Future Oxfordshire Partnership: An Adaptation Route Map for Oxfordshire

Lead Organisation

Sustainability West Midlands
Project Delivery team: Alan Carr (Climate Change Adaptation Lead), Morgan Roberts (Project Officer)

Overview

Using our experience of supporting local authorities with climate change adaptation, SWM was commissioned by Oxfordshire County Council (OCC) on behalf of the Future Oxfordshire Partnership (FOP) to produce a Climate Change Adaptation Route Map for the county, alongside a range of other supplementary pieces of work.

Aims

• To co-create a Route Map with a range of stakeholders that prioritises actions that need to be taken to help Oxfordshire adapt to climate change impacts.
• To provide a more detailed plan for adapting OCC’s own services.
• To produce a climate change risk assessment that aids as an evidence base for the above.
• To provide an economic appraisal of the Route Map and to identify headline economic impacts that could occur in Oxfordshire (conducted by Paul Watkiss Associates).

Outputs

Through extensive engagement and research, the following outputs have been delivered:

• The main resource: a Climate Change Adaptation Route Map for Oxfordshire.
• An adaptation delivery plan for OCC services.
• An eight-page summary of the Route Map.
• Excel spreadsheet versions of each action plan to allow for filtering and monitoring.
• A ‘best practice in adaptation planning’ document, outlining what good looks like in other localities.
• A report summarising the economic appraisal and potential economic impacts in Oxfordshire from climate change.

By way of stakeholder engagement, we:

• Ran an online capacity building training session with ~50 participants to upskill them on the issue of climate adaptation.
• Ran an in-person workshop with ~30 stakeholders to introduce the importance of climate adaptation and to hear how they have been impacted by severe weather and what they believe needs to be done to effectively adapt to climate change.
• Conducted 15 one-to-one online meetings with various stakeholders both internal to the council and from other organisations to ask in-depth questions about climate adaptation, by way of a follow-up to the workshop.
• Ran an online survey alongside the above to capture the views of a wider range of stakeholders.
• Presented at the online Sustainability Leads Monthly Meeting (a meeting of all councils in Oxfordshire) and an online meeting of Oxfordshire portfolio holders.

“Building on our existing work on climate change adaptation, SWM have worked with stakeholders in Oxfordshire to develop a clear Route Map detailing what we need to do to create meaningful change. We appreciated their flexible approach to the project and their extensive stakeholder engagement programme, helping to ensure the Route Map was co-created by those that know Oxfordshire the best. We hope to work with SWM again in future.” Tom Layzell, Climate Adaptation Policy and Project Lead, Oxfordshire County Council.

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For further information on the project or to work with us in one of a variety of ways, please see our consultancy page or contact the SWM team on enquiries@swm.org.uk.