Councillors will meet next month to discuss the progress being made to reshape the way it delivers services and helps residents through its One Coventry approach.
The One Coventry Plan is shaping the way the Council works with its partners to improve the city and the lives of residents.
The Plan covers the years from 2022-2030 and recognises that the role of the Council is changing. It aims to help it work with partners and residents in new, different ways to combat continued underfunding and benefit individuals, communities, organisations and the city.
The One Coventry Plan focuses on three main areas:
- Economy and skills – growing the local economy and ensuring everyone benefits
- Continuing to work to reduce the inequalities that exist between people living in the richest and poorest communities
- Tacking the causes and consequences of climate change
The latest report measures progress against 62 challenging target areas. The Council is shown to have improved in 37 areas and remained the same in six.
In its aim to increase the economic prosperity of the city and region, the Council has been involved in work that has seen:
- A 22% increase in city centre footfall
- 91% of school leavers aged 16+ going on to sustained education, apprenticeships or employment
- 818 Job Shop customers securing work
Schemes underway in the city include City Centre South and the Palmer Lane redevelopment and work to create a City Centre Cultural gateway at the former IKEA building. Work has also seen the Job Shop move to a high-profile new city centre location where it can help even more residents into work.
Work to improve outcomes and tackle inequalities within communities has seen successes including:
- 91.1% of children attending a good or outstanding primary school
- Over 3,600 people receiving adult social care support
- 1,164 homeless cases prevented or relieved
There has been progress in driving down incidents of fly-tipping through increased prosecution and education, along with work with partners in communities to help those in need through food banks and Family Hubs.
Other successes included the Holiday and Food Activity programme that is run during school holidays and sees children across the city able to take part in positive activities and receive a meal; more people have been supported to live independently in their own homes; there has been an improvement in reading and writing levels for children in Key Stage 2; and obesity levels have fallen for youngsters in Year 6.
In tackling the causes and consequences of climate change, the Council has worked with partners to:
- increase the number and use of electric charging points
- cut carbon dioxide emissions from its operations
- cut the number of pedestrians injured on city roads
There has also been a rise in the amount of household waste recycled and composted and the quality of pavements has improved.
Cllr George Duggins, Leader of the Council, said:
“Our One Coventry Plan focuses on enabling people to live their best lives in a vibrant and prosperous city. This can only be achieved by listening to, and collaborating with, those who live, work, visit, and do business in our city, by having different conversations and building on the great things that are already happening.
“This latest report shows great progress in many areas and I am delighted with the way we are working together as a city to find new solutions. The Plan is helping us to give help to those in the most need, while developing the city and preparing it for the future in areas from the environment to retail, leisure and wellbeing.
“There is still a long way to go, but we will continue to work with others to build on these early successes. Thank you to everyone who has been involved in the work so far, and I look forward to working with more partners and residents as we continue to reshape and build our city together.”
In its work improve as an organisation, the Council has also seen greater diversity of its workforce to better reflect the city it serves, and more residents able to be helped through self-service channels.
There has also been an increase in the number of households with access to full fibre to improve connectivity, with thousands of devices donated to community groups and good causes.
Read more about the One Coventry plan.