Skills and Employment Board – Minutes

16 March 2021 10:00 - 12:00

Members present

Organisation	Member	Role
York College	Lee Probert (LP) (Chair)	Chief Executive and Principal
City of York Council - Executive	Councillor Andrew Waller (CAW)	Executive Member - Economy and Strategic Planning
TUC	Gareth Forest (GF)	Policy and Campaigns
Netsells	Bethan Vincent (BV)	Marketing Director
	Bethan Vincent (BV)
York St John University	Professor Karen Bryan (KB)	Vice-Chancellor
York Jobcentre	Angela Stabeler(AS)	York & North Yorkshire Employer and Partnership Manager
West & North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce	Mark Goldstone (MG)	Head of Policy and Business Representation
York and North Yorkshire LEP	Jude Knight (JK)	Head of Skills
Simpson York Limited	Amanda Davidson (AD)	HR Manager
Askham Bryan College	Dr Tim Whitaker (TW)	Chief Executive
Federation of Small Businesses	Caroline Chapman	Business Owner and Member Representative
The Skills Network	Mark Dawe (MD)	Chief Executive
University of York	Amanda Selvaratnam (ASe)	Associate Director of Research and Enterprise and Head of Enterprise Services
City of York Council	Maxine Squire (MS)	Assistant Director - Education and Skills

In attendance

Organisation	Representative	Role
City of York Council	Simon Brereton (SB)	Head of Economic development
City of York Council	Alison Edeson (AE)	Skills Team Manager
Annabel Jelley Consulting	Annabel Jelley (AJ)	Strategy development consultant
Askham Bryan College	Billy Miller (BM)	Guest as lead for Commitment 4
University of York	Anna Hastie (AH)	Guest as lead for Commitment 2
York St John University	Rob Mortimer (RM)	Guest as lead for Commitment 3
York College	Marie Neal-Smith (MNS)	Guest as lead for Commitment 1

Apologies

Organisation	Representative	Role
University of York	Professor Kiran Trehan (KT)	Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Partnerships and Engagement
City of York Council	Claire Foale (CF)	Communications Team

Minutes

1. Introduction

Lee Probert (Chair) welcomed members to the meeting.

Apologies had been received from Professor Kiran Trehan (University of York) and Claire Foale (City of York Council).

2. Minutes from last meeting 25 February 2021

The minutes were agreed as a true record of the meeting that took place on 25 February 2021.

AE reported that other actions were complete.

3. One Year ‘Skills for Employment Plan’ review of Implementation Plans

AS provided an introduction to this agenda item which was to look at each of the four One year Plan commitments to;

Gain agreement or otherwise with suggested plans
Challenge the actions within the four commitments
Highlight existing activity that could contribute
Gain an agreement on the resources required
Agree on measures of success and timelines
Agree how will progress be monitored and reported

It was recognised that some of the activities, such as setting up frameworks and partnerships for the longer-term strategy, would commence but not be completed within the life of the one-year plan.

It was agreed that the meeting would be recorded for the purpose of note taking only and not for further publication.

3.1 Commitment 4 - Education to Employment and Self-employment

Billy Miller (BM)(Askham Bryan) joined the meeting for this item. BM gave an overview of the work to date from the group and praised all members for their contributions and hard work in a tight timescale.

The discussion was opened to the floor and members gave feedback on the main priorities of the implementation plan. Key points raised included;

● Activity must add value rather than duplicate existing initiatives

● Provision must be coherent across the city

● Priorities must be decided upon as the activity currently planned is substantial and ambitious

● Potential to bid to the Community Renewal Fund to pilot some activities but expectations need to be managed as York is not one of the 100 priority areas.

● Clarification was sought on the ‘platform’ described in the plan

● Employer voice must be considered further

3.2 Commitment 3 - Pioneering Provision

Rob Mortimer (RM) (York St John University) joined the meeting for this item. RM introduced the work of the group followed by a discussion among the members. Key points raised included;

● Provision mapping is needed but must be prioritised

● Employer voice needs to be strengthened, and thought given to the mechanisms that enable employer input

● Work on LMI and skills gaps has been done by individual partners to a limited extent and this will be shared (TW)

● Remote learning means that the offer is not just local or national but global

● Publicly funded provision relies on lengthy accreditation of new courses and therefore it is more difficult to be nimble and responsive to employer needs.

3.3 Commitment 1 - York Works

Marie Neal-Smith (MNS) (York College) joined the meeting for this item. MNS introduced the work of the group followed by a discussion among the members. Key points raised included;

● Digital skills must be a major priority at all levels

● Digital poverty is an issue and creates barriers to learning and securing work

● Vulnerable, economically inactive and those furthest from the job market people must be the priority in the years post COVID

● IAG and careers advice is critical and a scoping exercise is needed to ascertain what current needs are.

3.4 Commitment 2 - Empowered Employers

Anna Hastie (AH)(University of York) joined the meeting for this item. AH introduced the work of the group followed by a discussion among the members. Key points raised included;

● Support for a business and provider group explicitly to bid for funding as a partnership

● Adult IAG and skills advice tailored for employers is needed

● Clarification of what a skills hub would look like

● Employer voice needs to be stronger (and linked to other commitments)

● Future skills needs such as net zero construction must be factored in

● Consideration to be given to school involvement in this commitment

4. Next steps

It was agreed that a summary of the main priorities across all four commitments was needed and would be pulled together by the next meeting.

A pilot for provision mapping the digital sector was agreed.

The next meeting is scheduled for 15th April.

5. AOB None

Action Log

No	Action	Who	By when	Date completed
001	Share copy of economic presentation	SB	W/E 8 January 2021	8 January 2021
002	Share copy of Timeline	AE	W/E 8 January 2021	8 January 2021
003	Amend ToR and issue final version	AE	W/E 8 January 2021	8 January 2021
004	Share copy of communications strategy presentation	AE	W/E 8 January 2021	8 January 2021
005	Circulate dates for early 2021 meetings	LP	W/E 8 January 2021	8 January 2021
006	Circulate emerging priorities for comment and set out plan ahead of March 2021	AE, AJ, AS, LP	End January 2021	29 January 2021

007	Share copy One Year Plan presentation	AE	29 January 2021	29 January 2021
008	Raise question of LSIP pilot at Higher York	LP	W/E 5 February 2021
009	Follow up on LSIP pilot next steps with MG	LP/AE	W/E 19 February 2021
010	Members to feed into One Year Plan any extra comments	All	W/E 5 February 2021	05 February 2021
011	Members to inform AJ if they wish to join a task and finish group for 2-5 year Plan	All	W/E 5 February 2021	05 February 2021
012	Provide update on Local Skills Partnership Pilots when more is known from DfE	LP	Ongoing
013	Send any further amendments to the One Year Plan to AE	All	4 March 2021	Completed
014	Share existing LMI and any existing provision mapping	TW and All	15 April 2021
015	Provide a summary of the main priorities across all four commitments	AS (T&F Group)	15 April 2021