Priority two - Healthy and resilient communities

We will ensure that our diverse communities can live happy and healthy lives, and that we support those who are experiencing poverty. We will strive to ensure that our residents are resilient, independent and where ever possible, economically active. We will support residents to be safe and connected to each other in their homes and communities.

Key Moves

Ensuring Happy and Healthy lives for all - we will work hard to reduce health inequalities

We recognise that health inequalities are mostly shaped by the social determinants of health, and we will be proactive in addressing this by focusing action on the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age. This will include a preventative approach to support healthy lives and communities, and for those experiencing complex and multiple needs, we will look for all opportunities to better coordinate and deliver holistic support and care.

Through delivery of our Health and Wellbeing Strategy (PDF, 806 KB), Anti-Poverty Strategy and A Fairer Stockton-on-Tees Framework (PDF, 1 MB), we will improve physical and mental health support and shape local places that give people the best possible chance to be healthy. We will work alongside our diverse communities to understand their strengths, where they need support, and how to appropriately tailor this support.

Working with partners and communities to improve and build health, we will:

support all children and families to have the best start in life, for example by ensuring access to health and wellbeing support as early as possible
ensure everyone can access a healthy standard of living, for example providing support for skills, education and training to give people better access to job opportunities, particularly for communities facing barriers such as those living with a disability or long-term health condition
support everyone to live in healthy and sustainable places and communities, for example ensuring that our public realm (including town and village centres, parks, nature reserves and connecting pathways) supports active and healthy lifestyles. This includes incentivising safe and accessible options for active travel, as well as involvement with sport and physical activity
help everyone live long and healthy lives, for example increasing access to screening and immunisations and creating the conditions and support for healthy lives through tackling harm from alcohol and drug misuse and smoking

Working with our residents to build resilience and independence in their own homes

We want to support more of our residents to remain in their own homes for longer, and we will work with individuals to co-produce support plans, focussing on the things they want to achieve in their daily lives. Alongside this, we will work with providers to ensure that all services received by our residents are good quality, safe and reliable.

We recognise the invaluable role that carers play to support their loved ones in communities, and we will ensure they receive the support they need to maintain their own independence and wellbeing.

Our work with communities will strengthen resilience through evidence-based public health initiatives, fostering community networks and supporting education on emergency preparedness, including the health and environmental effects of the climate change emergency as well as future pandemics. Communities most likely to be negatively impacted will be prioritised and we will seek to build on factors that promote good health and wellbeing and prevent, reduce or delay the need for ongoing support.

Building safe and connected communities

We will take all opportunities to embed co-production into our ways of working to build strong and connected communities. Through our Communities Mission, we will empower communities and increase individual, family and community level activities, whilst, respecting the rights of local communities to get involved as much or as little as they are able or wish to. This will include close working with our Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise sector.

Our approach will see us work with communities to tackle the contributing causes to social isolation and loneliness and encouraging and facilitating more ways to connect within the community, whilst providing support for people at greatest risk and promoting good mental wellbeing.

We will also ensure that our communities are better connected. Working with transport partners, we will ensure that the Tees Valley Strategic Transport Plan supports social equity through good connectivity across all modes of travel, that it promotes safety and security for all.

We will continue to work with our partners through the Safer Stockton Partnership, to make Stockton-on-Tees a safer place, where people are protected from serious harm and live in communities that are safe and welcoming. We will take an intelligence-led, neighbourhood-based approach to manage the impact of serious and organised crime. Alongside this, we will reduce offending rates of the most prolific offenders and address issues of serious violence. Our close work with communities will ensure that we protect the most vulnerable, identifying those at risk and preventing them from being drawn into harm, whilst pursuing and prosecuting those who exploit the vulnerable.

Supporting those who are experiencing poverty and work with communities to reduce the impact of poverty

Living in poverty can prevent our residents reaching their potential and can impact on people's educational attainment, employment, civic engagement and their health and wellbeing.

Through our Anti-Poverty Strategy, we will support those directly affected by poverty by offering opportunities, support, advice, and information. We recognise that achieving our goal will not be quick or easy, nor is it something we can do alone. Our shared ambition is one which places both our communities and partners at the core of our delivery plan. It will see us focus our efforts on tackling food insecurity and poverty, reducing fuel poverty and supporting income maximisation. We will also ensure that we undertake Equality and Poverty Impact Assessment (EPIA) where required to ensure that we have an evidence-based approach which analyses the impact on groups with different characteristics, including poverty.

We all have a part to play - how can you help build healthy and resilient communities?

We all have a stake in ensuring our communities are places where people can live happily and healthily at every stage of life, and there are many ways you can do your bit, from supporting those experiencing ill-health or reducing social isolation of vulnerable people, to maintaining your own active lifestyle.

Here are just some of the things you can do to support our Key Moves for this priority and help make our Vision a reality:

engage with organisations such as Cultivate Tees Valley to work on a community garden that boosts food security and helps improve mental health by working outside together
volunteer with clean-up and litter picking groups in your area, and meet new, like minded friends
make the most of active amenities across the Borough, like Tees Active Centres, Shape The Play for football inspired fitness and well-being, ParkPlay for fun and games for all ages
offer your time to transport someone who needs to access medical appointments or social groups through the Volunteer Driver Service
know your neighbours - especially those who may be vulnerable, and advise them on the help that's available through local initiatives such as Warm Homes Healthy People, Community Spaces or The Bread and Butter Thing