Agenda and minutes

[Chair to request any Apologies]

Apologies were received from Cllr Sally Green and Cllr Jasbinder Dehar.

[Chair to welcome Panel and introduce Agenda]

The Chair welcomed the Panel.

[Members to declare any Interests]

There were no declarations of interest.

[To approve the minutes of the previous meeting as a correct record]

Resolved: That the minutes of 15 February 2023 be approved as a correct record.

[Member of Cabinet to Brief the Panel verbally]

The Deputy Leader stated that he had 10 priorities for the City’s Economy and believed it was vital to help get the City through the cost of living crisis. Part of this was to encourage more local jobs for local people, to work with and encourage youth employment and to be climate conscious with the targeting of skills and delivery of employment. Improving the visitor economy to the City was also key so that more people visited the City from the local area and further afield to bring more commerce. He wanted the City to be a caring City, where residents were looked after, he said work was being targeted at the care sector, which would also contribute to employment in the area. Support for communities was paramount, especially during the cost-of-living crisis; Community Hubs were seen as essential for this and were delivering services. Thriving families were key to regenerate the population in the City and maintain its high youth statistics. Healthier lives policies were being pursued to ensure the biopolitical strength of the City. All of this was to be unpinned by an efficient and inclusive local authority.

The Deputy Leader informed the Panel that as part of creating a thriving local economy, they wanted the bring in a further 30,000 visitors with a predicted boost to local economy of £10 million. They wanted to invest in new jobs, in particular the creative sector. For Visitor Economy, investment into the City centre and local towns was being pursued as well as further investment in the learning sector to help upskill local people. Collaboration on the I54 site extension and in engaging businesses had occurred between The City of Wolverhampton Council and South Staffordshire Council.

The Director of Regeneration then opened a presentation (a copy of which is attached to the signed minutes).  He displayed and summarised a number of projects which had been delivered: I9, Bilston Urban Village, National Brownfield Institute, Transport Interchange, I54, I10, The Civic Halls, Art Gallery. Over the 12 months previous to the Scrutiny Panel meeting, 9 funding successes had been achieved, with a future proposal for further funding from the West Midlands Combined Authority. The Director of Regeneration informed the Panel that over the previous 12 months, Wolverhampton Employer Support, had supported 568 businesses which included start up businesses and had opened up 2529 new job vacancies which included 89 apprenticeships. He explained future priority projects were: Horsely Fields, Green Innovation Corridor, Canalside South, Brewers Yard, Interchange 8, Stream mill and Sackworks, a Hotel, Commercial District, City Centre West and St Georges. He covered the City Investment Priorities for the future 12 months which were: City Investment Strategy, Working arrangements with the West Midlands Growth Company, Events and Marketing Plan, Business Week 2023, IGNITE and WES, Wolverhampton Investment Prospectus, Global West Midlands, Strategic Relationship Management.

A Councillor praised the comments made but said he would like thinking to go beyond 12 months and be even more long term.

A member of the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

[Report]

The Head of Enterprise set out the aim of the presentation (a copy of which is attached to the signed minutes), to show where they were at and where they planned on going in the future with supporting the City’s businesses. Due to the United Kingdom leaving the European Union, the Council hired Metrodynamics to review the landscape of the City’s businesses and recommend a new framework. The government announced the Levelling Up policy in 2022 followed by the UK Shared Prosperity Funds. This fund was set to replace the European Union funding, but at a significantly lower level of funding. By October 2022, the West Midlands Combined Authority agreed a co-ordinated regional approach for business support. In March 2023, the Government closed all Local Enterprise Partnerships and Growth Hubs nationally, in April 2023 Wolverhampton Employer Support went live. The Head of Enterprise informed the Panel of the current position; they were waiting receipt of the UKSPF and were confirming what data and evidence was still outstanding such as engagement with employers and employer groups, the plan was to link with other strategic key points in the City plan. They were engaging with stakeholders to co-plan and co-produce future business support policies. They aimed to come back to Scrutiny Panel on this later in the year. Businesses which had received EU funding had fed back that the knowledge they received in business oversight was more successful than the grant money received.

A Councillor was disappointed the workplace champions scheme wasn’t mentioned in the presentation. He enquired if information on how the IGNITE scheme was progressing, which had been in operation for 12 months. He wanted feedback on its success.

The Head of Enterprise apologised that it did not come across in the report that the Workplace Champions scheme and other existing partnership policies were being utilised. She stated these networks were also being utilised as part of this plan but she had used the presentation to show what other ways were being planned or utilised to support the City economy and employers.  The Head of Enterprise said they were still in the process of collating the data and feedback from the IGNITE scheme and would be happy to bring it to Scrutiny when it was ready.

The Deputy Leader added that it was important all these schemes were utilised and that communication with employers was maintained. He stated that the new challenge would be the lower levels of money under the new UKSPP compared to former EU funding and stated getting this across to businesses in the City was the next step.

A Panel member asked how well communications with businesses was really going, citing that in his opinion, the Council had performed poorly dealing with businesses in the City centre impacted by the street pedestrianisation program. He wanted to know what lessons had been learnt to avoid the same thing happening in the future. He also raised the matter of reports that are produced by consultants that the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

[Report – Pre-Decision Item]

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The Head of Skills gave a presentation on Education and Skills (a copy of the presentation is attached to the signed minutes). She summarised the current strengths the City had towards employment support. She felt some of the strengths in the City were nationally strong, those were 20 secondary schools,19 with sixth forms, 54 independent training providers. 8 Colleges delivered learning to City residents. There were more City of Wolverhampton schools rated as ”good”  by Ofsted than the national average. Online learning had increased in usage during and then post-Covid lock down. There were low levels of young people who did not participate in employment, education or training (years 16 – 17), a youth employment HUB, extensive data collection.

The Youth Employment HUB had finished its first year, it had a target of 300 people, it managed over 400 with 30 percent who moved into employment.  The Head of Skills listed the current challenges to be dealt with, these were:

·       high levels of long-standing unemployment (especially between 18 to 24)
 

·       low levels of formal qualifications compared to regional and national averages

·       low level essential skills

·       an imbalance of skills in reference to qualifications and experience thus meaning a skills shortage in the area

·       employers were focused on hiring employees and not developing existing staff with upskilling or reskilling

·       loss of European Union funds

·       legacy issues from the Covid lock down.

To address some of the challenges, in particular the loss of European Union funding and the framework with which that set out, the Council would be taking funding from the Commonwealth Games Legacy Fund and the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. They also had a development deal between the national government and the West Midlands Combined Authority which would see a more place-based approach to address Local Authority Specific challenges. The Head of Skills then discussed the Wolves at Work programme, which was a cross sector approach to tackling unemployment in the City, highlighting its approach in the presentation slides. Community Skills delivery targeted supporting adults who were furthest from the jobs market to enable them to get skills in a community setting. This included maths support tailored towards helping people understand how to budget, second language speakers for migrants, skills and well being packages, people with learning disabilities and more. They aimed to get community grants in the future towards further facilities, taken from the United Kingdom Shared Prosperity Fund.  A joined up approach was being developed in house with the Adult Education Service.

The Head of Policy and Strategy stated that with new investment into the City, there were new opportunities, however, she was aware there were many young people who would not yet be able to take advantage of those opportunities due to various barriers, so strategy was focused on working with young people to enable them to progress. The challenges of worklessness were inter-generational and went back 20 years and would require a long term plan to address. 5 areas of focus for transformation and action were:  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.