Agenda and minutes

The Chair welcomed as a new member of the Panel Councillor Karen Buckley, Leader of Fylde Council, representing the Lancashire Leaders Group. Councillor Buckley was replacing Councillor Mark Townsend.

The Panel was informed that Lindsay Campbell, who represented the hospitality sector, had resigned from the Panel. A replacement would need to be found as the hospitality sector was an important sector in Lancashire.

The Chair, Amanda Melton CBE, informed that she would be retiring later in the year.

Apologies were received from Liz Tapner.

None were disclosed.

Resolved: That the minutes of the meeting held on 10 November 2021 are confirmed as an accurate record.

Michele Lawty-Jones, Director of the Lancashire Skills and Employment Hub, presented an update from the Lancashire Skills and Employment Hub and partners. The update was structured against the strategic themes and priorities outlined in the Lancashire Skills and Employment Strategic Framework 2021 and provided an update since the last meeting of the Panel.

Highlights from the report were as follows:

·  Regarding Careers Hubs, action plans had been agreed with 12 business networks across Lancashire. Positive relationships had emerged with these networks. Business networks were encouraging their members to sign up to the Lancashire Skills Pledge. This was resulting in an increase of Skills Pledges with a particular focus on 'Become an Enterprise Advisor' and 'Give an Hour' to support encounters in schools.

·  The Cornerstone Employer Group, which was a group of businesses Lancashire wide, was agreeing its commitment plan around the Careers Hub.

·  In terms of Technical Education, the Careers Hub had successfully secured funding through the Careers and Enterprise Company for a project to be delivered in this academic year. The aim of the project was to raise the profile of apprenticeships.

·  The Institute of Technology (IoT) submission to the DfE from Lancashire's consortium of colleges and universities had been successful and was now in the pre-award stage.

·  There was a whole host of digital activity going on to enable young people to develop their skills and gain careers insight. The TeenTech Live Festival was due to start. The Cyber Girls First event had been postponed until 23 March. There was a BAE Systems' sponsored programme with InnovateHer and Create Education which was delivering events for staff and young people. There was a Hub Incubation Project which was aimed at testing and evaluating the impact of careers activities. The digital Advantage 2021/22 programme would focus on delivering digital skills with industry experts to 70 young people with SEND, care-experienced students and young carers, in schools, colleges and alternative provision settings across Lancashire.

·  The Adult Skills Forum continued to meet regularly with providers across Lancashire. The forum shared good practice and highlighted opportunities for participants, such as Skills Bootcamps and apprenticeship training.

·  The pre-launch guidance had been issued for the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. This indicated that the Skills and Employment programmes would commence in 2024.

·  The Northwest Skills Academy was also delivering a Retrofit Skills Bootcamp across Lancashire as an extension of a contract held with GMCA. This was in addition to the HGV Bootcamps launched early in January.

·  Regarding Social Value and the Preston Western Distributor, the project team had continued the successful delivery of their social value programme despite operating in very difficult operating conditions due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

·  To support the objectives in the Apprenticeship Action Plan, the Skills Hub was sponsoring the inaugural Lancashire Apprenticeship Awards alongside Blackpool and Fylde College, Porsche and VEKA. The awards were being held on 31 March.

·  The national apprenticeship week would take place week commencing 7 February. The Lancashire Skills Hub would be promoting the Lancashire Apprenticeship  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

The report presented informed the panel that Digital Bootcamps were piloted in Lancashire and Greater Manchester through the Fast Track Digital Workforce Fund, in partnership with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS). The model was driven by employers, with employer-provider collaborations developing 12+ week bootcamp programmes, which provided intensive training to fast track unemployed residents into hard to fill digital jobs.

The model was adopted and adapted by the Department for Education (DfE) under the National Skills Fund, with pilots taking place locally and in several other areas across the country. The DfE model had an increased focus on guaranteed interviews and progression into employment or within the workplace. Following devolved pilots, Skills Bootcamps were rolled out nationally through a national procurement process focusing on digital and construction, and subsequently HGV training.

The DfE had recognised the benefits of balancing locally driven procurement processes with national procurement and had invited LEPs and MCAs to submit proposals for devolved grant funding for financial year 2022/23. Local consultation had been undertaken to build a pipeline of ideas for Skills Bootcamps, building on the success in Lancashire to-date, with a view to submitting a proposal to the DfE by the deadline of 15 February to secure funds for Lancashire.

Whilst Lancashire had worked in collaboration with Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) to-date, expertise had been built up through proactive engagement in the procurement of provision and project management, and more recently Skills Bootcamps had been procured and contracted locally, providing a springboard to scale up a programme that was driven locally.

It was unclear when the DfE would get back to Lancashire regarding the submitted proposal but hopefully it be around mid-March. To formulate the proposal Lancashire had ran an event with partners to get what people's ideas were and share what the difference was between the local and national procurement process, and what the DfE was looking for. The bid submitted by Lancashire was around £2.6m. If the bid was successful there would need to be a Lancashire procurement process.

The panel was informed that the DfE had changed the funding model slightly. It was still in 3 parts where you received 50% upfront based on projected numbers. There would then be a middle payment which would be adjusted for the actual numbers. There would then be 20% held back at the end until the person was in a job. This increased the incentive to get that person into a job.

Comments and questions raise were as follows:

·  It was pointed out that Lancashire had a lot with success with the DfE in the past in terms of delivery and that Lancashire would likely be successful with its proposal. It was only a question of how much Lancashire would receive from the DfE.

·  In terms of interest, there was a lot of partners engaged in the consultation who returned ideas. The biggest job was selling the understanding of what a Skills Bootcamp was and how it could benefit  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

(Denise Park, CEO, Blackburn with Darwen Unitary Authority)

Denise Park, Chief Executive of Blackburn with Darwen Council, gave a presentation to the panel on Levelling Up For Lancashire.

Leaders in Lancashire recognised the potential to do more to strengthen Lancashire's place leadership and to speak with one voice.

Lancashire had a distinct and diverse urban, rural and coastal geography. It was home to 1.5 million people, 55,000 businesses and a £34.1 billion economy.

Lancashire had a granular robust evidence base, including bespoke compound impacts of Covid-19 and legacy structural inequalities developed.

Lancashire had a major and unique contribution to make to the UK economy. It had to work with policy makers to realise the full potential and ensure specific issues and opportunities were clearly set out.

Council Leaders had made a historic pledge to work together to deliver a bold vision to benefit the people of Lancashire. There was an emerging, overarching vision and strategic plan setting the collective, long-term ambition for Lancashire in 2050. There was close collaborative work to develop a set of ambitious and forward thinking proposals. It was important to create a single narrative and unified, influential voice for Lancashire. There were detailed devolution asks in development for funding, powers and flexibilities from Government. These focused on the priority themes in the Lancashire 2050 Strategic Plan.

There were 11 sub-regions benefitting from devolution deals and more emerging, the majority, but not all, within a mayoral combined authority governance.  New unitary councils were being created with the potential for devolution opportunities.

At a strategic level, Lancashire needed to find a way to present its case and advocate for its residents and businesses with the same level of authority and influence.  The Government had reiterated commitment to devolution and 9 initial ‘County Deals’ which sought to widen devolution beyond the large city regions.

Council Leaders had been engaged in successful local negotiations to shape Lancashire’s priorities and establish the principles of governance to shape and oversee delivery of a subsequent county deal / devolution in Lancashire.

The next step would include the development of those principles in response to the Levelling Up White Paper.

The Levelling Up White Paper had announced further details on empowering local decision making including a new, flexible framework and four key principles underpinning devolution.

Lancashire had considered various models to date including (Mayoral) Combined Authority, Economic Prosperity Board, Joint Statutory Committee, upper tier/district voting and consultative committee. Leaders had established a set of core principles, currently subject to formal decisions of all 15 councils.  Those principles were well aligned to the White Paper covering effective leadership, sensible geography, flexibility and appropriate accountability.

The Lancashire principles included Leader representation and would be initially chaired by LCC as accountable body seeking to maintain council sovereignty without imposing governance or reducing local decision making.

The new deal for a greater Lancashire had 4 key themes:

·  Economic growth and investment

·  Transport, connectivity and infrastructure

·  Early years, education, adult skills and employment

·  Environment, climate change and housing quality

In terms of the Levelling Up White Paper,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

(Geoff Mason, Policy Manager, N&W Lancashire Chamber of Commerce – accountable body for the Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP) Trailblazer)

The Chair welcomed Geoff Mason, North & Western Lancashire Chamber of Commerce, to the meeting.

The Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP) came out of the Skills White Paper from January 2021 with the intention of putting employers right at the heart of decisions made with regards to skills provision in their local areas. Lancashire was one of only 8 trailblazers in England to do this.

The programme ran alongside the Strategic Development Fund programmes that were going through colleges at the moment. The work on the LSIP was due to finish on 31 March 2022. Then a report would be sent the DfE.

The Employers Skills Survey went out in the autumn of 2021. There had been over 1,000 responses to the survey. There had been disparity across the county in terms of responses.

The programme had been running focus groups and all of these groups had been finished by the end of January 2022. These groups had provided information on how skills gaps were affecting businesses and what solutions could resolve them.

A lot of roundtables had been ran recently with a number of stakeholders and local colleges as well as partnering with some of the local employer representative bodies.

There had been a group of roadshows ran at a number of different colleges including Myerscough, Burnley, Blackburn, Lancaster and Morecambe, and West Lancashire in partnership with the Lancashire Skills and Employment Hub.

Surveys had also been ran to employees and the unemployed. There had been over 500 responses to these surveys. This would give an initial look into some of the issues employees and the unemployed find.

There was also a training provision survey which looked at who employers skilled their staff and where they sourced it.

The Skills Survey results had just been completed. The survey results were sat with the data analysis team. The team would also help with the production of the report.

Some of the general issues that had come out of the various focus groups were as follows:

·  There were concerns about the levels of literacy of people coming out of the education system.

·  There were issues over some of the courses being too long and generic. There was a suggestion for shorter, modular skills training.

·  There were difficulties in attracting young people into the so called 'dirty' industries like manufacturing and construction.

·  There had been discussions around making the Apprenticeship Levy more flexible and include more non-apprenticeship skills training.

·  One issue that had come from employers and providers was that trainers had been too long out of industry. It was vital to keep up with current working practices.

Work was continuing with providers around findings and to discuss what could be done in the short term.

Work was ongoing with organisations such as the DWP and the Prison Service to maximise opportunities for those outside of the current workforce.

Further opportunities were being looked at to utilise the LSIP methodologies.

Lancashire's LSIP was one of only eight trailblazers and was waiting on  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

Regarding Skills Bootcamp delivery in Lancashire, the Skills and Employment Advisory Panel would propose to the LEP Board that grant funds were accepted should the application to DfE be successful, subject to review of the grant funding offer and the terms and conditions by the Chief Executive and Section 151 Officer and any related procurement considerations.

The panel would recommend to the LEP Board acceptance of the grant funding offer from CEC once received, subject to review of the final grant offer and associated terms and conditions by the Chief Executive and Section 151 Officer and support the extension of the contract with Inspira.

The panel would recommend to the LEP Board that they approve the acceptance of the grant from DCMS, should it be approved, subject to the review of the final grant offer and associated terms and conditions by the LEP Chief Executive and Section 151 Officer.

The LEP Board would be informed about the discussion of Levelling Up and devolution in Lancashire at the April meeting of the Skills and Employment Advisory Panel.

The Skills and Employment Advisory Panel was informed that the IoT was at the pre-award stage and fortnightly meetings were being held by the DfE. This would likely be a six month process.

It was felt that it would be a useful, substantive item for a future meeting of the Panel.

The Panel is asked to approve the following dates that complete the 2022/23 programme of meetings:

Formal Meetngs held via Zoom

Thursday 9 June 2022, 8:30am – 10:30am

Thursday 1 September 2022, 8:30am – 10:30am

Thursday 8 December 2022, 8:30am – 10:30am

Thursday 2 March 2023, 8:30am -10:30am

Informal Meetings

Thursday 21 April 2022, 9:30am – 12:30pm

Thursday 10 November 2022, 9:30am – 12:30pm

Approval: Should the Panel approve the programme of meetings as set out above calendar invites will be sent to add the dates to Panel Members diaries.

Resolved: The Skills and Employment Advisory Panel agreed the following dates that completed the 2022/23 programme of meetings:

Formal Meetings held via Zoom

Thursday 9 June 2022, 8:30am – 10:30am

Thursday 1 September 2022, 8:30am – 10:30am

Thursday 8 December 2022, 8:30am – 10:30am

Thursday 2 March 2023, 8:30am – 10:30am

Informal Meetings

Thursday 21 April 2022, 9:30am – 12:30pm

Thursday 10 November 2022, 9:30am – 12:30am

The Committee is asked to consider whether, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, it considers that the public should be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following items of business on the grounds that there would be a likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the appropriate paragraph of Part I of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972 as indicated against the heading to the item.

Resolved: That under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following item of business on the grounds that there would be a likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the appropriate paragraph of Part I of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972 as indicated against the heading to the item.

The report presented confirmed that funding had been allocated by the DfE to the Careers and Enterprise Company (CEC) for the national network of Careers Hubs and Enterprise Adviser Networks. Details regarding KPIs and targets were currently being negotiated. The Skills Hub was currently awaiting the Grant Funding Agreement for the Lancashire Careers Hub and Enterprise Adviser Network. It was anticipated that the funds would enable the continuation of the current model which supported all 156 schools and colleges across Lancashire to deliver excellent careers provision. This was raised to enable a recommendation to the LEP Board to be made to accept the grant offer once received and to commit to the same level of match funding as previous years.

The report also confirmed that a business case had been submitted to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) for funds for the Lancashire Digital Skills Partnership (LDSP). The report outlined the approach to sustaining the LDSP and the regional coordinator locally, with a phasing out of funds from the DCMS in the 2022/2023 financial year.

Resolved: That the Skills and Employment Advisory Pane:;

1.  Recommended to the LEP Board acceptance of the grant funding offer from the CEC once received, subject to review of the final grant offer and associated terms and conditions by the Chief Executive and Section 151 Officer and support the extension of the contract with Inspira.

2.  Recommended to the LEP Board that they approve the acceptance of the grant from DCMS, should it be approved, subject to review of the final grant offer and associated terms and conditions by the LEP Chief Executive and Section 151 Officer.