University of Chester Impact Report

LEVELLING UP IMPACT REPORT

Foreword

Justine Greening, Founder of the Purpose Goals and Former Secretary of State for Education

We must recognise that no single group has all the answers to levelling up and spreading opportunity. It is going to take leadership from all sections of society.

Often the solutions to levelling up are being innovated, developed, trialled and deployed at the grassroots in communities everywhere.

Some of the most innovative solutions are coming from universities under the leadership of their Vice-Chancellors.

For them and their institutions, levelling up and the phrase ‘talent is spread evenly but opportunity is not’ encapsulates the challenge they and their institutions constantly seek to address. For these institutions it is part of their organisational DNA.

It has never been a more important time to reap the wider benefits of the successful approaches, such as those described in this report, especially as the levelling up and social mobility debate necessarily shifts onto exploring practical solutions.

The University of Chester, under the leadership of Vice-Chancellor Professor Eunice Simmons, has worked hard to become one of the most forward-thinking universities in the UK, evidenced by its willingness to contribute to the purpose agenda and supporting the creation of an impact report which examines the steps it has taken to strengthen social mobility.

This independent report assesses where and how the university is meeting the 14 goals and highlights the areas where it could make even more of an impact on its staff, students and the wider public.

The goals, which were created with the Purpose Coalition - a group of purpose-led organisationscreate a common design with which organisations can measure their progress.

This allows those organisations to generate benchmarks, target their social impact more effectively and collaborate through partnerships and the sharing of best practice.

In this report, the University of Chester has demonstrated a particular strength in supporting young people in their educational career, particularly underrepresented groups.

It offers several examples in support of Goals 2, 3 and 4, which focus on school years, 16+ and gaining the right advice and experience throughout academic life and then transitioning into their careers.

Outreach is of high importance to the university, and its Outreach Team works hard to involve and encourage young people from all backgrounds to pursue higher education.

The university is proud of its achievements in promoting diversity and equality for its staff and students, as well as the wider public.

The student population is heavily involved in its equality work, for example by supporting advocate groups or by taking on student opinion in its recruitment process.

There is always more that can be done within the purpose agenda, but it is extremely encouraging to see the progress that has been made by the University of Chester and the continued focus on delivering social value for students, colleagues, and the wider Chester community.

Foreword

Since 1839 our institutional mission has committed us to provide our students with the education, skills and support to enable them to develop as confident world citizens, and to serve and improve the global communities within which they live and work. One of my main priorities on joining the University of Chester at the beginning of 2020 was to enhance this mission-led culture of social mobility and inclusivity, not just for our students, but also for our staff and communities.

Professor Eunice Simmons Vice-Chancellor, University of Chester

As a local ‘anchor’ institution, we recognise that we have a responsibility to engage proactively and meaningfully in placemaking. Our University doesn’t only serve the communities surrounding Chester; we have University Centres in rural and urban areas, in Shropshire, Birkenhead, Warrington and Reaseheath. All of these communities face their own challenges and have their own aspirations for a fair and prosperous future.

We recognise that we must adapt as the priorities of our local and global communities, and those of our students, evolve in response to the challenges we all face. Work with regional place makers over the past few years has highlighted shared commitments to achieving sustainable and inclusive growth that addresses the inequalities facing marginalised and underrepresented communities, without negatively impacting our natural environment.

Our Strategic Executive Team provides intentional leadership in support of these priorities, through board membership and key partnerships with our local authorities, NHS partners, charities, creative organisations and business representatives. University leadership is important, but we recognise the huge potential and significance of our students as agents of change. Our 2,600 staff support more than 14,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students and some 3,000 students at our partner institutions. While we welcome students from 115 countries, in 2021/22, nearly half of our new undergraduates joined us from our local communities, and 40% of our students come from areas of low participation in higher education.

Our Citizen Student Strategy reflects this, encouraging us all to consider how our activities support three themes that are crucial for meaningful and effective social mobility:

- Enhancing social capital – opening doors for students whilst studying and beyond.

- A holistic student experience – creating a culture of opportunity and self-development.

- Focusing on lifelong learning – developing an inclusive offer for students of all ages and backgrounds.

The work explored in this report, aligned to our Strategy and the Purpose Coalition Goals, represents just a snapshot of what must be a long-term commitment, but recognising and celebrating our achievements along the way is both empowering and a valuable learning opportunity.

Personally, some of the achievements of which I am particularly proud include my role developing and chairing the Transforming Access and Student Outcomes (TASO) charity, an independent ‘what works evaluation centre’ partnering with more than 100 universities, providing access to research, toolkits and evaluation guidance to help improve equality in our sector.

Closer to home, over the last couple of years, we have moved our University Centre Warrington into the town centre, embedding within the community our health and social care, education and policing provision. This is helping to break down barriers (both perceived and actual), making higher education more accessible and reducing the need for people to drive to access their higher education. The move has created new facilities to better serve the needs of the town, including a digital learning centre and collaborative spaces for use by both businesses and local communities, alongside our students.

At University Centre Reaseheath we’ve supported a new Institute for Sustainability and Food Innovation to bring students, research and companies together in a cutting-edge facility.

These are just three examples of the work we are undertaking in support of the Purpose Coalition Goals. Please read on to hear more about some of the innovative, impactful work our students, staff and local communities have developed, and our ambitions for the future.

The Journey to the Purpose Goals

In 2015, Secretary of State for International Development, Rt Hon Justine Greening led the UK delegation to the United Nations (UN).

Along with 184 international partners, she helped establish the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In 2017, the SDGs were made more ‘actionable’ by a UN resolution adopted by the General Assembly which identified specific targets for each goal, along with indicators used to measure progress towards each target.

These 17 interlinked, global goals were designed to be ‘a blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all’. The SDGs emphasised the interdependent environment, social and economic aspects of development by centralising the role of sustainability. As Secretary of State, Justine recognised how useful a common set of accessible but ambitious objectives could be in galvanising action to effect change.

Since then, the COVID-19 pandemic and the costof-living crisis has only exacerbated many of the problems relating to social inequality in the UK.

The pathway towards recovery is a chance for the United Kingdom to address these issues and level up but that requires updated and specific goals to outline, inspire and measure progress. The most committed signatories of the Social Mobility Pledge, the Purpose Coalition, and the Cost-of-Living Taskforce aim to improve social mobility in the UK and have responded to this challenge with the launch of the Purpose Goals in February 2021 and the Cost of Living Taskforce in August 2022.

The Purpose Goals build on the foundations laid by the UN’s SDGs by outlining 14 clear goals and draw on expertise provided by academia and businesses which has been applied to the unique challenges facing the UK currently in what has potential to be a profound levelling down moment for the country.

The Purpose Goals focus on key life stages and highlight the main issues that need to be resolved in order to create a level playing field for all in this country. The Goals are intended to guide how the urgent ambition to level up the UK can actually be achieved. The impact of the work carried out to do this can, and should, be measurable.

Sub-goals with quantifiable targets and measurements against which progress can be charted within the 14 goals are being developed by the Purpose Coalition. This will create a more transparent and mensurable framework with which to monitor and subsequently address problems of social mobility and inequality. The Purpose Goals are designed to look at the outcomes of CSR strategies and measures that organisations operate. Many organisations are doing outstanding work and making important contributions to society but are still measuring this via inputs.

Crucially, these Goals are a shared framework. Justine and the wider Purpose Coalition, of which the University of Chester is a key member, believe that with a common understanding and objectives, there can be action that drives change on the ground. Distinct entities, including universities, businesses, policymakers, and public sector bodies can work together, with the shared Goals being a uniting and motivating foundation for progress. As the problems which cause social inequality in the UK are interlinked, the response to these problems must also be collaborative.

The Purpose Coalition has encouraged businesses and universities to share their own best practice with other organisations, so they are not only demonstrating their own commitment, but creating a shift towards purpose-led organisations. The Goals can encourage an extension of this co-operative exchange of information which can be used to address the cost-of-living crisis, and later level up the UK.

Our role in Levelling Up and the Purpose Goals

Our work towards Levelling Up and the Purpose Goals happens at multiple levels:

- Work we do directly with and for our students

- The choices we make and the activity we undertake as a large employer

- Our role as a local place maker in partnership with other organisations

The examples of our activity provided in this section are designed to give an insight into the work we do at these three, distinct levels. We know that we can’t have a transformative direct impact in relation to all 14 Goals, but we can partner with stakeholders focused on different priorities to understand and support their work.

Summary of Progress to Date

Purpose Goal

1. Strong foundations in Early Years

2. Successful school years

Examples of Work to Date

Working with primary schools to improve their support for learners with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)

3. Positive destinations

Post 16+

School Outreach and Widening Participation activity

‘Taste of University’ summer school

‘Students in Schools’ volunteering scheme

Our Centre for Foundation Studies provides support for alternative routes into HE

1:1 tailored support for care-experienced and estranged students

Higher and Degree-Level Apprenticeship offer, in addition to ‘traditional’ degree qualifications

4. Right advice and experiences

Graduate peer mentoring scheme, in addition to our core advice and support offer

Rewarding student-led success via the Chester Difference Award, which recognises students who work to enhance their employability

5. Open recruitment

Innovative anonymised recruitment process for students applying to our Workplace Experience Scheme

‘Students as Recruiters’ – student inclusion on recruitment panels for student-facing roles

Application and interview advice, and guaranteed interviews, for students from underrepresented groups who apply to volunteer with our Chester Community Law Project.

6. Fair career progression

Our Work-Based and Integrative Studies framework enables employed, mature learners to tailor study and research to their career goals.

Leadership Academy workshops available to all University staff who currently manage people or aspire to a management position.

Activity with the West Cheshire Poverty Truth Commission, working with local communities with lived experience of poverty.

Cost of living student support package; student access to debt counselling and financial protection.

24/7 Student Assistance Programme with access to emotional, legal, medical and financial support.

Working with other universities to develop the ‘Recovery Friendly University’ Pledge.

Our Venture Programme supports students and recent graduates to explore starting their own business.

Our business support offer includes help for potential entrepreneurs.

Our Digital on Tour van, equipped with drones and AR/VR headsets, delivers skills outreach to local communities, schools and businesses.

We offer a Digital Inclusion Fund and a Digital Skills Week to support our students.

Our ‘Let’s Talk Transport’ group facilitates discussions around the barriers to sustainable and active travel and looks for potential solutions.

Our £6.5m investment in Warrington town centre has reduced barriers to HE for local people.

We have signed a Partnership Agreement with Cheshire West and Chester local authority, articulating shared placemaking goals.

We utilised Safer Streets funding to implement a safer taxi scheme and pilot a new safety app.

Whole-institution programme of change to support our ‘Road to Net Zero’. Academic lead for the industrial decarbonisation HyNet cluster.

We offer Carbon Literacy Training to all students and staff.

Celebrating best practice and open discussion via our annual Diversity Festival

Our Race Equality Challenge Group is developing tangible changes to improve race equality across our University.

Case studies

Case Study 1:

Anonymised recruitment to Workplace Experiences

“It’s just a fantastic opportunity to showcase your skills and to be judged on them, rather than who you are”: this is how a student described their experience of anonymous applications for Workplace Experiences, our collective of placements, internships and project scholarships.

During planning for the 2020/21 academic year, the Careers & Employability Service at the University of Chester moved away from using a traditional CV and cover letter recruitment process to an anonymous application process that put “what a student could do now and how they could develop” above “who they were and what they have done”. This was part of a move to eradicate unconscious bias, but it also brought other opportunities.

With an anonymous application process in place, we actively encouraged students to apply and employers to take part. We saw engagement and applications from some of our most underrepresented students increase, and an increase in those who were appointed to Workplace Experiences from under 20% to almost 60%.

During this process we shared engagement data with our stakeholders, including academics and employers, which could be analysed to identify trends to inform future work. During an evaluation of Workplace Experience anonymised applications, 90% of respondents agreed that unconscious bias still exists in society, and 100% of respondents concurred that anonymised applications were a way to help eradicate unconscious bias from employers within the recruitment process. During a keyword analysis of the qualitative feedback, it was noted

that over a third of respondents used the word “opportunity”; as a Careers Service we felt that anonymised applications gave underrepresented students confidence in applying to Workplace Experience opportunities.

“The application process was very easy, and also less stressful, as you don’t have to fill out lots of personal details which allows you to focus solely on the skills you can offer” (3rd Year Events Management Student).

From an employer’s perspective, the interventions help them to achieve EDI objectives:

“Anonymous applications allowed me, as an employer, to make judgements based on the key elements of the application that matter to us as a company. I believe that regardless of how hard you try, it’s impossible to avoid subconscious bias or overcompensation in the efforts to avoid bias. The anonymous application removed this as a thought process and ensured we chose our candidate without the process being impacted by bias.”

From a student’s perspective, the interventions helped foster the ability to be comfortable in applying for roles without the concern of including their personal characteristics:

“I had 2 great experiences using the anonymous applications and felt confident to be 100% honest in my applications.”

At the AGCAS Awards for Excellence in June 2022, the Careers and Employability Team reached the final shortlist in the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion category for their work around anonymised recruitment to workplace experiences.

Case Study 2:

Pro Bono and Community Engagement at Chester Law School

Chester Law School operates a number of projects that engage our students in real-world legal work, whilst also providing support to underrepresented and vulnerable members of our communities.

Chester Legal Advice Centre

The University of Chester Legal Advice Centre houses five separate activities. The first three, the Chester Legal Advice Clinic (dealing with Family and Consumer Law issues), the Enterprise Clinic (dealing with Commercial Law queries) and the Employment Law Clinic entail student volunteers directly advising clients from the local community on their legal issues, supervised by qualified solicitors from local and regional law firms.

We were the second University in the country to establish a Finding Legal Options for Women Survivors (FLOWS) Clinic, part of a national, independent legal support service designed to help protect women against domestic abuse. This work entails students assisting survivors of abuse in drafting their applications and witness statements to gain a non-molestation order and/or occupation order against their abuser.

Our Asylum & Immigration project is rooted in our strong relationship with Eastgate Chambers, which holds the Legal Aid contract for Immigration and Asylum cases across North Wales. Since 2018 our students have been assisting Eastgate with research and administration for their immigration clients, and most recently have been involved with two significant activities:

- Syrian Project: assisting with the drafting of applications and compiling evidence for Syrian refugees who entered the UK in 2017 under the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme and are now applying for indefinite leave to remain in the UK

- Ukrainian Project: assisting with interviewing and filling in paperwork required for Ukrainian refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine.

At the LawWorks and Attorney General Pro Bono Awards 2021 this work was shortlisted for Best New Pro Bono Activity.

Chester Community Law Project

The Chester Community Law Project is a student volunteering initiative committed to empowering members of our local, regional and national communities by raising awareness of legal rights and obligations. Students work in teams, led by a student Project Manager and supervised by qualified solicitors, to research, produce and deliver interactive sessions, leaflets and online videos on a wide range of legal issues for the benefit of stakeholders, including school children, pensioners, foodbank users, those facing homelessness, refugees and women facing discrimination in the workplace.

We offer application and interview advice, and guaranteed interviews, to students from those areas least represented in higher education who apply to volunteer with Chester Community Law Project and/or the Legal Advice Centre.

Details of our activities

Goal 1. Strong foundations in Early Years

As a University, our most recent Ofsted inspections have rated our Early Years –Primary Education provision as outstanding. We have also revalidated Early and Middle Years programmes for those wanting to work alongside the school sector. Through this provision we work to equip the teachers of the future with all that they need to effect positive change.

Goal 2. Successful school years

Our Outreach Team is dedicated to working closely with a wide range of schools, schoolchildren, their teachers and career advisors, with a view to broadening aspirations and enhancing awareness of the benefits of higher education.

In 2021/22 the Team attended 247 events in schools and colleges, delivered 60 online sessions and hosted 28 campus visits, working with schools and colleges across the North West, North Wales, Shropshire, Staffordshire and the West Midlands.

In July 2022, we welcomed almost 100 Year 12 students to Chester for a 4-day ‘Taste of University’ residential event, so they could experience what student life is like at the University of Chester via subject taster sessions and sports and social activities. Crucially, priority was given to students from identified underrepresented backgrounds.

Particularly focusing on demographics and geographical areas that are underrepresented in higher education currently, our Pathfinder project targets key areas and delivers sustained outreach relevant to schoolchildren’s current phase of education. This offer is designed to stimulate social

mobility by making the link between aspiration and attainment. The Higher Education Access Tracker (HEAT) is then used to record activities and measure our effectiveness in encouraging young people to progress into higher education.

Engaging our students in this work, our ‘Students in Schools’ scheme arranges volunteering opportunities in local primary and secondary schools across Cheshire and the Wirral, with our students providing one-to-one mentoring, classroom support and paired reading groups.

Goal 3. Positive destinations post 16+

Following on from our work towards Goal 2, our Outreach Team has worked with national mentoring charity, Brightside, to deliver the ‘Get Connected’ mentoring project, which supported new students from Widening Participation backgrounds with their transition to university. We were proud to receive second place for this activity in the What Uni Student Choice Awards!

Our expert Centre for Foundation Studies supports those who need a bit extra help as they enter higher education, offering a variety of Foundation Year routes. Other support to make higher education possible for more people includes Foundation Year Bursaries, Care Experienced Bursaries and a Carer Support Package. We also offer tailored support for

estranged and care experienced students, including accommodation support, a dedicated link member of staff, and access to a peer group.

Supporting social mobility into higher education is essential, but ‘traditional’ degrees are not the only option. Our apprenticeship offer includes policing, social work, nursing and engineering, and we work closely with employers to ensure that participants gain the practical, industry-specific skills, knowledge and experience they need to reach their chosen career. The opportunity for flexible study is incredibly valuable in support of widening participation.

These, and the other activities we undertake to diversify our student population, are so important: in 2022 almost half of those who graduated with us came to us from underrepresented backgrounds.

Goal 4. Right advice and experiences

In addition to the wide range of volunteering opportunities available to students and staff, and our core careers service, we offer a range of specialised support tailored more specifically to social mobility.

Inspiring Futures is our exclusive programme of additional careers related activities and support, available to current undergraduates from underrepresented groups. The programme encourages students to access opportunities via Industry Insights, Workplace Experiences, LinkedIn Learning, and additional funding via our Futures Employability Fund, Santander Network Fund and the ASPIRE Fund.

Further advice is provided via our new Graduate Peer Mentoring scheme, which engages experienced graduates to share their skills and knowledge with students and recent graduates as they transition from university into a career, while gaining beneficial experience for themselves.

We love to celebrate students who go the extra mile to access the support on offer and make it work for them. The Chester Difference Award recognises students who take part in activities that enhance their employability and career development, and is designed to help them reflect on their career plans, develop and articulate key employability skills, understand the recruitment process, build social capital and cultivate their networks.

Goal 5. Open recruitment

As detailed in the Case Study section, we’ve worked hard on this one. We’ve developed an anonymous recruitment process for students applying for a workplace experience with an employer. The data included in the case study highlights some really great outcomes from this work. We also collaborate with a graduate recruitment agency specialising in social mobility, targeting students from underrepresented backgrounds with suitable job vacancies, and work with local, national and international employers who are actively promoting opportunities for individuals from underrepresented groups. This includes activities relating to application support, increasing opportunity awareness and mentoring opportunities.

Giving students experience of the recruitment process from a different angle, our ‘Students as Recruiters’ scheme trains and supports students to play a key role in the recruitment process of student-facing staff applying to join the University.

Goal 6. Fair career progression

In terms of supporting the career progression of our staff, we have well-established informal and formal mentoring schemes in place, and Leadership Academy workshops are available to all staff who currently manage people or aspire to a management position. We actively encourage the development of women leaders via Advance HE’s Aurora scheme, a leadership programme tailored to women working in our sector.

Available to both our staff and the wider public, our Work-Based and Integrative Studies (WBIS) framework enables working professionals to tailor their study and research activities to their chosen career. WBIS offers flexible study at Level 4 and above, takes into account prior learning, and recognises experiential learning undertaken in the workplace.

Goal 7. Widening access to savings & credit and Financial Inclusion

We want our students to get the best start in achieving their career and personal aspirations, and to make higher education possible for more people. Part of that means targeted financial assistance and advice, including debt counselling. In addition to longstanding non-repayable hardship funds, more recently we have put in place a substantial cost-of-living crisis package of support for students, which has included subsidised food and free period products.

Beyond our students, we also work within our local communities to champion financial inclusion: staff board membership of the West Cheshire Poverty Truth Commission has led to some meaningful work, including engaging individuals with lived experience of poverty as Community Inspirers to co-create supportive solutions. This work has also included co-production of a new ‘Food for All’ strategy, focused on tackling food poverty locally.

Goal 8. Good health and wellbeing

We are committed to promoting a culture where wellbeing issues can be discussed and supported openly, and recognise the importance of both physical and mental wellbeing. As a result, we have signed up to the University Mental Health Charter, and encourage staff and student leaders to undertake Mental Health First Aid Training. We are working with other universities to develop a ‘Recovery Friendly University’ pledge, and provide Recovery Ally training for staff and students to support individuals in recovery from addictions.

Our offer to students includes a 24/7 Student Assistance Programme and online self-help sessions (support for, e.g., sleep, social anxiety and unhelpful thinking), which evolve in response to student feedback. We champion peer support groups, including a Male Mental Health Group and a Student Parent Support Network, and develop tailored sessions for our growing community of international students, aimed at helping them to feel more ‘at home’ in Chester. For our staff, we offer a confidential telephone counselling service and discounted gym membership, and our well-established Nursing provision, and new Chester Medical School, are dedicated to developing well-rounded healthcare professionals.

Working beyond our immediate University community, our Volunteering Team link students with more than 100 local charities, many of which focus on support for vulnerable members of our community. We have excellent links with the Armed Forces community, and have undertaken an evaluation of the Armed Forces Covenant Trust’s Tackling Serious Stress Programme, and provide expertise to a number of local and national safeguarding charities in support of older people in our community. At our University Centre Birkenhead, we have piloted an innovative Creative Health offer, where nursing students work alongside artists to understand the benefits of artbased activities for wellbeing, including our students organising a café for members of the public to drop-in and take part. The success of this work has resulted in it being extended to our University Centre Warrington.

Goal 9. Extending enterprise

Our Venture programme supports 1,000+ students and graduates to explore business ideas and engage in enterprise activity, developing the skills, confidence and connections they need to work for themselves. As part of the programme, Santander Universities provides up to £5,000 to support UK students’ or graduates’ new businesses or freelancing ideas, and in 2021/22 this led to 21 new student-led businesses. In March 2020 Venture was showcased nationally as best practice in entrepreneurial support.

Other routes by which students gain enterprise skills and experience include our 5-week workbased learning placements for second-year

students (in 2021/22, 307 organisations across 68 industries and sectors hosted 514 students), and student-led volunteering projects, where students receive training to support them project manage activities and groups of volunteers.

Our support and expertise extend to the existing business community also, via our range of business support activities, which have worked with more than 1,800 businesses to date. Our work includes support for potential entrepreneurs and small businesses via bootcamps, 1:1 support and workshops. We are particularly proud of the women-led small businesses that we have helped to nurture through this activity, and the part-funded training we delivered to 1,393 employed people in Cheshire and Warrington during the Covid-19 pandemic, which supported 319 employer organisations.

Goal 10. Closing the digital divide

As for so many organisations, the Covid-19 pandemic catalysed a transformation in the way we use digital tools, and we are involved in supporting this transition within our communities, also. Our Digital on Tour van, which is equipped with drones, LiDAR scanners and AR/VR headsets to engage in digital skills outreach activity with local communities, schools, businesses and our own students, has to date worked with more than

2,500 individuals (of all ages) and more than 70 businesses located with Cheshire and Warrington.

Addressing the needs of our students, our Digital Inclusion Fund is designed to support those who are struggling to access the internet, have no regular access to a laptop or computer, or need software or materials in order to complete their course. Our Digital Skills Weeks offer events and activities designed to build students’ digital skills and awareness, and we have introduced PlayLabs for teaching staff to explore how they can better use digital resources to support their students.

Goal 11. Infrastructure for Opportunity

Connecting people and places to opportunity is at the core of our institutional mission. Since 2021 we’ve invested more than £6.5m moving our University Centre Warrington into the town centre (from our existing site outside town), helping to break down barriers (both perceived and actual) to accessing higher education. The focus of the new Centre is skills provision that will enable local people (of any age) to gain employment, or progress in the workplace, building on our work to date in Warrington, where consistently 50%+ of our learners are the first generation in their family to pursue higher education, and 70%+ live locally. The move has created new facilities to better serve the needs of the town, including a digital learning centre and collaborative spaces for use by both businesses and local communities, alongside our students.

More broadly, we work closely with our students and staff, and local place makers, to increase accessibility to our Centres. Our Transport Steering Group reviews travel and transport data to define key developments, and is informed by our ‘Let’s Talk Transport’ group, which facilitates discussions around the barriers to sustainable and active travel and looks for potential solutions. The University is represented on a local Travel Demand Group, which aims to exercise influence over transport policy developments in support of increased access to jobs, healthcare and education.

Goal 12. Building homes and sustainable communities

As an ‘anchor’ institution that brings students of all ages into our local areas, we recognise our significant place-making responsibilities here, and the need to partner with other key organisations and communities. In addition to our formal partnership agreements with local authorities, we work with a number of local organisations, including police community support officers, to improve public safety, and were awarded £550,000 by the Police and Crime Commissioner for Cheshire as part of the Safer Streets funding. This funding was used to implement additional CCTV and lighting, a safer taxi scheme, the pilot of a safety app and training for 13 local

businesses to become safe spaces, among other work. This added value to our existing student-focused campaigns relating to issues such as personal safety, drug use and river safety.

We are a part of the local communities where our University Centres are based, and seek to improve the spaces we all share. Our Chester city centre gallery space – designed to actively engage with our local community – attracted more than 5,000 visitors in 2021/22, and staff and students regularly co-host events at leading cultural centre, Storyhouse, in Chester. We have a longstanding relationship with the Warrington Wolves Foundation (the charitable arm of the professional rugby league club), and have worked with them to deliver and measure positive impacts in their communities.

Pictured: Students and staff were presented with an award by the High Sheriff, Jeannie France-Hayhurst, to acknowledge their part in a range of initiatives to highlight and tackle all forms of harassment and enhance safety.

Goal 13. Harness the energy transition & Net Zero

We are involved in a number of strategic initiatives dedicated to this priority, in line with our commitment to supporting sustainable and inclusive growth in our local areas. Our VC sits on the Board of the Environmental Association of Universities and Colleges (EAUC), which seeks to drive sustainability to the heart of further and higher education. Working with more than 220 colleges and universities from across the UK, the EAUC is now the recognised hub of sustainability best practice in our sector. We are also academic lead for the HyNet North West industrial decarbonisation cluster, which aims to reduce annual CO2 emissions by 10 million tonnes by 2030 – the equivalent of taking four million cars off the road. In January 2022 we established the HyNet Skills, Learning and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Subcommittee, focused on ensuring that the industrial decarbonisation agenda delivers inclusive skills and employment opportunities. The Subcommittee brings together industry leaders from across the North West and North Wales to support economic growth and enhanced social value through up- and re-skilling the current and future workforce.

As a large organisation, we have our own commitments to this agenda and a responsibility to lead the way. In addition to embedding

sustainability practices as part of our institutional culture, in April 2017 we joined 48 other UK universities in pledging not to invest in fossil fuel industries. We aim to achieve Net Zero for Scope 1 and 2 emissions across all activities and operations by 2030, and to date we have reduced our carbon footprint by 49.5% (compared to the 2014/15 baseline). Our Roadmap to Net Zero is taking a whole-institution approach, focusing on changes to our estate and our activities. Further, none of our waste is sent to landfill, and we have opened a ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ shop, enabling students, staff and local community members to bring their own containers to purchase dry goods and milk, plus make use of a clothing ‘Swap and Drop’ facility.

We work hard to co-create opportunities for our students to make a difference, too. Our annual ‘Go Green Festival’ includes two weeks of workshops and activities that aim to inspire action on climate change, both at the personal level and via influencing change in our wider community. We also encourage staff and students to undertake Carbon Literacy Training, which is delivered over six hours of online or inperson webinars and cultivates an understanding of the science behind climate change, the concept of social justice, and provides practical knowledge about how to reduce carbon footprints. Carbon literate citizens are then given the opportunity to become trainers themselves.

Goal 14. Achieve equality through diversity and inclusion

In relation to our commitment to increasing the diversity of our student population, our Access and Participation Plan sets ambitious targets in support of the increased recruitment, retention and academic outcomes of care leavers, white working-class males, disabled students, and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic males from lower participation neighbourhoods, among others. We support our students via a series of networks, including those focused on Student Parents and Menopause, and peer support groups for CareExperienced students, Estranged students and Carers. Following funding from the Office for Students, we have developed an online Autism Toolkit in collaboration with the West Cheshire Autism Hub, which details support for students and information for parents.

Our staff and student Race Equality Challenge Group, led by the VC, promotes positive change in relation to race, equality and diversity, and identifies practical and tangible changes that can be implemented to make a real difference to how all members of the University feel about and

respond to race equality. Since January 2021 we have employed Student Race Advocates to actively support and promote the needs of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic students. These efforts are supported by our Respect campaign, which promotes respect, addresses unacceptable behaviours and endorses equality, diversity and inclusion.

With staff we have established a number of supportive networks and groups, aimed at opening up discussions relating to disabled staff, LGBT+ staff and cultural heritage. Our annual, free Diversity Festival is open to staff, students and the wider public and has attracted many high-profile speakers since it began in 2006, celebrating all aspects of equality, diversity and inclusion. In 2023 the theme was ‘Action for Change’, highlighting the actions (however big or small) we can all take to make meaningful changes to inclusion and belonging.

Our commitment to equality and inclusion extends beyond our immediate University community.

We have provided expertise and leadership to the Cheshire and Warrington Sustainable and Inclusive Growth Commission, which was established to realise local ambitions of becoming the most sustainable and inclusive subregion in the UK.

Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock, International Womens Day Lecture

Analysis and Actions

The five actions detailed below represent the next steps for our existing successes, and are very much linked. The key theme cross-cutting all five actions is partnership – with our students, staff and external stakeholders.

Action 1: Delivering on our joint commitments with our local authorities

Close partnerships with our local authorities are some of the most effective mechanisms we have to effect change in relation to social mobility, and going forwards we need to deliver tangible impacts from our work.

Our University Centres at Warrington, Shrewsbury and Birkenhead provide accessible opportunities for undergraduate, postgraduate, apprentices and local communities, and have been developed in partnership with local place makers. Each site offers curriculum tailored to local need and demand, and linked to national priorities, such as the NHS Long Term Plan (Birkenhead and Warrington), sustainability and health improvements for rural communities (Shrewsbury) and sustainability and food innovation (Reaseheath). Going forwards, we need to maintain and develop these relationships, and be ready to respond as local challenges and aspirations evolve.

Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWaC) and the University have a strong track record of joint working including through the provision of education and skills, health and wellbeing support and city centre initiatives and cultural activities. In November 2021 we signed a partnership agreement with CWaC - a public commitment to achieving shared goals to meet the evolving needs and aspirations of the local population.

The aim is to co-develop our ‘University City’, to realise the full potential of working together to improve the lives of everyone across the wider borough and the region to build a fairer economy. As ‘anchor’ employers, both organisations can have a significant influence over all aspects of people’s lives, so it makes sense to harness more fully the tangible added value and potential.

The Partnership Action Plan identifies seven priority themes, addressing themes highlighted through community consultations:

1. Education and skills

- Help local employers to address challenges such as attracting and retaining skilled people in key front-line roles such as health and social care and other public services.

- Respond to changing community expectations and needs, matching skills to plug local gaps and modernising our workforce to meet new and increasing demands for Green and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) jobs and digital transformation.

- Maximise opportunities for work experience, mentoring and volunteering.

2. Sustainable, inclusive, green growth

- Address significant sustainability challenges in balance with economic and employment potential.

- Act on local support for a green economy.

3. Sustainable transport

- Deliver pilot projects with public sector staff and students to test accessibility of active travel initiatives.

- Promote green transport awareness in schools and the community.

Having identified what we have done to date in support of the Purpose Goals, we now need to look forward and articulate our key actions going forward.

4. City centre improvements and culture

- Provide the required specialist research and policy expertise to help revitalise the city centre, shape its ongoing regeneration and contribute further to promoting and marketing the city as a great place to live, learn, work and visit.

- Realise the vision of becoming a ‘University City’, including cultural provision, economic success, wellbeing, skills, sustainability and transport.

5. Health and wellbeing

- Address the greater demands for services such as enhanced mental health and emotional wellbeing support, particularly following the Covid-19 pandemic.

- Raise awareness of health and wellbeing issues and provide enhanced opportunities for our communities to get involved, for example, by creating opportunities to participate in physical activity.

6.

Community relations

- Enable more enhanced opportunities for students to engage in volunteering and community action projects, acknowledging that the University is fundamental to the fabric of the city, and building on the strong tradition of students as agents of change for equality and social justice.

7.

Student voice

- Encourage staff, students, alumni and communities to engage with the Council’s One City Plan consultation, which invites citizens to help shape the future of where they live and how they connect with each other.

Action 2: Piloting an inclusive curriculum model

We’ve made some real progress to date, but know we can do more. Our anonymised recruitment process for student applications to our Workplace Experience Scheme has led to a steep rise in engagement from some of higher education’s most underrepresented students - from less than 20% to more than 60%. Placing inclusion and diversity at the forefront of changes to University opportunities, recruitment, and processes has made progress towards Purpose Goals 5 and 14.

Going forward, we recognise that inclusivity and social mobility must be embedded across all aspects of our activity and culture. Drawing on best practice in our sector, we are developing actions to enhance the inclusivity of our curriculum. These actions will be designed to answer the following questions:

- How can we better celebrate diversity through what we teach and how we teach it?

- How can we enhance our authentic assessment model to better prepare students from all backgrounds for employment?

- What does digital inclusivity look like for us, and how can it support our diversity aspirations?

- How can we extend our culture of sustainability across more of our curriculum?

Engagement with our students will be vital to this work, including dialogue between staff and students.

Our organisations share many challenges, and when people who live, work and learn here look to us for answers, it is important that we have the right processes in place to find solutions.

“

COUNCILLOR RICHARD BEACHAM, CABINET MEMBER FOR INCLUSIVE GROWTH, ECONOMY AND REGENERATION, CHESHIRE WEST AND CHESTER

Action 3: Delivering our sustainability commitments

The choices we make now as a large business now will determine outcomes for the future generations we serve. Being clear about our ambitious targets, and open about our achievements and challenges along the way, is essential. Mapped out in our Green Plan and headlined by a pledge to achieve Net Zero carbon emissions across nearly all practices by 2030, we hope to lead the way in our sector and set a precedent for going above and beyond in relation to Purpose Goal 13.

We need to work consistently at multiple levels: individual, community, institution and wider. One key enabler internally is our Climate Action Programme, which is designed for departments across the University to improve their sustainability performance, in partnership with students. Getting more staff and students involved with this will involve everyone committing to a core list of ten sustainability actions, and developing a project plan. Continuing to lever influence via the HyNet consortium, and linking to the partnership work in Actions 1 and 4, will enable us to extend our work much wider than our immediate University community.

Action 4: Developing solutions at the intersection of sustainability and inclusivity

Colleagues’ work to date with the Cheshire and Warrington Sustainable and Inclusive Growth Commission (SIGC) has led to a set of recommendations and toolkits to support sustainable and inclusive growth, and we remain committed to this work with partners. Internally, this activity has catalysed coworking across a number of areas of expertise, in acknowledgement that there is much to be done at the intersection of sustainability and inclusivity.

Evolving research recognising the relationship between environmental sustainability and inequality in human development highlights a number of issues: the relatively wealthy and powerful tend to benefit disproportionately from economic activities that generate environmental harm, whilst the relatively poor and powerless tend to bear a disproportionate share of the environmental costs. Equally, societies with wider inequalities will tend to have more environmental harm than those with relatively modest degrees of economic and political disparities. It is also essential to understand potential community opposition to sustainability projects, and proceeding ethically and inclusively means engaging with these concerns.

Our work to date has led to the establishment of a Centre for Social Justice and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, to galvanise interdisciplinary activity and provide a focal point for external engagement and co-creation going forwards.

Action 5: Evaluation and continuous improvement

Our Outreach and Access and Participation teams collect and analyse vital data about the types of communities and young people with which we are engaging, and the effect our activities have in terms of their engagement in higher education and the outcomes they are supported to achieve. We must continue to identify disadvantaged groups, and provide them with strategic, extra support, in order to reaffirm the message that higher education, and the University of Chester, are open to all. This work will continue to ensure our contribution to Purpose Goals 2, 3, 4 and 14.

As we widen our work in line with the above actions, we recognise that we will need to enrich these datasets in order to understand the impact we are having, any key trends over time, and where we can improve our work to extend its benefits – recognising that this work is a longterm commitment, and at the heart of all we do.