Agenda item

This report presents information on three proposed scrutiny topics. Members are asked to decide which, if any, of these they would like to progress to review.

Members received a report which presented them with information on three potential scrutiny topics. These topics were;

·        Youth unemployment (how the Council works with partners to maximise employment opportunities for young people in the city)

·        The role of Science City York in Economic Development (more encouragement work to be done to attract people to York in order to maintain its status as a Science City)

·        The processes used to bring Section 106 agreements to a timely completion.

Youth Unemployment

Officers circulated a briefing note to Members updating them on the current facts and figures in relation to youth unemployment for 18-24 year olds in York. This note was attached to the agenda after the meeting, and the agenda was republished online. One of the main conclusions reached by Officers from these figures was that youth unemployment was not significantly better or worse than it had been in previous years.

Discussion between Members and Officers took place which related to comparable figures for those young people (aged 16-18) who were Not in Education or Training (NEET) with those cities that had Universities and those who did not.

It was reported that about 45% of young people at age 18 in York did not go on to University or leave the city, and that York was a net importer for jobs. Officers felt that there needed to be a greater awareness amongst young people of job mobility and job opportunities, in that people were coming in from outside of the city to compete for jobs and to work in York and that there is a mis-match between jobs being sought by young people and job vacancies

Some Members felt that a strong perception existed amongst young people of York being predominantly a tourist city and that only jobs in this industry were available. Others felt that there was a lack of work placements which would allow young people to form opinions on various employment areas: they added that this was particularly important given that work experience as part of the school curriculum would not be provided in future.

Officers informed the Committee that although there was not a statutory requirement on schools to organise work experience for students, all secondary schools in York are retaining some element of work experience for pre-16 students and sixth forms and colleges are increasing the opportunities for 16+ to gain work experience. In addition, schools have a statutory responsibility to secure access to independent and impartial careers guidance for their pupils from Year 9 upwards. In York, the majority of these schools are buying these services from the Council’s Youth Support Services Team. This careers guidance must include information on all options available in respect of 16-18 education or training, including apprenticeships and other work based education and training options.

Science City York

Members received a report on the role of Science City York (SCY) and its contribution to advising businesses on innovation and providing services related to business performance and growth.

Discussion between Members and Officers related to the lack of awareness of the role of SCY and the services it provided such as the Government funded Business Coaching for Growth scheme, which delivered targeted support and advice for potential high growth companies and businesses that had just started up.

Both Members and Officers felt that an accessible feature to promote SCY needed to be developed in the centre of the city to inform people of employment in science and technological companies, such as an event in St Helen’s Square celebrating 2000 years of science in the city.

Officers informed Members that current work was being carried out in schools to promote careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Section 106 Agreements

Members received a briefing from Officers on Section 106 agreements. It was noted that a Section 106 agreement was a formal arrangement attached to planning permission for developers to provide funding for certain works such as infrastructure, following approval of a development. Members were informed that if a development’s planning permission had expired i.e no development had commenced, that the applicant would not be liable to pay associated costs from the Section 106 agreement. It was also explained that certain developments, particularly larger ones, had ‘trigger points’ at various stages of the development and only when these points were reached was the next sum of money required to be paid. It was noted therefore that some Section 106 monitoring cases remained open for several years.

Some Members felt that the proposed scrutiny topic should focus on enforcement of Section 106 agreements, whilst others felt that as this had been done previously, and due to a lack of capacity in the Enforcement team, that it should not be done again.

Following the three presentations Members discussed which of the three scrutiny topics they might wish to conduct a review on. After consideration of the information received Members felt that a review should take place on a topic around Youth Unemployment.

A number of questions which could be used for a prospective focus for the review were raised including;

·        What are the barriers to the current local labour force getting employment in the City?

·        Are there barriers to local businesses recruiting locally?

·        How does City of York Council facilitate employment opportunities for young people?

·        What prevents young people being employed in the care sector? (This stemmed from information tabled at the meeting which stated that there were an increasing amount of job vacancies in the care sector).

Youth unemployment was considered to be the broad topic area and the Committee discussed how to focus this into a narrower remit. Based on information received in the papers and that tabled at the meeting, it was agreed that the review should have the following focus;

How can City of York Council  help young people navigate the employment economy, with a particular focus on vacancies within the care sector?

Some Members suggested that this was particularly pertinent given that there appeared to be an increasing number of vacancies in this area. Members requested that Officers put together some Terms of Reference for the above focus and circulate these to the Committee.

RESOLVED:  (i) That the proposed topics on the role of Science City York in Economic Development and Section 106 agreements not be progressed to review.

                      (ii)   That the Committee conduct a review on employment opportunities for young people in the care sector with the following question;

‘How can we help young people navigate the employment economy, with a particular focus on vacancies within the care sector’

(iii) That Officers put together some draft Terms of Reference for the review to circulate to the Committee.¹

(iv) That this topic be made known at the Scrutiny Work planning event scheduled for 2^nd May 2012 as the preferred topic for this Committee.²

REASON:           In order to begin a topic for review to begin in the new municipal year 2012/13.