Agenda item

Michele Lawty-Jones, Director of the Lancashire Skills Hub, outlined the report (circulated) on the impact of Covid-19 on skills and employment in Lancashire, and the risks and priorities that are emerging.

Committee members shared some of their observations. Some key points were:

·  There was concern about the lack of visibility about the future

·  Supply chain was an issue, as many business customers were not trading

·  There was concern that at the end of furlough many people would be unemployed, and some may not have transferable skills that will enable them to move to another sector

·  There was a reluctance for businesses to take on new apprentices or staff

·  Current business bankruptcies, and the threat of more, will greatly impact cash flow.

Sarah Kemp reported that the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership (LEP) had started development of the delivery plan for the strategic framework.

The LEP had established sector groups across key industry sectors for Lancashire.

The impact of the current situation was sector-specific, and was being considered in phases – stabilisation of the business, recovery and return to growth.

The sector groups were aiming to get to a granular level of detail for each of the phases to identify what interventions and level of intervention are needed and what the top priorities were for each sector. The main concerns emerging were preserving cash in the business and bringing staff back to work.

Members were invited to comment on the priorities identified in the report:

·  It was suggested that the impact on aerospace could be referenced, due to its significance in Lancashire

·  Putting a timeline to the actions would be helpful

·  Communication of Lancashire's priorities was important

·  The committee's role as a facilitator and enabler should be highlighted

·  There may be an opportunity to build a wider development / prompts towards innovation and skills to support the growth of new industries given there may be opportunities to develop manufacturing base through a range of new SMEs

·  There may be a loss of key skills for businesses if they lose employees due to a loss of working capital

It was noted that there was a window of opportunity to boost the skills and health and wellbeing of individuals currently furloughed to support business recovery or support development of employees' employability if they were made redundant. The team were working to bring together the different resources emerging targeted at furloughed workers – such as the DfE Skills Toolkit, local provision, Skills Support for the Workforce – and were working with partners to bring them onto one webpage which could be promoted to businesses and individuals to engage furloughed workers.

It was commented that some furloughed workers were not picking up on support offers or vacancies, and that marketing around the offers available in terms of support for businesses and supporting the health and wellbeing of employees should be balanced with marketing employability skills for individuals.

Resolved: that the Director of the Skills Hub would incorporate the comments from the meeting into the developing paper and that the paper would be shared with the LEP Board