New Northumberland County Partnership launched
17 Apr 2024
Chaired by Lord Don Curry, this morning (Wednesday 17th April) saw the inaugural meeting take place of the Northumberland County Partnership, which aims to reduce the gap in experiences residents have across health, education, employment and social outcomes, by tackling inequalities.
The mission of the Partnership is to ensure people have fair access to the building blocks for a good life such as a decent income, a good quality job, safe, affordable and warm housing as well as good quality education and training opportunities.
Lord Don Curry said: "I'm delighted partners have come together through this forum to tackle inequalities in our county. I look forward to Chairing the Partnership and working with partners on this important initiative"
Working with the Institute of Health Equity (IHE) for 2 years, from April 2024 – April 2026, the Partnership will take a collaborative approach to developing short, medium and long-term recommendations for tackling inequalities.
Dr Helen Paterson, Chief Executive at Northumberland County Council said: “Our new County Partnership will provide a dynamic forum to enable collective power to be released and achieve generational change.
“The concept was developed in a discussion at our inequalities event last July, and we have been working hard to get the right people around the table today.
“This is an exciting opportunity, with the county's biggest partners coming together to tackle long-term inequalities. We will be working at speed to make a real difference to the people of Northumberland; in the next 12 months we will establish governance arrangements, develop a monitoring framework and develop recommendations in Housing and Fair Employment Principles. During the second year, we will focus on a collaborative approach to develop recommendations to implement the remaining principles.
“To ensure momentum, every six months we will come together to explore collaborative opportunities in the areas of Housing & Health, Employment & Health, and Best Start in Life.”