Agenda and minutes

Vice Chair Peter Caney welcomed all to the meeting and introduced Wes Johnson as the new Chair of the Lancashire Skills and Employment Board. A welcome was further extended to Nina Dixon, Forum Manager, Lancashire Work Based Learning Forum, who was attending her first meeting of the Skills and Employment Board as a Board member.

It was noted that this was the final Board meeting for Mark Allanson, who was thanked extensively for his length of service and contributions to the Skills Board.

Apologies had been received from Paul Jones, Jacqui Old CBE and Wendy Robinson.

Nicola Mortimer raised a pecuniary interest in Item 13 on the agenda, and informed the Board that she would not be present at the meeting during consideration of this item.

Resolved: The minutes of the meeting held on 01 June 2023 were approved as an accurate record.

Under Matters Arising, the Chair informed the Board that at the most recent Lancashire Enterprise Partnership Board the grant offer from CEC for the Lancashire Careers Hub has been signed, match confirmed with the LEP and with the local authorities, and a contract variation agreed with Inspira to extend their contract for a further academic year.

The Board were also informed that the LEP Board had approved all recommendations regarding membership for the committee.

Dr Michele Lawty-Jones, Director, Lancashire Skills Hub, informed the Board that there remained an outstanding action from the previous Board meeting in relation to sending a letter to the Careers and Enterprise Company around caseloads and that this would be actioned in the near future.

Verbal update from Simon Lawrence, Director of Growth and Regeneration, Lancashire County Council

Simon Lawrence, Director of Growth and Regeneration, Lancashire County Council and Dr Michele Lawty-Jones gave a verbal updated regarding the move toward a County Combined Authority and updates on Lancashire 2050. The Board were informed that discussions about where the Skills and Employment Board will fit in County Combined Authority governance structures were in discussion.

The Board were thanked for their input into the Lancashire 2050 framework and the refresh of the Lancashire Skills and Employment Strategic Framework, as it was noted it will be helpful in influencing the shape of the Level 2 County Combined Authority deal.

Resolved: The Skills and Employment Board noted the verbal update provided.

Presentation from the Department for Education and UCAS

Carolyn Savage OBE, Head of Youth Apprenticeships Growth, Department for Education and Pete Milsom, Partnerships Manager, UCAS gave a presentation to the Board on the Early Connect Pilot of which Lancashire would be one of 3 areas taking part in the pilot.

The Early Connect Pilot aims to increase the number of apprenticeship starts from Year 13 students, and provide them with more exposure to the opportunities available to them at the point of applying for University and Higher Education.

It was reported to the Board that the Skills Hub had since established a working group to take forward the pilot locally. It was suggested by Board members  that the Hospital Trusts are represented at the working group to support the pilot.

The Board were supportive of the scheme and Carolyn and Peter were thanked for their presentation.

Resolved: The Lancashire Skills and Employment Board noted the presentation as delivered.

Dr Michele Lawty-Jones presented a draft version of the refreshed Lancashire Skills and Employment Framework (circulated) for the Board's comment.

It was noted to the Board that feedback received from consultation events in May and June had been taken into consideration when preparing the new framework and that references to the potential future County Combined Authority and their priorities had also been included. As well as this, progress updates against the previous framework had been included to highlight the successes so far. It was noted that further details surrounding the priorities of Lancashire 2050 had been included and detail on how this links to the ongoing work of the Skills Hub as well as delivery targets for these objectives.

The Board were asked to consider the draft framework and provide comments via email by Friday 6th October so that the document can be approved at the next meeting of the Lancashire Leaders.

Resolved:  The Board indicated their support for the updated framework, and noted the deadline to provide any further comments for improvements or amendments.

Dr Michele Lawty-Jones, presented a report (circulated) providing the Board on an update from the Lancashire Skills Hub and partners structured against its strategic themes. The following key points were highlighted:

·  European Social Funding programme is coming to an end, and therefore no further reporting against those milestones will take place. It has been identified as a risk that the move to the UK Shared Prosperity Fund will result in a fragmented approach across Lancashire and that gaps in funding will need to be filled through mainstream funding.

·  Schools and colleges have achieved an average of 6.4 Gatsby Benchmarks against a target of 5, with them performing significantly above the national average on every one of the eight Benchmarks.

·  Lancashire Careers Hub Annual Conference was a success, with over 190 delegates, focussing on the impact of careers programmes, work readiness and employability.

·  Cyber Fairy Tales escape room activity developed by STEMFirst for primary schools received excellent feedback from the initial pilot. Work is being done to secure more funding for this in order to roll out further.

·  Economic Inactivity research has been completed and a strong body of evidence created regarding Economic Inactivity in Lancashire, with proposed priorities and recommendations, influencing discussions with government regarding the evolving Combined County Authority

·  19 Skills Bootcamp providers have begun Wave 4 delivery, with 116 participants starting programmes as of end of June 2023.

·  There is a risk that outcomes for Skills Bootcamp learners from Wave 3 will not be met by the end of September. The Skills Hub is tracking the progress of providers and lending support through employer engagement.

·  The Early Connect pilot for Lancashire has been confirmed by DfE with UCAS, and funds offered to the Skills Hub for coordination.

·  The Multiply Programme in the LCC area has achieved 110% of the Participant Target and 93% of profiled spend in Quarter 1, supporting over 1300 participants.

·  Working on the design and implementation of a Data Observatory to support the Lancashire 2050 strategic themes and foster collaboration with data.

·  Continued growth in businesses signing up to the Lancashire Skills pledge with a celebration event planned for 8^th December.

Resolved: The Lancashire Skills and Employment Board noted the updates provided in the report.

•  Identification and agreement of any recommendations for consideration/approval by the LEP Board.

•  Identification and agreement of issues for inclusion in the feedback report for the LEP Board.

Resolved: It was agreed by the Board that the following items would be presented to the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership Board:

(i)  An update on the Skills and Employment framework including the ongoing refresh and the process of the approval.

(ii)  The recommendations for decision as outlined in the National Skills Fund: Skills Bootcamps for 2024/25 report.

None

The next meeting of the Lancashire Skills and Employmen Board is due to be held on 7^th December 2023 at 8am as a virtual meeting via Microsoft Teams.

Resolved: It was noted that the next formal meeting of the Lancashire Skills and Employment Board is due to be held on 7th December 2023 at 8am as a virtual meeting via Microsoft Teams, and that the next informal meeting of the Board is due to be held on 9^th November 2023 at 9:30am, location TBC

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: The Lancashire Skills and Employment Board considered that, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, 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.

Nicola Mortimer left at this point of the meeting.

Dr Michele Lawty-Jones presented a report (circulated) which outlined the proposals for Wave 5 of the Skills Bootcamps to take place in 2024/25 as well as the funding proposals to deliver those bootcamps.

The Board discussed the ideas for Skills Bootcamps submitted via the market engagement events and the demand in the local labour market.  It was agreed that certain ideas would not be included in the proposal to the DfE, as the Board considered that public sector intervention was not necessary for those areas at this stage.

Resolved: The Lancashire Skills and Employment Board:

(i)  Considered the opportunity to secure grant funds for further Skills Bootcamp delivery in Lancashire in 2024/25 and recommended to the LEP Board the acceptance of grant funds should the application to DfE be successful, with a delegation to the Chief Executive and Section 151 Officer to review and agree the grant funding offer and terms and conditions, give due consideration to any procurement considerations and agree and enter into any legal agreements required to protect the interests of the LEP and Lancashire County Council

(ii)  Should further grant funds be approved and accepted, recommended to the LEP Board to extend the contracts for the Project Manager and two Project Officers, with delegation to the Chief Executive and Section 151 Officer for approval subject to advice from HR, and that the grant funding provided can be used to meet redundancy costs associated with the extension.

Dr Michele Lawty-Jones and Kerry Harrison, Digital Skills Coordinator, Lancashire Skills Hub, provided a verbal update to the Board about the proposed pilot FE Bursary Scheme with MOD and Strategic Command.

Resolved: The Lancashire Skills and Employment Board noted the update provided.