Agenda, decisions and minutes

J Muir welcomed everyone to the meeting.  Apologies were noted as above.

Each member of the Board gave a brief history of their careers and their interest in skills and employment.

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The Board considered a report which summarised the approved governance arrangements for the Skills and Employment Executive Board as agreed by the Mayoral Combined Authority (MCA) and the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP).

Members were informed that five thematic boards had been created to facilitate greater engagement in the work of the MCA from elected members and the LEP.

The membership of the Board was detailed in Appendix A.  R Adams reported that since the membership had been agreed, most of the non-constituent councils had decided not to take up their places on the Boards; this would mean that the quoracy needed to be adjusted and agreed to account for this.  Cllr Gilby would be attending the Skills and Employment Executive Board.

The Board noted that it would meet in week four of the MCA’s 8-week cycle to allow any decisions requiring escalation to the MCA to progress in a timely manner.

Decision making would be by consensus on schemes under £2m.  If consensus could not be reached the issue would be passed on the either the LEP or the MCA as appropriate.

Members noted that the Terms of Reference allowed for deputies who must be an elected member and who must also complete a Register of Interests form.  The Board thought it advisable that members should have a named deputy.

R Adams advised the Board that there would be a review of its effectiveness and lessons learned after six months.  It was decided this would be done at the Board meeting on 24^th February 2020.

The Board discussed its responsibilities in the areas of funding, strategy and policy, programme delivery and performance and risk management.  These areas would also be used to populate the Board’s Forward Plan.

RESOLVED:  That the Board:

i)          Note the approved governance arrangements.

ii)         Note the proposed future scheduling of Skills and Employment Board meetings.

iii)        Have considered the responsibilities of the Board and noted the draft Forward Plan.

A report was considered that presented a suggested framework to engage specialists in the work of the Skills and Employment Executive Board.

The report proposed that the Board established a professional advisory network which would sit outside the formal board structure.  Core members would be identified based on key areas of work with additional members selected to work as the need arose aligned to the Board’s Forward Plan.

Suggested Terms of Reference were presented as an Appendix to the report.

The Board considered the suggested membership and examples of the types of organisations who could be engaged which was attached at Appendix 2 to the report.

The Board broadly agreed with the suggested membership although expressed concern that it was heavily non-employer biased.  It was felt important to the work of the Board to have an understanding of what employers need.

Members agreed that a Trades Union representative should be included and suggested contacting Bill Adams, the regional Secretary of the TUC.

With regard to schools, the Board agreed that all schools across the board should be represented and agreed that the regional School Commissioner should be contacted.

Members requested that details of the SCR Provider Network, which gave details of independent training providers, should be circulated to them.

In respect of the 3^rd Sector representative, it was agreed there was a need for the organisation to have close links with a wide range of communities and not be affiliated to one organisation.  Members suggested that officers should look at the Voluntary Action organisations or similar.

RESOLVED:  That the Board:

i)             Agree to the appointment of a Specialist Advisory Network.

ii)            Agree to the proposed meeting structure of the Specialist Advisory Network.

iii)           Agree to the Terms of Reference as detailed in the report and the membership to include suggestions as detailed above.

iv)           Charge the SCR Executive to recruit to the Board’s agreed approach and establish the network for September 2019.

A report was submitted which presented the arrangements in place to deliver the Enterprise Adviser Network across the SCR for the academic year 2019/20.

The Board were informed that in September 2018 the MCA accepted a Grant Offer from the Careers and Enterprise Company (CEC) covering the two academic years 2018/19 and 2019/20, at that meeting they accepted the grant for 2018/19.  The MCA received a request to accept the final year of that grant allocation in their 29 July 2019 meeting.

The Enterprise Adviser Network was designed to support secondary schools’ achievements of Gatsby Benchmarks 5 and 6 for good careers advice.

Members noted that the SCR delivery model agreed by the previous Executive Board in conjunction with the LEP was to directly sub-contract delivery to Local Authorities who provided the necessary match funding for the project.  The grant was distributed subject to CEC terms and conditions which were detailed in the report.

Members were informed that around a third of the educational establishments were yet to complete their careers benchmark assessment, and a snapshot from December showed that schools were behind target.  It was hoped that performance would improve in the final weeks of the academic year.

The Board asked for further information to be available at the next meeting about achievements and outcomes and performance relative to other regions.

RESOLVED:  That the Board agree to continue the programme arrangements for the academic year 2019/20, noting that this would be the final year of the current CEC grant.

Due to the shortage of time, it was decided not to consider the Skills and Employment Overview; it would be rescheduled to be considered in detail at the next meeting of the Board.

RESOLVED:  That the Board:

i)               Approve the progression of ‘From teenagers to employee – A Sheffield City Region, engineering and advanced manufacturing talent pipeline creator’ project to full approval and award up to £0.495m grant to Sheffield UTC Sheffield subject to the conditions set out in the Appraisal Panel Summary Table attached at Appendix A and subject to the value for money calculation being re-run with the omission of adult learners and that safeguarding protocols are in place for adult learning only to take place atevenings and weekends with the majority of equipment time prioritised for learners aged 13-19.

ii)              Delegate authority to the Head of Paid Service, in conjunction with the Section 73 and the Monitoring Officer, to enter into the contractual arrangements required as a result of the above approval.

A report was considered that requested approval for Sheffield’s UTC scheme with a Local Growth Fund grant value of £0.495m.

Sheffield UTC had requested the grant to support a £1.11m scheme to purchase and install specialist machining and automation equipment at their Sheffield City Centre site.

The investment would allow the UTC to respond and adapt to changing technology and demands from the employer base ensuring that young people and adults were equipped with the skills needed by two priority sectors (engineering and digital).

Members noted that as the project was estimated to support 500 gross additional learners over a period of ten years with an estimated 169 of the net additional learners moving into employment, it was considered acceptable value for money for the LGF investment.

Appendix A provided a summary of the scheme appraisal and the suggested conditions of the award.

Members raised concerns about the inclusion of adults in the scheme as the UTC was there to train 14 to 19 year-olds skills for the future workplace, citing safeguarding issues and also setting a precedent for future adult use.

Officers explained that they had pushed for adults to be included as this would mean the ability to offer employers the chance to upskill their workforce.  There would be minimal adult participation (30 learners) and sessions would take place in the evenings and at weekends.

The Board asked if they were in position to ask for change.

R Adams replied that there was the option to take the adults out as long as the scheme still represented good value for money.

The Board agreed to this suggestion but also agreed to leaving the adults in the project if removing them meant that the project was not value for money.

RESOLVED:  That the Board:

i)               Approve the progression of ‘From teenagers to employee – A Sheffield City Region, engineering and advanced manufacturing talent pipeline creator’ project to full approval and award up to £0.495m grant to Sheffield UTC Sheffield subject to the conditions set out in the Appraisal Panel Summary Table attached at Appendix A and subject to the value for money calculation being re-run with the omission of adult learners and that safeguarding protocols are in place for adult learning only to take place at evenings and weekends with the majority of equipment time prioritised for learners aged 13-19.

ii)              Delegate authority to the Head of Paid Service, in conjunction with the Section 73 and the Monitoring Officer, to enter into the contractual arrangements required as a result of the above approval.

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