Fairness Commission Annual Review March 2014
Purpose
The Fairness Commission published its report1 in January 2013. This report updates
members of the Fairness Commission on progress made in the year since
publication of the report on the recommendations; Sheffield City Council’s £1m
Fairness Commission Fund; and the Outcome Indicators.
Initial response to the Commission’s report
Following the publication of the report the Chair of the Commission wrote to the
major public sector organisations in the city and representatives of the private and
voluntary sector to ask for their response to the report.
There was a positive response with organisations stating where they will link the
Commission’s principles and recommendations in to their strategic approaches.
Organisations also identified which recommendations they have a lead role in and
which recommendations they could contribute towards.
Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Trust endorsed the principles outlined in the
Sheffield Fairness Framework. The Clinical Commission Group stated that it “fully
supports the work of the Commission and its recommendations.” Sheffield Teaching
Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust “very much welcomes the Fairness Commission
report both as an important contribution to promoting health and wellbeing within the
city and because it aligns well with the Trust’s strategy ‘Making a Difference’.” The
Sheffield Chamber of Commerce and Industry response “reiterate our support of the
principle objectives and consequential findings of the report, albeit we are well aware
of the difficulties with implementing some of them.” Sheffield College said that it was
“broadly supportive of the ten principles.” The University of Sheffield response stated
that they will “ensure we take account of the Sheffield Fairness Framework when
making decisions.”
Progress on the Commission’s Recommendations
This following part of the report looks at progress in each of the 8 themes of the
Commission’s report. It also highlights where some specific recommendations do not
have a clear lead organisation.
1The
Commission’s report is available from: www.sheffield.gov.uk/fairnesscommission
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Health and Wellbeing for All
On the recommendations about tackling the wider determinants of health and
specifically an explicit commitment to tackling wider determinants and use services
to deliver better health and wellbeing, the Clinical Commissioning Group have said
that they are pursuing this through the Health and Wellbeing Board. Following
discussion of Health Inequalities in December, a further discussion is planned, with a
view to determining how best the Health and Wellbeing Board (and as part of that
the Clinical Commissioning Group) can contribute. The City Council stated in its
initial response that it is committed to tackling the wider determinants of health and
using its services to deliver better health and wellbeing outcomes.
The recommendations on inequalities in the health system suggested using the
Joint Strategic Needs Assessment to better understand the equity of health spend in
Sheffield. The Clinical Commissioning Group have said that analysis of distribution of
health spend is on the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment team’s work programme.
The recommendation to increase in primary and community care remains a key part
of the Clinical Commissioning Group’s plans for the next five years. The Teaching
Hospitals said that the development of phase three of the Right First Time
programme provides a significant opportunity to address these issues and
represents a major step forward.
The recommendation to have consistent, high quality services across all areas of the
city is a key aim for the Clinical Commissioning Group – “demonstrated in our focus
on the quality of care, and on reducing health inequalities. Tackling unwarranted
variations in quality of primary care is an explicit action for 2013/14.” In relation to
removing barriers to services the Clinical Commissioning Group Equalities Action
Plan is intended to tackle discrimination in provision in healthcare. This will be
reported on, and a plan for 2014/15 proposed, to Governing Body in April.
In relation to mental health and wellbeing there was a recommendation on
commissioning services for the physical health care of people with mental health
problems. The Clinical Commissioning Group has stated that the physical health of
people with mental health problems – and with learning disability – is a priority in its
plans for 2014-16.
The Commission made a recommendation on supporting people to receive early
diagnosis. The redesign of community mental health services includes a new
function in mental health teams to improve liaison with primary care and provide
faster assessment of patients. The impact of the changes will be reviewed at the
Mental Health Partnership Board.
In relation to employers encouraged to support carers to be in work the Council
stated that it agrees with supporting carers to be in work and currently have flexible
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working and unpaid leave for carers. There is a recommendation to identify hidden
carers. This is a strand in the Carers strategy which the Clinical Commissioning
Group is working with the Council to implement. In relation to healthcare, general
practice has an important role in recognising people’s caring responsibilities and the
potential impact of those.
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Fair Access to High Quality Jobs and Pay
On Good quality jobs the city has progressed a number of important initiatives
designed to stimulate economic activity and increase employment. This includes the
Skills Made Easy (apprenticeship) elements of the City Deal; RISE – the graduate
internship programme; support for businesses to grow through export; the creation of
infrastructure funds to facilitate physical development and extensive support for the
City Region Local Enterprise Partnership, the body charged with economic
development for the wider city region. On the recommendation to tackle the barriers
faced by those most excluded from the jobs market the Council has launched the
£1.3m Sheffield Employability programme aimed at helping those facing the greatest
barriers to access work, for example jobseekers with disabilities, health conditions,
some BME communities, lone parents, ex-offenders, those over 50.
On youth unemployment a city-region programme to trial new ways of tackling
youth unemployment including work trials and links to City Deal apprenticeships has
received government funding. Sheffield College has revised apprentice pay upwards
to encourage young people to take it up. The College has made a commitment that
2.5% of its employees will be apprentices. When this is achieved the College will
launch an apprentices pledge for the city asking employers to commit to 2.5% of
their employees being apprentices.
In relation to working practices responses included the statutory duty on public
organisations to have regard to the Public Sector Equality Duty in preventing
discrimination. The Council is signed up to the Mindful Employer, Stonewall and the
Two Ticks scheme and are currently in the top ten 100 Stonewall employers list. It is
the first local authority to sign up to the Hidden Impairment group. Almost all
organisations were silent on the recommendation that pay ratios should be modest
and transparent. Currently in the local authority the ratio between the highest salary
and the average median salary is 9.3:1. This is an improvement on the ratio
reported in last year’s pay policy.
The recommendation to have a voluntary ‘Fair Employer’ code of practice is not
currently being led by any organisation in the city.
A Living Wage has been implemented by the Council for the staff it directly
employs. Work is on-going with contractors. For all new contracts it will seek a
commitment from suppliers to move to the Living Wage over time but this will always
be subject to affordability. For existing contracts it will not enforce the Living Wage
but the Council will encourage and seek to persuade existing suppliers to adopt the
Living Wage.
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Fair Access to Benefits and Credit
In relation to the recommendations on social security the Council has increased
communications about welfare reforms to raise awareness amongst those people
affected by the ‘welfare reform programme’ introduced by Government. This included
targeted use of information booklets; a broader awareness campaign using on street
posters; directly contacting all households affected by the Benefit Cap. A city wide
Digital Inclusion strategy is in being developed and led by Sheffield City Council with
support from other public and private sector partners
The Council supported advice services with £1.2m in 2013/14 and the advice sector
has moved from a model of provision based on a large number of independent
neighbourhood based centres to a single provider delivering across the city. A total
of 11 independent advice centres and CLASSY were merge partners with the new
service formally launched on 16th December 2013.
In relation to credit a project to investigate the market for high-cost credit in Sheffield
completed in May 2013. Following on from this, work is taking place to establish a
co-ordinated set of financial services to provide ethical and affordable financial
products to consumers and potentially small businesses. Initial scoping work
suggested that this could involve a number of partners in the city, building on existing
infrastructure and work is underway to establish how best to deliver the required
services.
A second food strategy for the city is in the process of being developed, including
aims to tackle food poverty in Sheffield and to support communities to grow their own
food. The Council is looking to establish an arm’s length organisation with tackling
food insecurity to be an initial priority. The organisation is currently in the process of
establishing a board of trustees and securing charitable status. This will provide
autonomy and freedom from Local Authority constraints and the ability to fundraise
and secure grants and donations in the longer term. The creation of this new
structure is hoped to be an effective way of securing resources for the city in the
long-term.
On fuel poverty the Council undertook one of England's largest ever Collective
Energy Schemes - the Big Sheffield Switch – in spring of 2013. People who switched
saved an average of £120, with some people saving £352 per year. A second Big
Sheffield Switch is currently taking place.
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Aspiration and Opportunities for All
In relation to Early Years the key measure ‘a good level of development’ Sheffield’s
ranking improved from 68th to 67th out of 152 local authorities based on 2013
results. In the closing the gap measure Sheffield’s ranking improved slightly from
143rd to 141st out of 152 local authorities, but this remains a key challenge. The
majority of children in the lowest 20% are in schools and settings in most deprived
areas of the city some with rapidly changing demographic profiles. A strategic group
is overseeing new activity focused on closing of this gap, including pilot work with
schools and parents on home learning.
On the structural barriers to achievement the City Wide Learning Body (CWLB)
and the Schools Forum meet annually to discuss funding strategy and how it links to
city priorities. These priorities include “closing attainment gaps for Free School Meals
children”. Specifically, the joint meeting discussed the funding formula for schools
and the balance of needs and pupil numbers (i.e. how much funding is weighted to
needs). These discussions have informed the annual consultation on school funding
and the proposals for the local funding formula The CWLB continues to provide
information and “advice” to schools on effective use of the pupil premium. This has
included a special pupil premium of edition of the weekly Policy Digest (produced for
the CWLB by the National Children’s Bureau) and an event for schools led by the
Sutton Trust.
Regarding the recommendations on aspirations the Council is working towards
creating a volunteer led model that will enable delivery of activities for young people
and that will help build resilience in our communities. The model has been consulted
upon and commissioned and is being implemented by Sheffield Futures in
partnership with a range of other local groups and organisations. Over 50
Organisations have to date now been supported to deliver a range of activities, over
100 new volunteers have been recruited and deployed to support a range of
community initiatives.
In relation to parental aspirations the City Wide Learning Body has a key priority to
improve communication with and the engagement and involvement of parents in
their child’s learning and school life. This priority has involved work with schools in
the East, South West and South East of the city which is delivering models of good
practice and support for schools.
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Housing and a Better Environment
There were number of recommendations on affordable and decent quality
housing. Actions to increase the quantity of housing by exploring new delivery
models include (see Housing Strategy Action Plan): de-risking of sites, development
of financial models for building more homes/affordable entry models for those
needing homes, investment in stuck sites, and progressing Sheffield Housing
Company. The Council has started work on looking at how we can increase the
number of new council homes by using the Housing revenue account, S106 funding
and funding from the Homes and communities Agency.
On the property accreditation recommendation the Council has concerns about the
benefits of compulsory accreditation, especially when the majority of landlords and
properties are fully acceptable. The national view is based on a simple registration
scheme which the Council would fully support. This data could then be used to target
certain issues and deliver our preferred approach of a tailored solution to resolve
different issues. The Council has commenced preparations in Page Hall for
Selective Licensing which will become legally effective on 22 April 2014. This
requires all landlords in a designated area to apply for a licence for each property
they rent out, and meet certain property and management conditions. Those that do
not comply are at risk of fines of up to £20,000. The ‘Snug’ scheme is a new
partnership between the Council, Sheffield Hallam University and the students’
Union providing a ‘web based’ method for students and landlords to access and
advertise properties. Only properties that have been inspected and approved by the
Council appear on the website and the University will only work with landlords whose
properties have been Snug approved. This is a flagship for Sheffield and has already
succeeded in gaining the support of good landlords, whilst refusing access to those
landlords who do not quite meet our expectations.
In relation to the recommendation to make housing more affordable by developing
mortgage deposit support, the Government have since announced a national
scheme (the Help to Buy initiative) with similar aims. In the light of this the Council
has said it will no longer use its own resources to pursue this scheme.
The Sheffield Strategic Landlords Forum has been developing a detailed response to
the Fairness Commission recommendations.
In relation to the recommendations on air quality the current Air Quality Action Plan
includes strong support to measures to encourage the use of walking, cycling and
public transport, discourage the use of private motorised transport, and develop a
low-emission refuelling infrastructure. A key theme of current AQAP is tackling air
quality problems caused by the M1. The Highways Agency is consulting on a
proposal to introduce a maximum mandatory 60mph speed limit on the M1 motorway
between junctions 28 and 35a as part of a smart Motorway all-lane running scheme.
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A Safe City
The recommendations on justice reinvestment and the devolution of custody
budgets have been affected by national changes with adult re-offending services
being fundamentally reorganised with commissioning of private sector providers. The
City Council have said whilst the changes are ongoing the focus is on ensuring a
successful transition. South Yorkshire Probation Trust supports the principle of
justice reinvestment models, however the organisation is in the process of being split
up which is now scheduled for 1st June 2014.
The Building Successful Families programme has engaged over 900 families
since April 2012 and has achieved successful outcomes with 320 families (at July
2013).
In Sheffield so far this financial year there have been 1078 restorative justice
Outcomes which represents 15% of all detections. This is compared to 11% (973
outcomes) for the same period in the previous year.
In terms of support to victims the Police and Crime Commissioner “fully supports”
the Commission’s recommendation and has provided Victim Support South
Yorkshire with a grant of £300,000 to be spent over three years. A ‘track my crime’
service for victims of crime recently went live. When someone reports a crime they
receive a crime reference number and can now track the progress through the
system online. The council have funded Victim Support to provide support to victims
of anti-social behaviour, who would not normally be picked up by their core service.
The Council has also worked with the police in opening third party reporting centres
for victims of hate crime and those with learning disabilities.
The recommendations of the Domestic Abuse Strategic Review have now been
implemented and the new governance arrangements and structures are in place and
working.
The Council continue to implement the city wide 20mph Strategy. New 20mph speed
limits have been introduced in Lowedges, Woodthorpe, Upperthorpe, Parson Cross
West, and Steel Bank with work started in Spink Hall and Charnock.
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Transport for All
In response to the one public transport system recommendation the Council
reports that the Voluntary Partnership has resulted in a more equitable distribution to
bus resources across the city – removing vehicles from “over-bussed” routes without
compromising the service, and strengthening services on other routes. The
Partnership has also undertaken intensive consultation with communities where
changes have been proposed to services. This has resulted in communities
influencing the shape of their local bus services.
On the recommendation about young people and public transport, a Citywide Day
Child ticket, offering unlimited bus and tram travel for just £2 a day was trialled
during August 2013. Bus operator First have recently announced the launch of new
child day & week tickets as part of a review of fares in South Yorkshire. The fare
changes come into effect from Sunday 30 March 2014 and include the introduction
of two child tickets, a day ticket at £2 and a week ticket at £5.
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What Citizens and Communities Can Do
The work on the Campaign for Fairness is led by the Fair City Campaign Group
which includes Alan Walker, the Chair of the Fairness Commission, some of the
Fairness Commissioners, representatives from the Sheffield Executive Board and
staff from the Council and Sheffield First Partnership. The Group is in the process of
commissioning work on developing a City Wide Fair City Campaign. The Fair City
Campaign Group wants to build on developments that have taken place during 2013
to further develop the engagement with, and support for, the Fairness Commission
aspirations and recommendations. The aim is to target a number of different
audiences (the public, communities, organisations and business) to develop this
‘movement for change’ in support for Fairness.
An event is planned for April to enable people who want to contribute to increasing
fairness in Sheffield to do so. A list of specific actions that local groups and
communities can take would provide a starting list for people to consider what they
could do. The event would conclude with people making a pledge to undertake an
action that will help reduce inequalities in Sheffield. It is planned that this event will
be followed up with a smaller series of events in each of the 7 broad areas of the
city.
Regarding the recommendation on citizen involvement in public services the
Council stated that they “accept the principle of coproduction and will pursue it based
on assessed need and the impact on the fairness agenda.” Most other organisations
were silent on this recommendation, although there is activity involving citizens in
public services in the city.
In relation to the recommendation on helping people and communities to help
themselves the council have said that through the establishment of the new Locality
Management arrangements, the Sheffield Executive Board and Ward Councillors are
leading on establishing the Local Area Partnerships (LAP’s). These seven local
partnerships will take forward a City approach to building community resilience and
enhancing social capital. Sheffield Executive Board has established a Task and
Finish Group with membership from the Council’s Cabinet and officers from across
the Partnership to consider approaches to developing Community Resilience. This is
due to report in the spring of this year. In addition, following the Council’s review of
Public Health, a Social Model of public health has been adopted. As a result, work is
currently underway to refine how the City commissions activity to enhance social
capital especially via the VCF sector. The commissioning for this work is due to be in
place by October 2014.
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Overview Summary
Below is an overview showing which organisations have said they have a leading
role or a role to play in which themes:
Organisations stating they have a
leading a role
Clinical Commissioning Group
Health and Wellbeing for Sheffield City Council
all
Health and Social Care Trust
Sheffield Teaching Hospitals
Theme
Organisations stating they have
a role to play
South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue
University of Sheffield
Fair Access to High
Quality Jobs and Pay
Sheffield City Council
Sheffield College
Sheffield Executive Board
Clinical Commissioning Group
Health and Social Care Trust
Sheffield Chamber of Commerce
South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue
University of Sheffield
Fair Access to Benefits
and to Credit
Sheffield City Council
Third Sector Assembly
South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue
Job Centre Plus
Aspiration and
Opportunities for all
Sheffield City Council
Sheffield College
University of Sheffield
Clinical Commissioning Group
Health and Social Care Trust
South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue
Housing and a Better
Environment
Sheffield City Council
South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue
A Safe City
Transport for All
What Citizens and
Communities Can Do
South Yorkshire Police
South Yorkshire Probation Trust
South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue
South Yorkshire Integrated
Transport Authority
Sheffield City Council
Sheffield Executive Board
Sheffield City Council
Clinical Commissioning Group
Sheffield City Council
South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue
Clinical Commissioning Group
South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue
It is worth noting that the recommendation to have a voluntary ‘Fair Employer’ code
of practice is not currently being led by any organisation in the city. Some
organisations have response to say they would be interested in seeing such a code.
All but two organisations were silent on the recommendation to “apply a coproduction approach more widely”, although there is no doubt activity involving
citizens in the different public services in the city.
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Most organisations have made a commitment to embed the principles in to their
decision making, although it is not explicitly clear how some organisations will do
this.
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Sheffield City Council £1m Fairness Commission Fund
The Council made a full response to the Commission’s report with a detailed report
agreed by its Cabinet on 17th July.2 As part of its response the Council allocated
one-off funding of £1m to support it implementing the Commission’s
recommendations. This has funded ten projects so far with a further three projects
being developed.
Affordable Credit: Phase 1 – £5,000
A project to investigate the market for high-cost credit in Sheffield and propose an
intervention that provides a more affordable alternative that is at sufficient scale to
make a difference to the problem and is sustainable over the long term, without
public subsidy.
This work completed in May 2013 with a report detailing the extent of the market for
high cost credit in Sheffield and making proposals for alternatives ways to meet this
need.
Affordable Credit: Phase 2 – £300,000
The purpose of the project is to establish a co-ordinated set of financial services to
provide ethical and affordable financial products to consumers (and potentially small
businesses). Initial scoping work suggested that this could involve a number of
partners in the city, building on existing infrastructure and work is underway to
establish how best to deliver the required services. This information will be used to
produce a full business case to allow a decision to be made on whether and how to
proceed to full implementation.
So far, part of the funding allocated to this project has been used to cover salary
costs to develop the business case. It is therefore only possible to refer to potential
impact at this stage: Initial estimates suggest that to be successful, a new institution
will need to attract between 10,000 and 15,000 customers each year. This would
represent up to 20% of the Sheffield market for this type of loan, and would therefore
be expected to have a very significant positive impact, particularly as the impact
would be felt much wider than the individual borrower. There would be positive
impact on the wider family (including children) as there should be more disposable
income available, thereby reducing the risk of poverty.
2
The report to the Council’s Cabinet is available here:
http://sheffielddemocracy.moderngov.co.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=123&MId=5145&Ver=4
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Aggressive Practices in the High Cost Credit Market – £40,000
Through the Council’s established enforcement remit, the project would provide
additional resource to:
 Strengthen links with local advice and debt support agencies
 Identify consumer detriment and aggressive practices
 Bring enforcement action in appropriate cases.
 Complement existing and proposed initiatives to tackle problems associated
with high cost credit.
The Council is in the process of recruitment and anticipate there being an officer in
post by April or very shortly afterwards. One aspect of the project is to develop
stronger links with Citizens Advice, debt support services and the National Illegal
Money lending team to encourage intelligence sharing and case development.
These meetings took place during February with agreement to further discussion
once the officer is in place. The anticipated impact of the project includes targeted
assistance to lower income and vulnerable consumers across the city.
Communications on Welfare Reforms - £25,000
Increased communications about welfare reforms to raise awareness of those
people who are going to be affected by the welfare reform programme introduced by
Government. There was already work underway as part of a Welfare Reform
Communications Strategy. However, some gaps were identified where the
messages are not likely to be successfully delivered with current resource, and this
project had actions for addressing this:
 targeted use of information booklets
 a broader awareness campaign using on street posters
 directly contacting all households affected by the Benefit Cap
The broad impact of this project has meant that more people affected by changes to
the welfare system were made aware of the changes in advance of them happening.
The information booklet has been judged to be successful. There has been lots of
positive feedback and staff have reported that they have found it a useful resource.
The Council has written directly to over 80 households in the private rented sector
who were affected by the Benefit Cap. The letter directs residents to seek further
help and assistance. The letter included translations in Arabic, Somali, Slovak and
Czech detailing which offices have bilingual speakers available. The letter was also
made available in First Point and was distributed to the Sheffield Citizens Advice and
local community groups in the city.
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Increase in pay for apprentices – £190,097
This project contributed to providing a 15% increase in the wages (an additional 40p
per hour) for apprentices on the Sheffield 100 Programme. This applies to all
apprentices who were on the programme in January 2013 and is to the completion of
their apprenticeship.
The impact of this funding has been to increase the pay for 200 young people who
are on low pay.
Advice – £36,000
To assist the advice sector to move from a model of provision based on a large
number of independent neighbourhood based centres to a single provider delivering
across the city.
It is difficult to disaggregate the £36k Fairness Commission Fund contribution and
the larger £1.2m awarded to advice services in 2013/14 and the Council did not wish
to create additional reporting burdens. However, it can be said that the £36k
contributed to all of the project objectives:
 To establish a high quality, comprehensive and consistent advice service for
Sheffield
 To ensure that face to face advice is available to anyone who needs it,
recognising that advice need is concentrated in certain areas of the city
 To ensure that advice is available through a range of channels (including on
line self-help, telephone and face to face), and that the new service
encourages people to become less reliant on intensive casework
 To ensure that the advice needs of a range of vulnerable groups are met
Sheffield Citizens’ Advice and Law Centre came into being on 1st October 2013.
Sheffield Law Centre was the final organisation to merge into the new organisation
and this merger was completed on 31st December 2013, so a total of 11
independent advice centres and CLASSY were merge partners. The new service
was formally launched on 16th December 2013.
Ensuring people have a voice through maximising registration – £50,000
Voting is the most fundamental way that citizens in a democracy can have a voice
and influence. Ensuring people are engaged at this fundamental level not only gives
them a voice through the ballot box but also can increase their interest and desire for
their voice to be heard through other agencies. From summer 2014, each person will
be required to register to vote individually, rather than by household. This project
sought to mitigate against the risk of a reduced register by maximising the numbers
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at the final traditional household canvass in winter 2013/14. The advantage of
focussing additional resource at this time is that registered electors will be carried
forward into the new register under Individual Electoral Registration.
The response rate for registration forms has risen to 93.4% from 89.8% at the last
election. The Council are still carrying out work on Burngreave and Central wards
and if they are removed from the analysis the response rate is 95.38%. At the time of
writing this means that approximately 9,500 extra households have responded. The
higher response rate creates a much more accurate register and thus ensures that
more people will be able to exercise their right to vote. As an example of the above
Firth Park ward’s response rate increased by over 7% from the last canvass which
equates to over 650 extra households.
Campaign for Fairness – £50,000
The purpose of this project is to design and deliver a communications campaign to
deliver the Fairness Commission recommendation that “there should be a
communication campaign in the city about fairness and the adverse effects of
inequality.”
Alan Walker, the Chair of the Fairness Commission and Cllr Mazher Iqbal, Cabinet
Member for Communities and Inclusion co-chair a Fair City Campaign Group that
includes some of the Fairness Commissioners, representatives from the Sheffield
Executive Board and staff from the Council and Sheffield First Partnership.
The Fair City Campaign Group is in the process of commissioning work on
developing a City Wide Fair City Campaign. The Fair City Campaign Group wants to
build on developments that have taken place during 2013 to further develop the
engagement with, and support for, the Fairness Commission aspirations and
recommendations. The aim is to target a number of different audiences (the public,
communities, organisations and business) to further develop this ‘movement for
change’ in support for Fairness.
An event is planned for April to enable people who want to contribute to increasing
fairness in Sheffield to do so. A list of specific actions that local groups and
communities can take would provide a starting list for people to consider what they
could do. The event would conclude with people making a pledge to undertake an
action that will help reduce inequalities in Sheffield. It is planned that this event will
be followed up with a smaller series of events in each of the 7 broad areas of the
city.
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Equality Hubs – £70,000
The Council has just concluded consultation on proposals on involving individuals
and communities, who belong to a ‘social identity groups or a protected
characteristic as noted in the Equality Act 2010. The project is to simplify existing
arrangements, reduce barriers to involvement, provide support to communities,
including those not currently funded; and encourage joint working between the
equality groups that can experience multiple disadvantages. The proposals
complement the recent changes in locality based engagement and involve setting up
a network of Equality Hubs and joint events for communities of interest.
Part of the funding has been used to appointed to a post to lead on the project. The
Council is looking to implement the new model, including grant funding
arrangements from April 2014. The impacts of the proposals are expected to include:
 Providing more effective and efficient routes for consultation and involvement
 Providing more transparent arrangements
 Recognising that additional efforts are required to empower and engage the
most deprived and excluded people and communities
 Enabling the Council to meet its Public Sector Equality duty
 A city wide approach working with other public sector organisations and the
Council’s strategic partners.
 Clear grant funding arrangements for non-for profit community voluntary
sector organisations to improve the voice and influence of often underrepresented groups of people.
Food Poverty – £100,000
The purpose of this project is to establish an arm’s length organisation ‘Sheffield
Food Foundation’ (working title). The foundations key priorities would be
 To support the implementation of the Sheffield food plan
 To make Sheffield a ‘Food City’
 To secure outside investment enabling growth of independent food industry in
Sheffield
 To tackle food insecurity in the city Sheffield.
Tackling food insecurity is to be an initial priority for the Trust. 24,383 children in
Sheffield are living in poverty (Child Poverty Action Report July 2013) and the Trust
will aim to reduce this by 30% by 2017. Phase one of the Trust’s development will
also involve establishing an evaluation framework to devise appropriate measure of
impact. Initial indicators could be based on those developed for the revised Food
Strategy and may include health measures (e.g. improved diet, prevalence of
overweight and obesity and of diet related ill health); economic measures (e.g.
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numbers of Sheffield residents employed in the food sector, numbers experiencing
food poverty); and sustainability measures (e.g. food waste).
The Trust is currently in the process of establishing a board of trustees and securing
charitable status. This will provide the Trust with autonomy and freedom from Local
Authority constraints and the ability to fundraise and secure grants and donations in
the longer term. The creation of this new structure is hoped to be an effective way of
securing resources for the city in the long-term without creating pressure on Sheffield
City Council budgets.
Further projects
The Council is also looking to develop three further projects: one in relation to the
Pupil Premium; the second on Digital Inclusion; and a Discretionary Fund to allocate
awards of up to £3,000 by the Cabinet Member for Communities and Inclusion in line
with the Fairness Commission principles.
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Measuring Fairness
The Commission’s report included indicators on the overall outcomes the
Commission is seeking to change. Further work on the set of Outcome Indicators
has taken place and they are reported on in the State of Sheffield 20143. This refers
to the city becoming fairer when the following outcomes are improved:
 The gap between the attainment of the bottom 20% and the remainder of the
early years cohort reduced
 An increase in the proportion of people that can afford to live in a decent
quality home
 A reduction in the gaps in the crime rate and levels of fear of crime between
different parts of the city
 The gap between the unemployment rate in the city and the national
unemployment rate being reduced
 The gap between the youth unemployment rate in the city and the overall
unemployment rate in the city being reduced
 Pay differentials are reduced, wage levels at the bottom rise and working
conditions improved
 The gap in life expectancy between different parts of the City being reduced
and healthy life expectancy rising among all groups
 A reduction in the proportion of households in the city living in poverty.
The State of Sheffield evidence indicates that in 2013:
 The attainment gap for the lowest 20% is not significantly narrowing
 The likelihood of not living in a decent quality home is probably increasing
partly as a result of housing affordability and partly because more people are
entering the private rented sector
 The city has more unemployment although the claimant rate is now declining
 More women are unemployed and more young people are unemployed than
in 2008
 And there is more long term unemployment, especially in the young male
group, with males previously in elementary and lower skilled occupation most
likely to be long term unemployed.
Whilst we know that average earnings in Sheffield in 2012 were £441 per week
compared with £510 per week in the UK, it is more difficult to measure the security
and quality of work. It would seem likely that there are many people whose work is
characterised by pervasive job insecurity, but as there is no current way of
measuring this, it is impossible to assess need. Finally, gaps in life expectancy
remain and these are generally not being reduced, and it is likely levels and
proportion of households facing living with poverty has increased.
3
The State of Sheffield 2014 is available from: www.sheffieldfirst.com
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Activity undertaken
Below is a list of some of the activity undertaken by the Chair, Commissioners, or
Officers since the Fairness Commission’s report was published. This list is not
comprehensive and Commissioners may be aware of other activity that has taken
place.

Sheffield Executive Board:
o Sheffield Fairness Commission Final Recommendations
9th January 2013
o Fairness Commission and progress on implementing recommendations
12th June 2013
o Sheffield – Change, Cohesion & Challenge: An overview of the 2013
Census findings and opportunities and challenges in relation to cohesion
and fairness
13th November 2013

Health and Wellbeing Board discussion on Health inequalities
12th December 2013

Fair City Campaign Group
Six meetings to discuss and agree approach to the Campaign

Presentation and discussion with Sheffield Equality Group
6th March 2013

Access Liaison Group, Fairness Commission – future task
13th March 2013

Presentation to City Wide Learning Body
21st March 2013

Presentation to Strategic Housing Forum
7th June 2013

Chair liaison with, and support for a successful bid by Now Then magazine for a
campaign project through the University of Sheffield’s ‘Festival of the Mind.’

Faith Leaders' Group
o Faith to Fairness Conference. Bringing Faith to Fairness: Putting the
Fairness Commission into Practice
30th January 2013
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o Faith Leaders' Group 'holding group' meeting ‘Fairness - what do our faith
traditions bring to the table?’ A follow up to the January event.
5th June 2013.

Webb Memorial Trust study
The research has two broad areas: how to reduce poverty and inequality which is
where the Fairness Commission link mainly comes in; civil society initiatives to
reduce poverty and inequality. This involved a group of Commissioners meeting
with members of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Poverty at Parliament on
19th November 2013 and online surveys.

Social Policy Association Conference
A symposium on ‘Tackling Inequality in Sheffield: The Sheffield Fairness
Commission’, 8th July 2013

Birmingham Social Inclusion Symposium for city leaders, faith leaders and
fairness commission
10th September 2013

North of England Fairness Conference, Blackpool
25th February 2014
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