About Oxford City Council

Oxford City Council has invested heavily over the last two years in specific staff development. The first example is a comprehensive Health and Wellbeing programme, which covers a diverse range of subjects from nutritional health and health MOT’s to resilience training and stress management techniques. As an addition to this a staff champion group was formed to put forward ideas about other aspects of development that would be popular. From this funding was provided for initiatives such as a Council Choir, City walking events, exercise bands and Fit Bits. The second example is the Leadership and Management Development Programme, where the fundamental principle was to move away from a ‘sheep-dip’ training programme to an assessment centre where Leaders and Managers were able to identify personal strengths and developmental areas, as well as raise their own understanding of their emotional intelligence.

Oxford City Council is very conscious of its corporate social responsibility and recognises that there is a significant level of deprivation in the city. Many initiatives have and are being taken to tackle this, such as additional funding for education and support/mentoring for certain age groups in city schools. The has also been the redevelopment of community centres, a new swimming pool at Blackbirdleys, the Barton housing development and the new Westgate shopping centre. A team was also set up specifically to respond to the implications of welfare reform that impacted on several areas of the city. The Welfare Reform Team was specifically set up to respond to the implications of Welfare Reform on certain groups which included the homeless. The Council also works closely with charities such as Crisis to support homelessness and similar issues. Oxford City Council’s apprenticeship scheme has been running for five years and has had a significant impact on ensuring vulnerable young people have a chance of employment and becoming ‘work ready’. One part of the organisation’s Community Team has worked with a group of young people who were having difficulties at school and through various initiatives have changed lives for the better. One example of this has been the city garden, where these young people are responsible for managing and growing crops.

Oxford City Council offer Partnership Payments, which are paid based on Appraisal rating and Sickness absence during the year. As a result of organisational negotiations in 2013 a ‘Pay Deal’ was agreed through Unions which encompassed several key employee benefits. One of these was to introduce a bonus scheme where, providing Council financial performance was met, any employee who attained certain annual performance criteria would receive a bonus payment. The amount depended on the level of performance and an additional amount was provided for staff who had a level attendance below a set figure.