Although this is our first newsletter for a few months, we hope you’ve noticed that we’ve been getting a lot done! In this newsletter we’ve got updates on the City Office core team, the European Capital of Innovation Awards, this month’s City Gathering, the latest developments on the One City Thematic Boards, and exciting progress on key priorities including our work with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
If you have any comments or would like further information, please get in touch: hello@bristolcityoffice.com
City Office Team
The City Office core team has seen a bit of change in the last month. We have said a very fond farewell to James Snelgrove, who has left to take up an exciting new position at Bristol Energy. His new role focusses on innovation and partnerships so we’re sure that we’ve not seen the last of him yet! We’ve also welcomed new team members following an open recruitment process, and now have a full team confirmed until April 2020:
Andrea Dell and Ed Rowberry: job share Co-Heads of the City Office
Annabel Smith and David Ader: Operations and Stakeholder Engagement Managers
Andrea has been supporting the City Office for a while now, with experience in a wide range of roles including housing delivery and supporting democratic engagement, and she also leads the Council’s Delivery Support Unit.
Sharing the post of Head of City Office with Andrea Dell is Ed Rowberry, Chief Executive of Bristol and Bath Regional Capital. Both Andrea and Ed will be working on a 50/50 basis and continuing in their substantive roles for the other half of their time.
Annabel and David are on secondment from the Mayor’s Office and the Council’s policy team respectively, with backgrounds in equalities and the charity sector.
The whole team will be looking to engage as widely as possible across the city – please say hello if you see us out and about!
Over the next six months, the City Office has an exciting delivery programme including the refresh and delivery of the next version of the One City Plan (Jan 2020); the embedding of the One City Governance Framework and Thematic Boards; and delivery against the Top 3 One City Priorities, which this year are Enabling Period Dignity, Tackling Street Conflict, and Affordable Childcare. We are also working on a partnership and secondment model for future resourcing needs, alongside the many other activities that we are working on every day.
One City Approach shortlisted for European Capital of Innovation 2019
We are proud to announce that the Bristol One City Approach has been shortlisted for the prestigious European iCapital Innovation Awards. Bristol has been recognised for its unique city ecosystem enabling partnership, collaboration and co-production across institutions, businesses and communities. The winner and runners up will be announced in September. We’ll keep you in the loop – and thank you to everyone who’s engagement with the City Office has helped make this possible.
New look drop-in programme coming shortly
Please note we are refreshing the way we run the City Office Drop-in sessions, and there will be no Drop-in on 6 August. A new programme will be launched shortly with the first ‘new-look’ drop-in occurring in early September.
#WeAreBristol
Last week a new campaign challenging people in Bristol to overcome their differences and focus on what they have in common launched with a film premiere at the Watershed. #WeAreBristol has been created by Bristol City Council to positively challenge people to look for similarities with their neighbours and wider communities.
To launch the campaign, 60 strangers who all live in Bristol took part in a social experiment led by Professor Bruce Hood from the University of Bristol. It results in the group, who had never met before, bonding over the things they had in common. You can view the video here.
City Gathering
On July 5 the City Office held its bi-annual City Gathering, bringing together leaders from across the public, private, and third sectors. We had over 200 delegates and you brought a fantastic energy and enthusiasm to the event. It’s inspiring to see the momentum building as so many partners embrace the One City way of working and begin to grapple with the One City Plan. To read more about the event or recap on the Offers and Asks, please see the Mayor of Bristol’s blog post here.
Environmental Sustainability Board
Hot on the heels of the City Gathering, the new One City Environmental Sustainability Board held its first meeting on 10 July, the first of two new Boards being set up to ensure all six themes of the plan are represented by a group which will lead on delivery of the goals under their themes as well as on refreshing the plan for January 2020. You can find more information about this and the other Boards on the City Office website here. In our next newsletter we should be able to announce membership and dates for the first Economy Board.
Sustainable Development Goals
Last week colleagues from the University of Bristol and City Office launched the UK’s first Local Voluntary Review of implementation of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This puts Bristol alongside big hitters such as New York as being one of the world’s first cities to produce a local review. Allan Macleod, employed by the University of Bristol and working across the City Office and Bristol Green Capital Partnership, presented the report last week at the United Nations in New York, attracting a wide range of interest from high level national and international stakeholders. You can read the report here. This work has also been recognised in the UK government’s Voluntary National Review.
Bristol has been supporting engagement with the SDGs at a national level too, and at the LGA’s annual conference in Bournemouth this month, we proposed a motion on the UN Sustainable Development Goals and sustainability, moving that the LGA:
- Calls upon Her Majesty’s Government to explore supporting domestic implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals through funded partnership roles within each local authority area; and
- Encourages councils to continue their work on linking their local priorities with the overall ambitions of the SDGs.
The Mayor presented the motion to the assembly and it was unanimously approved with full cross-party support. Not only is this important in continuing to tackle the world’s climate emergency, but it is also a great boost to Bristol’s profile and reputation amongst peers and government.
Call In Mentorship Programme
The Call In Programme, which has now been running for five months, has been set up to offer young people who have been caught engaging in criminal activity an opportunity to exit the perpetual cycle of crime, with a programme of targeted intervention, overseen by a personal mentor. The programme, a partnership pilot between Golden Key, Avon and Somerset Police and Bristol City Council, is now looking to recruit more passionate mentors.
For more information see:
Call in Mentor Application Form
Please do circulate this information to your networks. Completed applications are to be returned by 5pm, 9 August – for more information contact maya.mate-kole@goldenkeybristol.org.uk
Also, in response to an ask by City Leaders, the City Office is working with partners to ensure there is an easy access way for employers and employees to know about all the different work placements and work experience schemes in the city.
Stepping Up
We’re delighted to share the news that the ‘Stepping Up’ initiative, created to tackle the under representation of Black, Asian and Minority Ethic (BAME) staff in senior roles in institutions across Bristol, was named best Inclusion and Diversity Programme at the Public Sector People Managers’ Association ‘Excellence in People Management Awards’. This is excellent recognition for the team and a great example of an initiative which is taking a positive approach to improving the diversity in leadership roles across Bristol – a key ambition of the One City Plan. If you would like to find out more about the Stepping Up programme and how your organisation could get involved, you can contact the team here: steppingup@bristol.gov.uk
Nurturing young talent
Babbasa have secured a new space in St Pauls to convert into a modern café-workspace for young people seeking to nurture their talent and pursue their professional aspirations. Babbasa work with hundreds of aspiring young people each year disadvantaged by their socio-economic background – providing information, advice and guidance, one-to-one support, soft-skills training, mentoring and opportunities for work experience. The team at Babbasa have launched an appeal for donations and corporate sponsorship to help make the Hub a reality. If you might be able to offer support or would like to find out more, please contact hannah.young@byep.org.uk
A Healthy City
Excellent news for Bristol as we’ve heard that a bid to UK Prevention Research Partnership (UKPRP) has been successful. This is a 5-year programme with £6.7m grant funding being led by the University of Bristol and partners and was supported by the City Office. This grant is to tackle unhealthy urban development linked to non-communicable diseases. For more information see here.
Going for Gold
Through city-wide action, Bristol is aiming to become a Gold Sustainable Food City, part of a national programme that celebrates and supports communities that are making positive changes to their food system. As one of the first three cities to achieve Silver status, Bristol has already shown that it has the motivation to make Good Food part of the city’s identity. To find out more and take action as an individual or organisation, see here.
Clean Air Consultation
People living, working and visiting Bristol are being asked for their views on two options to reduce harmful air pollution in the city. The proposed options are one element of the wider environmental and clean air plans for Bristol, designed to protect everyone from toxic fumes and ensure the city is playing its part in tackling global climate change. The deadline for responses is 12 August. To take part in the consultation click here.
City partner events
We’ve attended a number of recent events, either delivered in partnership with the City Office or including sessions on the One City Plan and One City Approach, which have really brought home how many different organisations are engaging with this new way of working. We’re really pleased to see this and long may it continue! Thank you to everyone involved – including Urban-ID and the University of Bristol for their Many Neighbourhoods, One City event; JLL, Bristol Property Agents Association and Women in Property for their session on the One City Plan; Bristol Green Capital Partnership and Bristol Water for their Citizens for the Future event; Locality for their Big Data Event; Business in the Community for their Waste to Wealth Summit; and all who attended the Inclusive Cities task group.
If you would like any further information on any of the above items, or would like to get in contact with the City Office, please email us at hello@bristolcityoffice.com