Our latest corporate performance report was presented at Cabinet on Wednesday 14 June. It highlights some of the fantastic achievements which set out our progress in making Barnsley the place of possibilities. 

Growing Barnsley 

As part of our ambition for local businesses to thrive through early-stage support, we’re pleased to have supported 125 businesses to expand in Barnsley. Barnsley has also seen more opportunities to provide diverse and secure employment with 136 new business starts, creating 2,292 new private sector jobs.

Barnsley Museums experienced its busiest ever year with footfall over 1.9million across our venues. We’ve seen sustained growth at Cannon Hall, Elsecar Heritage Centre, and Worsbrough Mill. This is an increase of 450,000 compared to last year, a near 25% increase in footfall. 

An area of improvement has been shown in the development of new homes, with 710 delivered against a target of 900. High inflation and interest rates have affected the housing market which has slowed down the rate which developers can complete at.

Healthy Barnsley 

One of our ambitions for a Healthy Barnsley is that we're united by a shared sense of pride where we look after and support each other. As part of this, we’ve been encouraging people outside of professional roles to report suspected safeguarding issues. We’ve seen a very welcome increase in reports, with 129 Adult safeguarding concerns reported in 2022/23.  

Learning Barnsley 

We want people to aim high and excel in their education and we’re proud to see that 98% of our early years and childcare settings are judged as Good or Outstanding by Ofsted. We’ve also seen that 79.2% of families have taken up the two-year free childcare offer, increasing opportunities for people to get into, progress at and stay in work. 

An area where more work is needed was shown in school attendance, with primary school attendance at 95% and secondary school attendance at 90%. We’re committed to improving in these areas by working with families to keep children in school. 

Councillor Robin Franklin, Cabinet Spokesperson for Core services, said: “It’s exciting to see how Barnsley is thriving, with the highest ever footfall at our museums. Barnsley is a great place to invest and we’re pleased to see that local businesses have continued to grow. 

“We’ve seen great results for our communities, with children being given the opportunity to aim high and achieve their full potential. These reports are a great way to make sure we’re on track to achieve our ambitions for the borough, enabling everyone to be the best they can be.” 

You can find out more information about the report in our cabinet papers.