Sustainable Community Strategy - Coventry Partnership

• Carers
• Ex-offenders
• Homeless people
• Looked-after children and young people (children
and young people in the care of social services)
• Older people experiencing isolation and poverty
• People experiencing mental ill-health
• People from the most disadvantaged black and
minority ethnic groups
• People with physical or sensory impairment
• People with learning disabilities
• Refugees and asylum seekers
• Teenage parents and their children
• Women and children experiencing domestic
violence
• Young people not in education, employment or
training
Community Cohesion
2.23 For a city of its size and diversity, Coventry is
comparatively well-integrated. Recent government
research on segregation in cities shows that
segregation between White and other ethnic
communities in Coventry is low, particularly for a city
with a high level of ethnic diversity, with an index of
0.4 compared to 0.72 for Blackburn and 0.58 for
Birmingham. Similar comparative data shows that,
whilst there is a higher concentration of Black and
Asian communities in Coventry's deprived areas,
this is relatively low in comparison to many similar
cities in England.
2.24 This relatively high level of integration may be
reflected in the high perception levels of community
cohesion recorded by Coventry Partnership's annual
household survey in 2006 where 93% of
respondents agreed that people from different
backgrounds get on well together. This figure has
risen from 90% in 2004. The percentage of
respondents who agreed that residents respect
differences between people from different
backgrounds has also risen from 91% in 2004 to
94% in 2006.
2.25 Like other areas of the UK, Coventry has
recently been experiencing a higher level of
migration from within the European Union, with a
higher level of “population churn” with people
moving into the city for short periods of time. This
short-term movement is difficult to measure using
traditional demographic statistical data and like
many cities, Coventry is undertaking further
research to better understand the impact that
population churn is having upon the city and the
services provided.
3. Themes of the strategy
3.1 A number of key themes have been developed
as the basis for this strategy. All these themes are
linked and it is essential to plan across the themes
to ensure that our ambitions for Coventry are met.
The long term outcomes and short term priorities
which we are aiming for within each theme are
included in section two of this document.
The eight key themes are:
• Economy, learning, skills and employment
• Health, well-being and independence
• Community safety
• Cleaner, greener streets and open spaces
• Children and young people
• Housing
• Transport
• Culture, sport and physical activity.
3.2 Two underpinning themes are critical to the
success of the Sustainable Community Strategy and
these addressed by all the other themes:
• Equality of opportunity and involved, cohesive
communities and neighbourhoods
• Making a positive environmental
contribution and tackling climate change
3.3 Each of the themes will address the issues that
face different communities and groups within the
city. For example, issues specifically affecting older
people such as the needs of older workers, specific
health care and community services for older people
and the special transport needs of older people will
be addressed under the appropriate strategic
theme. The only exception to this is for children and
younger people. Issues affecting children and young
people are addressed under the appropriate theme
e.g. children's obesity is under the health, wellbeing
and independence theme but there are some issues
that relate to children and young people as a group
that do not fit under the other themes, educational
attainment for example, which will be addressed
through the specific children and young people
theme.
3.4 The strategy sets out for each theme the
explanation of why it is important and what needs to
be tackled; the long term outcomes and short term
priorities: how success can be measured; what key
strategies and local organisations and communities
need to do to address them; along with identifying
the issues that need to be addressed to both meet
the opportunities and challenges of future growth
and also to ensure that the underpinning themes of
Equalities and Cohesion and Climate Change are
addressed. This is set out in section 2.
3.5 The Coventry Partnership is seeking views and
advice from people and organisations in Coventry
about how they think they can contribute to the
further development of the Sustainable Community
Strategy so that we can make Coventry a place
where people choose to live, work, learn and to do
business and ensure that future growth is used to
transform the city and benefit local people by
improving quality of life, raising aspirations and
narrowing the gap in the city.
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