sickness absence* (*excluding schools staff)

26. In 2013-14 the council’s revenue budget was £284.6m. The council under-spent its budget by £0.8m for the year. This compares to under-spends of £3.5m in 2012-13 and £1.8m in 2011-12. £284.6m 2013-14 revenue budget 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 £1.8m £3.5m £1.8m revenue budget

27. council structure and directorates council spending over £250 strategies and plans find out more