Agenda item

To receive the report of the Head of Governance and Scrutiny Support which supports the presentation of information for the first session of the Scrutiny Boards inquiry into the implementation of Leeds Inclusive Growth Strategy.

The report of the Head of Governance and Scrutiny Support provided information to support the first session of the inquiry as follows:

·  Area 1

A presentation which provides an update relating to the mapping and framework position for the Inclusive Growth Strategy.

·  Area 2

Providing background and context:

-  The aligned calls to actions in the Leeds Talent and Skills Plan focussing on addressing low pay and in-work poverty and connecting residents of our most disadvantaged communities to opportunities.

-  The relevance of Anchor Institutions.

New Skills for the New Economy – The Leeds Talent and Skills Plan 2018-23 was appended to the report.

The following were in attendance for this item:

-  Councillor J Pryor, Executive Member

-  Sue Wynne, Chief Officer, Employment and Skills

-  Eve Roodhouse, Chief Officer, Economic Development

The Board was given a presentation which focussed on the Leeds Inclusive Growth Strategy and the Leeds Talent and Skills Plan.  Key issues highlighted included the following:

·  Issues of concern previously raised by the Board included low pay, low skills and zero hours contracts.  The Talents and Skills Plan aimed to address these and other issues and link them into the Inclusive Growth Strategy.

·  The Talent and Skills Plan was aligned with the Inclusive Growth Strategy with a particular focus on increasing investment in skills as a key driver for business productivity and access to employment.

·  Labour market challenges and opportunities:

o  Increase in private sector jobs across the city.  Leeds had the highest job growth of all the core cities.

o  Concerns regarding inequality and mobility and those disconnected from education and training.

o  Uncertainty surrounding Brexit and potential loss of migrant labour in low paid jobs.

o  Development of the Industrial Growth Strategy.

o  Getting the skills right for the population to meet the needs of the city – review of further education, Post 16 Skills Plan and apprenticeship reforms/

·  Local context and employment forecasts:

o  There would be a reduction in semi-skilled occupations with a growth in high skilled and also lower skilled, lower income jobs.

o  It was forecast that by 2020, a further 34,000 jobs would be created across the city with most of these at the higher end and requiring a level 4 qualification.

o  Impact of demographics – an aging population and impact of people retiring and the subsequent replacement demand.

o  Inability to fill vacancies due to the lack of candidates with the right skills, qualifications and experience – there was a need to fill the gap from education to employment.

·  In work poverty – it was estimated that 65,000 people in Leeds were earning less than Living Wage Foundation’s living wage and 155,000 people were living in poverty.

·  Zero hours contracts – how these could contribute to poverty, lack of employment rights and financial insecurity.  It was estimated that 10 to 11,000 people in Leeds were on zero hours contracts.

·  Interventions to look at how to get people out of poverty into employment.  These included the following:

o  Inclusive Anchors Programme – role of large organisations who would recruit locally, creating healthy workplaces, local procurement.

o  Career learning pilot – to help those already in work and those in low paid jobs.  Provision of Learning Loans and the National Retraining Scheme.

o  The Apprenticeship Levy

·  Progress on the implementation of the Inclusive Growth Strategy – there would be a range of projects that contributed to the strategy.  There would be regular updates provided to the Board.

·  Projects that contributed to the strategy included the Inclusive Anchors Network, Digital Inclusion/Skills Action Plan and the Apprenticeship Levy.

·  Productivity – Work with partner organisations, the Leeds Innovation District, retention of graduate talent and the Business Growth programme.

In response to Members comments and questions, the following was discussed:

·  Use of Zero Hour Contracts -it was felt that there was a misuse of these and were often used where jobs should be contracted properly.

·  The effect of automation on jobs – this also provided opportunity for learning new skills.

·  How to encourage employees to pay the national living wage.

·  Concern regarding the need to improve literacy and numeracy skills at a primary level to enable more to go into further education and improve skills – it was reported that literacy results were improving in Leeds year on year.

·  Manufacturing and engineering skills – work had taken place with schools and colleges and there was involvement with the Leeds Manufacturing Alliance.  There was a recognised need to provide the relevant education and training and a skills plan had been developed in order to be able to provide the relevant training and skills

·  Work experience and how to encourage companies to provide work experience opportunities.

·  Sector work based academies – these had been successful in the retail sector.

·  Health and Social Care – there were proposals with partners to develop a Health and Care academy.  The sector did have difficulties with recruitment and retention of care staff.  There was some work with regards to the use of the Apprenticeship Levy and to get partners to make use of all resources possible.  Leeds Teaching Hospital Trust had signed up to the Inclusive Anchors programme.

·  ‘Uberisation’ and how this may exploit workers.  It was hoped that national legislation would address this.

RESOLVED – That the information contained within the report and presented at the meeting be noted.