Accessibility Travel Review

A large undertaking by TfWM, the accessibility review has been an ongoing process to understand the ability of the people in the West Midlands to utilise public transport and access the key economic and neighbourhood centres of the region. This has been conducted with an aim to understand class, ethnicity, disability and gender affect the processes of undertaking journeys within the West Midlands. We have reviewed a large number of models and literature, looking at how best we can begin to understand the issues in the region and which tools are best suited to understand them, and a review of the urban form in the region.

Travel information

Travel information is provided in a range of ways to ensure that it is accessible to a wider range of people, including disabled people. Information is provided through:

The Transport for West Midlands website includes a journey planner to help plan any rail, bus or Metro journey. The website also includes interactive travel maps with all public transport options in a specific area. The website is accessible from all devices, including desktop, table and mobile phone and recognises your location so that it can locate bus, train and tram stops near you and provide the next arrivals and departures from these stops or stations. We make every effort to work towards meeting web accessibility standards.

We have a TfWM Mobile application that will allow you to locate any bus, train or Metro near you and provide the next departures for
that stop.
We work with bus operators to enable bus vehicles to be tracked as to their current location. This enables more passengers to access Real Time Information for stops without screens and allows them to make smarter choices about their travel before starting their trip. Over time the applications will show more and more real time data.

Sustainable travel

Waking and cycling

Cycling and walking improvements across the region are an important way to create a more inclusive environment for our residents. By working closely with our disabled community, we can make smart adaptations early on in the design process that benefit the entire community.

The Government’s Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (CWIS) acknowledges that walking is worth investing in and is of growing importance to our health, living standards and wellbeing. The 2017 strategy includes a target to increase the percentage of children aged 5 to 10 walking to school from 49% in 2014 to 55% in 2025. In the new updated CWIS2, The government has set a target that by 2030, 50% of all journeys in towns and cities should be walked or cycled. For the first time ‘wheeling’ has now been considered to ensure that cycling and walking design is inclusive of those with disabilities who cannot access conventional methods of active travel.

The DfT funded ‘Walk to School’ programme sees walking rates jump by an average of 23 per cent and reduces congestion outside school gates by an average of 30%. The West Midlands hosts 3 Living Streets officers to deliver the programme with primary schools across the region. This now also incorporates the Little Feet project - working with early years settings children to encourage walking from a young age.

In 2020, cycle parking was delivered at Birmingham New Street, Moor Street and Coventry bus station 14 Cycle parking spaces at public transport facilities across the region were implemented to improve multimodal access.

The West Midlands hosts the Walking Works package offering walking support to businesses and education sites. The ‘Cycle Parking for Organisations’ project (which came out of the emergency Active Travel Fund) allowed any organisation in the West Midlands to apply for free cycle parking using the charity “Park That Bike”. More than 260 organisations successfully applied regionally including schools, charities, faith centres and businesses and 1350 new cycle parking spaces were implemented.

The Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan (LCWIP) was reviewed and updated for 2021 to include new phasing of the cycling routes and Core Walking Zones. There are now 21 Core Walking Zones in the plan and it is imperative that all in the region benefit from the scheme. There has been significant investment in cycling and walking in the West Midlands with Active travel funding awarded by DfT to further expand the Starley Network. We are currently working with local authorities to ensure these are designed to LTN 1/20 standard and are inclusive for all types of pedal cycles. We are looking forward to future funding streams to engage with harder to reach groups to get more involved in the future design of their neighbourhoods through co-design.

£2m of TCF allocation formed the Better Streets Community Fund, a community focused grant scheme which allowed residents in the West Midlands to submit ideas to improve their local area for cycling and walking. Almost all the projects have now been delivered, including Walsall Rugby Club Cycling Activity Centre and Stevens Park Toucan Crossings (Dudley).

Two Wheels for All sessions in Wolverhampton and Coventry have been funded through the Better Streets Community Fund, however due to Covid-19 restrictions, events have not yet taken place. Two inclusive cycling schemes are being delivered through the Active Travel Fund: ‘Ride Ahead Together’ and ‘Out on Your Loan’. ‘Cycling with Confidence’ sessions are blocks of 5 sessions to build confidence to use cycling infrastructure and roads and provides one to one Cycling support for those with complex needs. During 2021/2022, there were 1324 participants for Tri Cycle, and 134 people took part in a series of structured cycle courses (Cycling with Confidence and Cycling for Complex Needs).

Out on your Loan is a scheme falling under the Active Travel Fund, which allows people to have a long-term loan of an adapted cycle. Additional cycle training and support are also offered. By collecting data on the routes that the participants use and the barriers they encounter to using routes in the region, we intend to use this information to make our network more inclusive for adapted cycle users. 18 adapted cycles were made available with the application process recently closed and distribution finalised. This project was merged with Ride Ahead Together (being delivered by Midland Mencap) to offer a full package to disabled cyclists, offering tailored support and cycling skills and development.

Wheels for All is an initiative organised by Cycling Projects in various locations across the UK including the West Midlands (Coventry, Birmingham and Solihull).

Cycling for Everyone: The proposal for a Cycling legacy of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games (CWG), is Cycling for Everyone, an activation and behaviour change project which aims to encourage cycling as an everyday option for travelling. Its objective is to work with communities in the most deprived areas of the region. to enable and inspire them to use cycling as an enjoyable way to travel and stay active.

Station travel plans

Inclusive cycle parking for adapted and larger bikes has been introduced at Birmingham New Street and Solihull rail stations. Funding is being sought for community cycle parking initiatives which will encompass inclusive cycle parking in local communities.

West Midlands Trains have delivered 12 station travel plans (called Stations as Places prospectuses) across the West Midlands. Stations as places have worked with partners to identify stations that require and would benefit from future improvements in terms of accessibility, customer experience, regeneration and serving the communities they are part of. The railway stations included: Stourbridge, Smethwick stations, Kings Norton, Sandwell and Dudley, Selly Oak, University, Longbridge, Jewellery Quarter, Small Heath, Snow Hill, Wolverhampton, Bromsgrove and Tame Bridge Parkway. Due to the covid pandemic, funding for the Stations as Places (Dft) has been reprioritised under the Emergency Recovery Management Agreement.

LACF: The Local Authority Capability Fund
aims to support the delivery of walking and cycling activities in the West Midlands region. Development and behaviour change activities have been allocated into local authority and regional level delivery. This programme aims to provide inclusive opportunities to take up cycling and walking. By allowing all community members and groups to enrol onto the actives taking place, the LACF programme tackles a wider range of residents and further removes barriers to cycling.

Supporting disabled people and deprived communities

The following active travel fund projects were led by the he WMCA’s Healthy Communities team:

Social prescribing walking and cycling in Birmingham and the Black Country – delivered by Active Black Country and The Active Wellbeing Society trial looked at how we can improve the health outcomes of certain communities e.g. recent migrant, people on low income and living in some of the areas of poorest health. This helped connect GP surgeries to local opportunities, inspiring stories about people’s physical and mental wellbeing improvement as a result of being involved in the pilot and also issues around pain management, the challenges in getting people cycling especially in the Black Country and how we can build the capability and confidence on health partners to prescribe to the most appropriate walking and cycling opportunities. Delivery of the Black Country trial led to 109 people being prescribed to walking and cycling, 19% from ethnically diverse communities, 40% were disabled people and 75% reported in physical and mental wellbeing and over 600 attended the social prescribing sessions in Birmingham
Out on Your Loan -one of the important lessons learnt from previous work was about helping disabled people get access to a bike, Out on Your Loan provided practical support for disabled people by loaning people bikes to help them get around, whether this was a trike, adapted or everyday bike. The success of the scheme highlighted the demand for this type of scheme across the WM
Ride Ahead Together. This funding enabled the healthy Communities team to take the previous project to the next level with Midland Mencap to help build the confidence and capability of disabled people to cycle and use the cycling routes across the West Midlands and 1609 people were engaged
Bolstering Community Capacity – funding enabled us to contract Sustrans to work with Local Authorities to target those areas near to planned walking and cycling routes to find out how we can connect communities in some of our most deprived areas to walking and cycling initiatives, generating referrals to the WM ATF walking and cycling projects and find out what the opportunities and barriers are to get more people walking and cycling. Over 320 people were consulted in some of the most deprived areas and raised Issues around safety, time and access to bikes and local opportunities were highlighted as the main barriers, people wanted to know about more local opportunities on their doorstep. 258 people were referred to other West Midlands Active Travel Schemes.

Supporting employment

The Workwise service helps unemployed people return to work by providing discounted travel to a new job, enabling them to start and stay in work. From April 2021, Workwise supported over 1,375 unemployed people to travel to a new job as well as signposting to other schemes supporting people to get to work.
As from September 2021, the offer was changed from 50% off selected 4-week tickets for three months to the first and second 4-week ticket free then 50% off the third 4-week ticket* when starting work or increasing hours to more than 16 per week.

Research demonstrates that 90% of Workwise customers are still in employment six months after receiving Workwise support and over 66% are still using sustainable travel for commuting journeys. *on selected 4-week tickets.

Commonwealth Games

Transport

We are proud to have delivered a successful public transport Games, ensuring all competition venues were accessible by public transport – we provided almost 3,000 additional shuttle buses to facilitate 650,000 journeys and welcomed over 2 million people through New Street Station. To make sure public transport was an easy first choice, for spectators access to public transport was included in the Games event ticket, whilst volunteers and workforce were entitled to public transport within the West Midlands.

Travel information for the Games was provided in a range of ways to ensure it was accessible to a wide range of people. We delivered a dedicated Journey Planner to help plan any journey to a Commonwealth Games venue. This included easy-to-read information on travel options, times, and carbon impact. The planner included interactive maps with all public transport options. Information was also available in print and in digital format on the B2022 website on a venue by venue basis.

For those requiring accessible transport, Blue badge parking and accessible shuttle services were available at all venues, and these were cleared communicated through our dedicated journey planner, on the B2022 website and directly to spectators through official B2022 communication channels.

During the Games, all residents and spectators were offered 2 free 30min rides every day of the Games through the West Midlands Cycle Hire scheme, with the result that we saw 28,000 bike rides during the Games. We also provided free cycle parking facilities at venues which saw over 7,500 personal bikes used to get to Games events.

With financial support from central Government, TfWM invested £2million in Cycling for Everyone – a project aimed at addressing inequalities and activating the active travel infrastructure for all communities, through a range of locally selected activities such as cycle training, cycle loan schemes, and community events.

Jobs & Skills

WMCA, working with partners, established a Jobs & Skills Academy which saw £5million invested to train 7,5000 unemployed residents to take advantage of roles in the Games. A further £5.2million was secured to invest in ‘Find Your Future’, designed to support over 3,500 local people into employment and training associated with the Games. National Lottery funding helped connect 1,000 young people in priority groups
to Commonwealth Games opportunities, and a further £1million has been invested to train employees in higher level skills.

Inclusive communities portfolio

One of our core objectives at the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) is to make sure that everyone can share in our region’s success. The WMCA Inclusive Communities Portfolio leads

a range of work that contributes to this goal. Its role is to better embed equalities, diversity, inclusion and citizen voice into the way the WMCA plans, decides and delivers its activity.

Race Equalities Taskforce

In the West Midlands, we are proud of the incredible diversity of our communities, however we also know that many are not able to reach their full potential and thrive.

According to the 2011 Census, around 30 percent of people living in the region are of an ethnic minority heritage (900,000 people). Evidence shows that they are more likely to face additional barriers and challenges in life, from access to good jobs, transport and housing to outcomes in the education, health and criminal justice systems.

In July 2021, the WMCA Board agreed to launch a new Race Equalities Taskforce that take action to will improve opportunities for all of our communities. The Taskforce will bring a wide range of partners together to find new ways to address race disparities, focusing on the issues where the WMCA can make the most impact.

The Independent Chair of the Taskforce was appointed in December 2021 and is Yetunde Dania, Partner and Head of the Birmingham Office at international law firm Trowers & Hamlins. A fantastic steering group of strategic leaders has also been appointed, and Taskforce activity will begin during the 2022/23 year.

Young Combined Authority

One in three of our citizens in the West Midlands are aged under 25 years and their voices are not always represented at decision making levels. For example, as few as 15 percent of elected councillors in the UK are aged below 45 years.

The Young Combined Authority (YCA) was established in 2019 to help amplify those missing voices within regional decision making, and develop future leaders who are more truly representative of their communities. It plays a vital role in helping the WMCA to understand what our young population need and want from the future of our region.

By sharing their feedback and priorities, YCA members have continued to make a valuable contribution to our work throughout the 2021/22 year. The YCA’s vision and priorities report has directly informed the development of the WMCA corporate strategy and also won the YCA an achievement award from RTPI West Midlands. YCA members have additionally influenced a number of important initiatives, including Transport for West Midlands’ Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy, the WMCA Equalities Scheme and the refresh of our Local Transport Plan.

Our YCA have also continued to develop
their national impact, by working with youth representatives from other mayoral combined authorities through the National YCA forum. The ambition is to build on this work to create a stronger platform for youth voice and impact.

Leadership Commission

The West Midlands Leadership Commission has continued to deliver activity to enable more people from underrepresented groups to attain senior positions.

During the 2021/22 year, the Leadership Commission has focused on improving boardroom diversity and workplace inclusion. Its ‘Get Board Ready’ programme has prototyped workshops to equip people from groups who are underrepresented at leadership levels with the skills, confidence and know how to secure board or trustee positions. Meanwhile, Professor Kiran Trehan has continued to work with leaders in professional service firms to identify how they can make their workplaces more inclusive. This has culminated in a cutting edge research report, which will be launched in May 2022.

The Commission’s seminal ‘Leaders Like You’ report has continued to inspire action across the WMCA’s directorates and our own organisational practices. In the year ahead, the WMCA will work with the Commission to develop a new action plan for unlocking greater impact.

Community Engagement

The Inclusive Communities Portfolio also supports cross-organisational work to tackle inequalities and promote inclusion and citizen voice. Through the 2021/22 year, this activity has focused on how to build a stronger and more consistent approach to community engagement across the WMCA. Key opportunities for action have been identified through an internal mapping and engagement process, which will lay the foundations for action during the year ahead.

Housing

Key to our commitment to inclusivity and equality is creating places where everyone’s life chances, health and well-being are improved, to ensure everyone can have the opportunity to fulfil their potential. Housing, Property & Regeneration is committed to “building the future” by delivering funding, influence, policy, guidance and land to improve placemaking for the residents of the West Midlands.

Despite two years of lockdowns due to the Covid pandemic, continued devolved housing and land funding has seen the region remain nationally leading in brownfield regeneration and has unlocked wider benefits for the West Midlands. Last year saw WMCA invest more than £100m to unlock new housing, commercial and regeneration schemes across the region, delivering an average over 25% affordable homes for local people. .

Throughout 2021, the Help to Own scheme on The Marches site in Wolverhampton, continued to prove its success as an affordable housing initiative to support local people to get on the property ladder and own quality new homes without a deposit, and to ultimately buy their home for £1 on expiry of their lease. The scheme has been a key initiative to support Covid-19 key workers and others to make home ownership more realistic for people across the region and to offer flexibility and security.

2021 and 2022 also saw further genuine commitment to additionality in design, quality, innovation, density and zero carbon to benefit residents in the region. Alongside our Regional Design Charter and Zero Carbon Homes Charter, 2021 saw the launch of the Public Land Taskforce to support, convene and broker regeneration and affordable housing in public land, and 2022 saw a launch of the Public Land Charter to deliver more across our public land for the benefit of local residents. Our Town Centre Taskforce and Commercial Property Taskforce continued to convene and broker conversations for inclusivity and growth and a Future Homes Taskforce was also launched in 2022 to bring together two previously separate initiatives focused on Zero Carbon and Advanced Manufacture in Construction under a single Future Homes Strategy which will establish the West Midlands as the centre of excellence for low carbon living and modular construction in the UK.

Delivering inclusive growth and the scale, pace, quality and quantum of housing and commercial development in keeping with our brownfield first policy requires widespread adoption of advanced methods of construction and we continue to implement policies across our projects and programmes to bring about improvements in the advanced methods of construction and quality of life for people in the West Midlands.

Finally, building on brownfield land continues to create success stories of sustainability in the region. In December 2021, working with Keepmoat, WMCA invested in Manor Farm in Coventry to create a new community and sustainable neighbourhood on brownfield land that had come to the end of its life and was no longer fit for purpose. Using WMCA funding to clean-up the derelict land, funding was used to replace vacant brownfield land with good quality, energy efficient and affordable homes for local people. The scheme also helped to create and secure local jobs for local people by guaranteeing work for the construction sector during the pandemic.

Thrive at work

In late 2018, the WMCA launched Thrive at Work – a wellbeing commitment for the workplace which also includes an accreditation award.

The Thrive at Work commitment programme is endorsed by Health Education England and has itself been accredited by Innovate Awarding.

Thrive at Work began as a government supported pilot trial amongst SMEs across the WMCA footprint to establish whether a fiscal incentive would make a difference to the wellbeing offer employers make to their workforce and to understand the barriers SMEs face in implementing a wellbeing programme.

The programme has since gained funding from the Midlands Engine to extend reach across a wider footprint, including the East Midlands. This collaboration – the Mental Health and Productivity Pilot – is led by Coventry University with the University of Warwick and the national mental health charity Mind, amongst others, to deliver innovations in workforce wellbeing.

Take up for both the programme has exceeded expectation and at present there are over 400 organisations participating in Thrive at Work who between them employ approximately 250,000 people. This means we are well on our way to growing happier, healthier workplaces across

the region. Approximately three-quarters of the participants are SMEs with between 10 and 250 employees and there are larger organisations such as Local Authorities and NHS Trusts recognising the benefits and joining the programme. One participating organisation has 20,500 employees.

Thrive at Work was designed with the philosophy that one size does not fit all and the range of organisations on the programme proves that the design brief has been met. Evidence from the SMEs on the pilot trial suggests that some are already seeing changes to their workforce – staff sickness absence has reduced, staff retention has increased, and the general opinion is that Thrive at Work is having a positive impact.

The programme continues to reflect and develop, with a ‘Thrive at Home’ resource introduced in rapid response to Covid-19 and a new Foundation Level launched in early 2021. The Foundation Level has proved to be a successful steppingstone, with more than 10 organisations already accredited in recognition of their groundwork. There are now over 20 organisations fully accredited at Bronze Level, with as many again fast approaching Bronze and a number of organisations actively pursuing the Silver Level accreditation.

Thrive into work

Thrive into Work has continued delivery of IPS (Individual Placement and Support) since the Health-Led Trial completed in November 2020. This was the largest trial of its kind in the world, testing whether the IPS (Individual Placement and Support) model is more successful at supporting people with health conditions into good quality and sustainable employment than existing models.

With continued funding from the Department of Work and Pensions, Thrive into Work has continued delivery in the Black Country immediately following the Trial and re-launched in Birmingham, Solihull, and Coventry in July 2021. Through this service provision, an additional 2756 people have been supported through the programme. Referrals have come from a variety of primary care, community care and self-referral pathways. 83% of individuals engaged were out of work whilst 17% were in work at risk of, or currently off sick. As of August 2022, an additional 692 individuals with a health condition have been supported to achieve employment outcomes.

The most common health conditions described by service participants are related to depression, anxiety, and musculoskeletal pain or discomfort, these are in line with findings during the Trial. The most common barriers to employment are related to confidence, job search or interview skills, and lack of qualifications, these are also in line with findings from the Trial. 74% of participants who have achieved employment outcomes are choosing to work for over 16 hours a week, with an average weekly wage of approximately £276. The most popular job industries for outcomes achieved are currently Health and Social Work, Wholesale and Retail, and Education.

In July 2021, the specialist pathways arm of the service was launched and since then a specialist team has been providing support for individuals who are also at risk of homelessness, at risk of offending, or living with a neuro development a condition or learning disability. Engagement in the neuro developmental pathway has exceeded expectations and identified a clear need for this unique model of support. Currently programme starts for the specialist pathways have achieved 135% of target.

Building on the momentum generated through the Trial and ongoing service, Thrive into Work has grown into an impactful programme which continues to work closely with primary care practitioners and community health and non- health organisations to support individuals with a range of health conditions into work. Evidence shows that paid employment can create positive health outcomes and the personalised and comprehensive model of support which IPS offers helps individuals find and retain employment which works for them.

Inclusive Growth Framework

Inclusive Growth is about ensuring economies work for people, optimising places where residents can prosper and thrive. All work at the WMCA is considered through the lens of Inclusive Growth, ensuring that projects and programmes are working towards a deliberate and socially purposeful model of economic growth. The WMCA’s Inclusive Growth Framework Index (IGF) presents a set of indicators, grouped into environment and people-facing fundamentals (topic areas), that demonstrate the region’s trajectory towards or away from Inclusive Growth outcomes. Inclusion is at the centre of Inclusive Growth, with ‘Equality’ being one of the eight fundamentals considered essential to its achievement.

Disparities based on ethnic background, gender, disability and income have been embedded in indicators across the fundamentals, with the Equality fundamental providing a more intersectional lens through which to measure progress. For example, the following indicators have been included in the IGF to ensure the nuanced experiences of different people groups are fairly represented: the regional gender pay gap, the difference in owner-occupied housing status between disabled and non-disabled WM residents, the prevalence of Hate Crimes across the WMCA 7-Met area and the difference between highest male and lowest female employment rate: Indian males and Bangladeshi/ Pakistani females.

The principles of inclusive growth must be embedded into business-as-usual activities to achieve our mission of creating a fairer, greener and healthier West Midlands economy. This means creating IG ‘hooks’ in our systems and processes. For example the IG team has worked with the Housing, Property and Regeneration Directorate to embed inclusive growth considerations into the Single Commissioning Framework and the Acquisitions and Disposals Framework. These mechanisms are responsible for allocating where investments are made in the region, how they are delivered and the way in which we transfer ownership of our assets.

An inclusive growth approach ensures that resources are channelled towards benefitting all local citizens.

Skills

In 2019 the WMCA gained devolved responsibility from Central Government for the Adult Education Budget (AEB). The AEB stands at c£150m annually and is the key enabler of programme delivery for the WMCA’s employment and skills team. Pre devolution, adult learning in the West Midlands was delivered by over 400 providers, with over 15% of learning delivered by out of area providers. Devolution of the AEB to the WMCA has enabled us to focus on regional economic and skills needs by retraining unemployed people and progressing them into sustainable employment, and by retraining and upskilling adults and increasing qualification levels for residents to level 3/4.

Much of our AEB provision is impacting underserved and underrepresented communities, for example 56% of AEB learners in 2021/22 were females, 13% were aged 50 and over and 66% were from ethnic minority backgrounds. These statistics are important, given that much of our work aims to support the groups listed to enter the labour market, upskill and progress in work. To this end, it is key that 46% of residents on our Sector Work Academy Programmes (SWAP) provision progress into jobs and that course delivery at Level 3 increased 192% compared to pre-devolution.

Case Study: SWAP Learners

This case study shows how five Coventry residents with learning disabilities have successfully been recruited to paid employment in CV Life, following a new partnership training programme, and demonstrates the real-life impact of our inclusive growth aspirations.

Stakeholders in the region recognise the impact that the pandemic has had on young people and are working together to ensure they have access to high quality training that will support them to enter and progress in the labour market. The case study focuses on one of our successful SWAP

programmes, designed and delivered to support local residents to access some of the many vacancies available across the region. It illustrates the importance of flexibility, work experience and wrap around support in enabling those with additional needs to successfully find employment.

Luke, Jrah, Gordan, Jackie and Ibrahim were all offered jobs after taking part in Coventry Adult Education Service’s successful Sector Work Academy Programme (SWAP) with CV Life – a scheme for learners with learning disabilities, with shared work between Coventry City Council’s Employment and Skills Service, Adult Social Care, CV Life and the charity Grapevine.

Learners were referred through Coventry Job Shop’s Connect 2 programme, a European Social Fund (ESF) programme designed to support Job Shop customers with additional needs and barriers. Grapevine also referred one customer through their Help and Connect programme. The course was 6 weeks long with 2 days a week spent on work placement with CV Life and 2 days spent doing classroom learning in an onsite classroom provided by CV Life at The Wave.

Jackie Cruise, one of the successful course participants said: “When I first started the course, I was extremely nervous and was really unsure if I was going to get a job at the end of the 6 weeks.

“After the help from the Job Coaches, CV life mentors and tutors, I felt much more comfortable and started to really enjoy myself. I have now been offered a paid opportunity and I am so happy.

The experience has been brilliant, and I would recommend this to anyone!”

The learners have achieved a Level 1 Award in Health and Safety Awareness, as well as developing their customer service and communication skills and increasing their knowledge in safeguarding and equality and diversity. The learners have been supported in the classroom by their tutor and a learning support assistant from Coventry Adult Education Service.

The work placements have been hosted across CV Life venues including The Wave, The Herbert Art Gallery, Coventry Transport Museum and The Alan Higgs Centre. The roles have been in Front of House (first point of contact for visitors), Maintenance, Retail, Cleaning and as a Spa Attendant. CV Life Managers who have been trained to act as placement ‘Mentors’, have provided excellent support to learners to succeed in their placements. In addition, Job Coaches from the Coventry Job Shop and Grapevine provided initial support which was phased out as the learners became more confident in their roles.

The course has been highly successful, with the learners demonstrating their ability in the placements – supported by their classroom learning, commitment from CV Life and Job Coaching. Rather than putting the learners through a formal application and interview process, CV Life took the decision to treat the work placements as ‘working interviews’ with informal interviews at the end of the placements. This has resulted in 5 of the 6 learners who started the course gaining paid work with CV Life.

Healthy communities - wellbeing and prevention

Successes and plans include:

Commonwealth Games Physical Activity legacy: Much of the attention has been on how we ensure that the Games sport and physical activity reaches out to those communities who often are excluded, whether geographically and demographically. We have worked with Birmingham City Council and DCMS to develop the Games legacy mission and ambitions and with DCMS and Sport England to design an inclusive physical activity legacy including the Commonwealth Active Communities and the Sports equipment gift scheme which we are now seeing communities benefit from a £6m Sport England legacy investment.
Public Space Design: The WMCA is leading work with Sandwell MBC, Sport : England, Coventry CC and Walsall MBC to trial work with communities in some of the most deprived areas. The work in Tipton, Foleshill and Willenhall is beginning to see how we can encourage changes in how new or existing green and active spaces can be brought back through co-designing and co-managing with the public. In Foleshill, Positive Youth Foundation has worked with local residents and communities to find out why a stretch of canal and green space was not used and what was needed in the local area to help people get around and be active. With the community lots of activities have been put on such as walking groups, paddle boarding, gardening and training in such crafts which has transformed the area to be a safe and vibrant route for the community to get round and community led activities which are getting the community together and to get active.
Active and Resilient Communities Our focus has been on addressing wider determinants that are causing the health inequalities and inequalities in those people are active. Despite lockdown, the WMCA’s work active and resilient communities has had a positive impact. This is funded partly by the WMCA and £569,000 Sport England solicited, and £419,000 West Midlands Active Travel funding (WMATF) sourced. With the highest physical inactivity levels, the WMCA secured Sport England £150k for Black Country Consortium’s (BCC) “Black Country Moving” programme employing community connectors getting people active in 8 of the most deprived areas e.g. Castle and Priory Princes End, Darlaston South and Ettingshall, As many people living in some of most deprived areas have limited green space access, the WMCA has been piloting work to create new active spaces with communities near the canal in Foleshill, Gospel Oak Road Parklet & Willenhall Park with local authorities and communities working together to unblock design sites. Working with the NHS, Local Authorities, BCC & The Active Wellbeing Society sourced £125k WMATF for people powered health through social prescribing walking and cycling in e.g. Swanshurst and Iridium Medical Practices and Walsall Housing Group targeting minority ethnic and vulnerable groups most impacted by Covid. 74% of people who have taken part have said that this has helped improve their wellbeing.
Include Me is a regional movement, committed to becoming an exemplar region in engaging disabled people and those with long term health conditions to be physically active. Include Me WM (IMWM) is unblocking issues preventing disabled citizens getting active. It involves Sport England, citizens and organisations committed to delivering more inclusive and accessible sport. 91 organisations have committed to this change including 7 Local Authorities & Albion Foundation. Coventry City Council has IMWM has one of its Corporate Equality priorities. Birmingham City Council has IMWM as one of its “Active City” priorities. 55% of these organisations have increased training and over 620 staff have accessed free training via Sport England grant. 58% are being inclusive in marketing and communications with new IMWM Citizen Champions influencing more change. The West Midlands is now a national pilot to test the impact that targeted inclusive focus has on the development of community clubs with Pat Benson Boxing, Wolverhampton Wrestling and Birmingham Tigers FC. The Include Me Citizens Network and Panel were formed to place disabled people at the heart of the conversation. A potential reach to 21000 disabled citizens so far and a panel of 16 all with lived experience to identify priorities and propose change.

Corporate Social responsibility (CSR)

Our CSR Strategy demonstrates our commitment to economic regeneration and growth, environmental responsibility, workforce diversity and wellbeing and sustainable development.

The strategy is also intended to provide further organisational clarity to our staff in order to improve levels of engagement. A formal WMCA employer supported volunteering scheme was launched in September 2017. We offer all employees three days off per year to volunteer in a charity or charitable cause of their choice. Over the past year, employees have volunteered 38.5 days, supporting 11 different organisations. The majority of time was allocated to supporting the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. Other organisations that benefitted from our employee volunteers include: Keep Britain Tidy, Water Aid, Birmingham Children’s Play Network, Birmingham Citizens’ Advice Bureau, Aston and Nechells Foodbank as well as local schools.

This is Me

This is me is an award-winning mental health initiative that was developed by Barclays, adopted by The Lord Mayor’s Appeal and launched in the West Midlands by the WMCA in January 2019. This is Me supports organisations to change attitudes and build inclusive workplace cultures by encouraging employees to share their experience of mental health challenges. WMCA continues to model this internally by supporting our employees to share their own stories and experiences of mental health in videos, blog posts and shared live learning sessions. In addition to supporting organisations with storytelling, This is Me also helps to break down stigma through:

The Green Ribbon Campaign – encouraging staff to wear the Green Ribbon as a sign of support to colleagues who may be struggling
Free Samaritans Wellbeing in the Workplace

E-learning – equipping staff with the skills to manage their own mental health as well as support others, before they reach crisis point. The campaign is now in its fifth year and has garnered the backing of workplaces across the UK, where over 700 organisations are registered nationally, with over 100 being West Midlands based.

We are especially pleased to have supported the Organising Committee of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games in implementing This is Me storytelling along with the Department of Culture, Media and Sport.

Mental Health Commission

West Midlands Combined Authority has convened a new Mental Health Commission to look at the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on the mental health and wellbeing of citizens and to understand what action can be taken regionally with partners to respond to those wide and deep impacts. The commission includes leaders from essential sectors including local government, health, social care, the voluntary and community sector, business, sports and criminal justice as well as those who have experienced the challenges presented by the pandemic. It is taking a themed approach to working with different communities over several Commission sessions until the end of 2022 and plans to share its final recommendations early in 2023.

Accessibility resources

We have developed and distributed a number of accessibility resources that can help improve disabled people’s travel experience.

Our Assistance Cards are aimed to help people when using public transport. They are designed as small cards which you can tear off and place into your bus ticket and/or concessionary pass holder. The cards were revised in 2015 in conjunction with key local disability groups.

Tickets Please Pads is a note pad aimed at
helping people with communication and speech difficulties buy tickets on buses or for train journeys. The pad contains 50 tear-off slips, each of which states that the bearer may have a speech or hearing impairment. The user completes the slip with the required ticket information and hands it to the person selling the ticket. The pad can also be used to request travel information.

People who are blind or partially sighted can sometimes have problems distinguishing an approaching bus from a van or a car. To help, a Bus Hailer has been designed that enables the user to show the bus service number that they want to catch whilst at the stop. The bus driver can spot the Bus Hailer from a distance and it informs him that the person is waiting to catch the bus.

The Getting Around Access Guide is an annual guide to accessible public transport in the Transport for West Midlands area aimed at making people’s journey easier. It is especially helpful for people with disabilities, since it contains useful information on accessibility in train and bus stations. It also raises awareness of ways to acquire relevant travel information and services such as Ring and Ride. Comments received from community engagement is fed into the annual update of the guide.

Communication pocket Guide: The Communication Pocket Guide is a laminated resource which includes key messages to assist people with different disabilities when using public transport. It could be especially useful for people with hearing difficulties, people with autism, people with learning difficulties or people with speech difficulties. Messages can be written and wiped clean to aid communication with the driver or other passengers. The messages included within the pocket guide have been put together following consultation with the end users themselves and address key communication blockages for disabled people

The pocket guide has been very well received by a number of stakeholders, including disabled people, councils, special needs schools and disability organisations in the West Midlands Metropolitan area.

Please offer me a seat: We want everyone to have a safe and comfortable journey on the bus, train and tram. The ‘Please offer me a seat’ badge or/and card lets other passengers know that disabled customers have a very good reason to sit down The badge/card doesn’t guarantee disabled customers a seat but will hopefully help by alerting other passengers – this is especially important for hidden disabilities.

Accessible Communications Policy

We have got an accessible Communications Policy which helps ensure that public documents, passenger information and publicity material is made available in a range of formats to suit the specific needs of customers. Alternative formats may include written language translations, the Language Line telephone service, large print, audio CD or DVD, Braille or PDF. Even though some of the documents are provided in alternative formats from the outset, others are provided in alternative formats upon request.

Language Line

The Language Line Interpreting Service is being used to ensure that people whose first language is not English are still able to access our services and are not socially excluded. Customers using Travel Centres, reception, ticket offices or bus stations are able to use Language Line for assistance with timetables, public transport routes and ticket sales. Moreover, Language Line is used for mobility clinics/assessments.

Community Engagement

We are committed to engaging with, consulting and involving people from equality groups in the development of our priorities, policies and practices and have developed a comprehensive community engagement approach to ensure that people’s voices are heard and fed back to the organisation. A range of groups across all protected characteristics have been consulted and any feedback received is consistently fed back to relevant managers. Outcomes of the community engagement process are also used to inform our Equality Impact Assessment process and future action planning to ensure that our policies, actions and strategies reflect people’s aspirations and needs.

The Communications Team and the Equalities Team work together to ensure that any consultation is as inclusive as possible.

Health and Equity Impact Assessments

Equality Impact Assessments (EqIAs) can help us ensure that no groups are disadvantaged on equality grounds. They also indicate what we can do to promote equality of opportunity for the different protected characteristics. Over the past year we have combined Health and Equality Impact assessments to support our vision set out in the Equity and Inclusion scheme. The new process has been designed to facilitate

the promotion of equity, diversity and inclusion throughout our work and encourage a holistic approach, helping us to realise the potential within our commitment to equitable outcomes. The process is intended for use in the development and/or renewal of policy, strategy and programmes and will help to mitigate against any potential negative impacts. It considers impact upon:

The protected characteristics outlined in
the Equality Act 2010 (Age, sex, race, religion or belief, disability, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, marriage and civil partnership)
Socio-economic differences by individual socio-economic position
Area variations by deprivation level
Vulnerable and inclusion health groups

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Equality and Inclusion review 2022