Our City: Our Plan sets out how the Council will continue to work alongside its local, regional, and national partners to improve outcomes for local people.

The plan sets out an ambition that ‘Wulfrunians will live longer, healthier lives.’ Delivery of this ambition will be supported by six overarching priorities: 

1. 1. Strong families where children grow up well and achieve their full potential

Outcomes: 

  • Children have the best start in life and good early development
  • High quality education which closes the attainment gap
  • Children and young people grow up happy with good physical, social, mental health and wellbeing
  • Every young person in the city is equipped for adulthood with life skills and ready for work
  • Strengthen families where children need extra support or are at risk

Objectives: 

  • Families will be supported by multi-agency early help offer to ensure they get the right information and support at the right time. 
  • Work in partnership with our schools and education settings to build a system with the highest quality education through continuous improvement and support. 
  • Work with partner agencies to continue to build up a strong network and information base of positive and healthy activities and opportunities for all children and young people across the city. 
  • Work in an integrated way with education providers, businesses, and families to prepare young people for the world of work and to live independently. 
  • Work with parents and carers to try to remove the barriers which some children face in achieving their full potential, stepping in to safeguard and protect children and young people. 
2. Fulfilled lives for all with quality care for those that need it 

Outcomes: 

  • Build a resilient and responsive Health and Social Care system
  • Maximise independence for people with care and support needs
  • Work as a system to make sure people get the right support at the right time

Objectives: 

  • Develop new ways to support care providers to recruit and retain staff to build a stable and sustainable care workforce in the city. 
  • Support people with care and support needs to live as independently as they can in their own homes, for as long as possible. 
  • Work across health and care to develop integrated and place-based care to support residents in their neighbourhoods, with a focus on prevention. 
3. Healthy, inclusive communities 

Outcomes: 

  • Support and protect the city and residents from communicable diseases such as influenza and Covid by preventing, containing and managing outbreaks of infectious disease
  • Close the gap on healthy life expectancy
  • Help people live happier more active lives
  • Protect vulnerable people at risk of harm and exploitation
  • Inclusive, welcoming communities where people feel safe and look out for each other

Objectives: 

  • Support UK Health Security Agency and the wider public health system to respond quickly and appropriately to any emerging outbreaks, with a particular focus on care settings. 
  • Increase our understanding around health inequalities and our local population – including developing and implementing an approach to data capture, data linkage and data sharing. 
  • Maximise the use of our city's green spaces to get local people active and healthy. 
  • Safeguard young people on the cusp of, or at risk of, becoming involved in youth violence. 
  • Develop multi-agency approaches to tackle and reduce Hate Crime based on a zero-tolerance approach: crime targeted at people because of their race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or transgender identity. 
4. Good homes in well-connected neighbourhoods 

Outcomes: 

  • Work together to deliver more new homes
  • Safe and healthy homes for all
  • Access to a secure home
  • Clean, green neighbourhoods and public space
  • Well-connected businesses and residents

Objectives: 

  • Work in partnership with Government, the West Midlands Combined Authority, housing associations and developers to secure the new homes the city needs. 
  • Continue to use our enforcement powers and landlord licensing to ensure local people have access to good quality private rented housing.  
  • Prevent homelessness wherever possible intervening early to provide high quality support services to keep people in their own homes. 
  • All residents have access to clean open space and parks in their neighbourhoods and local areas. 
  • Improve walking, cycling and bus networks, as well as public transport interchanges, enabling people to move easily around the city to encourage residents to make travel choices which minimise air pollution. 
5. More local people into good jobs and training 

Outcomes: 

  • Help create good quality local jobs
  • Work in partnership to support local people into work and better jobs
  • Flexible skills system which supports local businesses to grow and residents to access high quality training and better jobs

Objectives: 

  • Ensure investment in the city increases the number of quality jobs for local people. 
  • Continue to work with partners to ensure that employment support in the city is joined up and new national programmes complement existing local activity. 
  • Work with partners to maximise the number of apprenticeship and training opportunities for young people and adults in the city. 
6. Thriving economy in all parts of the city 

Outcomes: 

  • Support local businesses to start up, scale up and thrive
  • Attract new investment which brings social and economic benefit to all
  • Vibrant high streets with quality culture and leisure offer
  • Grow the low carbon and circular economy

Objectives: 

  • Grow emerging sectors in the city to strengthen supply chains and create new skilled jobs locally, including those in the green economy, creative and digital, professional services, and others. 
  • Ensure public and private investment opportunities create good work opportunities for local people and support our businesses to grow.  
  • Secure and deliver investment in our high streets and town centres to help them thrive, including public realm, events, meanwhile uses, arts and culture. 
  • Work with the public and private sectors to transform how resources are procured, used, consumed, and disposed of. 
 

Our principles 

Our six overarching priorities are supported by four cross cutting principles: 

  • Climate Action - The plan is aligned to the Council’s climate change strategy ‘Future Generations’ and our target to make the Council net carbon zero by 2028. Reducing carbon emissions will continue to be a local and national priority. 
  • Driven by Digital - Wolverhampton is at the forefront of digital infrastructure and innovation, and now more than ever we have seen the importance of digital skills and connectivity to social and economic participation for the City’s residents. 
  • Fair and Equal - We will continue to tackle the inequalities in our communities which impact on the opportunities of local people. The Council’s ‘Excellent’ rated equalities framework is at the heart of this plan.
  • Wolverhampton Pound - Through the Wolverhampton Pound we want to use the combined power of institutions, businesses and communities to retain local wealth, creating new jobs and opportunities. We’ll do this in partnership with the city’s anchor institutions.

All that we do as an organisation will support these strategic priorities. We cannot do this in isolation, we will continue to work as one council and one city to ensure that these priorities are delivered. 

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