Past Conversations 2024

This work is linked to the Tameside Healthy Weight Plan and part of the work we are doing to make the weight management pathway more visible and accessible to referrers and members of the public who are looking for support.

A weight management tool would be freely available to members of the public to help them find and explore the support they need as well as being accessible to use by professionals working with the public. There is the opportunity to provide your opinion on weight management services within Tameside.

You Said We Did

GMP now have 8,076 police officers, still not at the level of a decade ago; this is coupled with significant growth in demand and increased complexity of crime. We are in negotiation with central government for further officers to strengthen our neighbourhood policing guarantee. But investment is still required to ensure GMP maintain the significant improvements in the service they are delivering and to be one of the best police forces in the country.

Your money really does make a difference. This year, we propose increasing the police precept by £10.88 per year (91 pence a month) for a Band B property (80% of households in Greater Manchester are in Bands A-C). For a Band D property, the increase would be by £14 per year (or £1.17 a month).

A public consultation launched on Greater Manchester’s School Travel Strategy. The 10-week consultation runs until 26 January 2025.

The new School Travel Strategy is being developed as a shared priority between the GMCA, TfGM and the 10 local authorities. The strategy sets out ambitions to boost the number of primary, secondary and further education students travelling via sustainable means by 2030. The consultation is open to everyone who lives or travels in Greater Manchester.

Children and young people and their parents and guardians are encouraged to share their views in particular, as their experiences and ideas are essential in shaping a transport system that works for them now and in the future.

The Greater Manchester Local Nature Recovery Strategy has been developed to set out how we can all work together to tackle the biodiversity emergency and improve access to nature. GMCA are currently consulting on the draft strategy.

Everyone can play a part in shaping the Local Nature Recovery Strategy. Your voice matters, whether you are a resident, community group, local business owner or farmer. Your feedback will help us gain local knowledge and ensure that we can get the strategy right for Greater Manchester.

An in-person drop in session to learn more and give feedback is taking place in the Library Community Room, Tameside One, Ashton OL6 6BH on 4th Dec, 11am-3pm

The NHS in Greater Manchester has a rich history to be proud of. But today it’s facing many challenges and they need your help to ensure we have an NHS that is fit for the future. 

They want to create an NHS that is fit for the future for all GM residents, families and communities and focuses on improving people’s health and wellbeing. The 'Fit for the Future' programme and campaign will take the public on the journey with NHS GM towards achieving their goals; improved population health, performance and how they spend their money. 

• The NHS knows that they need to:
• Support people to live happy healthy lives
• Balance our finances
• Deliver great services

With this in mind, the NHS are inviting our communities to tell them what's important and what they should prioritise. Throughout the campaign they'll be raising awareness and understanding of the challenges they face. 

NHS Greater Manchester gets about 7.2billion pounds each year from NHS England to cover healthcare costs for the 2.8million residents in our region, which works out at about £2,500 per person each year. This year in Greater Manchester we have spent on average 3.7billion on hospital services, over 1.16 billion on pharmacy, dentistry and GP services and nearly £850million on Mental Health services. 

We need your help to make our NHS fit for the future, if you want to get involved we’d love to hear your thoughts on how the NHS in Greater Manchester can make the most of their money.  

The Regulatory Reform (Housing Assistance)(England and Wales) Order 2002 (known as the RRO Policy) gives local authorities a general power to introduce policies for Private Sector Housing to provide assistance to individuals with renewals, repairs and adaptations in their homes through grants or loans. Local authorities must have an approved RRO policy in place in order to provide such financial assistance.

“You Said, We Did”

Each year Tameside Council must decide whether to change the Council Tax Support scheme for working age applicants in its area. There are no changes for Pension Age applicants as they are part of the national scheme. This year the Council is deciding whether to significantly change the working age Council Tax Support Scheme. 
  
 The Council is legally required to consult on any proposed changes to the scheme and we’re asking you to take part in this consultation to find out what you think about the proposed Council Tax Support Scheme, which would start from 1 April 2025. We want to:

• make the scheme easier to understand and access;
• provide the same level of support for households on the lowest incomes;
• make the scheme work better with the Universal Credit system;
• support families and applicants who receive a disability benefit; 
• take away the need for constant changes in awards; and
• make the scheme easier to manage.

Thank you for taking the time to share your views. It should take around 10 minutes to fill in this consultation.

You Said, We Did

Tameside Council has developed a fresh strategy for the borough with the aim of improving council engagement with the community and our partners.

The Engagement Strategy, is designed to help us achieve our goal of improved engagement, which will in turn provide more evidence and insight for service, policy, and strategy development, leading to better outcomes for local residents. 

This consultation is looking for feedback on the new Engagement Strategy

All responses will be kept anonymous and subject to all relevant data protection laws.

This survey should take no longer than 5-10 minutes to complete and will close on the 30th October 2024 2024

To complete the survey please click here.

You Said, We Did

The government’s spring budget pledged to reduce the cost of childcare for working families by offering funded early years childcare places for children from aged 9 months and also to increase Out of School provision for all school aged children.

You Said, We Did

We want your views about the mental health support that is available to you and your family, and to hear your experiences of accessing support.

You Said, We Did

We need your views to help shape Tameside’s local plan for the future.

Three of the four documents that are our Local Plan are already in place, they are.

• Places for Everyone 
• Minerals Plan
• Waste Plan

We are now working on the fourth and final plan, which is called Homes, Spaces, Places. It will apply to the whole of Tameside and look forward until 2041.

There are seven themes within the plan, and you can find out more information on each of the themes in our scoping document below. 
Download and read the Scoping Document here

You can also view the Homes, Spaces, Places Integrated Assessment Document

You Said, We Did

We need your feedback to create a safer, cleaner, and better-connected transport network. 

We plan to apply for a designation order from the Secretary of State, enabling the council to enforce moving traffic contraventions, which are currently managed by the police.

Enforcement of these offences, which include banned turns, yellow box junctions, and 'No Entry' signs, would improve road safety and air quality, and would allow the issuing of fines if drivers chose to contravene the signage.

You Said We Did

This consultation seeks the views of the public and hackney carriage/private hire drivers, vehicle proprietors and operators regarding the current Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Policy.

This policy covers all aspects of the terms and conditions for licensing hackney carriage and private hire drivers, vehicles and operators.

The consultation asks a number of key questions also provides those taking part with the opportunity to comment on all aspects of the policy.

The consultation results will assist the Council to determine if the current policy is still relevant or whether any amendments are necessary.

The consultation will end on 23 September 2024.

Relevant links to current conditions and policy can be found below:

https://www.tameside.gov.uk/licensing/hackney-carriage-vehicle-conditions

https://www.tameside.gov.uk/licensing/privatehire/conditions

https://www.tameside.gov.uk/licensing/taxi/privatehire/driverconditions

https://www.tameside.gov.uk/licensing/privatehireoperator

You Said We Did

In Tameside, we lost 25 people to suicide in 2022, 12 people in 2021, 13 people in 2020, 17 people in 2019 and 19 people in 2018. When someone dies by suicide, the impact amongst family and friends can be devastating and widespread, affecting many people throughout the local community. 

You Said, We Did

Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council is carrying out some investigatory work to understand the health needs of children up to Reception age living in the borough, and to understand what is most important to families in their journey of parenthood. This survey has been designed to inform an Early Years Needs Assessment for the borough, which in turn will inform a new Early Years Strategy that aims to improve outcomes for early years children by setting a number of priorities.

This survey will take approximately 10 - 15 minutes to complete. It will close on the 9th of August at 12:00pm. All information will remain anonymous

In Tameside, we are keen to improve the health services we offer to children with special educational needs and /or disabilities (SEND). We want to make sure that our families get the best possible outcomes for their children.

We promised to revisit the survey in March 2024 to follow on from the previous survey in November 2022. In this time we know that the demand for ADHD and Autism pathways continue to rise and the waiting times for diagnosis are longer.

However, we would like to hear about your experience of accessing the health support that your child/young person needs and the level of support you have received recently.

You Said, We Did

Tameside's population is becoming more diverse, which brings many benefits to our borough. With this, there are more diverse needs and experiences that local services need to understand and act upon to help achieve the best outcomes possible for our residents from racial/ethnic minority backgrounds. 
 
 To help achieve racial equity in Tameside, the Tameside Racial Inequalities Project has thus been launched. This project aims to investigate how and why residents from racial/ethnic minority backgrounds experience challenges in important areas of life, and how local services can best help address these challenges. We would like to hear from you if you live in or regularly visit Tameside, and if you are from an ethnic minority background. 
 
This project is being conducted under the remit of the Tameside Inequalities Reference Group by Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council in collaboration with Diversity Matters North West, West African Development, Caribbean and African Health Network, and Lindley Education Trust. 
 
 You can give your views by being involved in face-to-face workshops and/or through this survey.
 
Face-to-Face Workshops
 
 Each organisation involved in this project will be undertaking face-to-face workshops. If you would like to be involved in these workshops, please see the below contact information, and for more information about our partner organisations, please click on the links provided:

• Diversity Matters North West: info@diversitymattersnw.org.uk; 0161 368 3268
• Caribbean and African Health Network: info@cahn.org.uk; 07710 022382
• West African Development: admin@wad.org.uk; 0161 327 3095

NHS Greater Manchester wants to hear about your experience of using eye care services in Tameside. You might also know them as ophthalmology services.

Give your view on what was good, or could be better, about the service you received along with your ideas on what the service should look like in the future.

Click here to have your say or scan the QR code below. The closing date is Friday, 10 May 2024.

If you need help completing the survey or would prefer to arrange a telephone call to give your answers, please email gmhscp.engagement@nhs.net.

The new Tameside Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) Policy sets out the Council’s commitment to reducing anti-social behaviour and improving the quality of life for local people. Its aim is to give residents clarity around how we investigate and tackle cases of anti-social behaviour, and provide confidence to victims and witnesses to report anti-social behaviour in their communities.

We want to hear your views on the Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) Policy. The feedback received will help deepen our understanding of how residents feel about anti-social behaviour, and influence the final version of the Policy.

All information provided will be kept confidential, stored securely and will be used for statistical and research purposes only. We will not share any confidential information provided, with any third party organisations.

You Said, We Did

Tameside Council Public Health team are currently undertaking work to understand how drugs and alcohol affect the residents of Tameside. 
 
 This survey will ask questions around alcohol and drug use, worries, local services and how they can be improved. Your opinion and feedback will support us in making positive changes to make Tameside a healthier place to live.

If you are concerned about your own or other people’s drug and or alcohol use please contact Change Grow Live, My Recovery Tameside - a free and confidential drug and alcohol service for adults, young people, families, carers and affected others in Tameside.

Phone: 0161 672 9420

Email: Tameside.Referrals@cgl.org.uk

https://www.changegrowlive.org/my-recovery-tameside/ashton

You Said We Did

A consultation is underway on proposals to improve journeys in Ashton. These include bus stops that are more accessible, comfortable and better located, improved walking and cycling routes and changes to road layouts to make them safer for all users. They form part of a wider scheme focusing on upgrading the A671 and A627 bus corridor through Rochdale, Royton, Oldham and Ashton town centres. The proposals are designed to improve journeys for all road users. 

Public drop-in sessions where the proposals can be discussed will take place at Ashton Library on Tuesday 19 March, 5pm–7pm and Wednesday 20 March, 2pm-4pm. 

Routine and manual workers are more likely to smoke than those in other jobs. Routine and manual workers are also more likely to experience smoking related ill health and feel the financial burden of smoking than others.
Tameside smokers spend about £2,500 on smoking every year.
Help Tameside’s Population Health Team to understand how they can better support you to become Smokefree by completing the survey: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/RMWSurvey
This survey is anonymous and any answers you give will not be traced back to you, meaning you can be as honest as possible.

We are currently looking at work and skills opportunities in Tameside and how this relates to people's health and wellbeing. This is called a 'needs assessment' and the aim is to identify some key recommendations and actions for us to focus on in the coming years.

We have done some initial work which has highlighted a number of areas for us to look into further. We would like to get your views and ideas on these.

All responses to the survey will remain anonymous. This survey is being run by an independent research company on our behalf. The deadline for responses is 20 February 2024.

Join in with a nation-wide repair celebration and we’ll promote the amazing work you do.

Repair Week celebrates local repairers and encourages people to fixing instead of throwing away. 
Help us direct residents to repair experts like you by hosting an event between 3^rd -9^th March 2025.

Whether you fix bikes, clothing, electricals or even something specialist it’s the perfect time to share your expertise with your local community and shout about the great work you’re doing. 

• Do you have a regular repair event to promote?
• Have a great idea for a workshop to share your skills?
• Could you host an online session to help grow the repair revolution?

Being part of Repair week, you’ll get:

• The opportunity to introduce your organisation to new customers. Our 2024 campaign reached 165,727 people.
• Be part of the biggest Repair Week ever. Greater Manchester, London, Cardiff, Merseyside, Durham and Belfast local authorities have teamed up for this nation-wide celebration.
• Free advertising of your event on the R4GM website.
• Your organisation listed on the R4GM Repair Directory.
• We promote the campaign and event listings through adverts, our partners, and 9 councils in Greater Manchester.
• Valuable survey data to understand how locals view repair. We’re asking 500 residents their views.

In partnership with the nine Places for Everyone (PfE) Plan local authorities (Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Tameside, Trafford and Wigan), we are seeking your input on the Holcroft Moss Planning Obligations Joint Supplementary Planning Document (SPD).

The purpose of the SPD is to provide guidance on, and to facilitate, the provision of mitigation restoration measures at Holcroft Moss, within the Manchester Mosses Special Area of Conservation (SAC). The SPD will provide further guidance on how criterion 17 (in particular) of Policy JP-C8: Transport Requirements of New Development of the PfE Plan will be implemented. Criterion 17 seeks to ensure new development does not have an adverse impact on the protected habitats and species of Holcroft Moss, which is within the Manchester Mosses Special Area of Conservation (SAC). The SPD is applicable to all nine PfE Plan local authority areas (excluding the part of Oldham within the Peak District National Park).

In partnership with the local authorities in Oldham, Rochdale, and Tameside, we are seeking your input on the South Pennine Moors Special Area of Conservation (SAC) / Special Protection Areas (SPAs) Joint Supplementary Planning Document (SPD).

The aim of the SPD is to provide further guidance on how criterion 7 of Policy JP-G5: Uplands of the Places for Everyone (PfE) Plan will be implemented and, in particular, parts a and b of criterion 7. 

The South Pennine Moors are designated as important habitats for breeding birds and are therefore, designated as a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and two Special Protection Areas (SPA), known as the: South Pennine Moors SAC; Peak District Moors SPA;  and the South Pennine Moors Phase 2 SPA.

The Mayor and the Deputy Mayor are responsible for setting priorities for keeping communities’ safe across Greater Manchester over the next 4 years. The Police and Crime Plan outlines these priorities and describes how we will work together with the police, our partners and our communities across the city-region to deliver and achieve these priorities.

The current Standing Together Plan can be found here: GM Standing Together Police and Crime Plan (greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk)

Our headline priorities continue to be:

1. Keeping people safe and supporting victims
2. Reducing harm and offending
3. Strengthening communities and places

Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) is working with Manchester City Council (MCC) to improve journeys for people around Manchester, including to and from the city centre, with a focus on catching the bus, walking, wheeling and cycling.

• What you think about the current state of nature in Greater Manchester
• What you think a more nature friendly Greater Manchester should look like
• What actions you would like included in the strategy and those that you might be able to take locally

For more information and to complete the survey, please click here.

Vision Zero Strategy – Ending Road Death and Life-Changing Injury on Greater Manchester’s roads

Almost 10,000 people have been killed or suffered life-changing injuries on Greater Manchester’s roads in the last 10 years. Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) has now endorsed a draft Vison Zero Strategy for the city-region. It aims to eliminate road death and life-changing injury by 2040, with a target to achieve a 50 per cent reduction by 2030. The intention is to increase safe, healthy, equitable mobility for all.

Did you know 5 million single-use vapes are thrown away every week in the UK? That's the equivalent of 8 vapes every second!

With this survey, we want to understand behaviours towards buying and getting rid of disposable vapes. 

We really appreciate your views, the responses received will help shape our future campaigns for the residents of Greater Manchester.

Please only fill out the survey if you use or have used disposable vapes.

Healthwatch in Greater Manchester are interested in hearing from parents and carers who have supported children and young people to access (or trying to access) Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). There are long waiting times for young people to be seen and we want to investigate how this is affecting them. Healthwatch in Greater Manchester have a launched a survey aimed to gather personal experiences of young people, as well as a separate survey open to parents and carers for them to share their experience of supporting their children.

The provisional report sets out the aggregate amount of grants proposed for the police in England and Wales for 2025 to 2026.

Train and station operators are required to comply with an Accessible Travel Policy. This includes providing assistance free of charge to anyone that needs it, whether they have booked in advance or request help at the station.

The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) monitors the provision of assistance so it can hold operators to account.

As announced at Autumn Budget 2024, from 6 April 2027 most unused pension funds and death benefits will be included within the value of a person’s estate for Inheritance Tax purposes and pension scheme administrators will become liable for reporting and paying any Inheritance Tax due on pensions to HMRC.

This is a technical consultation on the processes required to implement these changes for UK-registered pension schemes. It is likely to be of interest to individuals, pension scheme administrators and other pensions professionals, tax and legal practitioners. 

The government would like to hear from those involved with licences, registrations, exemptions and permits in the following sectors:

• waste
• animal welfare
• vehicles in the taxi and private hire sector

This consultation seeks views on the detail and practical implications of allowing remote and hybrid attendance at local authority meetings.

We are seeking views on a draft Direction to the Regulator of Social Housing. The Direction would require the Regulator to set a regulatory standard on rents that will apply to Registered Providers of social housing.

This encompasses:

• Private Registered Providers (including housing associations that are Private Registered Providers)
• Local authority Registered Providers (such as local authorities with retained housing stock)
• Section 197 of the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 gives the Secretary of State the power to direct the Regulator of Social Housing to set a standard on rent, and about the content of that standard. Once issued, a Direction is binding on the Regulator. We propose to use this power to issue a new Direction to the Regulator on rent. The proposed Direction has been published alongside this consultation.

The consultation seeks views on:

• simplifying the amount of information unions are required to provide in industrial action notices
• strengthening provisions to prevent unfair practices during the trade union recognition process
• removing the 10-year ballot requirement on political funds
• securing a mandate for negotiation and dispute resolution
• extending the expiry of the strike mandate
• reducing the industrial action notice period
• updating the law on repudiation and prior call

• the enforcement mechanism for right of access

The government is seeking views on measures to strengthen the collective redundancy framework and protections for employees against fire and rehire practices.

For the collective redundancy framework, the government is seeking views on the proposal to increase the maximum period of the protective award that a tribunal can award.

The government is considering 2 options:

• increase the protective award that a tribunal can award from 90 to 180 days
• remove the cap on the protective award entirely

The government is also seeking views on whether interim relief should be available to employees who bring claims for the protective award.

This consultation seeks views specifically on the application of these 2 measures to agency workers so responses from stakeholders can help to inform the government’s approach to legislation on this point.

Across the UK, millions have used Buy-Now, Pay-Later (BNPL) products, which can be a helpful way of managing finances from month to month. However, without regulation there are risks.

The government has published a consultation setting out its plans for regulating the BNPL market. These plans aim to ensure people using BNPL products receive clear information, avoid unaffordable borrowing, and have strong rights when issues arise. The government’s approach will maintain access to a popular product while adding safeguards.

This consultation seeks your views on draft legislation needed to extend this new type of pension provision beyond single or connected Collective Defined Contribution (CDC) schemes.

It removes the exclusion of unconnected multiple employer CDC schemes from operating under the existing CDC provisions and sets out what CDC schemes that are whole-life unconnected multiple employer schemes must do to become authorised and to operate effectively under regulatory oversight.

The Tribunal Procedure Committee is interested in your views on a proposal to amend the procedure rules governing the First-tier Tribunal (Health Education and Social Care Chamber) for special educational need and disability appeals.

The government is determined to deliver better bus services, grow passenger numbers and drive opportunity to under-served regions.

As part of this, it has committed to put bus services back into the hands of local leaders by removing barriers that currently limit the bus franchising process.

The bus franchising guidance sets out how the franchising legislation operates in practice and sets out the statutory duties that a franchising authority or auditor must have regard to in exercising relevant functions of the guidance.   

This consultation seeks views on an aspect of the 2022 consultation on draft secondary legislation relating to the application of the advertising restrictions on less healthy food and drinks to internet protocol television (IPTV) services, which deliver television and advertising live over the internet.

Our aim is to gather views on the proposed exemption of Ofcom-regulated IPTV services from the online restrictions, bringing them in line with existing exemptions for linear broadcast and on-demand programme services. We want to ensure that the application of the advertising restrictions to these services is coherent, appropriate and gives clarity to IPTV operators.

This consultation is seeking views on our proposed approach to revising the NPPF. It also seeks views on a series of wider national planning policy reforms.

We would like you to share your views on the proposed changes to our charges for boat registration. This consultation document sets out our proposals in more detail and we also provide the following supporting documentation on our consultation website, Citizen Space:  

• guide to how we calculate our charges
• draft national navigation boat charging schemes from 2025

The CMA is consulting on draft consumer law compliance advice for trader recommendation platforms. These are businesses that:

• operate a website or app that consumers may use to find a trader to carry out home improvement, maintenance, or repair work
• make representations or impressions that the traders listed or hosted on these sites are of a particular quality

The Fawcett Society and Black Equity Organisation (BEO) are working together to research the harms caused to women and girls, particularly Black women and girls, across public services. They will use this research to reimagine and campaign for reform.

In this call for evidence they’d like to hear from women aged over 18 about your experiences of contact with policing, education, and/or mental health services. They are interested in hearing from women of all ethnicities, but we particularly encourage Black women to share their experiences.

08/08/2024 

Organisation: Department for Levelling Up, Housing, and Communities

This research project aims to investigate lesbian and gay older adults’ experiences of living with bipolar disorder. They will be interviewing individuals about their experiences. 

If you are: 

• Aged 50 years old or above. AND... 
• Identify as being cisgender and lesbian or gay. AND... 
• Have a diagnosis of bipolar disorder.