Economy Committee - Thursday 5 March 2026, 2:30pm - West Yorkshire Combined Authority Webcasting

Economy Committee
Thursday, 5th March 2026 at 2:30pm 

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  1. Cllr James Lewis Chair
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  1. Peter Glover, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  2. Cllr James Lewis Chair
  3. Peter Glover, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  4. Cllr James Lewis Chair
  5. Fara Butt (Private Sector Representative)
  6. Mandy Ridyard (West Yorkshire Business Board)
  7. Peter Glover, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  8. Cllr James Lewis Chair
  9. Diana Bird
  10. Peter Glover, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  11. Diana Bird
  12. Neil Kendall
  13. Peter Glover, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  14. Cllr James Lewis Chair
  15. Barney Mynott, Advisory Representative (West Yorkshire Business Groups)
  16. Peter Glover, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  17. Cllr James Lewis Chair
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  1. Felix Kumi-Ampofo, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  2. Cllr James Lewis Chair
  3. Cllr James Lewis Chair
  4. Cllr Graham Turner (Kirklees Council)
  5. Cllr James Lewis Chair
  6. Felix Kumi-Ampofo, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  7. Cllr James Lewis Chair
  8. Cllr Graham Turner (Kirklees Council)
  9. Alex Miles, Advisory Representative (West Yorkshire Skills Partnership)
  10. Cllr James Lewis Chair
  11. Mandy Ridyard (West Yorkshire Business Board)
  12. Dr Martin Stow
  13. Cllr James Lewis Chair
  14. Sarah Bowes, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  15. Diana Bird
  16. Cllr James Lewis Chair
  17. Felix Kumi-Ampofo, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  18. Diana Bird
  19. Neil Kendall
  20. Felix Kumi-Ampofo, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  21. Natasha Barbar-Evans, Advisory Representative (Voluntary & Community Sector)
  22. Cllr James Lewis Chair
  23. Natasha Barbar-Evans, Advisory Representative (Voluntary & Community Sector)
  24. Diana Bird
  25. Cllr James Lewis Chair
  26. Natasha Barbar-Evans, Advisory Representative (Voluntary & Community Sector)
  27. Cllr James Lewis Chair
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  1. Helen Hawxwell
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  4. Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council)
  5. Cllr James Lewis Chair
  6. Felix Kumi-Ampofo, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  7. Nikki Deol Assistant Director Legal, Governance & Compliance
  8. Cllr James Lewis Chair
  9. Barney Mynott, Advisory Representative (West Yorkshire Business Groups)
  10. Cllr James Lewis Chair
  11. Michelle Burton, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  12. Cllr James Lewis Chair
  13. Alex Miles, Advisory Representative (West Yorkshire Skills Partnership)
  14. Cllr James Lewis Chair
  15. Helen Hawxwell
  16. Cllr Graham Turner (Kirklees Council)
  17. Cllr James Lewis Chair
  18. Neil Kendall
  19. Cllr James Lewis Chair
  20. Neil Kendall
  21. Dr Martin Stow
  22. Cllr James Lewis Chair
  23. Diana Bird
  24. Diana Bird
  25. Cllr James Lewis Chair
  26. Mandy Ridyard (West Yorkshire Business Board)
  27. Cllr James Lewis Chair
  28. Mandy Ridyard (West Yorkshire Business Board)
  29. Diana Bird
  30. Cllr James Lewis Chair
  31. Helen Hawxwell
  32. Cllr James Lewis Chair
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  1. Michelle Burton, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  2. Cllr James Lewis Chair
  3. Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council)
  4. Cllr James Lewis Chair
  5. Cllr Graham Turner (Kirklees Council)
  6. Cllr James Lewis Chair
  7. Diana Bird
  8. Natasha Barbar-Evans, Advisory Representative (Voluntary & Community Sector)
  9. Cllr James Lewis Chair
  10. Natasha Barbar-Evans, Advisory Representative (Voluntary & Community Sector)
  11. Cllr James Lewis Chair
  12. Diana Bird
  13. Cllr James Lewis Chair
  14. Felix Kumi-Ampofo, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  15. Cllr James Lewis Chair
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  1. Cllr Jo Hepworth (Wakefield Council)
  2. Sarah Bowes, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  3. Cllr James Lewis Chair
  4. Cllr Graham Turner (Kirklees Council)
  5. Mandy Ridyard (West Yorkshire Business Board)
  6. Cllr James Lewis Chair
  7. Cllr Graham Turner (Kirklees Council)
  8. Cllr James Lewis Chair
  9. Dr Martin Stow
  10. Cllr James Lewis Chair
  11. Diana Bird
  12. Cllr James Lewis Chair
  13. Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council)
  14. Diana Bird
  15. Cllr James Lewis Chair
  16. Alex Miles, Advisory Representative (West Yorkshire Skills Partnership)
  17. Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council)
  18. Cllr James Lewis Chair
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  1. Jo Barham Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  2. Cllr James Lewis Chair
  3. Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council)
  4. Diana Bird
  5. Jo Barham Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  6. Cllr James Lewis Chair
  7. Henry Rigg
  8. Cllr James Lewis Chair
  9. Diana Bird
  10. Cllr James Lewis Chair
  11. Cllr Graham Turner (Kirklees Council)
  12. Cllr James Lewis Chair
  13. Jo Barham Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  14. Cllr James Lewis Chair
  15. Webcast Finished

Cllr James Lewis Chair - 0:00:00
a start are we ready to go Myles? Yes we like. Excellent so I will start off by reminding
everybody that this meeting is webcast so I think everybody is sat in the right
seat with the name so it's properly recorded for the webcast thank you
everybody who passed the first challenge of the day. The next challenge is
delivering a report whilst eating a doughnut so we'll go on to that later.
Okay I'm gonna start off by just going to the formal items at the top of the
And first of all, Miles, are you going to do apologies for us, please?

1 Apologies for Absence

Cllr James Lewis Chair - 0:00:36
Thank you chair. Apologies for absence have been received from Councillors Imran Khan, Katie Brooks and Peter Kilbane and members Asma Iqbal,
Mark Cassie, Leigh Vaini and Billy Jones with Joanne Paterson kindly attending as a substitute.
Thank you. I'm going to look to the committee and see if there's any declarations of

2 Declarations of Disclosable Pecuniary Interests

disposable pecuniary interest, please.
I

3 Exempt Information - Possible Exclusion of the Press and Public

Don't see any. Thank you. There's no items item three. There's no items exempt and it's going to turn to
Again to the committee just to review the minutes of the last meeting

4 Minutes of the Meeting of the Economy Committee held on 21 November 2025

And if everybody is happy with those
Okay, great, thanks Neil
I'm sorry, I wasn't on that occasion. So thanks to the council Courtney for for chairing. So
if
Everybody has had a look at the minutes and everybody is happy with the minutes we can agree those
I'm gonna move straight on to

5 Chair's Update

item six, which is
the

6 Intelligence and Economic and State of the Region Update

State of the region update Pete and I'll hand over to Peter for that, please
So the paper provides an update on indicators and analysis
relevant to it the economic agenda and we're asking the committee to know the
Peter Glover, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:02:00
key messages from the analysis. The update contains two main items
so we've got a state of the region item that summarises progress against key
indicators set out in the local growth plan and also we've got a second item that
relates to growth hubs which summarises recent analysis focusing on the pattern
of growth at small area level within local authorities.
So I'll briefly run over some of the key points.
Starting with state of the region.
First of all, productivity.
As the local growth plan makes clear,
West Yorkshire's productivity gap is the principal cause
of the region's economic deficit with the national average.
And the positive news is that West Yorkshire has reduced the
gap in the period between 2019 and 2023
as regional productivity has grown faster than the national average.
Indeed, the trajectory that we've seen is above that required to meet the local growth plan 10 -year target.
An obvious caveat to that is that it's a short period and a relatively atypical one for the economy.
Looking specifically at 2023, which is the latest data we have, where shorts should continue to improve,
but that was partly due to reduced contribution from labour inputs rather than output growth.
And that suggests that at least partially the productivity convergence was driven by
lower productivity activities falling away rather than an increase in new productive
areas. And that could have been linked to the energy shock that hit the economy in that
year.
Turning to employment, the number and proportion of people in employment in the region is also
key determinant of economic growth. We provided an analysis of West York's
employment rate based on administrative data. We use this data source because we
believe it's more reliable than the ONS survey based measure at local
authority level and that picture shows the continuing employment rate gap with
the national average with little sign of convergence and that deficit is
equivalent to 75 ,000 fewer people in employment in real terms. The next
Next indicator relates to qualifications.
The availability of skills is central to driving productivity growth and its role set out in
the local growth plan.
West Yorkshire currently underperforms the national average on the proportion of the
working age population with higher level qualifications at level four and above.
Monitoring the trend in the region's qualification profile is quite difficult because we've got
breaking the data starting in 2022 but there is some evidence of improvement in
the proportion of the working -age population qualified at level 4 and
above during that period. We still have a significant number of people in the
region who are either lack formal qualifications entirely or hold the
highest qualification below level 2. Combined these groups amount to nearly
people in the region and at 12 .5 % the proportion with no or low qualifications is above the
national average. The evidence shows, also shows that innovation is central to driving
productivity growth. In the paper we've set out data around R &D expenditure which is a
useful proxy for the level of innovation activity being undertaken by business. This level of
expenditure in West Yorkshire has remained stable in recent years but it's
relatively small as a component of the economy compared with the national
average and some comparator areas like West Midlands. In a sense this is a
structural issue since the R &D activity is heavily concentrated in specific
industries that are not strongly represented in the region and these
points will need to diversify the business base of the region and move
existing businesses of value chain. So turning now to growth hubs, first of all
apologies for the terminology which is potentially confusing in a sort of
business support context. What we're focusing on here is patterns of
growth at small area level within local authorities and identifying high growth
areas. This analysis originates from a previous paper
which focused on the contribution of the region's main urban centres to the
regions economic growth and which flagged the importance of Leeds city centre.
Local authority colleagues were keen to extend the analysis to cover the full region.
We have defined growth hubs as those small areas that have seen average annual output
growth of more than 2 .5 % over a sustained period.
By small areas we mean mid -layer super output areas of which there are 299 in the region.
These growth hub areas account for one third of the region's economy in output
terms but their contribution varies at local authority level
partly reflecting the overall growth performance of each local authority so
growth hubs contribute 15 % of Bradford's economy in out terms of more than
half of Leeds economy. As well as being fast growing growth hub areas also have
relatively high productivity and rapid employment growth and are founded on
concentrations of medium -sized and larger businesses.
However, the picture on productivity growth is more mixed.
They're also characterised by industry specialisms
that are broadly reflective of their parent authority.
So for example, finance and insurance in Calderdale,
transport and distribution in Wakefield.
But overall, we believe the analysis provides
an improved understanding of the spatial pattern of growth
within the region, looking beyond the main urban centres,
which will look to develop further. So that concludes that element chair. I
think I've also been asked to provide an update on adult skills. Yes please.
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 0:07:58
Peter Glover, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:07:59
So just linking to some of the headlines about the skill challenges in the region, we now
is one of more residents from diverse communities with health conditions and from the most deprived
neighbourhoods benefiting from funded education and training. The forthcoming adult skills
annual report will provide full details but the headlines show the difference the evolution
of adult skills funding is making in West Yorkshire. In recent years we've seen a steep
rise in costs associated with delivery of adult skills provision. As a result there
fewer learners supported in 2024 -25 compared with the preceding academic year but the funding
still supported 37 ,900 learners with 91 % of those learners being fully funded, priority
learners up 7 percentage points on the previous year. Other highlights from the report include
the following. Essential digital skills starts grew by more than 60 % year on year. There
15 ,900 new learners, 43 % of the total from Index of Multiple Deprivation,
Decile 1, the region's most disadvantaged communities and this is
significantly higher than pre -devo and previous years within this sort of
devolved period. In Bradford 56 % of new learners were from IMD, Decile 1. So we
encourage members to read the full adult skills annual report when it's published
later this month. And that's it. Thank you, Chair.
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 0:09:55
Thank you, Peter. Are there any questions or comments from anybody, please, on what
Peter presented in the report?
Fara Butt (Private Sector Representative) - 0:10:19
The information is really useful and welcome. On the growth hubs, obviously I think 40 %
nearly of the economy depends on them and a third of all jobs. Have we got the data
that tells us which businesses are in each of those growth hubs because they are the
larger businesses, so making sure we're aware of who they are and what challenges they might
have will help us to protect that business and that work.
Mandy Ridyard (West Yorkshire Business Board) - 0:10:38
Peter Glover, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:10:47
So the analysis we've done so far looks at, we have the data around the size of the businesses
and their characteristics, but we can link it across to sort of business databases based
on their location to you know to some map specific businesses across so that
is the next stage that we could take certainly. Thank you Neil please. Thank
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 0:11:11
you. I guess a related question so the growth of analysis is related to medium
Diana Bird - 0:11:17
and large businesses I think I picked up beta so if that if that's if that's the
is there an equivalent analysis or of the almost the inverse of that so we've
got we've got we see the importance of growth hub clusters if you like it will
be interesting to compare against the broader picture that's the you know as I
say the one minus effectively population as well. So just to clarify so the way
we've identified the growth hubs is just on that on their sort of growth
Peter Glover, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:11:46
performance sustained growth performance since the financial crisis
effectively the point we've made is that medium -sized and larger businesses are
disproportionately represented in the growth of areas so it's not they're not
solely founded on medium -sized we still have smaller businesses in there as well
it's just that a lot it seems a lot of the the growth performance is driven by
those medium size and larger businesses.
Thanks, so just a follow up question.
Diana Bird - 0:12:18
So in the case of Colerdale, for example,
Neil Kendall - 0:12:22
it'd be quite easy to imagine, as I think the analysis draws,
the local economy is heavily reliant on a small number
of large employers, but that effectively,
I wouldn't want to think that we concentrated
all of the policy thinking around that,
just because we've got all of our eggs in one basket in one small town that's heavily dependent on that.
So I suppose I'm just looking for a bit of reassurance or comfort as to how we look at the rest of the whole as well.
I think in cases where that might not be almost as black and white as perhaps the analysis suggests.
Peter Glover, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:13:06
Yeah I think I mean I think first of all we'd say this is a contribution to the
evidence base it's not a recommendation that there should be a sort of overwhelming
concentration on these on these areas I think Calderdale is a bit of an atypical
example because it's a relatively small economy the finance insurance areas are
very important if you look at the other local authorities they have more growth
growth hub areas and concentrations as well.
So the picture is slightly different across the region.
Thank you.
Barney, please.
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 0:13:51
Yeah, I suppose it's just thinking what this actually means and that cause and effect thing.
Barney Mynott, Advisory Representative (West Yorkshire Business Groups) - 0:13:54
So are the high growth businesses in urban areas
because urban areas create high growth?
Or actually, do they move into the urban areas
because they're high growth?
And it's probably a mix.
But understanding that then helps us understand,
well, what does this mean?
And what do we do with this data, I suppose?
Yeah, and I think that's a good question.
Peter Glover, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:14:26
And those sort of dynamics are probably something we need to explore further. I mean the data that's readily available
You know doesn't make that easy to be honest, but there's probably potential to do it
Looking at sort of individual companies and their sort of dynamics and behaviour over time
Thank you other anymore questions or comments I
Don't see anybody Thank You Peter
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 0:14:53
And
The recommendation is we note the report which I think we can do and then we'll move on to item 7 please Felix

7 Investment Programme

Thank you very much chair I will introduce this my colleagues Sarah and Michelle might
Felix Kumi-Ampofo, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:15:10
Come in later depending on the response we put
this paper in just to make sure members are
fully cited on the investment programme that we are
We're proposing to the combined authority which meets around this time next week.
And if the authority then gives -the CA then gives us the approval, this is what we are
proposing to embark on for the spending review or the integrated settlement period.
You will see in the paper -we've not gone into too much detail here, but we've set out, for
We're looking to focus on youth unemployment and needs.
We're looking to work with employers
to understand how we can de -risk hiring, so to speak,
given the challenges in the labour market right now
with a lot of entry level jobs disappearing
and graduate employment also reducing quite significantly,
just to explore what it is that, if there
is a role for us to play, what is that role
and how we can do that together.
We're proposing, you know, investment into employment with Yorkshire, which is our framework,
our infrastructure for supporting people into jobs, as the name suggests.
In recent years, we're doing a lot through that for or with people who have health conditions
and who are currently economically inactive.
Unfortunately, that number is growing and there's a lot more work to be done.
There's a lot of investment that has gone into that.
In business, we are proposing to focus on delivering the class -to -action plans, which
you considered and has been approved.
And this allows us to have a bit more funding to be able to focus on that.
We are going to talk about international strategy shortly.
And the funding, again, the programme allows us to focus on that, in what investments,
trade, place marketing, et cetera.
We also have made provision to be able to work with businesses around supply chains,
innovation. There is capital investment to help us work with businesses when it comes
to accessing finance, to be able to invest, to adapt or adopt technology to be able to
improve their productivity and to grow. Hopefully this gives you a sense -sorry, losing my voice
here. It gives you a sense of a flavour of what we are looking to do in the years ahead.
There's also provision in here in the paper for us to focus on creative industries. West
Yorkshire is one of the priority places selected by the government when it comes to creative
industries. So through integrated settlements, we've been giving funding. We do have flexibility,
but we are proposing working with, you know, seeking agreement from the CA to be able to
focus specifically on creative industries and spend the money, their revenue and capital
to grow that because we have a competitive advantage in that sector.
You will note that in all of these areas, at some point along the line in the last year
and we'll talk about regional funding and creativity strategy shortly, the policy and
strategy work has happened with you, and this is funding that allows us to now go on and
deliver that. So with your support, we've developed a class
to action plan. This allows us to do that. With your support, regional planning and creativity
coming through, strategy coming through today, international strategy coming through today.
So a lot of work that we've done on the renewing, reviewing and renewing our growth hubs and
the model that we've been using there.
This allows us to fund that in the years ahead, et cetera.
So across access to finance,
we've changed our posture completely.
And again, with your help,
we've been able to get a model approved.
And through the investment programme that we are proposing,
we should be able to begin to roll out the delivery of that.
So hopefully this gives you a sense
of the journey we've been on,
doing the evidence work, look our growth plan,
and moving on to the action plans that I've just talked about and now investments for
us to begin the delivery. So I'll stop there, Chair. Thank you.
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 0:19:48
Thank you, Felix. Are there any questions from anybody, please?
Sarah and then Graham, please.
.
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 0:20:54
Thanks Sarah. Graeme please. Thank you chair. We're a bit concerned about the adult skills
Cllr Graham Turner (Kirklees Council) - 0:20:58
allocation because it doesn't provide us enough funding to sustain the high quality
hyper -local delivery that we've built over the years, particularly around the skills
boot camps. So I think the overall ask is if we could look at the integrated settlements
in the same moment and they could be put into the skills domain because as we've seen,
and employment is now rising and it's probably not quite peaked.
So we need to start getting money into training so that when it starts to fall,
people are looking for jobs, we have a training workforce.
It would seem from our point of view that trying to cut education,
the skills training budget at this moment in time is probably not the best time,
it's probably the time to actually invest and be ready for the upturn.
Thank you. Who wants to pick that up?
I'll go and Michelle might also want to thank you, Councillor Courtney.
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 0:21:52
Felix Kumi-Ampofo, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:21:55
This is a product of a lot of work with all partners, so we're glad that you recognise
that.
We take the point on the foundational economy and the everyday economy.
Depending on the literature you read, things swing from one terminology to another, but
we understand what we mean there, so thank you very much.
So, Chancellor Turner, the point you make about adult skills, we've made representations
to government for years, every year, about funding for adult skills.
Last year, a couple of years ago, we increased the intervention rate or the funding rate
so that our colleges could continue to do what they had to do.
Of course, if you're spending more per person,
then you're able to support fewer people.
Last year, the government cut our budget by 3%, 3 .8%.
This year, our boot camp funding has gone down from 7 .5 million
to 200 million pounds.
So we are with you.
We hear you.
We agree.
We completely understand.
But the envelope we've been given is at best standing still and does not respect inflation,
in some respects is going down.
On the plus side, and I know that it's not, on the plus side, for the first time in a
while, we have been given some capital to support colleges because we know there are
significant challenges there for the in terms of the space they need they need or they have and the equipment that they need to have for
To be able to do what they have to do
As always it's nowhere near enough. And so we know we are going to be oversubscribed
Several times over we do have some funding for construction skills as well
So there is some funding our places but overall
the budget at best standing still and it's not index linked so we completely
agree and we continue to make the representations to to government
Michelle is there anything you want to add?
No I think that's that's clear and yeah thank you for picking up that point in
the paper about the boot camps allocation cut I think it's it's great
that you brought it to the attention of this committee.
Thank you would like to come back Graham?
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 0:24:25
Cllr Graham Turner (Kirklees Council) - 0:24:26
Just to go back to the construction boot camp type thing, we've been investing heavily in that with Kirklees College.
It's been really successful and we'd like to, when you go to lobby government, the construction industry is desperately short of people.
It's not just short of bricklades, it's short of people to manage the big equipment, to dig the holes.
So that is really important because if we're going to build the amount of houses the government
want to, we can't do that unless we get some huge investment into those young people or
our adults to learn the new skills because we haven't got enough people to build those
houses. So that's just a point to pick up with your money. If they want the 1 .5 million
houses, they need people to do it and we haven't got enough and there's no evidence this
moment in time unless they get their act together that we're going to get there because we're
We are all trying our best with our partners in colleges, but we just need a bit of help, really.
Alex, please.
Yeah, I think the four priorities are really good, I guess is the word I'll use.
Alex Miles, Advisory Representative (West Yorkshire Skills Partnership) - 0:25:33
Have you got a plan or when are you going to get a plan or how is that plan going to be consulted under what those four things, those four priorities are going to include?
Because obviously there's a lot of activity in the need in youth space, in the apprenticeship
space.
And I would also argue, controversially, the CA are probably not as up to date on what's
happening in the apprenticeship world as they could be or should be.
And I think if the de -risking for employers and de -mystifying apprenticeships is one of
your target areas, that knowledge and awareness probably needs to be quite prominent, I would
argue.
and then the other area that I think is probably slightly missing but could fit
in the de -risking is around how you're supporting employers to take on those
through ex -offending routes or the rehabilitation of ex -offenders and also
I guess pre -criminal justice system and that some of those intervention
activities as well, are they included in that de -risking?
Thanks Alex, well firstly I'm going to interpret that as a generous offer to
help advise and develop activity because you're absolutely right that
these are problems aren't they, in areas that as a
region we need to focus on and what we want to do is to gain that consensus
that these are the areas to focus on.
And then you're absolutely right that there is a significant amount of partnership working
to do in order to develop interventions.
And there's a lot of expertise around this table, and we hope that when we reach out
to you and colleagues that we will be able to work together across the region to develop
interventions to address some of these problems.
And thank you for mentioning ex -offenders.
I think you are absolutely right that when it comes to this issue about caution to hire
at the moment that we are seeing, and I'm sure will be mentioned a couple of times today,
it is those that are the most disadvantaged that are the most impacted by that caution.
And so that's a group that is worth considering as part of a package of interventions.
Thank you.
Diana, do you have your hand up?
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 0:27:55
OK, sorry, Mandy please.
Mandy Ridyard (West Yorkshire Business Board) - 0:28:02
Can I just pick up on the point about ex -offenders and those within the Prison and Probation
Service.
I chair the Yorkshire Prison and Probation Service for connecting offenders and ex -offenders
into work, so if there's anything I can help with on that I'd be really interested in finding
more employers because the funding doesn't just come to the combined authority, it also
comes to the Prison and Probation Service too, so there's probably more we can do in
that space.
Thank you. Martin, please.
Yeah, just a couple of comments. I welcome the distribution and the proposal here.
Dr Martin Stow - 0:28:34
I think I'm particularly aware working for a university about graduate unemployment rates at the moment,
which I think are the highest since pre -COVID. So I think anything to be done in terms of supporting graduates into work is really welcomed from a higher education perspective.
The second comment was around the amount of support around growth priority sectors.
So am I correct to say that there's additional funding streams that are not included in this report for those priority sectors?
And can you give us an idea in terms of in total the type amount of funding that's going into those priority sectors?
because ultimately they have a future for the region
and they're going to drive growth, inward investment,
creation of jobs as well.
Sarah, please.
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 0:29:27
On the sectors point, so you're absolutely right.
This report only sets out the bit
Sarah Bowes, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:29:32
we've got a decision to make about.
There is wider funding going in.
So investment zone being one of them,
UKR, local innovation partnership funding,
All the Made Smarter activity, all the work that's coming down the line on the professional
business services in terms of innovation hubbers and Made Smarter, which if I kind of add this
up in my head, it's probably around 60 million actually.
So if you look at it in a kind of totality, and then there's the creative industries part
to that as well, which I cannot add on to that.
Thank you.
Neil, please.
Thank you very much.
Just picking up on Councillor Turner's point, I think the construction skills numbers are
Very well documented
Diana Bird - 0:30:10
The same could be true
In volume terms to a lesser extent for manufacturing skills as well
it seems to me that
Fe colleges already recognise the systemic pressures and constraints that they operate within
the risk is noted in 4 .1 about
reduced funding but it seems to me here that if we are
effectively throw, we have less money available to throw at the preexisting problem in an
existing constrained environment. That seems to be a very significant risk to the plan
and I guess I would wish for us to be perhaps a bit more explicit and mindful about the
different approaches that that is going to require in order to overcome it. So if we've
a third of the funding, there's a national problem with the system. The risk is very
high to me if many of the sectors that we are looking to support, which I think are
bob on actually in the plan, already have these pre -existing issues and we're then funding
through the system that kind of isn't working at the moment with less money. So I suppose
just a comment on the mitigations to that risk, please.
Thanks, Neil.
I'm not quite sure I understood the question.
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 0:31:33
Felix Kumi-Ampofo, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:31:35
If you don't mind.
Diana Bird - 0:31:40
FE colleges will say there is a systemic problem with meeting employer needs in skills in,
for example, manufacturing but construction would also be true.
So we've noted that we have less money available to put into adult skills and we rely on FE
as delivery mechanisms. We're building a plan based on key sectors which include some sectors
Neil Kendall - 0:32:03
which are facing those skills shortages. We've noted in the paper that there is a risk that
we may not be able to meet the ambition but to me it sounds like that's a very significant
risk because of the pre -existing systemic problem funding more people through it or
very likely or much more likely than before to produce that problem. So the ask was really
I would be more comfortable if we were being mindful consistently of the different approaches
which Michelle referred to, for example, as to how we might overcome those from different
strains given the preexisting problems in the system.
Thanks. Thanks for going over it again for my slow brain this afternoon. Some of us have
Felix Kumi-Ampofo, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:32:57
been in this business for quite a while. Even during the RDF -ESF days, I don�t think anybody
ever felt there was enough money going around to deal with the challenges we were facing.
And so that�s even more akin to now with the state of the economy, et cetera. We�ve
made some choices. So we�re focusing on sex parity sectors, and we are putting a lot
of our efforts into that. Now, in another conversation, somebody will say, oh, well,
but you should have�you should focus on this or focus on that or focus on that one.
It�s quite difficult. But we�ve made some choices, and we�re going to focus as much
as we can on the six that we�re working on, which are aligned to the government�s
IS8. So there�s some choices there that we�ve made.
When it comes to construction, that is a national issue because of the government�s housebuilding
target and ambition. So Leeds College of Building is�and Diana�s sat next to you, knows
a lot more about it than I do, is a regional hub for construction, the technical excellence
college.
And we�ve got a number of spokes, so to speak, around the region. And there is specific
funding going to them. It�s never going to be enough, but there is funding going through
that process, some of it coming through us, to ensure colleges have the resource to be
able to do what they have to do. I suppose what I�ll say, though, is that there are
experts in the room who will quickly correct me if I�m wrong, so get ready. Part of the
challenge in construction is not that we don�t have enough supply of people coming through
taking up opportunities. We actually inundated, you know, and colleges are having to turn
people away. It�s a big challenge with conversion. After people have gone through and gone the
qualification, they�re not getting jobs in the construction industry, even though
the same construction industry has God knows how many vacancies. There is a challenge there
which is not of the colleges making, it�s not of the learners making. It�s an industry
problem about how they recruit, where they go to to recruit, et cetera. So we have a
challenge. Not every challenge has to be fixed with money, with investment from the combined
authority or other partners. We do have a challenge in the system as you pick up. But
it's not necessarily a funding issue for all of it. Some of it is. But we are making some
choices in terms of the sectors we focus on and some of the issues that we are going after
in our conversations with our training providers and with the colleges. But the point you make
is spot on. There's never going to be enough money.
Natasha Barbar-Evans, Advisory Representative (Voluntary & Community Sector) - 0:36:00
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 0:36:03
I was going to mention the technical excellence colleges.
Natasha Barbar-Evans, Advisory Representative (Voluntary & Community Sector) - 0:36:04
It's really important that we celebrate the really positive things that are coming into
the region as well.
So the fact that these college buildings secured that, that's high profile for us.
I will always argue that there's not enough money in colleges, there's not enough money
in capital for the buildings in which we need in order to deliver the level of training
Diana Bird - 0:36:27
that's required. But the ask that I would bring back to the table is about how employers
work with colleges and so a lot of the resource, a lot of the specialist skill is in business
and colleges are very, very good at working with businesses to make sure that we maximise
the impact that people can have and particularly you've got people who are coming maybe to
retirement and companies are seeing that those skills are going. It takes that longer view
I would like to think, well, OK, so this person's going to go in a year, but actually if I were to use a day of their time for this last year that I've got them and work with one of the colleges,
we could train up the next generation of people to come through. And I think it's that collaboration between employers and the colleges that will help us to address something which is, you know,
We'll never be addressed fully through the funding,
we'll never have enough money,
we need to be more creative in the ways that we do that.
And I think any employers who've worked with colleges,
and you talked about some of the projects happening
over in Kirklees, know that colleges are very accommodating
and they will work very, very flexibly with employers
to make sure that there's a pipeline of talent
coming through for them.
Thank you.
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 0:37:43
Does anybody else want to come in?
Natasha Barbar-Evans, Advisory Representative (Voluntary & Community Sector) - 0:37:50
I would echo that again not enough funding with the VTSC secretary just to add that one.
What I thought would be quite interesting, the appendix one is really good and really
helpful actually, it sets things out. I wonder whether actually putting the length of time
the funding is in place for would be really helpful as well.
It sort of helps us understand what we can evaluate as well because some of the problems
are that we don't have enough time to evaluate.
Yes, we've not got the funding, but actually to help us inform what's working really well
and what we can continue doing, what we need to stop doing, I think we really need to,
we need that longer period of time, which we don't always have.
But it would be interesting to actually put down the timeframes for the funding that we've got so that we can
manage that
Thank you
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 0:38:49
Lots of nods up here anybody else want to come in on this paper, please
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 0:38:58
Last chance, I don't see anybody. Okay, so I'm
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 0:39:04
I'm going to turn to the recommendations, which is that we
We note the update and provide comments, which I think we've done very well.
Thank you, everybody.
And if everybody's happy with that, we'll move on to item eight, please.

8 Region of Learning & Creativity Strategy & Local Skills Improvement Plan

Good afternoon.
Thank you, Chair.
Helen Hawxwell - 0:39:20
So item eight presents the region of learning and creativity strategy for the committee's
consideration, summarising the strategic context, the consultation that's been undertaken, the
core purpose of the strategy and the intended outcomes, and sets out how this will align
with wider regional priorities.
In addition to this, the paper also
includes the proposed key messages
for the West Yorkshire LSIP, which
were included in the pack.
Unfortunately, the Western North Yorkshire Chamber
unfortunately unable to join today.
So I'll give you a bit more context
to the region of learning and creativity strategy.
So this strategy follows the ambition
which was articulated in the local growth plan
and the mayoral manifesto commitment
for West Yorkshire to be a region of learning
and creativity.
it's been in development since the autumn through wide consultation with a range of stakeholders and
members attended an initial private session in September with a more in -depth one in January to provide some comment and steer so thank you to
members for their
Enthusiastic engagement with the process the strategy presents a 10 -year vision for how
The ambition in the local growth plans will be achieved and it encompasses the integrate settlement outcome
To support more residents with the skills to lead fulfilling lives and access good work and to increase business productivity to support growth
prosperity and thriving communities
It also links to the the more specific plans that sit underneath the strategy which detail the how this will be achieved
So it sets the direction of travel describes how we will get there together and then demonstrates how regional investment will deliver
for people and places locally.
So the full draught strategy is in the pack,
but just a few headlines just to draw your attention to
in terms of what this strategy shapes and sets out.
So it's shaped around four key themes
which focus on key groups and stages of life
with some key outcomes mapped against these.
So Inspiring Futures focuses on young people
with particular action on youth unemployment and needs,
and some metrics that we've put in there for discussion
around youth unemployment.
The second section is around fulfilling lives.
So this is about making sure that we have
a happy, healthy workforce.
And also, it really directly makes the link
from the local growth plan about halving
the number of people with low or no skills.
And this mirrors the timeline in the local growth plan
over a 10 -year period.
And then finally, employer excellence.
So ensuring that productivity is raised
and good growth is supported by connecting employers with future ready talent pipeline.
And again some metrics in there about enhancing training offered by employers
and supporting increased numbers of apprenticeships. All of that is underpinned by
a system that works for all and the paper talks about some principles that will govern what we
mean by this. So I'm happy to take any questions and I'll pass back for those. Thank you.
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 0:42:22
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 0:42:25
Thanks, Helen. Are there any questions or comments from anybody, please? Sarah, please.
Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council) - 0:42:34
Remember to put my microphone on this time. Yeah, thank you. We're supportive of the overall
position, of the overall ambition, sorry, behind the region of learning and creativity.
It's great. The direction of travel is really positive. There's much clearer progression
routes, better access to learning, stronger links between education, skills, culture and
place -based work across West Yorkshire.
And we're very keen to help in Colvedale
to help shape how this develops and is delivered.
I would just say, so this is, that's the nice bit.
No, but we only, I think, sort of officers only got
the full draught of the strategy quite late on.
It was on the early February, and the feedback was due
back on the 16th of February.
And the turnaround was really, really tight.
and I think the officers are still trying to get comments from colleagues.
Our VCSE consultation wasn't able to take place until a bit later on,
until the end of January,
so that Local Insight hasn't really had much chance to influence what's in the draught so far.
And I think we need to be confident that the final strategy genuinely reflects
the needs of cold and doused communities and sets out clear and accessible routes into
learning, training and work. It's especially important because we are behind both the combined
authority and the national averages for qualification and skills. We've got quite a lot of people
who are level two or below, much higher than the rest of the region. So it's really, really
important for us in that context that our needs are also met within this. I know we're
only a small part but it is important for us. Thank you.
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 0:44:21
Thank you. Thanks chair. I'll come in but Michelle and
Helen might want to so thank you we take that on board. We often work within a time constrained
environment and so it's difficult for us to give a lot of time to this and we've had to
move things around because of pre -election period and all of that so our time has been
cut short a fair bit. The reassurance I'll give to you and colleagues in Cordodale is
the team has held 40 odd engagement sessions across the region. So it may be that the council
itself and Council of the Environment have been working to make sure that we are getting
the best of the best across the region. A lot of engagement has taken place with all
our partners to make sure we get the input. You could always do more and would love to
have had the opportunity to have done some more.
Officers have also had this.
They might not have had the report in this written form,
but they've had this for a long time.
Often what happens is when we work in terms of bullet points
and briefing papers and slides, and then it's
translated to a paper, sometimes it
could be a bit of a shock to the system.
I haven't seen this.
Actually, all the content in here, we are convinced,
officers have seen, have been part of, shaping,
Felix Kumi-Ampofo, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:45:47
and have had a lot of opportunity to pull it together.
But we do accept, we would have loved to have had
a bit more time, but the period is truncated for challenge,
for the reasons that I picked up earlier on.
So we take that on board, thank you very much.
Nikki Deol Assistant Director Legal, Governance & Compliance - 0:46:11
Once we go through sort of the other side of this cycle, there's always an opportunity,
because these things are living documents for us to continue to shape them, especially
the actions that come out of these we work through together, so there will be an opportunity
to shape it.
But thank you.
It's really awful.
Thank you.
Thank you.
So I had quite a lot of hands going.
I've got Barney and I've also seen Alex, Graham, Diana.
So I'll start with Barney, please.
Just make a couple of really quick points
and then ask my question.
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 0:46:39
Firstly, it's really good to see self -employment
recognised in this document.
I wonder if it's possibly the first time
it's actually been recognised properly
in a document like this.
So thank you for that.
I think that's really, really welcome.
Less welcome is, I said it last time that we saw this,
this idea that you're gonna have the,
Barney Mynott, Advisory Representative (West Yorkshire Business Groups) - 0:46:57
in West York's gonna have the healthiest residents
workforce by 2040 is just not true.
And I just wonder why we make, it's good to have
stretched targets, but to have unrealistic aims just
becomes meaningless.
And I just think we should think about that for future
reports because it does sort of put my back up a bit.
And I just don't know why I said it.
But the real thing I was going to ask though is the
aim in there to increase the amount of businesses that
provide training.
And it also talks about there's been a fall in
in -work training.
And I just wonder if you've looked at why that is and
how you're going to increase in -work training.
I've got some ideas and stuff.
I think a lot of the policy emphasis over the last few years
has actually ignored it and has been more about
qualifications and providing businesses with
oven -ready workforce, which is probably unrealistic.
So I wonder if you've thought about that
and then offer that.
I'm happy to have a conversation or help with that
if I can in any way.
Thank you.
Michelle, please.
We would really like to take you up on that off foot.
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 0:48:02
Particularly where we can strengthen either what we set in the strategy or what we go
on to do next in terms of increasing and work training, it is a really important ambition.
We have heard your point about the healthiest workforce before, absolutely take that.
That's fine, absolutely take that on board.
I think you are absolutely right, there is a balance between deliverability and ambition.
Michelle Burton, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:48:29
I did also just want to take the opportunity to say that we are really keen to get more
and if there is any more feedback that Colesdale wanted to give to the report, the door is
open, we'd be delighted to receive that.
And if there are any case studies that you'd particularly like to see reflected in the
report around good practise in Colesdale, we'd be delighted to include that as well.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Alex, please.
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 0:48:49
Yeah, a couple of points.
Alex Miles, Advisory Representative (West Yorkshire Skills Partnership) - 0:48:52
One kind of bit follows on from Barney's.
In terms of the inspiring futures,
you want to reduce the number of young people 18 to 24,
so it's in line with national average.
In nine years, you only want to be
in line with national average.
So that feels like a not very aspirational one.
And then you want the healthiest workforce
in the entire country, which feels like an overly ambitious.
They don't feel like they necessarily balance.
But I just think that in nine years,
you just want to be in line with national.
That doesn't feel hugely aspirational
for West Yorkshire or its residents or employers.
And then in the other bit in Inspiring Futures,
at the top bullet point you talk about
all young people aged 14 to 24,
and then in the second bullet point
you talk about improving or reducing those inactivity
at 18 to 24, but obviously recognising
that 16 and 17 year olds have got hot,
massive numbers of need and why your target is 14 to 20, your ambition is 14 to 24 but
your target is only 18 to 24. I've talked about that one. And then the other one was
around the businesses investing in providing training. You want by 2035 that to go from
58 percent to 67 percent. Have you got an idea of what that means in terms of numbers
of employers to grow? Because 6 percent doesn't sound huge in nine years but actually if that's
15 ,000 businesses and that is quite a big ambition and obviously along with Barney we
would like to assist you in part of that training being apprenticeships or other workplace learning
opportunities.
Thanks Alex.
Helen please.
Thank you.
Just taking the point on inspiring futures and the metrics and the ambition.
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 0:50:42
This has been a very fast -moving piece of work as members have articulated.
Helen Hawxwell - 0:50:49
So following comments and feedback today, it's going to the Combined Authority next
week.
One of the points we wanted to make sure we were being as strong as possible on was needs,
actually.
And actually, in the interim, we've put in the latest iteration of the paper, a neat
target as well, that addresses that 16 - and 17 -year -old point.
And so that papers will be published shortly for that I could talk about I can talk about that
So we're talking about halving the number of needs
From six percent of the cohort to three percent. So hopefully that gives you a bit more
Confidence that we're really are focusing on that and in terms of 14 to 24
We feel that's covered by West Yorkshire promise and and everything we want to do under there
Which we need to work with partners to articulate what that will be
and in terms of numbers and
Our colleague Peter is very involved in the analysis and in the projections and there's there's further work to do
And we'd be really keen to continue the conversation about how we make sure that the realities of that and the practicalities and the how
Follows this 10 -year strategy because it's a 10 -year as you said. Thanks
Thank you Graham, please
Thanks chair. We have no concerns with this. We like the report and
Cllr Graham Turner (Kirklees Council) - 0:52:07
I have the opposite view to Sarah.
My team, my officers told us it's been a very thorough consultation and they are very impressed
by it.
I don't know what the difference is but we are very happy with the consultation.
Thank you.
I have got Diana then Martin.
I really liked the report.
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 0:52:39
Neil Kendall - 0:52:42
I think it is nice to have something so positive and there is a strong ambition in there but
it is really positive.
Similarly, the college's experience has been, the consultation has been really strong, so
We very much appreciated that.
It's great to see in here the commitment
to address tutor shortages,
which is a significant barrier
to skills development in the region.
And one of the ambitions in here is around apprenticeships,
and significantly increasing the number of apprenticeships,
which is a great ambition,
but I'd like to see a little bit more
about how to get there.
And the other element that didn't come across as strongly as I would like it to is that piece around the incentivising or the selling of this to employers.
And I know that hearts back to what I said earlier but the answer to this issue is very much about employers and training providers and further education colleges working together on skills development.
So I'd like to see that a little bit stronger, but otherwise it's a really positive document
that reflects a lot of discussions that the colleges have been part of, so thank you.
Thank you. Martin, please.
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 0:53:55
Neil Kendall - 0:53:57
Yeah, I think this is a great document. I think from a university perspective, the University
of Leeds and most universities are doing a lot of work around professional learning at
Dr Martin Stow - 0:54:09
the moment. So working with businesses, large public sector organisations to understand
how they need to upskill or retrain their workforce. So I think it's an offer I guess,
is talking to Peter O 'Brien, Yorkshire Universities, we would love to engage with you more around
this. I think at the moment we feel this university element perhaps isn't represented in the way
that it should be and I think it strengthens the whole plan and the whole paper and the
whole approach. So it's more of an offer actually through myself and through Peter. We would
love to be able to help do that.
Thank you. Neil, please.
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 0:54:56
Diana Bird - 0:54:58
Thank you. Just talking very quickly. Do we envisage a greater role for employers in delivering
some of their own training which I it's my sense that they can do perhaps in a
more practical hands -on way to complement what training providers are
able to do that we've done in the past.
Yes please Michelle. So most training happens in businesses you're absolutely
right I think in terms of capturing information that's really difficult isn't
It's like what we know about what the public purse pays for but you're absolutely right that the
Vast majority of training happens in businesses. I think if we have an ambition it probably should be for businesses to do more of that
And to make sure that it's great quality
So it'd be really good to understand perhaps what what more they might need in order to continue and to continue with that
Diana Bird - 0:55:51
Again welcome to pick up the conversation afterwards. Thank you. Thank you Mandy, please
Thanks, I think the paper is great. I like the part at the end that talks about what
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 0:55:59
Mandy Ridyard (West Yorkshire Business Board) - 0:56:02
employers can do for themselves. I think that's really important, especially picking up on
the point around young people being trained in construction but then choosing not to go
into that industry. So making yourself an employer of choice is really important. And
with the case studies at the end, is there a case that we put a case study from an employer
making themselves the employer of choice and the sorts of things they might do, which is
I know in my own business, if I wasn't prepared for my daughters to work on my shop floor,
then why should anybody else be prepared for their children to work on that shop floor?
I think we need a little bit more of thinking like that to help businesses with that approach
to make themselves a place of choice.
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 0:56:45
Thank you. Would anybody else like to come in, please?
Neil, please.
Mandy Ridyard (West Yorkshire Business Board) - 0:56:54
Sorry, just very quickly, picking up on Mandy's point, the comment was made at the Manufacturing
Diana Bird - 0:56:59
Advisory Board that we could consider how we compel employers to participate in some
of the schemes that are going to help with that, particularly around, you know, send
those furthest from employment, retaining people who are suitably trained, so I think
that's just worthy of consideration when we're moving to designing the delivery of these things.
I don't see anybody else want to come in.
Helen, anything to sum up, please?
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 0:57:26
Thank you for everyone's continued engagement, comments.
Helen Hawxwell - 0:57:30
We will definitely take up the offers of support and pass it back to the chair.
Thank you.
So the recommendation is that we recommend approval to the combined authority.
Is everybody happy with that?
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 0:57:43
Lots of comments, lots of follow -ups there but everybody happy with that?
It's great, thank you.
So we'll move on to item 9 please Michelle.
Thank you very much Chair.

9 Re-Designing Employment Support In West Yorkshire

This paper, following endorsement at the Healthy Working Life Board which the Mayor chairs,
Michelle Burton, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:58:01
this paper seeks this committee's approval to carry out a review of employment support
in West Yorkshire.
In particular, we're keen to get your, as well as that approval, we're keen to get your
on the proposed scope of the review and of its governance and chairing as well.
So in the paper you've got a bit of background about employment support in
West Yorkshire, about the proud track record really but also some of the
challenges that we as a region still experience. The review is intended to
assess the value for money of regional investment and quantify the impact of
regional investment, particularly in comparison to other parts of the country, perhaps try
and identify good practise elsewhere that we may not be aware of, and to establish a
model based on that evidence to establish a model for integrated employment support
in West Yorkshire, binding all partners together into a unified approach in what is a really,
really fragmented system. Importantly, as part of that, we propose that the scope of
review should include identifying the respective roles of different parts of government. National,
regional, local government all play really important roles in this agenda, but there
is a lack of clarity about the roles that they should play. Proposed governance, we've
suggested that it needs to include command authority, local authorities, various parts
of government, private sector, third sector, but we'd be really keen to get your thoughts
on that membership, on who you think should tear it, how it should be
turned and on the scope of the review as well.
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 0:59:48
Thank You Michelle and I'll open that to any questions or comments please. Go on
Go first, Sarah.
Yeah, thank you.
Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council) - 0:59:58
So, yeah, so we very much welcome the proposal
to undertake a comprehensive review of employment support
across West Yorkshire and we're very keen
to actively contribute to its design and development.
We really, I think we very strongly believe
that local representation on the steering group
is essential from all sort of places.
to ensure that the review is grounded in the lived experience of places which are all very
different and informed by the depth of local authority experience in delivering employability
support. So I think there's the review must consider the wider impact of all employment
West Yorkshire delivery including, guess what I'm going to say here, the broader local ecosystem
and voluntary community sector, VCSC partners, community based provision and existing council
LA led programmes that add significant value to residents, so as well as having the sort
of top, that bottom approach as well.
I think addressing the fragmented system can't be achieved only at the regional level.
national welfare and I think on a national scale,
the national welfare reform changes are also required
to reduce structural barriers and to better align incentives
for residents and employers and local services.
So any lobbying that the combined authority can do on that front is good.
I think the remarks about fragmentation don't capture the full extent
of some of the strong foundations which are art do exist.
Certainly in some local authority employment support
which has consistently delivered
high quality person -centred support.
So I guess it's about trying to protect the bits that are good
rather than diluting them in a redesign.
So it's that don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
So where there's good stuff, keep that
and really recognise that ground level approach really works for lots of our communities.
Thank you. But yeah, great overall.
Thanks, Sarah. Graeme, please.
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 1:02:26
I just endorsed pretty much what Sarah said, just with a couple of other issues.
Cllr Graham Turner (Kirklees Council) - 1:02:29
We noticed that there's a work with the DWP linked to their changes
and the timescales we feel may not align, which may cause some problems
we don't want to create a gap in the delivery so I think that's something that needs to
be looked at. The one -door approach is we're under full
interest on that but we do have the foundations through the employment of West Yorkshire and
I think we think we should build on that rather than either duplicate it or change it too
much because that seems to be working. We don't want duplication because that's working
so we believe that that's a good foundation to build on rather than go let's give it something
significant because that seems to be working. As I said we don't want duplication and I
said the DW timescales look a bit tricky to say the least given the fact that we're working
with a government shall we say to come back to us. But as long as those things are borne
in mind we broadly support it. I want the same comments as Sarah with the report.
Thanks Graham. I've not seen anybody else. Stick around up. Neil please.
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 1:03:42
I very much support the principle of the multi -tiered approach and the relevant representation from
Diana Bird - 1:03:48
local regional and national level. I'm sure you're thinking about this anyway, but I would
just encourage you from experience to ensure that in some of the, perhaps at a regional
or a national level, so the national bodies are giving it sufficient credence and that
we have representatives who are able to influence their system despite the best intentions of
often DWP officers to engage they don't have enough authority to do that consistently or
systematically so it would just be a caution on those lines.
Natasha Barbar-Evans, Advisory Representative (Voluntary & Community Sector) - 1:04:28
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 1:04:29
Thank you. Anybody else want to come in? Natasha please.
Natasha Barbar-Evans, Advisory Representative (Voluntary & Community Sector) - 1:04:33
Yeah, hi. I just wanted to reinforce one of the areas that you've mentioned there, barriers
to data, how difficult that is on the ground. It really is the two big barriers which I've
heard nationally are barriers to data and employer engagement, actually engaging the
employers, those two issues. So I'm wondering whether there will be findings which we could
benefit from on a national level because these two issues keep being raised.
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 1:05:05
Thank you Natasha. Neil please.
Diana Bird - 1:05:09
Just very quickly, I don't know how busy Alan Milburn is at the moment but he's had a lot
to say on the subject, it might just be worth a phone call.
Thank you. Felix please.
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 1:05:25
Felix Kumi-Ampofo, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:05:28
Only if members are not. I thought I would just come in at the end. The mayor is on a
movements commission so we are working quite closely with him and with our commission already.
I suppose just to reassure Councillors Turner and Courtney, this is really an opportunity
for us to cement the role of employment West Yorkshire and the piece of infrastructure
we've got in the region. But to be able to do that, we need the evidence that tells us
that this is adding value. So usually what we have are two types of data. We have numbers
that say X hundred or thousand people have received support, that is great and it's great
for those people, of course, and it's good for our economy and the families. Or we got
information that is more anecdotal or qualitative that gives us a bit of a storey about X person
went through their door, had this challenge, received this support, this was the outcome,
And that's also brilliant.
What we are unable to do right now is to establish
whether any of that would have happened without us,
because there are parts of the country that do not
have infrastructure like employment with the offshore.
There are parts of the country that do not spend
the $7 million a year that we spend on that infrastructure.
And we don't know -and there are people there who also
get support even without that infrastructure.
So we want to be able to say, actually, this investment
is delivering added value and this is what it looks like.
So that's the first point.
So it's not to take away from what we're doing,
it's to arm us, it's to confirm what everybody tells us.
But we need to be able to back that up properly,
especially in a world where there's less money going around.
The second point is, and it goes to the point
that Terna was making, there's a lot that is happening
in this space almost at the same time.
the DWP reviewing the job centres, new jobs and career service, national jobs guarantee
kicking off in a few pilot areas next month, and then the rest of the country in the autumn.
There are different things happening all the time, and this is an opportunity for us to
work with the national partners that Neil was talking about, and to make sure we are
not doing what DWP should be doing, and that our investment is going to actually add on
to what DWP or other partners are set up to do, and we are really adding value. We are,
you know, we are making sure there are no cracks in the system, and that we can actually
make DWP do more where it's in their mandate to do that, whereas currently sometimes, and
this is anecdotal again, we know that there's a lot of referral. People go to the job centre
and they are simply referred to us. We may be picking up things that the DWP should be
doing. So this allows us to look at this properly and to make sure we are adding value. So hopefully
that reassures you. Thank you.
Thank you. Would anybody else like to come in? I can't see anybody, so I'm going to turn
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 1:08:56
of the recommendations for this item and this recommendation 2 .1 is that we
approve the proposal could I see a show of hands of everybody in favour please
that's great thank you we'll move on to item 10 please Sarah thank you and to

10 International Strategy for Economic Growth

the local growth concepts that's really clear ambitions around our international
Cllr Jo Hepworth (Wakefield Council) - 1:09:21
approach and to drive economic growth in the region.
Sarah Bowes, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:09:29
The international strategy which is set out appended to this report really provides that
framework how we will do that, how we will compete on the global stage, how we will lead
on the global stage and how we will position the region as open for business to drive economic
growth.
It's very much aligned with government policy in terms of the industrial strategy, focusing
on some of the key markets where there is really strong partnerships and frameworks
in place and the UK's trade strategy. And it sets out clearly where we will prioritise
market opportunities and sector opportunities to drive the growth of our priority clusters.
We've engaged quite heavily on this over the last few months to make sure that all partners
across local authorities and wider are comfortable with our ambition. And because this is a regional
strategy it's not about just what the combined authority will do, it's how as a region we
position ourselves and how as a region we maximise the benefits of that international
agenda. So we'd welcome comments at this stage. It's going to the combined authority next
week but we'd welcome any comments in the meantime.
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 1:10:38
Thank you Sarah. Does anyone want to come in on this item please?
Graham please and then Mandy. We've been consulting this and we agree with
Cllr Graham Turner (Kirklees Council) - 1:10:53
the process and the report. Another thing we're a little bit concerned
There doesn't seem to be a lot of detail on the delivery and how that fits into the national context.
With the reduction in the Department of Trade Resources, that's the only thing.
In fact, we welcome the report. Very ambitious, which is great, but we're just not sure on the delivery of it.
But apart from that great report, it's very ambitious, so we can hit it.
Thank you. Mandy, please.
Thanks. I've just come back from a very successful trade mission in Baden -Wurttemberg in Zurich
Mandy Ridyard (West Yorkshire Business Board) - 1:11:31
around advanced manufacturing, AI and promoting the Northern Square Mile in Zurich, which
was brilliant with a large number of businesses with us. And it's definitely, you know, it
definitely paid dividends in terms of starting those relationships and starting those conversations
about not only trade but investment in both directions.
One of the things in the report which I think is great,
I think we need to maybe add in,
and I think I may have said this previously,
but it's a sieve.
So for those opportunities that come into our lap,
we need to be able to say,
when are we not going to do something?
Because I think it's as important to know
what things you're not going to do
as to what things you are going to do.
So that we don't get drawn by something that looks glittery.
The other thing is, I think it's great,
the place making part of this. But in Germany we had a number of conversations that said,
a couple of people said, I don't know where Yorkshire is let alone West Yorkshire. And
so I think we do need to be mindful of the fact that whilst place is really important
to where Yorkshire is and the individual places in West Yorkshire is, that Leeds is the known
attack brand. And I think we have to have a conversation around where we use Leeds as
the attack brand to help get all of us what we want for the region. I know that might
controversial but I just like to put my cards on the table and say what my view is.
No seriously, following up on that is you think you've got a problem with West Yorkshire,
try living in a place that doesn't exist.
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 1:13:02
Cllr Graham Turner (Kirklees Council) - 1:13:03
Thank you. Martin and Neil please.
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 1:13:14
So I'm very passionate about this whole world that universities have in terms of attracting
Dr Martin Stow - 1:13:18
international investment and our international strategy and I think that that isn't reflected
strongly enough in the report. So I'm very happy again to be involved Sarah with your team to help
that but if you actually think about the potential around not just into attracting international
students that obviously universities are desperately trying to do in a more competitive
market at the moment if you look at our alumni network which is phenomenal which again isn't
used in the way that it could be, a massive opportunity there. And then if you start thinking
about how we attract companies to the region, and again having innovation R &D capability
there, which is accessible through universities and through the network, is an enormous asset
and incredibly valuable. So I guess you'd probably expect me to say that, but I think
we can strengthen a lot of that in the strategy, Sarah.
Thank you. Who wants to come in next? Mandy, please.
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 1:14:22
I would really like to support Martin on that because the University of Leeds came to the previous trade mission to Nashville and Boston, and both Leeds and Huddersfield supported this mission.
And actually, the way that they can help strengthen that conversation and show the quality of research we have in this region and the quality of talent, if we want to attract inward investment, is really important.
Having the right people from the universities is really important too because we want the
rock stars who are going to be able to sell the region for us rather than have a technical
conversation but I think that really does give us an asset that most other regions don't
have as much of as us.
Thank you.
Diana Bird - 1:15:11
So I think the first thing I'd say is I think this is a really high quality strategy from the point of view of attempting to draw together various different strands of the whole economic strategy for the region.
So, you know, I very much welcome it from that point of view.
It's more holistic, you know, references to soft power, for example,
using creativity as a lever for economic growth.
I think this is all quite fresh and quite new.
You mentioned in townswinning, for example, you know,
lots of existing links that play into economic potential.
So that's great as well.
So really well done, I think, actually, on this one
in terms of strategizing.
I think, I recognise Mandy's point as well
about place making as well.
I would say though that we have such a rich diversity
of recognisable brands that, you know, it's almost like,
we almost need to front up a particular strand of activity
with something recognisable, whether it's food or drink,
or whether it's machine tools in some area of Germany
or brass bands in the north of France or whatever it is.
You know, whether clothing and textile brands
known the world over, we have a great opportunity
to lead with those initial, well -known,
worldwide recognised innovations.
And yeah, so different symbols,
but basically it's really welcome, actually.
So well done.
Thank you, Sarah, please.
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 1:16:46
Yeah, and I think that's a really interesting point. It's like cat's eyes, you know, cat's
Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council) - 1:16:48
eyes, you know, from, so it's almost like who you're facing, so it's your framing. But
I do take the point and I know that we're all sort of, you know, we are a collection
of some big, well, Leeds is a big city, the rest, I think the rest are either small cities
or big towns, and there is, I understand that there's quite a lot of jostling around that.
It was interesting, we had a conversation in this morning's meeting, which was the regeneration
regeneration place in housing, but not necessarily in that order, those words, this morning.
And they were talking about being on the map and I was sort of saying, oh, we need an American
rapper to come along to some football matches or whatever to do that sort of raising of
profiles. But it's interesting, and someone was mentioning that Manchester is using Steve
Coogan, for example, in some of it. I mean, that's obviously more of a national thing
than international. But I think finding those people who can catch the international limelight,
if you like, isn't necessarily a bad idea. And obviously the Peace Hall is Halifax and
that is really small, but actually is getting some of that recognition. So how we can manage
to sort of, from a world perspective, merge some of those things together, I think is
the trick but I think having those different things to catch the eye of different people
in different places isn't a bad thing.
Thank you. Neil please.
It was just very quickly by way of illustration it reminds me of a storey that Gary Verity
used to say about, he used to tell that about how Yorkshire won the Tour de France, and
Diana Bird - 1:18:28
he was in the room with the French committee and none of them knew where Yorkshire was
in the world, so eventually one of them piped over and went,
ah, I use a dog.
And ah, there we go,
because they all recognise the Yorkshire Terrier.
Thank you, Alex, please.
Yeah, I think there's opportunity,
it's really good to see strengthening skills pathways
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 1:18:49
in that, I think as long as we recognise that FE
Alex Miles, Advisory Representative (West Yorkshire Skills Partnership) - 1:18:54
and training providers and apprenticeships are part of that
and R &D doesn't just happen at university level,
I appreciate it, it gets the grandeur,
but actually some apprenticeships
have some of the most innovative and developmental activity
happening in them.
I think there's opportunity to look
at what you're trying to do on some of those other policies
and papers that we talked about around investment in training
and use of apprenticeships.
German's model is often cited in terms
of their apprenticeship programme, their employer investment.
Lots of other countries around the world
have adopted our apprenticeship system
and then didn't play around with it like we did.
So now they probably don't look at it and want to adopt it,
but I've got some really positive strands
around how they've adopted our approaches
and then made it more successful than I was.
So I think there is something around just recognising
how they get investment,
and it doesn't all have to be high level,
is kind of the point I'm getting at,
because Germany do some great things
at those entry level roles,
as do other countries using our model
more successfully than us.
Thanks, Alex.
Sarah, do you want to come back in?
Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council) - 1:20:04
I've got another point as well actually. Just around the, in Appendix F, the details, indicators,
obviously it's quite hard to measure quite a lot of this work or to attribute specific
actions, but it might be helpful to share baseline data and potentially set aspirational
targets against which progress can then be tracked and reported. Yeah, thank you.
Thank you.
Felix, please.
I was just going to say thank you really for the comments.
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 1:20:31
The first time the CEA has pulled a strategy like this together, and we've gone at it trying
to be as broad and open -minded as possible and pick up all the angles and learn to make
sure we are doing much better in terms of trade missions, but also supporting our businesses
successful in profiling our places and making sure we get the recognition so we are known
for more than a York City area. So it's been great. And your comments are really, really
welcome. So thank you very much. We've done it all in -house. And actually it's worth mentioning
Alethea Sarta, the BAC, who's held a pen on this. Alethea is a graduate, young graduate
who's only joined the last year or so and without her we couldn't have done this.
So thank you, thank you very much. We'll take the comments on board.
That's great, thank you. So are we happy to, the recommendation is that we endorse
the strategy to take it forward and is everybody happy with that? Great, thank you.
All right we'll move on to item 11 please Jo.

11 Innovation Update

Thank you, Chair. This item is to update on a recommendation from the Innovation Board
Jo Barham Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:21:52
to develop a new innovation plan and also to provide the committee with a progress update
on the local innovation partnership fund programme. As a brief reminder, the Combined Authority
approved the establishment of a new Innovation Board last September. The purpose of the Board
is to provide advice on innovation activity,
representation from across the helix of industry,
academia, public sector and community groups.
We published terms of reference and membership
for the Innovation Board and there is good links
from that board into existing groups
that we have as well as some new members
that we haven't worked with previously as well.
As per the paper, it's been agreed
that we will develop a new innovation plan.
with a focus, a clear focus on the role of innovation to boost productivity and align that with activity that will boost R &D,
commercialization and spin outs.
So activities underway now to pull that plan together.
I've had a steer from the board to keep this simple with a clear set of numeric key performance indicators.
And so we are looking at good practise from other areas
to see where that can help us with development of this innovation plan.
we're having conversations with areas that are a bit further forward in their
innovation journey when it comes to sort of devolved innovation funding so
Glasgow in particular is an area that we're looking to learn more from from
what they've done. So we as I say that work is underway and we're hoping to pull
together a draught to take to the board in April. So if I move on to the local
innovation partnership fund update so as we've discussed previously with the
committee this is a new 500 million pound fund from UK research and
innovation to grow innovative clusters across the UK.
West Yorkshire as a strategic mayoral combined authority
area is earmarked for 30 million pounds of funding.
So we won't be competing against other areas for this funding.
It has been allocated to be spent in West Yorkshire.
As part of that, one of the requirements,
and this is a further rationale for establishing the Innovation
Board, is that an Innovation Board
across that quadruple helix can make decisions
in relation to the Local Innovation Partnership Fund.
so our board will be playing that role in West Yorkshire.
We've submitted a readiness cheque
to UK Research and Innovation,
which sets out the areas of focus
that we want the LIPF fund to deliver activity
in West Yorkshire.
So that covers cluster activity in FinTech,
advanced materials,
and with enabling activity across AI and data,
which underpins particularly those two other areas,
but we know it does cut across all of our clusters
that we have identified in our six cluster action plans.
So there's a call for projects that's open at the moment.
We are working closely with partners on this because the time scales are quite challenging.
We will need to submit a portfolio of projects in May following approval from our innovation
board.
So whilst it is a call, it's been quite tightly managed with the key stakeholders that are
involved, universities, businesses that are working on those.
So once we've had the projects in, we're working with Metro Dynamics, the consultancy, to help score those projects.
They've worked with other areas on similar projects so they'll be able to help us make sure that the projects that we have will meet that quality threshold that UKRI will be looking for.
Because although the board will be approving the projects that we put forward, as our portfolio submission, UKRI will make the decision on whether those projects are fundable or not.
So we do really need to make sure it is achieving
that quality threshold.
It's also quite challenging match funding requirements
for this programme.
So there's an expectation that there will be a two to one
private to public sector funding across the five
years that the programme will operate with an expectation
that will rise to three to one across a seven year reporting
period.
So that is quite a challenge.
And so that is guiding some of the activity
that we are looking at and is playing
a role in that assessment criteria as well.
So I think that was the key updates I wanted to give so happy to take any questions on
either the innovation plan or the update on the local innovation partnership fund.
Thank you.
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 1:26:07
Thanks Jo, who would like to come in on this paper please?
Sarah please.
Cllr Sarah Courtney (Calderdale Council) - 1:26:17
Yeah just a usual point from us in Calderdale about obviously we don't have any higher education
So it's thinking about how that will work.
So we do have an interestingly, I don't know,
Mandy's gone now, but we did have a brick house business
that went on the trade mission as well,
because we do have some advanced manufacturing
and actually a lot of innovation going on in Colesdale.
But yes, it's just about making,
might need a little bit of harder work,
not from you, but it's just more challenging, isn't it,
in order to support Colesdale in terms of innovation because of the lack of AHE provisions.
So just bear this in mind. Thanks. But it's interesting to see that in the Creative Places
Growth Fund that there is SME loans are in there as well. That's good. Thank you. That's
it. Thank you. Neil, please.
So just to pick up on Councillor Courtney's point actually as it happens, because one
Diana Bird - 1:27:22
of I think my question is around how significant the innovation partnership fund is in the
context of the overall innovation work that's needed.
So in part it's that question about what's the other funding.
So we've got a tight deadline of 30 million pounds to produce a number of projects at
the moment.
That particular fund one of the requirements as I understand it is about
maturing the capability of the
Triple or quadruple helix in a particular area which really is is saying how do universities?
local authorities work with businesses
So I I guess you know, what's my question? Really? I suppose it's it's it's it's it's just about scale and
What?
what's the approach to the broader innovation piece which picks up
what Councillor Courtney was talking about.
Jo Barham Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:28:22
Yeah so on the LIPF and coming back to Councillor Courtney's point as well so
UKRI being very clear this is about research excellence and where we
are world leading in particular areas of research and so it does you know mean
that it will be focused in particular places around you know that existing
excellence. That is LIPF so that is that focus but the Innovation Board has a
broad remit to look at innovation activity more widely so that's where you
know it's important that we look across all parts of the region and how we can
support that activity. I think there is something about how we you know the
board's been clear about sort of having quite a tight focus of the activity but
it's about where we align it with the other strategies that we have as well
whether that's a region of learning and creativity or wider business support
activities to make sure that those things are joining up and we're not duplicating any of that activity but adding value through the work that we're doing with the innovation board.
Thank you. Henry, please.
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 1:29:22
Henry Rigg - 1:29:25
Well, I really welcome an innovation plan for the region. I think that's really important and probably just playing on to Neil's point as well.
It's been really important to reflect some of those businesses.
Mandy's just left because she'd be one of those but there are some real what we would call innovation example of champions
businesses in the region and I think that should be reflected in the plan
because I've already seen hands -on some of those types of businesses helping
with the LIPF so that there is that employer engagement. We know business
well in Kirklees that is doing that effectively and so I think that'd be
something really important to get into the plan and almost to get ambassadors
whatever name you want to give them but those types of businesses
that are very influential in their areas and in their sectors about the
importance of investing in innovation. And the other point is there's loads of
great innovation assets in the region. Some of those are linked, they're
either HE or linked to HE but there are other ones as well. So it's not really
about having a whole lot of new centres, it's about being able to maximise how
businesses can access support from those centres and make sure that we're right
at the forefront of technology and equipment that's needed. So bringing in
AI and all the other areas that we need to focus on.
Thanks.
Thank you.
Neil, please.
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 1:30:37
I'm sorry, thank you, Councillor Turner.
Neil's there.
Okay, thank you.
Just as to follow up on the point,
I don't think I'm mistaken,
but I think the Innovation Partnership Fund call
Diana Bird - 1:30:48
does make a specific point about maturing
the triple, quadruple helix,
and that's really the question I was asking.
So to Henry's point, we have leading like businesses,
but actually we have leading like businesses
that nobody knows about as well.
So for me, really, really important to have more
of those businesses who are already innovating
but are disengaged from what frankly is a difficult
to navigate system to be engaged with the system.
So I really, really want to see in the innovation plan
that coming through about maturing our capability
to do that, very, very important.
Thank you. Joe please, Graham please.
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 1:31:36
Cllr Graham Turner (Kirklees Council) - 1:31:39
Yeah, sorry to cheque. I mean we're broadly comfortable with the direction of travelling this and we welcome the fact that a lot of our stakeholders have been involved in the process and that's really positive.
and we look and believe some of this will be focused on advanced materials which we
as somebody has already pointed out we already have some of the world leaders in Kirkley's
in that area so from our point of view this is a really positive movement I say.
Glad that our stakeholders have been involved we need to keep those businesses leading this
work because there's some really really potential, some really strong economic benefit from this
if we get it right for the future.
Thank you. Joe, please.
Thank you.
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 1:32:11
Yeah, just to go back to the point there about,
you're absolutely right, this is about strengthening
that triple or quadruple helix.
Jo Barham Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:32:18
And I think what's really
being positive about the LIPF
process is that, yeah, we
have had those conversations with
businesses and even if there are
ideas and things that come through that we can't
fund through LIPF, that means
we can't bring it into a pipeline of
future interventions that we would look to develop
and bringing them in to be part of the plan.
So just the process has been really helpful
in strengthening some of those relationships
and helping to bring that through into the way
that we work with partners.
Thank you, Jo.
If there's nobody else wants to come in,
Cllr James Lewis Chair - 1:32:58
I'll turn to the recommendation, which is we endorse the update
and no progress on the Local Innovation Partnership Fund.
I take it everybody is happy with that. That's great so at this point I'm going
to close the committee meeting and then we're on to the
briefing on governance changes.