Equality and diversity report

What we have achieved in 2024-25

Listen to our residents and learn from their experiences, to improve our knowledge and understanding of the needs of all our diverse communities across Gateshead

This year's Director of Public Health Annual Report 2024 shines a light on the impact of lives lost to alcohol, drugs and suicide. Between 2002 and 2022, there were approximately 1,278 deaths by drugs, alcohol and suicide in Gateshead. These are not just numbers, each person left behind grieving families and communities. We wanted to hear from the voices of people with lived experience. 

The report shows the urgent need for action, but also emphasizes the support available to everyone affected. Working with voluntary and community sector partners, several focus groups took place to hear the voices of those who have had been impacted by alcohol, drugs and suicide locally. Threaded through the report are the voices of people with lived experience, which includes anonymised videos produced with Digital Voice.

Community and partner engagement 

Our Locality service work has explored good practice around community voice and participative models. The service actively pursues conversations with local partners that inform and educate and are underpinned by empathy and reflective practice. We worked with partners at Citizens Advice Gateshead to deliver Benefits Uptake Campaign as well as developing targeted provision in areas of highest need and for specific cohorts including Probation service users, our lower paid staff and care leavers. 

Our Health Research team supported research into Warm Spaces. This involved listening exercises with users of Warm Spaces to inform future development and support work to improve the accessibility of Warm Spaces and their offer to residents.  The research findings were used to inform the criteria for the Warm Spaces small grants programme to enable providers to extend opening hours, provide a greater variety of support and more effective signposting and partnership with other organisations. 

Community Cohesion  

Our Community Safety Team are members of the North East Anti-Racism Coalition, which includes local authority leaders, the Police and Crime Commissioner, elected members, VCSE organisations, police, and community allies. We received £57,000 from government for the Community Cohesion and Resilience Programme (CCRP), funding 13 local projects focused on countering extremism and building community ties. We hosted The Rt Hon The Lord Khan of Burnley FHEA, Minister for Faith, Communities and Resettlement, who met with the local project recipients. 

Operational Changes 

• The Hate Crime & Tensions Monitoring Group has been replaced by a monthly Community Cohesion Group, which includes police, council services, and VCSE/community groups. This group reviews hate crime data, monitors tensions, and explores opportunities for collaboration. 

• We are refreshing our Community Tensions Framework to improve our response to local, national, and international events that may impact community relations.

Hate Crime Awareness Training 

We are currently developing a new in-person Hate Crime Awareness training session, which will include a dedicated focus on Mate Crime - a form of exploitation where perpetrators befriend individuals with the intention of abusing or taking advantage of them. This training aims to increase understanding, improve recognition and reporting and strengthen our collective response to hate incidents across Gateshead. 

We are working closely with our Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) networks to address the issue of misogyny, particularly among young people. This work recognises the harm misogynistic attitudes can cause and the potential for these views to escalate into more serious forms of abuse or violence. 

Equality Data - Hate Crime reports: 

• in 2024, 468 hate crimes were recorded by Northumbria Police in Gateshead—a 13% decrease from 2023 (536 incidents)
• despite the decrease, we had anticipated a rise due to improved reporting mechanisms and the rollout of Safe Reporting Centres by Northumbria Police
• race-related hate crime remains the most reported category, accounting for nearly two-thirds of all incidents
• hate crimes are most frequently reported in Central Gateshead, which includes a significant Jewish population
• the only increase was in age-related hate crimes, rising from 1 to 4 incidents 

Actively involve and engage our communities, including our employees, in inclusive consultation and in our decision-making processes. 

Ageing Well Standard

We worked with the Housing Learning and Improvement Network (Housing LIN) to develop the Gateshead Standard for Ageing Well. The purpose of the standard is to set out what our homes should consist of to support us all to age well and thrive in later life whether we decide to stay put or move. We developed this in consultation with local people, and it will be used by commissioners, designers, planners and developers as a tool when considering providing housing for people as they age across all tenure types. Complying with this standard will mean that homes in Gateshead will become better suited to the needs and requirements of people in later life, bringing positive impacts for older adults through improved quality of life, health and wellbeing outcomes.  

Our Neighbourhood Relations Team held a customer workshop to review and inform the refresh of the ASB and Hate Crime, Council Housing Policy. Our Locality team administered the Local Community Fund in partnership with elected members, ensuring funding is provided to grass roots causes in each of the 22 wards. 

Community, Health and Wellbeing developed a Lived Experience work stream and recruited two staff members to support the involvement and engagement of Experts by Experience particularly from marginalised communities.  Initially this engagement will be focused on the development of an anti-poverty strategy for Gateshead and will support wider lived experience work across other Council services. 

We are developing a new Community Cohesion Strategy to replace the existing Hate Crime Strategy. This new strategy will take a broader, more integrated approach to tackling hate crime, extremism, and social division, and promote unity and resilience across Gateshead. 

A consultation workshop has been held with council staff and partners. Further consultations are ongoing with youth groups, locality hubs, and residents. A residents' survey is scheduled for Autumn 2025. We are working with the government's Community Cohesion Unit who have shared national examples of good practice. 

Co-design and collaborate with partners where possible, to deliver for local communities

Co-production work

Our Locality team delivered multi agency events in each area, bringing together stakeholders from across the local community to showcase provision, understand need and identify new opportunities for partnership working. Developed co-located service opportunities at various hubs across the borough, bringing services together both formally and informally to maximise resource and opportunity. Delivered targeted community safety days in collaboration with partners including Police, Fire Service and Housing. 

The Community, Health & Wellbeing team actively involved 12 Experts by Experience in assessment tasks and interview panels for the recruitment processes for the Experts by Experience roles, enabling local people to input into our recruitment decisions for these community-facing roles.   

Co design and collaboration with partners to deliver the Sport England Place Base Project: 

An established group has been set up including representatives from the Local Authority, VCSE sector, Northumbria Violence Reduction Unit, Health and other wider partners/stakeholders to gain further understanding and insight into the barriers preventing residents becoming more physically active. 

Health Research work with autistic children on oral health 

The project has co-designed oral health materials with autistic children and their families to ensure the resources are accessible and relevant, aiming to remove communication and sensory barriers in general dental setting. Easy to read, visual and sensory-informed flashcards resource was developed. Autistic children, parents and caregivers were consulted throughout the design process and research to ensure lived experience directly shaped the research's outputs. The project contributes to understanding how we can adapt services to provide equitable health access. 

Actively work with our diverse communities to improve our insight and build effective relationships 

We held a meeting with our faith and race community leaders to inform future engagement through the planned relaunch of the Gateshead Strategic Partnership in 2025. Community leaders raised issues which impact on their communities and welcomed the opportunity to work more closely with the Council and its strategic partners to influence future plans for Gateshead. 

Our Refugee and Migration Team 

• Supported 321 refugees to settle in Gateshead via UK Resettlement schemes.

• Supported 26 residents to host 226 migrants from Ukraine via the Homes for Ukraine Scheme.

• Supported almost 800 people at the weekly refugee drop in.

• Supported partners in the voluntary sector across Gateshead to develop a multi agency 'Welcome Network', bring resources, knowledge and skills together to support the migrant community in Gateshead.   

• Supported partners to deliver a range of activities during Refugee Week in June 2025, providing opportunities for people in all communities, faith groups and cultures to come together to share food, stories and experiences and promote community cohesion. 

• We supported a wide range of VCSE partners to devise and deliver services that aim to work with the most vulnerable and marginalised, for example refugee and asylum services, community services, men's health groups and mental health support. 

Equalities Data

The Equalities Profile of Gateshead (PDF, 199 KB)(opens new window) has been updated with the latest population data by protected characteristic and is published at Appendix 2.