Life in Nottingham getting better

There has been an overall improvement in life for Nottingham's citizens, according to the latest Audit Commission assessment, with the city's public services increasingly work well together in partnership to tackle the things that matter most to residents.

Excellent public transport has earned the city a coveted green flag, an assessment of first-rate services, with the report saying: 'Getting about Nottingham is easy by public transport which keeps on getting better and better.'

No red flags, which show that something more or different needs to be done to tackle significant concerns about issues, were identified in the assessment, despite high levels of deprivation, unemployment, crime and health challenges, all of which are being tackled collectively by partner organisations in Nottingham.

The Oneplace assessment by the Audit Commission, introduced for the first time this year, gives an overall assessment of what it is like to live in Nottingham and how various organisations are contributing to improving the quality of life. Inspectors worked with the city's local strategic partnership, One Nottingham, and its partners to look at a variety of issues including crime, housing, and people's health to create a single snapshot of the area. They assessed whether progress is being made in dealing with the major local issues, and whether things are likely to improve.

The Oneplace report states that crime is falling in Nottingham and that neighbourhoods are seeing significant investment in housing, health services, schools, leisure and parks.

The report also recognises that Nottingham is:

· securing the right business and leisure opportunities to raise the city's profile and wealth

· working well to help the city be resilient to the impact of the recession

· improving neighbourhoods, through schools, leisure and parks transformation schemes

· bringing down the overall volume of crime with progress in reducing crime levels being sustained over several years

· leading the way nationally on early intervention – joining up public services across the city to help address problems at the earliest stage

· working in an increasingly focused way to reduce the health differences seen in some of most deprived areas of the city.

Chair of One Nottingham and Leader of Nottingham City Council, Councillor Jon Collins, said: 'This report confirms that crime levels have dropped and people feel safer, people feel happier about where they live than three years ago. People are seeing widespread improvements in their neighbourhoods, our pioneering Early Intervention work is starting to reap rewards and we're beginning to make progress in tackling some of the city's health problems. This is a significant endorsement of the hard work of many dedicated workers in all local partner agencies who I know will continue to improve things further still.'

The shared partnership vision and priorities for Nottingham are set out in The Nottingham Plan to 2020. The assessment recognises that Nottingham's partnership of public, private and community sector organisations – One Nottingham – have for many years been working to help local people enjoy a better quality of life and describes partners as having a "good understanding of the city's strengths and opportunities as well as its inequalities."

Chief Executive of NHS Nottingham City and One Nottingham Executive Member, Andrew Kenworthy, said: 'We are pleased that the report authors have recognised the progress we and our partners are making in improving people's health and wellbeing.

'Initiatives such as the Health Trainers and Changemakers are seeing people making a difference to health within their own communities; our Telehealth programme and Expert Patient Programme are helping to reduce admissions to hospital for people with long term conditions; and initiatives such as the Exercise Factor are helping people get more active.

'Our main aim is an end to health inequalities in our City. In the New Year we'll be launching our 'Decade of Better Health' campaign, which will really help the people of Nottingham access great quality activities and services to help them improve their wellbeing.'

One Nottingham Executive Member, Chief Superintendent Shaun Beebe, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: 'By listening to our communities, we realise that tackling the issues, which affect the quality of their lives is paramount, and I am happy to say we are responding to that challenge.

'In recent years we have made some good progress in reducing overall levels of crime, and have successfully targeted issues of real public concern, such as burglary, drugs, vehicle crime and managing the night-time economy.

'We and our key partners are also continuing to tackle and reduce anti-social behaviour with extra foot patrols at key times and by using powers such as dispersal orders and alcohol exclusion zones. However we are not complacent and we will continue to listen to the public and work with businesses, in an effort to recognise and respond to the issues which are important them.'

Chief Fire Officer Frank Swann, is pleased with the results of the Oneplace report.

'The public's safety remains at the core of what we do and I'm delighted to see a reduction in the number of fire deaths and avoidable injuries. There are some fantastic projects coming out of partnership working groups across the city and as a result the number of deliberate fires is falling year on year.

"We will continue expanding the ways we work in partnership with other organisations, helping to strengthen our performance and look after the communities we serve.'

Helen Voce, Chief Executive of the Nottingham Council for Voluntary Service (NCVS), and One Nottingham Board Member added: 'This is great news.  We're being recognised for all the hard work we're doing together for the benefit of our communities. Increasingly, people are realising that we can't achieve what we want without a thriving voluntary and community sector.  NCVS will continue to support local groups to be the best they can be and help them participate, so that decisions better reflect the needs of communities across Nottingham.'

The full report on Nottingham is available from the Oneplace website at www.audit-commission.gov.uk/oneplace