Levelling-up the West Midlands Our roadmap to community recovery and prospectus for government November 2020 Rethink Rethink Rebuild Rebuild Recharge Recharge But Community Recovery will not depend Six citizen priorities: on government funding alone. The success Introduction of our roadmap to community recovery 1. Living safely with coronavirus will depend upon the region’s shared 2. Accessing healthcare and improving commitment to working together to deliver This ‘roadmap’ addresses head on the physical health on the wide range of community recovery issues that are causing great concern to 3. Mental health support and awareness ambitions set out here. We have much good communities across the West Midlands 4. Education and young people practice to build upon and we have also as we deal with the on-going coronavirus 5. Jobs and training identified a small number of areas where the crisis. It sets out our shared hopes for the This roadmap focuses on the WMCA area 6. Local businesses and high streets potential for future regional collaboration is future and it calls upon government to as the economic centre of the wider West great. match our ambitions with their support. It Midlands, though many of the opportunities has been produced by the regional Recovery to collaborate and asks of Government will This roadmap is endorsed by the following: Co-ordination Group which was formed in benefit our broader region. It is a roadmap June 2020 to address the wider social and that offers multiple pathways for multiple • Andy Street - Mayor for the West Midlands community issues concerning the pandemic partners not a single trajectory to success. (Chair) and to look forward to recovery. At the • Cllr Ian Ward - Leader of Birmingham City time of writing, ‘recovery’ still feels some Strong relationships, joined-up place Council, WMCA Transport Portfolio Lead way away, but unless we have a roadmap leadership and collaborative practice have Member and Chair of the Met Leaders Group to address the key priorities emerging from been fundamental to the response so far. (Vice Chair) pandemic response, it will be all the more This has occurred at all levels, in all of the • Cllr Bob Sleigh – Deputy Mayor and WMCA places of the West Midlands. If there has Finance Portfolio Lead difficult to achieve. There is much to do right Experiences of the pandemic have not been now to level-up our region and build the been a golden thread in reflections from local • Cllr Mike Bird - Leader of Walsall MBC and uniform, and it has been crucial to focus WMCA Housing and Land Portfolio Lead foundations for future prosperity. partners at this time, it has been that this way on people who have borne the heaviest Member of working – built on trust, shared adversity, burdens. Partners from across public services • Cllr Ian Brookfield - Leader of City of and commitment to people and places – is This is a roadmap which captures the and the social economy have been working Wolverhampton Council and WMCA something to continue beyond the crisis. In richness of the local response to the to understand which population groups have Economy and Innovation Portfolio Lead time, we must refocus this energy on the COVID-19 pandemic. It highlights the experienced the most serious consequences Member root causes of poor outcomes and building experiences and practices that citizens, the from the pandemic, reflecting on their own • Cllr Ian Courts - Leader of Solihull MBC resilience against future crises. and WMCA Environment, Energy and HS2 social economy, public services and local practice and next steps throughout. Their Portfolio Lead Member businesses want to learn from, as well as what analysis – set out in the recent Health of the Facing this crisis has taken an immediate • Cllr Maria Crompton – Leader of Sandwell should be strengthened and built upon as we Region report – suggests that the main risk reaction to safeguard lives and businesses, MBC and WMCA PSR and Social Economy emerge from the pandemic. factors and inequalities included socioeconomic and a ‘meanwhile’ reaction to sustain that Lead Member deprivation, ethnicity, occupation and • Cllr George Duggins - Leader of Coventry safeguarding. The shift from ‘meanwhile’ This is a roadmap that will be led by local prevalence of excess weight and diabetes. It City Council and WMCA Skills & Productivity to recovery will occur at some stage in the authorities and their local partners. They is vital that these wider determinants of poor Portfolio Lead Member coming months: being ready for that moment have led the response to date, and they are health are taken into account if we are to • Cllr Patrick Harley - Leader of Dudley MBC means planning for recovery before our best placed to lead the kinds of activity that become a more resilient region in the future. and WMCA Culture & Digital Portfolio Lead will build back better. But to do this they citizens are living it. Member need more sustainable support. for future We have made asks of Government as to how • Cllr Brigid Jones - Deputy Leader of Birmingham City Council and WMCA prosperity. We have made space for citizens of the West they can support community recovery. Around Inclusive Communities Portfolio Lead Midlands to shape our recovery because £3bn of these asks were set out in the WMCA they are the experts. In summer 2020, the Member Recharge the West Midlands prospectus • Cllr Izzi Seccombe - Leader of Warwickshire West Midlands Recovery Coordination Group Government must lay solid for transport, affordable housing and skills County Council and WMCA Well Being convened a Citizens Panel, comprised of foundations for real recovery programmes and these are repeated here. A Portfolio Lead Member, and WMCA Non- through providing sustainable and people from across the region, to ensure that further £203m is requested for programmes Constituent Council representative. recovery was aligned to their fears, hopes and fair funding for local government of work directly associated with community • David Jamieson – Police and Crime experiences. The structure and content of our recovery on issues like digital inclusion, radical Commissioner and unlocking a “double roadmap reflects their words, priorities and • Cllr Matt Dormer - Leader of Redditch devolution” and “whole system” health prevention and access to green spaces. principles – and it is their expectation that We also need further devolved power. All of the Borough Council and Chair of the WMCA approach to level up the nation. their voices, influence and lived experiences asks in this prospectus have been previously Non-Constituent Council Leaders Group • Cllr Greg Brackenridge – Chair of West will be part of the on-going recovery process. made in our Comprehensive Spending Review Midlands Fire Authority and Devolution White Paper. Summary Working collectively across the region, even as the crisis Our Roadmap continues to unfold, we must address the immediate issues facing child user-hard-hat store-alt to Recovery communities to protect lives and livelihoods and build confidence and hope that that we will build back better. Local businesses and Education and Jobs and training young people high streets Our case As we rise to these challenges as a region, we call upon government to support and amplify our efforts with new There has been huge disruption to The pandemic has led to a High streets and local businesses investment and wider powers to level-up the West Midlands and education for children and young rise in unemployment across to government have been hard hit by the reduction secure the foundations for strong and sustained productivity. people, leading to disparity in the the region, causing economic in footfall and mandatory closures level of education that they have uncertainty and financial during the lockdown. Recovery received. Young people’s employment constraints on many families. needs to improve their resilience Our six community recovery priorities have been identified by communities opportunities have also been as they are at the heart of local themselves and are being driven by our local authorities and their partners. diminished due to the economic Ambitions: communities. climate. • Integrated and personalised Ambitions: Ambitions: employment support system heart with a focus on those who • Support for small businesses at • Closing the attainment gap are most vulnerable. hands-heart head-side-brain the heart their communities. through intensive catch-up • A world-class regional skills • Reimagined town centres support and better provision for infrastructure, enhancing and vibrant city centres with home-based learning. further and higher education coordinated public services Living safely with Accessing healthcare and Mental health support • Children at risk of under estates and knowledge- which unlock new possibilities in coronavirus improving physical health and awareness attainment are identified and transfer relationships. supporting communities. offered good quality, accessible • A region where everyone can early years provision. Asks of government: participate in and benefit from Until a vaccine is widely available, In the West Midlands there are The pandemic has worsened • Successful pilot for the national grassroots culture and sport. we must minimise the spread of significant health inequalities mental health inequalities, and it cross-government programme • A wide range of investments • Doubling the size of the social the virus and keep people safe that have been exacerbated by is essential that people receive for the introduction of Youth in job creation are outlined economy in the next 10 years. and well. the coronavirus. It is vital that the right level of support to Partnerships. in the W M C A Recharging recovery ensures that these are combat barriers to improving • Provision of apprenticeship wage the West Midlands Asks of government: Ambitions: reduced so that our population their wellbeing moving forward. subsidies as well as traineeships, prospectus. is more resilient to future work-related experience and • Upskill our workforce • An SME Recovery Programme • Permanent shift to place- pandemics.