Salford City Council

LGC’s Council of the Year will be the council which has the most learning and inspiration to offer the rest of local government. The winner should demonstrate underlying sustained strong performance, innovation and excellent leadership across the broad spectrum of its work. Judges will be asked to disregard any advantages a council has based on its size or location, and they will not award Council of the Year on the basis of the scale of the Covid challenge a council has faced. The winner will be chosen on the basis of the delivery of strong outcomes, the quality of the council’s community leadership, and the evidence that the council is doing the best for its area, all in response to the specific challenge the council has faced in all areas of its work. Judges will also look for qualities including resilience, compassion, inclusion and adaptability, as well as the quality of the council’s cooperation with partners. This award is open to a council or, in exceptional circumstances, a partnership of councils – for instance when two councils share the same officer leadership.

In 2022 Salford City Council delivered a far-reaching programme of work to assist the most vulnerable members of our communities. Having adopted an ambitious plan to tackle socio-economic inequality through its Salford Way strategy, the council has made significant progress in many areas encompassed by this strategy. We have achieved consistently excellent progress in wide-ranging initiatives, including welfare rights and debt advice, emergency support, housing and homelessness, skills and work, and digital inclusion. We believe that this body of work means that Salford would be a deserving recipient of the LGC’s council of the year award for 2023.