At an individual, community and borough level we want to feel that Rotherham is moving in the right direction; that opportunities are being created; and – critically – that everyone is able to benefit.
The borough's new economic growth plan sets out ambitious targets to deliver 10,000 new private sector jobs by 2025 and 750 additional businesses by 2020. However, as the plan points out, there are significant challenges in ensuring that this growth translates to "success" for all of Rotherham's communities.
The latest government deprivation data – the 2015 index of multiple deprivation (IMD) – shows that the borough still has pockets of severe disadvantage, particularly in central Rotherham around the town centre (i.e. Eastwood, Ferham, Canklow and East Herringthorpe).
Although Rotherham's overall IMD ranking has changed little since 2010 – it has moved from 53rd to 52nd most deprived district in England – the "local concentration" measure reveals that deprivation in the poorest 10% of the borough has increased significantly.
According to IMD 2015, Rotherham has 50,400 residents (19.5%) living in areas within the most deprived 10% of England. This figure has grown from 30,400 in 2007 and 44,170 in 2010.
In terms of child poverty, figures for 2013 (the most recent published by government) show that just over one fifth of Rotherham children live in a low income family. Again, the picture looks worse when we look at the breakdown within the borough. Across the ten most deprived areas, 50% of children are classed as living in poverty, compared to just 3.8% in the ten least deprived areas. Children in the most deprived areas are also five times more likely to be classed as a "child in need" of social care services.
Addressing this is critical if Rotherham is to truly become a child-centred borough. There is significant research that indicates the importance of children getting "a good start" in order to have the best chance of having positive outcomes in education, employment, health and other important areas of life.
Of course, inequalities are not only geographical. Average full-time earnings for women in Rotherham are 66.5% of men's, compared to 82.5% of men's nationally. The gap in employment rate between women and men in Rotherham is 12.6%, compared to 10.4% nationally.
Rotherham also has high rates of disability, with 8.5% of the population claiming disability living allowance or personal independence payments compared with 5.4% nationally (as at August 2015).
See theme three