Agenda and minutes

The Board was advised that Councillor Carol Plumpton-Walsh would be Chairman for the meeting.

RESOLVED: That Councillor Carol Plumpton Walsh be appointed Chairman for the duration of the meeting.

Councillor C Plumpton Walsh

Vice Chairman of the Board

(in the Chair)

          The Minutes from the meeting held on 5 June 2013, were taken as read and signed as a correct record.

The Board was advised that no public question had been received.

The Board considered the minutes of the meeting of the Executive Board relevant to the Employment, Learning, Skills and Community Portfolio since the last meeting of the Board.

It was noted that some departments across the Council had offered work experience placements and graduate internships in the past. It was agreed that the breakdown of the placements, where and what they were would be circulated to Members of the Board.  The Board also noted that a workshop had been undertaken to secure more placements and an update would be given at the next meeting.

RESOLVED: That the minutes and comment raised be noted.

The Board received the minutes of the Employment Learning Skills Specialist Strategic Partnership from 13 May 2013.

          The Board noted that the public jobs fair themed ‘It Pays to Work’, which had been held at St George’s Hall, Liverpool on 4 July 2013 had been a huge success and many Halton residents had attended.

It was noted that the SSP minutes on the agenda were not the latest available and clarity was sought on whether the Board could receive the draft minutes at future meetings.  In response, it was reported that the most recent minutes would be circulated to all Members of the Board.

It was noted that Connexions were leading on awareness raising of apprenticeships in schools in other Authorities and also had contracts in the National Careers Service.

          RESOLVED: That the minutes and comments raised be noted.

The Board considered a report of the Strategic Director, Policy and Resources, which introduced, through the submission of a structured thematic performance report, the progress of key performance indicators, milestones and targets relating to health in Quarter 1 of 2013-14. This included a description of factors which were affecting the service.

The following points arose from the discussion:-

·             It was noted that Sci-Tech Daresbury had developed a stand alone proposition and clarity was sought on why a joint proposal had not been considered.  In response, it was reported that the Authority had worked closely with Sci-Tech Daresbury and because of their specialist nature and that they were very well resourced, they felt that they wanted to submit a stand alone proposition;

·             Page 19 – Clarity was sought on the areas for concern on Raising Skills for life.  In response an update was given on the reasons for the issue of concern notice.  It was also reported in order to address this issue, the way the programme was delivered had changed to termly rather than yearly.  The improvement plan had been accepted and there was no longer an issue;

·             Page 21 – The number of starts on the DWP work programme – Clarity was sought on whether this figure would remain low for the remainder of the year.  In response, it was reported that there was no specific reason for the low numbers and a 25% contingency had been put in place to deal with this matter;

·             Page 23 – Clarity was sought on the number of employees the financial statement represented and it was requested that this information be included in future reports. In response, it was reported that in the Children and Enterprise Department there were 165 full time equivalent employees;

·             It was noted that the Board did not receive many reports regarding the Community aspect of their remit.  In response, it was reported that future agenda’s would include community aspects; and

·             Clarity was sought on the current situation regarding the libraries in the Borough. In response, it was reported that there were no current plans to close any libraries.  However, it was highlighted that with the Government budgetary cuts where significant savings had to be found, there was no guarantee that there would be no changes in the future.

RESOLVED: that the report and comments raised be noted.

The Board received a presentation from Siobhan Saunders, Employment, Learning and Skills on the progress regarding Halton’s Work Programme Contracts. 

The presentation:-

·             Set out the background to the work programme;

·             Outlined Halton’s Work Programme; the delivery, the process and the customer journey;

·             Detailed the performance against targets via good news stories;

·             Explained Year 1 and Year 2’s delivery and the lessons learned; and

·             Set out the challenges and opportunities for Years 3 – 5 of the work programme.

The following comments arose from the presentation:-

·             It was noted that to date there had been 1700 referrals from A4E and 1700 from Ingeus.

·             It was noted that an individual’s situation would be assessed regarding their entitlements etc in order to ensure that they would not be worse off;

·             It was noted that customers accessed the service via the job centre, which was an automatic referral after 9 months;

·             A member of the Board raised concern at the suitability of the placements; whether health and safety checks were undertaken and training given to individuals. He indicated that a family member had been injured on a placement and he had been placed in an unsuitable environment. In response it was reported that it would not have been one of Halton’s contracts.  All Halton work placements were assessed for their suitability, strict additional guidelines were given out, the individual would also be assessed, and health and safety procedures were checked.  In addition, it was reported that a formal complaint could be made through the complaints procedure at the Job Centre.  If the placement was via A4E, they should complain directly via their complaints procedure.

·             The Portfolio holder, xx Councillor Jones reported that Halton People into Jobs had been very successful and had achieved excellent outcomes. However, the programme had been replaced by the Government to a contract with private providers. He highlighted that the change represented a huge internal cultural change for employees and he gave credit to Officers who had managed the change, the terms and conditions and the expectations.  He reported that the Council had been keen to deliver the new programme in order to retains some of the elements in a contract that the Council valued, to protect employees jobs and ensure that residents had direct involvement with the clients.  In conclusion, he reported that the programme had been successful for two years.

·             Concern was raised regarding zero contracts and that some of the jobs were only for 13 or 26 weeks.  In response, it was reported that the Authority were not encouraging people to take on agency work, but to obtain permanent employment.  In addition, it was reported that it was the payments that were for 13 or 26 weeks not the employment.  It was also highlighted that the public sector ethos was to ensure the sustainability of the employment and the Scrutiny Topic Group were also considering this matter;

·             It was noted that a contact centre in Sheffield undertook the random allocation to A4E and Ingeus to ensure  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18.

The Board considered a report of the Strategic Director, Children and Enterprise which informed the Members of the preparations being made to develop and Enterprise Strategy for the Liverpool City Region.

The Board was advised that Partners in the Liverpool City Region (LCR) were developing an Enterprise Strategy to capture and evaluate existing evidence on economic development in Liverpool City Region and the wider economy to inform the design and development of a future enterprise programme.  The enterprise strategy would contribute to the City Region’s submission on ERDF 2014-2020 programmes.

The strategy was being developed so that the LCR was able to develop and deliver a coherent plan of action to tackle the chronic shortage of businesses that would impede economic performance and address the gap of 17,000 business, creating an environment where business were created and grow at a rate above targeted levels.

The Board noted the developments that the strategy would include and the key question that needed to be considered.

It was reported that this would be placed on the agenda as a Standing Item as the Strategy was being developed.

In respect of whether there were structural issues that must be addressed before economic potential could be realised, it was noted that earlier reports had highlighted skill shortages; that health statistics were poor in the Borough; the impact debt problems would have on employment and the challenges facing the Authority in local people being able to embrace the job opportunities.

RESOLVED: That

(1)        The report and comments raised be noted; and

(2)        The draft Strategy be circulated to the Board as they are produced.

The Board considered a report of the Strategic Director, Children and Enterprise which informed the Members of recent national policy announcements relevant to employment, learning and skills.

The Board was advised that a number of policy, legislation, consultation and guidance documents, had been issued by Government departments and agencies that had varying degrees of relevance to issues on the employment, learning and skills agenda and related topics.

The Board was further advised that the report represented a brief summary of key announcements with observations of local relevance, where appropriate, so that Members could consider whether to initiate a more detailed scrutiny and/or report to a future meeting.

The following points arose from the discussion:-

·             In respect of Halton being able to access European Structural Funds via the Mersey LEP, it was noted that match funding would need to be identified as part of the process for schemes to commence;

·             In respect of business rates retention scheme and that local authorities would be able to come together on a voluntary basis to pool their business rates, to create scope to generate additional growth, clarity was sought on how this would operate.  In response, it was reported that there was currently no indication on how this would operate, as it was only an option, giving local authorities the flexibility to consider.  However, this discussion was taking place via the Executive Board.  In addition, it was reported that the promotion of businesses in the Borough was very specific to re-investment in the Borough.  However, there were opportunities within the Borough and this could be dealt with on a case by case perspective;

·             It was noted that in respect of European Funding, the application deadline for the Grundtvig visits/exchange grants was 17 September 2013 and that to date, there had been no applications;

·             It was noted that Glasgow University had undertaken a study which showed that there was no evidence of generational poverty. It was reported that the study had been undertaken by several universities around the country to ensure that the information was accurate.  It had showed that there were very few second generation families and most single generation families were not workless but had been in and out of numerous jobs for various reasons. It was agreed that the research report would be circulated to all Members of the Board; and

·             Clarity was sought on how Erasmus+ (2014-2020) could be accessed and whether there was any projects that could be applied for.  In response, it was reported that it was a competitive bidding process to the European Union which was primarily for schools and colleges and was available to the Authority.

RESOLVED: That the report and comments raised be noted.