Closing the Gap

As part of the Sustainable Community Strategy, Warrington Partnership has prioritised 'closing the gaps in quality of life for our most disadvantaged communities'.  Warrington has stark differences in the quality of life of residents across the borough and this aim seeks to address this geographical and social inequality.

To help us achieve this we've developed a Closing the Gap Programme, which brings together our key public sector partners, as well as representatives from the third sector and local businesses, to develop new ways of working together to help support our most vulnerable citizens and tackle inequalities.

Closing the Gap recognises that inequality can only be effectively tackled by all partners working together to provide holistic support to often complex and long-standing problems.  Only by looking at what we do in a different way can we expect to see changes, and this is something that all our partners are committed to doing.

Our Sustainable Community Strategy - 'One Warrington: One Future - Where everyone matters' sets out some long-term targets that specifically address closing the gap:

By 2030:

• resident's overall satisfaction with Warrington as a place to live will be in the hightest 10% nationally;
• there will be no parts of the borough ranked in the most deprived 10% nationally.

The Partnership's Delivery Board, alongside some representatives of our Partnership Board and key service areas, have been tasked by the Partnership to oversee this work, and a Closing the Gap Programme Board has been established.

This board includes senior level representatives from across the partnership and is jointly chaired by the Chief Executives of Warrington Borough Council and NHS Warrington:

Senior Responsible Owners:
Diana Terris (Chief Executive, Warrington Borough Council), and
Nicky O'Connor (Chief Executive, NHS Warrington)

Programme Manager:
Katherine Fairclough (Assistant Chief Executive, Warrington Borough Council)

Programme Office:
Anton Fields (Transforming Warrington Programme Manager)
Eleanor Blackburn (Warrington Partnership Co-ordinator)

The Programme Board has committed to providing supporting to our most deprived places - our 10% most deprived communities (SOAs) and our most vulnerable people.  A Total Place style approach will be undertaken, looking at services that support our most vulnerable families, and our repeat offenders.  Broader work based around key programme areas will also be ongoing to help target our current services more effectively to address inequalities.

More information about our Closing the Gap programme will be available soon.  If you would like to know more in the meantime, please contact us.