D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership People and Skills Advisory Board

Date: Tuesday 8th December 2020, 10:00-12:00

Venue: Zoom Meeting

MINUTES OF MEETING

Attendees Shearer West (Chair) University of Nottingham Andrew Marsh County Council Celia Rose Department for Education Dave Tuer D2N2 LEP Diane Beresford East Midlands Chamber of Commerce Eugene Michaels University of Ian Bond Inspire Culture Julie Beresford Bassetlaw District Council Julie Richards Lisa Vernon D2N2 LEP Lucie Andrews D2N2 LEP Michele Farmer The Princes Trust Michelle Reynolds D2N2 LEP Mike Firth Education and Skills Funding Agency Mike Roylance South Derbyshire County Council Nathan Clements Boots Nick Apergis University of Derby Nick Booth Uniper Nicola Caley Murray Park School Nicola McCoy-Brown Nottinghamshire County Council Nicki Jenkins Nottingham City Council Nigel Jackson Nottingham City Council Owen Harvey Nottinghamshire County Council Pauline Anderson Peter Bramall The Futures Group Rachel Quinn D2N2 LEP Richard Kirkland D2N2 LEP Rob Harding D2N2 LEP Rob Leese Department for Work and Pensions Sajeeda Rose D2N2 LEP Sally Gladwin Department for Education Sharon Huttly Nottingham Trent University Sue Fielding DWP Tom Goshawk D2N2 LEP Veronica Dennant Newark and Sherwood District Council Will Morlidge D2N2 LEP Maureen Vieyra (note taker) D2N2 LEP

This project is part-funded by the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020 in . Sensitivity: Internal

Apologies Clare Cassidy Department for Education David Wright BEIS Joe Battye Derbyshire County Council Julia Brooks Education and Skills Funding Agency Katrina Starkie Purpose Media Luan Wilde Derby City Council Sonja Smith Nottinghamshire County Council Trudi Waldram Food and Drink Forum

1. Welcome and introductions SW welcomed everyone to the meeting. As everyone introduced themselves at the meeting in November only Lucie Andrews introduced herself as a new member.

A couple of important meetings had taken place since the since last meeting. • The Economic Recovery and Growth Strategy was launched at the AGM on 2/12/20. • Chairs of sub groups had met with Elizabeth Fagan and discussed the three highest priorities for each Advisory Board. For PSB these were agreed as: o Rollout of careers hubs with supporting resources o Stimulating digital skills growth in D2N2 and o Improved skills pathways for delivery of low carbon skills demand All sub-groups are to have a strong focus on those strategies and sure line of sight back to the ERGS.

2. Apologies As above

3. Conflicts of Interest

• Nick Booth declared a Uniper interest in the Institute of Technology discussion as Uniper is involved in a likely submission. • Nathan Clements declared a potential conflict of interest as he had joined the West Notts College as a Non-Executive/Corporate Board Governor.

Other members were asked to declare any conflicts as they arose.

4. Minutes of Last Meeting, Matters Arising and Actions Log The Minutes of the meeting held on 13 October 2020 were accepted as a true record of the meeting.

Most actions had been completed other than those progressing through sub groups.

29 – a lot of comments had been received. 33 – this was on the agenda for today’s meeting

This project is part-funded by the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020 in England. Sensitivity: Internal

5. Sub Group Updates Careers and Young People

RQ advised that this group had met to assess and identify its role and priorities. Paper 5 included key outcomes of the group and a specific proposal to progress work towards 4 careers hubs across D2N2.

A few priorities had been identified.

• Single gateway • Online tools • 4 careers hubs • Labour market intelligence

Partners across D2N2 are already being engaged in the progression of these outline priorities Measures of success are likely to be primarily defined via the contract with CEC. They include the number of schools and employers engaged and the progress of schools against Gatsby Benchmark. Work is currently being undertaken with the CEC and LEP to develop impact measures.

Questions/comments • The CEC is all about connecting schools and colleges to employers. Q: What opportunity is there to broaden the reach to those who are older or not in school? A: A project with Work Nottingham had been undertaken at start of lockdown which went well. There is a strong element in making sure that labour market intelligence can used by people making career changes. The National Careers Service is heavily involved in the process. A model should be available by January that could be circulated for comment.

This proposal was endorsed by the meeting

6. Data Tracking and Progress Reporting WM spoke to his presentation.

He advised that this was a work in progress and what was presented was the first cut of a dashboard that P&S AB is asked to adopt as a tool to track progress. What was presented was dummy dashboards that linked to this Group and programmes.

It was crucial to draw a distinct link between the Strategy and the work of this Advisory Board and its sub groups.

The meeting was advised that if metrics and text could be agreed it will be refined and presented to the next Advisory Board meeting in March.

Priority 4a: there are two indicators that are important but not available locally. The first is the number of adults in employment who don’t have or have all of the universal digital skills

This project is part-funded by the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020 in England. Sensitivity: Internal

as defined by national framework, and the second is shortage of particular skills or digital skills in vacancies. There needs to be a way of baselining that.

Questions/Comments • There was a lot of work and detail presented and it was not possible to comprehend everything. The meeting was advised that all that was required today was a general direction for the dashboards. • The concept was liked but by only using the D2N2 landscape it would not address some of the pockets that exist for a long period of time. Data must be provided and searchable at least at district level to be meaningful. • Agreement was needed for a baseline and 2019 was proposed as being a good starting point. • There are Inclusion Representatives on each Board who currently come together informally to monitor information and progress. There is a strategy but no action plan attached to that. If the high-level data is sufficient to give a broad indication then it would be logical to look, via the detail, at areas of concern. Q: Can deep dives be initiated when needed? A: A deep dive can be undertaken, subject to resource constraints. However, generous support had been received from Local Authorities and Universities. It would be possible to have a separate dashboard for inclusion. Consideration needs to be given to how this is hosted as this information should not be made public. It could be hosted via SharePoint and password protected. • Data on the LMI dashboard is refreshed dependant on content. The Group needs to ensure data is refreshed on other dashboards. • A small number of quite high-level success measures need to be identified so they can be reviewed by this Advisory Board at the next meeting. RAG rating needs to be applied and we should note the greens to acknowledge successes but focus time to review the reds. • There needs to be clarity on what we can influence and measure.

In summary, this had only been viewed for the first time at this meeting. It would be useful to digest what had been seen and then review what is required on a regular basis. The general direction of travel is positive and it would be useful to develop this framework with some of the comments made and refine over time.

ACTION: 40. WM and DT to circulate a revised draft with data in advance of the next meeting to use as a first trial report and further opportunity for feedback.

SW thanked everyone for their work on this.

7. Skills for Growth Strategy RQ presented the third strand of the strategy – Skills for Growth - in draft form. The strategy contains 3 core components – a focus on relevant careers activity (Future Workforce), improvement to skills supply to fuel growth (Skills for Productivity) and economic inclusion. Overall, the plan is intended to better understand, plan for, and gradually increase the level and volume of skills and labour needed to fuel a growing economy. All 3 aspects must connect and there are a couple of specific elements we need:

This project is part-funded by the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020 in England. Sensitivity: Internal

1. Delivery must reflect both sector and place-based dimensions in order to ensure we have the right skills infrastructure in the right places to support growth. 2. The work must be underpinned by a skills capital and infrastructure plan developed in collaboration with Further and Higher Education and improved and clearer progression pathways towards higher skills.

This will develop further. Key points following include:

• The question was raised as to whether there should have been a separate 4th strand related to inclusion, and at the bottom of the strategy is included a fair and inclusion element. Agreed this should be kept under review and incorporated if felt it is required. • Need to ensure skills for self-employment and entrepreneurs are considered alongside employed roles. Potential for linking to the Business Growth and Innovation Advisory Board on this. There is value in understanding better where growth in self- employment is taking place (sector/place) and use to maximise and nurture localism (buying and growing locally). Potential there to drive a green movement through entrepreneurship. • A Midlands-wide report on the state of the low carbon economy had been received on 7/12/20. BEIS has started an SME support programme helping them to become greener. This is being coordinated via the Energy Strategy Group but this AB will be kept informed.

8. Local Skills Report EM delivered a presentation outlining the role of the LSR and input required from partners. It was agreed that a specific workshop to look at the first draft and provide feedback is required.

ACTION: 41. MV and DT organise workshop to focus on Local Skills Report.

EM was thanked for his presentation.

9. ESIF Update RK was continuing to work with the DWP to agree funding. PA1 had been agreed by the Fund Board. The strategic overview was for the sub committee for agreement and will be published as soon as this is received.

PA2 calls for funding is still awaited but RK is confident that this would be given. Calls would be launched early in 2021 and, in anticipation of this going live, events will be run for partners on 15/12/20 and 16/12/20.

The National Lottery Community Fund has indicated that it will want to extend to support to July 2023.

10. People and Skills Report RQ spoke to her report that had been circulated in advance of the meeting.

This project is part-funded by the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020 in England. Sensitivity: Internal

Point 1.2 of the report showed some interesting unemployment rates, and whilst these were not significantly different from national averages, there was still concern that only 71% of graduates are employed. This reinforced an objective to improve graduate retention and employment. A report undertaken by Nottinghamshire CC on underemployment of graduates would be of interest to sub groups in better understanding on this.

Application for funding for digital bootcamps had been successful with just under £1m being secured. This is a pilot lasting up to the end of March 2021. The programme would focus on key areas (cybersecurity, data analytics, networking and digital marketing, digital promotion, website development, and app development). The whole programme would be fully evaluated and required input form employers from the outset. D2N2 Digital has been launched as the umbrella branding for all digital projects.

Recent conversations with colleges have resulted in an offer to work up a consistent learning module to articulate universal digital skills in a post 16 setting. Colleges have met and are going to produce a pilot targeted to one age group (16-19yrs). This will be brought back to this Board once completed to debate how to modify this for different contexts.

EM Chamber had been very successful in attracting Kickstarter opportunities in D2N2. The DWP is not meeting the 6-week turnaround but have confirmed that 852 placements have been approved out of 1,000. Now awaiting recruitment to these placements. EM Chamber have agreed to capture and share trends and learning from the project. Significant digital related vacancies have been identified and talks were in progress with providers to establish apprenticeship models. Local DWP teams and partners continue to push central DWP services to provide Kickstart data at LEP level and below.

The meeting was advised that the closing date for applications for Institute of Technology was 14/12/20. Changes were due to be submitted and one progressing live bid would offer weight behind Phase 1 and was endorsed by the LEP.

This meeting approved endorsement of the bid

NB abstained from the vote due to the earlier declared conflict of interest.

11. Any Other Business There was none.

12. Next Steps The Employment and Skills sub groups will aim to meet before next meeting. In the meantime, a specific session will be arranged to focus on the Local Skills Report

13. Dates of meetings

Meetings for 2021 are:

10th March 10th June 8th September

This project is part-funded by the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020 in England. Sensitivity: Internal

2nd December

This project is part-funded by the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020 in England. Sensitivity: Internal