Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence received from Councillor Imran Khan, Orlagh Hunt, Claire Paxman, Liz Needleman and Mark Cowgill.

There were no items of Disclosable Pecuniary interest declared.

The Chair read out the following statement at the beginning of the meeting.

Meeting Protocol

Due to the recent rise in COVID-19 cases in the UK and the current uncertainty this brings, the decision has been taken not to hold any in person committee meetings in January 2022. Unfortunately, we are not permitted to hold virtual formal committee meetings at this time (regulations permitting this earlier in the pandemic expired in May 2021 and have not been renewed by government). The meeting today is therefore an informal consultative meeting of the Employment and Skills Committee. However, it is being live streamed to enable the public and stakeholders to observe and hear the debate and discussion and papers have been published in the usual way. Where there is a need for a formal decision on an item, it will be necessary for the Managing Director to exercise his delegated authority and subsequently take those decisions having regard to the recommendations of this meeting.

The Green Jobs Taskforce met for the first time this morning, marking an exciting first step in bringing together leaders from across the region to collaborate on a roadmap to deliver the skills and jobs needed to address the climate emergency.

The Committee considered a report on the progress of delivery of LEP and Combined Authority-led employment and skills programmes. The paper provided a summary of the broad range of activity that the Combined Authority is delivering, working closely with partners, on the Employment and Skills agenda. This included activity funded from different sources including European Social Fund and new programmes being delivered utilising the gainshare funding secured as part of the West Yorkshire devolution deal.

Tim Allan from York Consulting presented the findings of an evaluation of school partnerships activity, delivered by the Combined Authority, and overseen by this Committee.

The Committee discussed and noted the report and presentation. 

Led by: Lindsey Daniels

The Committee considered a report on progress and a verbal update.by the AEB Manager.

The Committee was asked to make recommendations related to the Adult Education Budget for decision by the CA, and by the Managing Director of the CA under his delegations by the CA. Therefore, in the interests of transparency, all members of the Committee with an interest declared at this point.

Five months into the delivery of devolved AEB in West Yorkshire the paper summarised progress to date. The Committee was asked for its recommendation for actions which will further improve the responsiveness of AEB delivery and improve the utilisation of the Lifetime Skills Guarantee (Level 3) delegated funds. There was an action from the last meeting for officers of the CA and LAs to discuss collaboration on devolved AEB, particularly considering a draft paper led by Bradford Council which set out suggestions around the governance of AEB. The AEB Manager summarised the progress that has been made in response to this action*.

A strategic skills meeting of DODs and equivalents met on 12 November. All parties at the workshop recognised the progress made to build a spirit of collaboration on this agenda and identified other ways to strengthen partnership-working, including open two-way communication, transparency and the sharing of intelligence. The draft paper was distilled by officers of Leeds and Bradford Councils into 11 partnership “asks” which were then discussed in detail in a meeting including all 5 LAs, and a subsequent meeting with Colleges who had co-authored the paper. The agreed position against each of these asks was included as an Annex to the paper.

The Committee was asked to recommend the following actions which will improve the responsiveness of AEB delivery and improve the utilisation of the Lifetime Skills Guarantee (Level 3) delegated funds:

1.    Apply a 3% tolerance to underperformance at the end of AY2021/22

2.    Update the Performance Management framework and enact the growth and underperformance mechanisms as outlined in 2.13 – 2.20

3.    Provide stability to the AEB delivery partnership for both Grant and Contract for Service providers as per 2.21.

4.    Allocate responsiveness funds through provider growth and new opportunities as outlined in 2.22-2.28.

5.    Increase resident access to Free Courses for Jobs funds (Lifetime Skills guarantee - Level 3) as outlined in 2.33.

The Committee noted the progress and provided comments on partnership work, in particular the strategic input of stakeholders as defined in Appendix B of the report and on the proposed high-level principles for collaboration on the Employment and Skills agenda.

Led by: Peter Glover

The Committee considered a report and verbal update. This Committee serves as the Skills Advisory Panel for West Yorkshire, a formal role that involves reviewing evidence about skills needs in the area and overseeing strategy and action to address those needs.

A requirement of all Panels is to produce a Local Skills Report to the Department for Education, which summarises the work that is being undertaken.

The original report for West Yorkshire was published in March last year and approval is now sought for the publication of a refreshed report, with the draft document circulated with the Committee papers for comment.

The Committee discussed and noted the report and verbal update provided.

Led by: Peter Glover

The Committee was provided with an overview of the latest evidence and intelligence for the Committee, including performance against the Combined Authority’s headline State of the Region indicators and a summary of more timely intelligence showing current trends in the labour market.

At the October meeting of the Committee, it was agreed that we would take a standing item on the latest evidence around employment and skills in West Yorkshire based on a consistent set of indicators.  Some of these indicators are high level and taken from State of the Region, others provide a timely picture of development.

A data appendix was circulated separately to the main papers to capture the latest statistics, and this formed the basis for a short presentation provided to members.

The Committee noted the latest intelligence relating to employment and skills in West Yorkshire and the current performance of West Yorkshire against the State of the Region indicators.

Colleagues from Breaking Barriers Innovations joined the meeting and presented their proposal for a strategically aligned action plan for West Yorkshire’s health and social care workforce. The proposal seeks to engage with anchor institutions to set out a collaborative approach to enabling accessibility to good jobs for local people, leading to a more productive and inclusive workforce in West Yorkshire. The proposal aims to support wider work across the region to help ensure alignment across partners and promotion of inclusive growth.

The Committee noted the report and presentation and commented on the proposal.

Led by: Sonya Midgley