In the 2023/24 municipal year, the Committee requested that annual reporting on progress against all of the Council’s Oxfordshire Inclusive Economy pledges be submitted for consideration, alongside the full list of possible pledges so that the Committee might identify any further potential pledges that the Council could sign-up to.

The Executive Director (Development) has submitted a report providing a year one update against the Council’s pledge commitments as part of the Oxfordshire Inclusive Economy Partnership (OIEP) Charter. Cllr Susan Brown, Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Partnership Working, Cllr Nigel Chapman, Cabinet Member for Citizen Focused Services and Council Companies, Cllr Alex Hollingsworth, Cabinet Member for Business, Culture and an Inclusive Economy, Clayton Lavallin, Economic Development Team Leader and Emma Coles, Oxfordshire Inclusive Economy Partnership Manager have been invited to present the report and answer questions. The Committee is asked to consider the report and agree any recommendations.

Clayton Lavallin, Economic Development Team Leader introduced the report from the Executive Director (Development) which provided a year one update against the Council’s pledge commitments as part of the Oxfordshire Inclusive Economy Partnership (OIEP) Charter. He highlighted Oxford City Council’s positive performance in the year-one audit, noting that whilst the Council had initially agreed to adopt 13 of the 39 OIEP pledges, the audit showed that progress had been made on 35 of the 39 pledges in the past year. Despite fiscal constraints and reduced capacity, no decline in progress was reported compared to the previous year, with significant improvements driven by the People Team, as well as notable progress in the Council companies.

Cllr Nigel Chapman, Cabinet Member for Citizen Focused Services and Council Companies noted that ODS had successfully recruited 15 to 20 apprentices, emphasising the importance of widening the employee base through apprenticeships. He explained that a key goal of these apprenticeships was to diversify recruitment, especially by reaching out to underrepresented areas of Oxford, with a focus on increasing gender and minority representation.

Cllr Susan Brown, Cabinet Member for Partnership Working, acknowledged the significant contributions of the Economic Development Team and the OIEP. She highlighted that the formation of the pledges and charter was central to the Council’s goal of driving a more inclusive economy. She emphasised the importance of the Council setting an example as an inclusive employer and noted that the Council was in the early stages of reintroducing the work experience programme, acknowledging the challenges of hybrid working in relation to reintroducing the scheme. She noted that the Council was focused on making significant strides in addressing inequalities and building a more diverse workforce that better reflected the community.

Emma Coles, Oxfordshire Inclusive Economy Partnership Manager had also been invited to speak on the item and answer questions.

During discussion, the Committee noted the following:

·        The initial 13 pledges were chosen based on the assessment that they could be delivered effectively within existing resources and capacity. The approach was to start slowly and steadily to ensure consistent progress, with the hope of increasing the number of pledges in future years.

·        Data was currently obtained from the leads of various participating services or organisations. However, the data had not yet been fully disaggregated.

• It was not feasible to enforce the requirement for all Council suppliers to pay the Oxford Living Wage within contracts, as some contracts were with businesses outside of Oxfordshire and it was determined unfair to expect those suppliers to pay the Oxford Living Wage. These cases were relatively few, however the Council ensured that the national living wage was met in all instances.
• The Council's procurement policies required a high number of local employers to be included in contracts. Continued efforts were being made to encourage local businesses to meet Oxford Living Wage standards, participate in Council contracts and increase their contributions to the local economy.

The Committee resolved to make the following recommendations on the report to Cabinet:

1.     That the Council reviews the complete list of OIEP pledges and commits to additional pledges where it is advancing practices or meeting the requirements of pledges not currently committed to, to ensure that the Council’s pledge commitments are aligned to existing and advancing organisational practices.

2.     That the Council includes quantitative data in future OIEP Charter/Pledges annual update reports to evidence progress, including the use of disaggregated data on apprenticeships and SME Council suppliers to enable more detailed interrogation of the figures.

Cllr Susan Brown, Cabinet Member for Partnership Working, Cllr Nigel Chapman, Cabinet Member for Citizen Focused Services and Council Companies, Clayton Lavallin, Economic Development Team Leader and Emma Coles, OIEP Manager left the meeting and did not return.