Coventry City Council

Abstract Background. In the United Kingdom, local government is well-placed to conduct and apply research about the wider determinants of health. However, local authorities often lack sufficient research infrastructure to support research capacity, capability and culture. Since 2022, the UK National Institute for Health and Care Research has funded 30 Health Determinants Research Collaborations (HDRCs) to develop this infrastructure. HDRCs are hosted by local authorities collaborating with universities and other partners to strengthen a culture of evidence-informed decision making. HDRCs are conducting local evaluations, including baseline assessments of local authority research capacity, capability and culture. Methods. A national peer-support group was formed to support shared learning among teams evaluating HDRCs. Here, as embedded evaluators from 10 HDRCs, we present reflections on the planning, delivery, and interpretation of baseline assessments. Reflections were gathered via group discussions and written submissions. All 10 HDRC baseline assessments explored local authority research capacity, capability and culture, and two also studied early HDRC team collaboration. Results. Competing priorities during early HDRC implementation called for pragmatic and timely baseline assessment methods. Most HDRCs developed baseline surveys, though interviews and focus groups were conducted by some. Despite similar aims, methods varied substantially according to local contexts. Evaluators often adapted existing validated survey tools, e.g., from health settings, as none were identified for use across local government. Definitions of research also ranged from academic definitions to broader notions of evidence. Useful insights were gathered across diverse samples to aid implementation locally, however low response rates were received to all-staff surveys and heterogenous approaches limited comparison across HDRCs. Findings contributed to recommendations for evaluating and developing HDRC activities (e.g., communications and training provisions) appropriate for local authorities with stretched resources. Where measured, collaborations were functioning well, with recommendations to enhance communication. Conclusions. The early contexts and challenges of HDRCs influenced pragmatic baseline assessments. Methods were often chosen to capture baseline contexts rapidly, and they will be refined and complemented by additional evaluation methods as HDRCs progress. Developing new validated measures and an agreed definition of research for local authorities may strengthen understanding of research capacity, capability and culture across local government.

Health inequalities are where we see differences in health across the population, and between different groups in society, that are systematic, unfair and avoidable (1). They need a long-term systemic response to support people to value their health and wellbeing (2). These social, economic environmental, cultural and commercial factors, known as the wider determinants of health, are unequally distributed across the UK population (3). This is despite numerous attempts to address them at a local, national and internationally (4, 5).

PurposeIt is well known that culture is a catalyst for change, helping economies respond to societal problems and demands and that culture is where people turn to in moments of crisis. In this case study around designing and implementing evaluation methodologies/frameworks for Coventry UK City of Culture 2021, it is suggested that in English public policy and within publicly invested arts there is a maturation of thinking around recognising/measuring the public value of culture including its social value. The purpose of this paper is to chart the recent policy of justifying cultural expenditure with social value claims and highlight challenges for evaluating activity within Coventry UK CoC 2021 as a change in wider policy is taking place.Design/methodology/approachThis paper provides creative insights into the design and implementation of the evaluation methodologies/frameworks for Coventry UK City of Culture 2021. The authors of this paper as the collective team undertaking the evaluation of Coventry's year as UK City of Culture 2021 bring first-hand experiences of challenges faced and the need for a cultural mega-event to evidence its value.FindingsThe case study aims to address the concepts of measuring value within cultural events and argues that a paradigm shift is occurring in methods and concepts for evidencing the aforementioned value.Research limitations/implicationsThe case study within this paper focuses on the build-up period to the UK City of Culture 2021 year and the thinking and logic behind the creation of the evaluation/measurement framework and therefore does not include findings from the actual cultural year.Originality/valueIt is acknowledged that there are papers examining measuring and evidencing the “value” of cultural mega-events, the authors bring real-life first-hand experience of the concepts being utilised by them on the ground in the delivery and evaluation design of Coventry, UK City of Culture 2021.

This chapter highlights selected sustainable transport measures that were implemented in nine partner cities during the SUITS project and discusses outcomes and learnings. Mutual exchanges, either in workshops or focussed meetings between the cities, provided inspiration for planning and implementing sustainable transport measures. For the project team, such exchanges provided insights into challenges the cities faced on a day-to-day basis which were used to develop training material and further understand the organisational process. During the project, cities worked on transport measures in five broad topic areas: clean fuels and low emission vehicles, collective passenger transport, vulnerable road users, safety and security and intelligent transport systems and services. Here, we present a selection to illustrate the scope of the undertaking and, how the project was able to enhance the implementation of each initiative.

Small and medium sized enterprises are key for ensuring economic growth, innovation, job creation, and social integration in the EU. The European Commission provides support for the SMEs in different fields. Access to finance is the most pressing issue for many small enterprises: there have been projects and schemes to improve the financing environment for SMEs both at European but also national and regional level. However, especially in the transport sector, Tier 2 suppliers find it difficult to enter the innovation chain as they generally have only short-term supply contracts with the Tier 1 companies. This paper aimed at researching into the factors that will support a stronger transport SME sector using as methodology, five international workshops and nine focus group sessions with regional stakeholders over a period of three years. This paper ultimately describes the key policy directions for reinforcing the competitiveness of the transport SMEs in the region of West Midlands, UK. A good practice exercise was conducted on four different European regions which enabled the experts involved in the policy design process to get inspiration from and further tailor the schemes to meet with the regional and local needs. The findings suggest that there is a need of a more sectorial policy approach at regional and local level to enable transport innovation flourish, strengthen cluster activities, intellectual property support, better links between tier1 and tier 2/supply chain, Financial Engineering Instruments to support SMEs, international focus, plug the skills gap.

BackgroundResearch suggests that there is variation in childhood obesity across ethnic groups in the UK, although findings are inconsistent. The influence of other individual, school and neighbourhood characteristics is not well understood. In addition, patterns may differ geographically. The objectives were to explore the variation in childhood overweight and obesity and BMI across ethnic groups in Coventry, how this compares to other areas, and the influence of additional individual, school and neighbourhood factors.MethodsNational Child Measurement Programme data (measuring BMI-for-age against a reference population for reception year and year 6) was combined for 2007/8 to 2014/15 (n = 56,049). Multiple linear regression was conducted in Stata v13 to explore associations between BMI z-score (zBMI) and individual, school and neighbourhood characteristics using local data, with White British as the reference group. Models were fitted with likelihood ratio tests and sensitivity analyses explored the impact of missing data. Neighbourhood was fitted as a random effect in the multi-level model. Prevalence of overweight and obesity by ethnic group for Coventry was compared to local authorities with similar demographics using a Dunnett-type test to adjust for multiple testing.ResultsWhite British children had a mean zBMI of 0.41 (95% CI: 0.39, 0.43) for reception year and 0.51 (0.49, 0.53) for year 6. zBMI for Indian and Chinese children was significantly lower than the reference group for both reception year at −0.09 (−0.14, −0.05) and −0.03 (−0.23, 0.16) and year 6 at 0.37 (0.32, 0.43) and 0.16 (−0.14, 0.46) respectively. Black African children had a higher mean zBMI across both years at 0.58 (0.54, 0.63) and 0.71 (0.68, 0.78) for reception and year 6 respectively. For other ethnic groups, the findings differed by school year. For Bangladeshi children, mean zBMI was significantly lower than the reference group in reception year at 0.24 (0.14, 0.34) yet significantly higher in year 6 at 0.73 (0.61, 0.84). Preliminary results indicate ethnic group differences remain after adjustment for individual, school and neighbourhood factors. The results of multi-level modelling will be presented. Coventry had a similar prevalence of overweight and obese children to Bolton, Derby and Kirklees for all ethnic groups with the exception of Asian children, where Coventry had a significantly higher prevalence.ConclusionVariation in childhood overweight and obesity and BMI exists across ethnic groups in Coventry, and patterns differ geographically, although analysis is limited by the available data. There is a need for further exploration of the factors driving this variation.

Incidents may happen following vaccine administration and school nurses need to be prepared to respond to such an event. Dr Caron Grainger details the process that followed the death of a young girl and shares useful points to consider should an incident occur.