Starring role for council at ‘Oscars’

OLDHAM Council has been nominated for two prestigious awards.

The authority has been shortlisted in the Most Improved Council of the Year and Children’s Services categories for the Local Government Chronicle (LGC) awards 2012.

This gongs — local government’s equivalent of the Oscars — seek to highlight the work of councils striving for excellence who can demonstrate significant and measured improvements. Oldham is on the Most Improved Council shortlist for the second year running.

Judges will visit later this month to check its progress.

Improvements highlighted include:

Commendation from the Audit Commission for the speed and accuracy of final accounts as the fastest in the country.

Best City prize at North-West in Bloom.

Halved the number of families living in temporary accommodation;

Achieved an 11th consecutive year-on-year improvement in the proportion of pupils gaining five A*-C GCSEs.

Delivered 20 per cent more new homes than last year.

Retained Green Flag status for all seven award-winning parks.

The Children’s Services nomination comes after a transformation from a zero-star rating for safeguarding in 2003, and “adequate” in 2009, to the highest “performing excellently” ranking from Ofsted to make it the most improved in the country.

The submission focuses on the success of the Behaviour and Attendance Partnership, which aims to prevent exclusion and non-attendance at school, provide support and intervention, and return young people to mainstream education quickly.

Significant improvements include an increase of 20 per cent since 2009 on the number of secondary schools judged “good or better” for behaviour, a 45 per cent reduction in the numbers of pupils permanently excluded plus falls in the number of pupils with persistent absence.

Council leader Jim McMahon said: “We are undergoing major changes here as we seek to address the public-sector financial challenges by becoming a Co-operative Council.

“That is a vision of a council that works closer alongside residents, partners and communities to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes — with everybody doing their bit.

“Being shortlisted by the LGC is excellent recognition from our peers that we are moving in the right direction.

“However, we are fully conscious about what our residents and council taxpayers think about our services — that is ultimately what matters most.”

The LGC winners will be announced on March 14.