Agenda item

Report of the Director of Care, Health and Housing

Note: The Health and Social Care Scrutiny Board (5) and the Cabient Member for Public Health, Sport and Wellbeing have been invited to the meeting for this item.

The Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee considered a report of the Director of Care, Health and Housing, that set out the Council’s proposed City of Movement Strategy 2026-2031.

The Health and Social Care Scrutiny Board (5) were invited to attend the meeting for the consideration of this matter.

The Committee noted that the report was also due to be considered but the Cabinet at its meeting scheduled for 17^th March 2026.

A co-produced joint Coventry: City of Movement Strategy had been developed, led by the Sport, Physical Activity and Wellbeing Team.  The new Strategy is intended to enable the City Council and its partners to progress further, following the Coventry Sports Strategy 2014-2024 and the Physical Activity Framework 2019-2024, through creating a greater joined up system between health, sport, physical activity and movement with the concept of ‘movement’ at its core.

It was noted that significant progress has been made in Coventry as a result of the delivery of the previous strategies and the City has much to be proud of, including:

·  Invested over £100m into sport and physical activity facilities;

·  Invested into parks and green spaces to support physical activity in local communities;

·  Coventry was awarded European City of Sport in 2019;

·  The Council and CV Life developed and launched the Go CV card giving reach to over 130,000 people in the City;

·  Coventry has also been identified as one of the 27 Place Partners set to benefit from a share of Sport England’s place-based investment funding.

Improvements were also seen in activity levels between 2018 and 2022 through the household survey, with a higher proportion of adults in Coventry participating in active travel.  It was recognised that more needed to be done with those aged 35-54, being the most inactive age group and with children being more inactive than compared to England overall, but improving.

Extensive engagement has taken place with over 70 organisations across Coventry in order to ensure that the new Strategy responds to the needs of the community.  This is in addition to a survey of residents, which elicited 1,398 responses, gathering insight on local people’s current movement habits and the barriers preventing them from being more active, which were primarily related to time, motivation and other commitments meaning people have limited time to participate in physical activity.

Three strategic schemes were developed for the Strategy, which have been supported by partners across the City and as an outcome of the Council’s work with Knight, Kavanah and Page, a firm of consultants that have worked with the authority on the production to this and other sports strategies.  The three strategic themes are:

·  Active System: Connecting Better

·  Active People: Movement for Everyone

·  Active Place: A Place of Movement

The report explained how the impact of the Strategy would be evaluated, through a mixed method approach, emphasising the need for continuous learning and the participation / co-production with local residents.

The Committee and Scrutiny Board (5) members were able to ask questions, received answers and made comments in respect of the following:

·  The importance of transport links and appropriate parking at sports facilities.

·  Recognition that different age groups have different needs

·  How the success of the Strategy will be assessed.

·  How to make better use of the facilities within the city.

·  What funding is available for what the Strategy wishes to achieve.

·  Whether there is a clear initiative for each group that is identified as not being sufficiently active.

·  How the Strategy will link to the Key Performance Indicators within the One Coventry Plan.

·  Ensuring that the activities available are activities that people want to do.

·  How closely employees work with parks and social subscribers through the Strategy.

·  Ensuring that repair and refurbishment works are managed in areas that enable people to be active.

During the course of the discussions on the report, it was requested that the closest KPIs from the One Coventry Plan be added to the Strategy before the matter is submitted to the appropriate Scrutiny Board for review.

In addition, it was agreed that an additional recommendation be submitted to the Cabinet for their consideration, requesting that it ensures the City of Movement Strategy explicitly recognises and reflects the needs of all age groups, and that the Strategy is fully inclusive for residents of all ages.

RESOLVED that, the Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee:

1.  Support the strategic direction outlined in the presentation.

2.  Recommends that the Cabinet ensures the City of Movement Strategy explicitly recognises and reflects the needs of all age groups, and that the Strategy is fully inclusive for residents of all ages.