Corporate Plan 2025 - 2030

• Purpose of the Corporate Plan
• How we will deliver our Corporate Plan 
  • Our pledges
  • Our priority areas
• What we achieved in 2025/26
  • People Gateshead
  • Fair Gateshead
  • Communities Gateshead
  • Prosperous Gateshead
  • Future Gateshead
• Our priorities
• What we will deliver in 2026/27 to achieve our Corporate Plan objectives
  • People Gateshead
  • Fair Gateshead
  • Communities Gateshead
  • Prosperous Gateshead 
  • Future Gateshead
  • Priority area: good customer service
  • Priority area: inclusivity
  • Priority area: sound financial planning
  • Priority area: good governance
  • Priority area: continuous improvement
  • Priority area: culture

We want to make Gateshead a place where everyone thrives. We want it to be a great borough, with vibrant communities, where businesses can grow, residents feel supported and live fulfilled lives, and our environmental impact is minimised.

Purpose of the Corporate Plan

This plan sets out our strategic approach and priorities for 2025-2030 so that employees, councillors, residents, partners and other stakeholders understand:

• the strategic priorities of the council - so that resources, delivery plans, strategies and operational activity can be aligned to them; and
• how the council will continue to transform and drive improvement in services to deliver our priorities and operate in the most effective, productive, and impactful way

Our Corporate Plan outlines our priorities for the next five years and aims to address inequality, whilst championing fairness and social justice in Gateshead. This is our action plan to set out how we will take our strategy forward in the next year and what we expect to deliver.

How we will deliver our Corporate Plan

Our pledges set out our focus for the next five years in five key areas and outline what we are going to deliver. We have also identified six priorities which will support how we deliver our plan and how we work as an organisation.

'The Strength of Gateshead is the People of Gateshead' - Gateshead Council Corporate Plan 2025-30

What we achieved in 2025/26

To progress our Corporate Plan pledges and priorities we delivered the following achievement in the past financial year:

People Gateshead

• We enhanced opportunities and social inclusion for all children in our local communities, with a focus on those with SEND. Our family hubs have a specific SEND offer for families and we expanded provision of our parenting programme for ADHD through the Early Help service.
• Our Best Start local plan published in March 2026 will develop partnerships supporting the Early Years life stage (0-5 years). Our Early Help service are participating in the Families First pilot known as Family Help in Birtley and Lamesley wards.
• Take up of childcare entitlement at 9 months, 2 years and 3-4 years is above the England average. Our Best Start Local Plan has a clear priority to further increase take up of eligible childcare options.
• Early Help Targeted Family Support allocated a Lead Practitioner for 671 children and young people in 25/26 to support improved school attendance. We updated our Alternative Education provision strategy to remove barriers to education and improve inclusion.
• We launched a new Post 16 education and training strategy. to increase choice and options for Post 16 young people's provision and pathways.
• Public Health commissioned services are performing well with a decrease in smoking in pregnancy rates seen in Gateshead following our smoking in pregnancy interventions.
• AskSARA (online guided advice tool) is live on the Council Website and actively promoted. It provides impartial advice about suitable equipment and solutions that enable older and disabled people to live independently and maintain their chosen lifestyle, allowing residents to access self-help solutions and reducing demand on frontline teams.

Fair Gateshead

• We refreshed our Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy in 2025/26, to include two new principles (tackle racism, discrimination and their outcomes; and pursue environmental sustainability and health equity together).
• We delivered a benefits uptake campaign using physical and digital materials across Gateshead to maximise household income to residents.
• We launched and embedded the Health in All Policies (HiAP) approach and staff training, to ensure action is taken to reduce health inequalities within council planning and decision-making processes.
• We increased capability and capacity of council employees to deliver and engage with value added research, supported by Health Determinants Research Collaborations team and increased stakeholder involvement in research, through collaborative research activity with residents, community organisations and strategic partners.

Communities Gateshead

• Progress has been made in strengthening engagement and feedback mechanisms with people with lived experience. Adult Social Care has continued to use a range of engagement methods including targeted engagement activity, community based conversations and staff engagement forums to capture feedback. A recent example is within a re tendering exercise for our VCSE infrastructure contract.
• We have worked to embed local VCSE organisations in prevention, planning and delivery, to be a central focus of our community-based support offer. This is through the new VCSE infrastructure contract, with a focus on outcomes and impact and our VCSE fund, aligned to the principles of our recently updated Compact agreement with the VCSE in Gateshead.
• We agreed a Children's Partnership strategy and action plan in 2025/26, with a sub-committee of the Health and Wellbeing board overseeing progress in delivering these priorities.
• We commissioned new home care contract with providers that will improve service availability and efficiency

Prosperous Gateshead

• Our published Local Economic Assessment has outlined the strengths and weaknesses of the Gateshead economy. The evidence has been used to help inform the co-creation of the Gateshead missions, the development of the Economic Development Strategy and the Community Wealth Building strategy.
• We have prepared for the consultation of a new local plan vision and spatial strategy with an updated Statement of Community Involvement.
• We developed and launched our refreshed Regeneration strategy supported by a new regeneration and placemaking partnership
• Work has begun to demolish the Gateshead Highway flyover and we have continued to secure funding and partners to progress the regeneration of our town centre.
• We develop a creative spaces partnership to develop the rural, visitor, local and creative economies and raise the profile of Gateshead, using our iconic, cultural institutions and worked together to agree Creative Places, Gateshead's Cultural strategy.
• We successfully delivered the North East Combined Authority funded Early Priority Events programme, to animate our spaces to attract people and temporary uses, increasing footfall and audiences through an events programme.
• We jointly adopted a local nature recovery strategy for the South of Tyne and Wear (Gateshead, South Tyneside and Sunderland).

Future Gateshead

• We launched the significantly extended Accredited Landlord Scheme to cover 5400 homes in the borough. Dedicated officers are now in post engaging the private rented sector, matching tenancy‑ready housing solutions clients with landlords and securing a growing number of new private sector tenancies.
• We launched our Environment strategy and implemented the action plan. Delivery is underway across Gateshead neighbourhoods, with progress and positive environmental improvements highlighted through our communication channels to residents.
• Refreshed our approach to improve our local environment through our environmental volunteers' accreditation and monitoring framework. This has supported local volunteer groups such as Wardley Wombles and Friends of Ferndene Park.
• GLL were awarded the contract to manage Gateshead International Stadium, Blaydon, Dunston and Heworth Leisure Centres from April 2025, Birtley Leisure Centre has since been added to the leisure contract from April 2026.
• Launched a new damp and mould service to support Council housing tenants. The service is supported by an updated Damp and Mould policy for council tenants and a new online form for reporting damp and mould issues.
• Relaunched our Homelessness Charter for Gateshead.
• We improved our repairs service for our tenants overachieving our goal of reducing out-of-time repairs to less than 15% of annual repairs.

Our priorities

Our focus has remained on our council priorities of: good customer service, inclusivity, sound financial planning, good governance, continuous improvement, and culture. We have:

• developed a new operating model for customer contact, that better serves the Council's customers and creates savings. A new complaints and compliments process is now in place to make it easier for customers to provide feedback and for the Council to learn from that.
• agreed a new Communications strategy with campaigns across four themes: On your side; Love where you live; and Gateshead Thriving, and the internally-focused Team Gateshead.
• re-established the Gateshead Strategic Partnership as part of a refreshed approach to partnership working.
• delivered a residents survey to understand how our services are perceived by the people of Gateshead and to provide a benchmark to compare with others.
• launched a refreshed set of organisational values and designed a values-based behaviour framework for our workforce.
• updated and enhanced the effectiveness of our medium-term financial strategy , ensuring optimal use of financial resources to achieve corporate priorities and outcomes.

What we will deliver in 2026/27 to achieve our Corporate Plan objectives

1. People Gateshead

Our pledge to put people and families at the heart of everything we do

2. Fair Gateshead  

Our pledge to tackle inequalities, so people have a fair chance.

3. Communities Gateshead

Our pledge to support our communities to support themselves and each other.

4. Prosperous Gateshead

Our pledge to Invest in our economy to provide sustainable opportunities for employment, innovation and growth.

5. Future Gateshead

Our pledge to work together and fight for a better future for Gateshead.

Priority area - Good customer service

We are committed to:

• put our customers at the heart of everything do
• provide a consistent quality of service to our customers
• reflect customer feedback in the design and delivery of services
• continue to adopt a digital by default approach, enabling self-service where achievable
• co-design and collaborate with partners where possible, to deliver for local communities
• effectively communicate and engage residents and partners in the work of the council

Priority area - Inclusivity

We are committed to:

• embed our organisational values and behaviours
• promote, champion and advocate diversity
• demonstrate inclusive leadership, partnership, and a clear organisational commitment to be a leader in equality, diversity, and inclusion
• involve and enable our diverse communities in our decision-making processes
• encourage and build a skilled and diverse workforce to build a culture of equity and inclusion in everything we do

Priority area - Sound financial planning

We are committed to:

• ensure effective and prudent use of the council's resources
• provide value for money through efficient and effective service delivery
• provide services without the use of reserves
• continue to identify and develop new and appropriate income generating opportunities that are in keeping with our Vision
• maintain an investment strategy that preserves and improves the financial resources available to the council
• rigorously manage the council's risks
• have sound governance arrangements in place

Priority area - Good governance

We committed to:

• review the council's constitution to ensure it is accessible, comprehensive, and meets the needs of the council in the delivery of this Corporate Plan
• promote awareness of the seven principles of public life ('the Nolan principles') and ensure effective application of the respective codes of conduct for councillors and employees
• review the council's overview and scrutiny function to ensure it is robust, challenges constructively, and contributes continually to the delivery of this Corporate Plan
• ensure the revenue budget and capital programme remain balanced and sustainable over a rolling five-year period
• maintain a programme of reviews for our services to ensure they are delivered efficiently and effectively

Priority area - Continuous improvement

We committed to:

• review and strengthen our performance management framework, including regular reporting and clear accountability
• develop a clear programme of transformation and improvement activity
• recognise and celebrate good performance and address poor performance through a strengthened Appraisal and Development framework for employees
• develop a council-wide awareness and culture of continuous improvement in every aspect of council activity

Priority area - Culture

We committed to:

• ensure our refreshed core values are incorporated into how we work and everything we do
• continue to embed our Workforce Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy across the council
• promote communication and transparency
• welcome challenge and learn from our mistakes