Making the most of our assets
Making the most of our assets
The Council has continued to take a balanced commercial approach to meeting its budgetary pressures and maintain an appropriately prudent approach to managing its finances. This approach has helped the Council to avoid some of the worst effects of budget cuts experienced elsewhere across the country in recent years.
One Coventry values
Work to create the ‘One Coventry Values’ commenced in early 2020 with the launch of the HR People Plan. One of its key aims was to develop, introduce and embed a set of organisational values for One Coventry.
Our ‘One Coventry Values’ have been co-created with the support and input of all employees across the Council, so they are reflective of how we want to be represented both as colleagues and to the wider community. We want to ensure there is clarity of purpose through the Council’s vision of our One Coventry values and behaviours; putting diversity and inclusion at the heart of everything we do. Moving forward the values will become an integral part of our reward strategy, appraisals, recruitment, attraction and onboarding, recognition and development and employee engagement.
Our values define us as an organisation and influence everything we do and how we treat each other. We recognise the crucial role each and every one of us plays in helping to achieve our goals. We want Coventry City Council to be an inclusive workplace where people know they are valued and feel empowered in their roles to achieve excellence for our customers and communities.
Our values are ONE COV:
• Open and fair - we are open, fair, and transparent;
• Nurture and develop - we encourage a culture where everyone is supported to do and be the best they can be;
• Engage and empower - we engage with our residents and empower our employees to enable them to do the right thing;
• Create and innovate - we embrace new ways of working to continuously improve the services we offer;
• Own and be accountable - we work together to make the right decisions and deliver the best services for our residents; and
• Value and respect - we put diversity and inclusion at the heart of all we do.
Further increase in full-time equivalent employees
There were 4,075.73 full-time equivalent (fte) employees in the Council at the end of March 2021, an increase of 123.24 fte compared to a year ago. This is the third year there has been an increase and following many years of reducing numbers. Some of the increase this year will be due to the Covid-19 pandemic - where the additional contain outbreak management funding has been used to staff teams supporting people to maintain self-isolation; support businesses and workplaces with Covid-safe measures; and deliver community testing, NHS test and trace and welfare programmes.
Reduction in sickness absence
In 2020/21, 10.47 days per fte (excluding schools) were lost due to sickness absence - down from 12.71 in 2019/20. The top reason for absence was stress, depression, and anxiety, followed by musculoskeletal problems and stomach, liver, and gastroenteritis; Covid-19 came fourth in the list. Notwithstanding the reduction in sickness seen this year, measures are continuing to be taken to reduce the rate further including improved health and wellbeing support for employees targeted at the most frequent causes of absence. The effects of Covid-19 on Council staff have included a greatly increased number of staff working from home which has placed significant emphasis on mental health and wellbeing.
Towards a more diverse workforce representative of the communities we serve
Improving equality, diversity, and inclusion has been a key priority of the Council’s people plan, and in June 2021, the new workforce diversity and inclusion strategy 2021-2023 was launched. The strategy recognises that Coventry’s strength lies in its diversity, and in order to be able to effectively meet the needs of our communities it is vital that we have a workforce that is reflective of the people we serve. By creating a culture that values diversity and actively promotes inclusion we will be able to harness these various perspectives and experiences to build an atmosphere where differences of opinion and outlook are not only respected but sought out and appreciated.
Increase in self-service transactions
In 2019/20 there was 121,391 transactions completed through self-service channels this increased to 352,751 transactions in 2020/21. There was a significant increase based on new processes being introduced to manage facilities such as tip visits to ensure that services could continue to function during the Covid-19 pandemic. Established services also saw a smaller increase in self-serve. The table below sets out the top ten forms submitted in 2020/21 and 2019/20.
Improved capture rate
The percentage of customer telephone contact answered [capture rate] improved from 91% in 2019/20 to 94% in 2020/21. Work has continued to improve processes to ensure that they are as efficient as possible, performance is focussed on an individual and team level to ensure that we are able to support residents with their enquiries.
Further reductions in carbon emissions
Emissions from scopes 1 and 2 in 2020/21 have decreased 8% since 2019/20 and 64% from the 2008/09 baseline. This reduction is partly attributable to the impact of Covid-19 which has resulted in reduction of electricity consumption in some Council offices. There has also been reduced streetlighting consumption, as a result of improvements to the extent to which dimmable controls are in operation across the city, which will now be a permanent change. Although this data only accounts for scopes 1 and 2 emissions, the Council are further developing our reporting of scope 3 data by ensuring we record and calculate additional scope 3 emissions to be used in future reports. The following defines what is meant by Scopes 1, 2 & 3:
1. All direct emissions from the activities of an organisation or under their control, e.g., fuel consumption on site such as natural gas and fleet fuel.
2. Indirect emissions from electricity purchased and used by the organisation.
3. All other indirect emissions from activities of the organisation, occurring from sources that they do not own or control.
Fleet fuel consumption increased by 25% from 2019/20. The increase has resulted from vehicles being added to the fleet to provide Covid-19 support services and to increase economic opportunities. Passenger transport created 28 additional routes for home to school transport and all pool cars, and additional spot hired vehicles, were used to distribute medical supplies to vulnerable people in isolation. Waste significantly expanded the bulk bin vehicles and skips vehicles to manage increased demand, as well as starting a new recycling contract on behalf of Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council. The addition of these factors caused an increase in scope 1 emissions.
Overall scope 1 building emission have only decreased by 1% from 2020/21 to 2019/20, a slowing of the reduction seen in previous years. However, this is attributable to improved reporting of LPG, causing LPG fuel consumption to appear (308%) higher than in previous years. Gas oil, natural gas, and kerosene both saw drastic decreases in consumption in 2020/21. In the 2019/20 and 2020/21 reports, scope 3 emissions expanded to include liquid fuel, gas, and electricity consumption of scope 3 buildings. This also included business travel, district heat loss and electrical transmissions and distributions as previously reported. However, due to methodological changes, care must be taken with this comparison: scope 3 building emissions are calculated based on data provided by leased or outsourced properties. Currently the data available is incomplete. Work is underway to revise existing procedures to develop a procedure to record more scope 3 building data which we have not been able to capture data for previously. The improved capture of scope 3 data may show an increase in emissions.
The Wave was successfully connected to Heatline in August 2020. Heatline is a lower carbon alternative to traditional fuel heating systems, thus reducing Scope 3 building carbon emissions. Moving The Wave to Heatline saved approximately 347,120 kilograms of CO2 equivalent emissions per year. Further work is also in progress to broaden scope 3 to capture emissions associated with employee commuting, water treatment, waste and procured goods.
The Council acknowledges we have a major role to play in not only setting an example for others to follow but mobilising all that live and work in the city to embrace the challenges that climate change and delivering a sustainable future presents us. This is not seen as a threat but more as an opportunity. We have the opportunity to position ourselves as a leading city in a global market. The Council, with the support of the WMCA and funding from Innovate UK, has set up a Regional Energy Systems Operator project to look at the most environmentally sound ways of generating and supplying heat and power across the city. The outcomes of this action research will provide vital information which builds upon our track record in addressing climate change within the organisation. The Council has set up an independent Climate Change board to mobilise businesses, communities, and voluntary organisations across the city into developing a new citywide climate change and sustainability strategy and action plan. The plan will build upon the great work currently happening throughout the city and will ensure Coventry is a leading driver for sustainable growth and employment, urban innovation and creating a green healthy environment.
Coventry City Council’s action dates back to being a signatory in 2008 for The Covenant of Mayors. We continue our work to a more sustainable future in the new Climate Change strategy which is currently under development. The new strategy will need to set out a path to decarbonising, not just the council’s emissions, but all citywide emissions in order to mitigate the effects of climate change. This is in mind of the WMCA having set a target of carbon neutrality for the region by 2041, as part of the new strategy for the West Midlands. In view of this, the council recently joined 58 cities from across Europe as part of the Eurocities initiative who have signed a letter to the President of the Council of the European Union in favour of an ambitious revision of the EU 2030 energy and climate targets to at least 55% by 2030, up to 65% with the right support, compared to 1990 levels alongside funding to be channelled to a green and just recovery in cities.
Regenerating the economy
In 2020/21 capital grants that have been the subject of grant funding bids to external bodies account for c£119m of funding for projects within the Council's Capital Programme.