Towards a fairer Islington

Our vision

We have a clear vision to make Islington fairer and create a place where everyone, whatever their background, has the same opportunity to reach their potential and enjoy a good quality of life.

Our approach

Communities in Islington face deep social challenges, driven by deprivation and inequality. Many local residents face both complex and multiple challenges, such as housing, employment, offending, domestic violence, mental health and substance abuse and so have repeated contact with our services and those of our partners – health services, jobcentres, the criminal justice system and housing providers.

Tackling these deeper challenges is not only fundamental to improving the quality of our residents’ lives, it is also essential if we’re to continue to be able to meet their needs in the face of significant budget cuts. Far too much public money in our borough is spent managing the high level of social challenges we face, when more could be done to prevent problems earlier.

We want to create the conditions which lower the chances of problems arising in the first place and intervene early where they do - taking positive action as quickly as possible to stop problems taking root. That’s why we’ve adopted a consistent strategic approach to work with people, families and communities and to build resilience through prevention and early intervention.

Our objectives

As a council we have seven clear objectives:

• Homes - Delivering decent and genuinely affordable homes for all
• Jobs and money - Delivering an inclusive economy, supporting people into work and helping them with the cost of living
• Safety - Creating a safe and cohesive borough for all
• Children and Young People - Making Islington the best place for all young people to grow up
• Place and environment - Making Islington a welcoming and attractive borough and creating a healthier environment for all
• Health and independence - Ensuring our residents can lead healthy and independent lives
• Well run council - Continuing to be a well-run council and making a difference despite reduced resources

Our values

Our overriding approach is to help people to build resilience through prevention and early intervention, but we know we can’t do this in isolation – and nor do we want to. Islington is a vibrant and cohesive community, with strong partnership working across the public sector and a valued and dynamic voluntary sector. We want to harness the energy and commitment of everyone who makes Islington what it is – pulling together as a team where everyone plays their part.

We want to work in a way which is collaborative, empowering and efficient and these are the three corporate values that we’ll be focusing on as an organisation.

Download our corporate plan 2018-22.