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.

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.

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.