We’ve seen a record-breaking number of visitors to our museums and outdoor attractions during April and June, making it our busiest quarter on record. Our popular outdoor venues continue to thrive and grow, with over 505,000 people visiting, which is 34,000 more than the same time last year. 

This is just one of the great achievements highlighted in our latest performance report about how we’ve been doing between April and June 2023.  

Healthy Barnsley 

One of our ambitions in Adult Social Care is to make sure that people who are not in professional roles feel comfortable reporting concerns about safeguarding. We're making good progress in getting everyone involved in keeping our communities safe. We’ve had 37 reports from April to June. This is a big improvement from last year when we had only seven reports. 

Learning Barnsley 

We’re making sure that we’re providing the right support to children with special educational needs and disabilities. The number of children receiving support in schools has increased from 11.7% to 12.1%.  

Making sure schools are inclusive and reducing suspensions is a high priority for the Barnsley Schools Alliance. We’re working with certain secondary schools to provide support to help lower the number of suspensions.  

Growing Barnsley 

Our borough is a great place where businesses can invest and grow. We’ve seen eight companies invest in Barnsley and we’ve supported businesses to create 319 new private-sector jobs. 

An area of development is the number of new homes built which has been affected by the current market conditions. We’ve completed 166 houses against a target of 225. Work is ongoing to make sure we're meeting housing needs and supporting our economic growth ambitions. 

Cllr Robert Frost, Cabinet Spokesperson for Core Services, said: “Seeing so many people visit Barnsley and enjoy our museums and attractions is exciting. We've made great strides in improving Barnsley, making it more attractive for businesses and people to invest and grow. That’s what’s made us double award-winning Council of the Year. 

“We’re a high-performing council with bold ambitions for our borough, and our employees are at the heart of delivering high levels of services for our communities. As we go forward, we’ll focus on areas needing more attention to reach our ambitions and priorities, and we’ll continue to share our progress in future reports. 

Our latest performance report will be discussed at Cabinet on Wednesday 20 September. You can find out more information about the report in the cabinet papers on our website.