Agenda item

The Board received a presentation from Mr Neil Wilcock, the Employment and Skills Co-ordinator – Merseylink CJV, of the progress made to date against the Employment and Skills Key Performance Indicators associated with the new Mersey Gateway crossing.

 

The Board was advised that Merseylink was selected in the Summer of 2013 as the consortia to construct the new Mersey Gateway crossing and to maintain the existing Silver Jubilee Bridge. 

 

It was reported that the final submission of Merseylink’s Employment and Skills Delivery Plan included a range of proposed Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s).  The Divisional Manager Employment, Learning and Skills and the Halton Employment Partnership (HEP) Manager were involved in scoring the Employment and Skills Delivery plans submitted by the bidders.  Officers advised that as part of the procurement process, Merseylink consulted at length with HEP on employment and skills issues.  This included a number of ‘bootcamp’ events and attendance at HEP meetings. Merseylink then used the intelligence gathered to inform their Employment and Skills Delivery Plan.

 

When Merseylink were selected as the preferred bidder, they established an Employment and Skills Governance Board (ESGB), which was chaired by Merseylink’s Project Director, and included representation from the Merseylink consortia, the HEP and the MGCB Ltd.   It was noted that the meetings took place monthly and updates were received on progress against the Employment and Skills KPI’s.  Additionally Merseylink had employed a full time Employment and Skills Co-ordinator to support the implementation of the Delivery Plan and act as the interface between HEP and the Merseylink Consortia.

 

A comprehensive range of employment and skills KPI’s within their Employment and Skills Delivery Plan were proposed by Merseylink and detailed in the report.

 

The following highlights were noted from the presentation:

 

·       To date Merseylink along with HEP had successfully run five pre- employability programmes, one for Administration and Traffic Management and three for General Construction.  These courses had supported 55 local people, from this figure a total of 15 people had been offered an opportunity on the project (27%), ten as apprentices and five in general roles;

 

·       Currently there were 224 permanent staff employed on the project, 13% from Halton;

 

·       75 new staff had been employed since January 2015 with 31% (23) being from Halton and 15% referred through HEP or the National Apprentice Scheme;

 

·       To date Merseylink had employed 14 apprentices within a variety of departments and 73% of these were from either Widnes or Runcorn;

 

·       SME Engagement – A cluster programme had been set up and 7 local businesses attended a workshop in August 2014.  Out of the 7 attendees, four had formed a cluster to deliver catering on the project;

 

·       By the end of March 2015, Merseylink would have delivered 18 weeks work experience to students/ pupils within the Borough.  Currently Merseylink had delivered 37.5 days’ worth of work based learning to Halton residents with further opportunities going to Riverside College students;

 

·       Volunteer Programme – To date Merseylink and HEP had delivered approximately 2400 hours of volunteering opportunities which equated to 80% of the KPI;

 

·       One of two visitor centres had opened;

 

·       Timebank – Merseylink had allocated 72 of the overall 100 days during phases one and two and had delivered 27 days by supporting a number of projects from both Runcorn and Widnes; and

 

·       Regeneration – a regeneration fund had been created to support local community projects; such as the Art Initiative and the Heritage Trail.

 

The points below were noted following Members’ queries:

 

·       Apprentices were trained where possible at Riverside College; however when a course was not available, the next nearest educational facility was used, for example St Helens College;

 

·       Riverside College had facilitated the pre-employability courses and Timebank workshops;

 

·       Details of the apprentice data would be available later on in the year as some apprentices had just started in January 2015 so it was too early to determine success rates etc;

 

·       Some apprentice posts had received little or no interest from Halton residents so went outside the Borough; and

 

·       Officers would look into the approach used in schools with regards to promoting apprenticeships and viewing them as a path to employment.

 

RESOLVED:  That the report is noted and Neil Wilcock be thanked for the informative presentation.