Shareholder Committee Report of the Chief Officer HR and Support Services	3^rd February 2025

City of York Trading Ltd and Work with York Limited Update February 2025

Purpose of Report

1. To consider and receive the City of York Trading Ltd Performance Update February 2025 provided as confidential Annex A and the Work with York Limited Shareholders Update provided as confidential Annex B. The performance and shareholders updates are private due to the commercial sensitivities.

Recommendations

2. Note the confidential Performance Update from City of York’s Trading Ltd attached at Annex A to this report.

Reason: To ensure the Council is updated on the performance of City of York Trading Ltd. 

3. Note the confidential Update from Work with York Limited attached at Annex B to this report.

Reason: To ensure the Council is updated on the plans of Work with York Limited. 

4. To approve the appointment to the board of Work with York Limited as Non-Executive Directors, those current Non Executive Directors of City of York Trading Ltd and delegate authority to the current director of Work with York Limited to make all necessary filings with the Registrar of Companies and all necessary updates to the statutory registers, letterhead, website, etc. of the Company in relation to said appointments.

Reason : To ensure Work with York Limited has an appropriate number of Non-Executive Directors on its Board as required by the Work with York Limited Shareholders Agreement. 

Background and analysis

5. City of York Trading Ltd (currently trading as WorkwithYork, WorkwithSchools WorkwithYorkshire and Williams & Anthony “CYT”) was formed in 2011 with the intention of supplying temporary staff to the Council, to local schools and permanent and temporary staff to other outside organisations.  

6. In February 2024, CYT acquired the assets of a local recruitment business, Williams & Anthony, specialists in pre-construction appointments, including Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering and Surveying.

7. Through CYT, the Council makes a cost saving compared to the cost of agency staff on the open market and is also able to secure staff to cover hard-to-fill roles where permanent recruitment is challenging.

8. In addition, the payment of dividends from CYT’s overall profits has assisted the Council’s financial position.  The Directors of CYT Ltd were not able to declare a dividend for 2023/24.

Key Company Matters 2024/25 and Current Workplans

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9. The CYT’s Board of Directors compromises Karen Bull (Managing Director) with Non-Executive Directors, Cllr Ian Cuthbertson, Cllr Jason Rose, Ann Vickers, Lisa Wood and Chloe Kerridge-Phipps and usually meets monthly to consider monthly financial and performance reports and discuss strategy going forward.

10. Key Performance Indicators are monitored on weekly and monthly basis.

11. Marketing activities continue, including utilisation of CYT’s brand websites and social media channels.

12. Following Executive approval in July 2024, Work with York Limited co ref 16036151 was set up on 23^rd October 2024 with City of York Council as sole shareholder and Karen Bull as current sole director.  Preparations are now underway for Work with York Limited to provide service to CYC from 1st April 2025 to fall in line with the new budget year 2025/26. 

13. To enable further decision making and planning for Work with York Limited and in line with the Shareholders Agreement, the Shareholder is therefore asked to approve the appointment of Cllr Ian Cuthbertson, Cllr Jason Rose, Ann Vickers, Lisa Wood and Chloe Kerridge-Phipps as Non-Executive Directors of Work with York Limited.

Risk Management

14. There are no specific risk issues arising from this report.

Implications

15. There are no financial, legal, HR, equalities, crime and disorder, information technology, property or other implications arising from this report.

Author:	Chief Officer responsible for the report:
Karen Bull, MD CYT Ltd	Helen Whiting Chief Human Resources and Support Services Officer
	Report Approved	Y	Date	24 January 2025
Wards Affected:					All
For further information please contact the author of the report

Annex A– CYT Performance Update February 2025  CONFIDENTIAL

Annex B – Work with York Limited Update February 2025 – CONFIDENTIAL