Employment and Skills Committee - Thursday 14 March 2024, 2:00pm - Feedback Tab - West Yorkshire Combined Authority Webcasting

Employment and Skills Committee
Thursday, 14th March 2024 at 2:00pm

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1 Apologies for Absence

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Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative)
Connor Robinson, Committee Services Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative)

2 Declaration of Disclosable Pecuniary Interests

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3 Exempt Information - Possible Exclusion of the Press and Public

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4 Minutes of the Meeting Held on 15 February 2024

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(1) DRAFT ESC 15 Feb 2024 - Minutes

5 Economic Strategy

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Felix Kumi-Ampofo, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative)
Felix Kumi-Ampofo, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Jo Barham Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Peter Glover, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative)
Mark Cowgill, Private Representative
Natasha Barbar-Evans, Advisory Representative (Voluntary & Community Sector)
Natasha Barbar-Evans, Advisory Representative (Voluntary & Community Sector)
Peter Glover, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Natasha Barbar-Evans, Advisory Representative (Voluntary & Community Sector)
Jo Barham Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Phil Day, Advisory Representative (Trades Union Congress, Yorkshire & the Humber)
Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative)
Peter Glover, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative)
Tim Thornton, Advisory Representative (West Yorkshire Skills Partnership)
Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative)
Peter Glover, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative)
Mr Martin Hathaway (Private Sector Representative)
Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative)
Colin Booth, Advisory Representative (Further Education)
Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative)
Michelle Burton, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative)
Michelle Burton, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative)
Colin Booth, Advisory Representative (Further Education)
Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative)
Michelle Burton, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative)
Cllr Silvia Dacre (Calderdale Council)
Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative)
Cllr Alex Ross-Shaw (Bradford Council)
Alex Miles, Advisory Representative (West Yorkshire Skills Partnership)
Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative)
Peter Glover, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Alex Miles, Advisory Representative (West Yorkshire Skills Partnership)
Peter Glover, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative)
Alex Miles, Advisory Representative (West Yorkshire Skills Partnership)
Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative)
Tim Craven Private Representative
Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative)
Tim Craven Private Representative
Felix Kumi-Ampofo, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Tim Craven Private Representative
Felix Kumi-Ampofo, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative)
Tim Craven Private Representative
Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative)
Felix Kumi-Ampofo, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Tim Craven Private Representative
Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative)
Cllr Jo Hepworth (Wakefield Council)
Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative)
Felix Kumi-Ampofo, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative)
Cllr Jo Hepworth (Wakefield Council)
Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative)
Tim Thornton, Advisory Representative (West Yorkshire Skills Partnership)
Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative)
Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative)
Cllr Silvia Dacre (Calderdale Council)
Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative)
Colin Booth, Advisory Representative (Further Education)
Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative)
Natasha Barbar-Evans, Advisory Representative (Voluntary & Community Sector)
Mr Martin Hathaway (Private Sector Representative)
Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative)
Colin Booth, Advisory Representative (Further Education)
Colin Booth, Advisory Representative (Further Education)
Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative)

6 Skills System Review

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Item 6 - Skills System Review

Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative)
Michelle Burton, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative)
Michelle Burton, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Mr Martin Hathaway (Private Sector Representative)
Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative)

6 Skills System Review

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Item 6 - Skills System Review

7 Decisions - WorkWell

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Item 7 - Decisions Workwell

Sonya Midgley, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative)
Natasha Barbar-Evans, Advisory Representative (Voluntary & Community Sector)
Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative)

8 Devolution Level 4

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Joshua Rickayzen, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative)
Cllr Silvia Dacre (Calderdale Council)
Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative)
Cllr Eleanor Thomson (Leeds City Council)
Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative)
Colin Booth, Advisory Representative (Further Education)
Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative)
Mr Martin Hathaway (Private Sector Representative)
Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative)
Alex Miles, Advisory Representative (West Yorkshire Skills Partnership)
Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative)
Michelle Burton, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Alex Miles, Advisory Representative (West Yorkshire Skills Partnership)
Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative)
Natasha Barbar-Evans, Advisory Representative (Voluntary & Community Sector)
Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative)
Felix Kumi-Ampofo, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative)
Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative)
Webcast Finished

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Disclaimer: This transcript was automatically generated, so it may contain errors. Please view the webcast to confirm whether the content is accurate.

1 Apologies for Absence

Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative) - 0:00:02

OK, thank you for being at the meeting today. Clearly, Councillor Scott isn't here she's been called away on some business that she could not differ, so she's asked me if I'll take the Chair today, so I think most people now may that Shirley, condemning vice chancellor of the University of Bradford and Deputy Chair, so I've been asked to remind everybody to please please please press the button, just as I did and when you want to speak and then press it again. More importantly, when you finish speaking, because if you don't the people on the live stream can't hear anything and they think we've gone into miming mode, so that will be be very helpful and the camera system will pan on to whichever microphone is switched off.

brilliant, so let's move on to apologies for absence cover.

apologies from Councillor Scott, Councillor Khan Councillor Reynolds,

Connor Robinson, Committee Services Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:00:58

Councillor Gilbey, Claire Paxman, Nicky Davis, Shannon Riding Dr Peter O'Brien Mark, no sorry and Dr Milton Brown and capable to field.

2 Declaration of Disclosable Pecuniary Interests

thank you, so in terms of declaration of disclosable pecuniary

Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative) - 0:01:13

interests, there are none today because we're not gonna be making any decisions in relation to public's published purpose.

3 Exempt Information - Possible Exclusion of the Press and Public

so just to remind everybody that in the appendix to item 6 and item 7, there are some confidential purpose and if anybody would like to refer to those confidential plans, please raise your hands so that we can give Conor the instruction for the livestream to be turned off during that time and then after that if there are any questions we will turn it back on again.

4 Minutes of the Meeting Held on 15 February 2024

that's OK brilliant, so let's move to the minutes of the meeting held on the 15th February, which just feels like last week to me it wasn't long ago, and so there should be fresh in everybody's mind, so I'm going to ask if,

people are content with these as an accurate record of the meeting, and just some looking for nuts, I can't see any disagreement, so let's note that this is considered to be an accurate record of the meeting, thank you.

5 Economic Strategy

so then we get on to our the chairs update so.

this is the second meeting, obviously in 2024 we did meet very very recently, and it was only a month ago.

so some of the things that we are discussing today, however, are of significant interest to this committee and indeed to all sorts of the mayor's newly formed board, so we are going to be paying particular attention to the economic strategy and the skills review or in terms of what's been happening since the last meeting we know that the convention of the north took place on the 1st of March, unfortunately I couldn't get there but I did have some representatives there, I understand it was a successful event with Michael Gove announcing deeper devolution for West Yorkshire, which we will be talking about on our agenda, which is very welcome.

and

today's agenda, obviously, is that, as I said, considers that the chancellor's spring budget, I don't know what other Members think, but it didn't really do much for the skills and

g agendas, really that were first seen in our area, it was a little bit underwhelming in terms of support for what we're trying to achieve. There were some discrete projects and in fact one of the announcements Michelle reminded me was actually a re-announcement, but just to highlight there was additional funding for the special free schools of 105 million towards 15 new special free schools in England and 202,000 additional places for children with special educational needs, the apprentice growth sector pilot, the additional job support pilot and upskilling fund pilot, 7.4 million

I don't know whether anybody, any of the officers, want to comment on any of this.

now.

Phoenix.

just to the rest of Yorkshire, obviously had.

some high-profile announcements around that time with level 4 devolution.

and also investment zones which some of the revenue investments there is focus on skills.

so there will be, this committee will have the opportunity to look at that when the time comes, there were other announcements on National Portrait Centre and British Library and some funding to to to move

Felix Kumi-Ampofo, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:04:59

those projects on, but very light and any other good news on the the investment fund and also that Ed Smith Anwoth cohesively.

Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative) - 0:05:08

OK, so that is May in terms of update, so shall we move on to the first item on the agenda, which is the economic strategy, and this is really an important document and because we're not really approving anything here, it was really a really really good opportunity for us to take our time to engage in a bit more of a fuller debate about the

economic strategy as as it as it stands and the work that will be going on to further refine this, and obviously at some point in time there'll be skills and are in employment business spares that will form part of this strategy, I'm not sure of when that will be in the timings.

yeah, so Felix do you want to say something about the timing, first of

Felix Kumi-Ampofo, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:06:01

all, thank you, thank you, Cher Jo, in a second will.

get into a little bit of detail on this, and as a Joseph we would really welcome your candid views on the paper you've had the evidence that you've received so far and bring your experience to bear really to approve the work we're doing in terms of timings.

if all goes well, the idea is to publish launched this early autumn, now the national agenda seems to be packed around the time potential.

general elections and, obviously, party conference season and other things to consider, so we're not quite sure yet when you know what exact time it will be, but we're looking around that early autumn point between now and then Joe and the team will publish where we are with the evidence within the next two three days.

there will still be more work that will publish as soon as they get ready.

we then go into a period where we take out the messages from the evidence and begin to work through what the priorities should look like and what actions we should take, what our role is as a combined authority and what the role of our partners will be in delivering these, it's also fabular work that will have to put into setting out.

what they agreed outcomes are from this work and what indicators and performance metrics we will use to.

help us understand whether we are achieving these or not.

this will be, in all likelihood, a long term strategy, probably a 20 year strategy, but the actions that we will want to put in the document will have a short to medium term food simple because we need to know exactly what we're doing in the short to medium term to be keen to turn around.

what needs to be turned around and to take advantage of the opportunities there?

the evidence, as you would expect at this point, picks up a lot on challenges, weaknesses problems, and so it could seem negative.

that is just the way it goes at this point, because that's what the evidence throws at us. That's not necessarily what will be in the strategy. The strategy will be what we say we're going to do to address these, and so it would be more positive in outlook, focusing on opportunities and strengths. But this is the time where we tell each other home truths about some of the challenges that we face and the evidence you've got, which should show for three broad areas where we feel the evidence is pointing us are on productivity or the lack thereof in many areas in our economy, and that is important because even though in some economic term is the closest we can get to understanding

what prosperity we are creating or generating, and where that's growing, so the UK's productivity in general this week has been for a long time and this area is below the UK average.

so it gives us a sense of where we are, having said that there are some sectors where we are really strong, and it's important that we know those and we celebrate that, and we work on how we can do even more so, productivity is one of the other is around access to opportunities.

usually this is around skills and it's equipping people with the skills they need and then the utilisation of skill and in the workplace to achieve their potential, and finally,

entrenched poverty and deprivation, which turns itself up in so many different ways in the detail of those health participation in the labour market, et cetera, so however, you cut the evidence when it comes to the challenges and weaknesses the subs tend to sit around these three broad areas.

and the task we've got through this work is to normally admit that problem spend all our time looking at the problem, working at different ways of explaining it, but then go on to say, so what are we gonna do about it?

and that is the tricky but interesting part of the work, so I haven't said all that I'll hand over to Joe Andrew Peter who will walk us through.

summary of the evidence, thank you,

thanks Convener yeah, so that the paper sets out the progress and gives an update on the work and that we've been doing to develop a new

Jo Barham Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:10:48

economic strategy, we did speak to the committee back in October about this work, so there's been quite a bit of activity that that's gone on since then there were two appendices.

to the paper, so Peter is gonna talk through the first one, which sets out a summary of some of the economic evidence, particularly where it's when it was relevant to skills and then the second appendix sets out our thinking on an emerging framework. So just quickly before it passed to Peter, to go through some of that evidence, I was just going to fill in some of the wider work that has gone on to build our evidence base. So as well as a really comprehensive economic assessment that has been exceeded, we're gonna be publishing on the Combined Authority website

hopefully at this week, if not early next week, there's been a range of other a piece of work as well, so we've undertaken an online consultation to get views of the public on the strengths and opportunities and the challenges that they see in the economy. We've commissioned an external piece of work on sector strengths and particularly to try to unpick where there are growth opportunities in in our sectors and understand the relationship between different parts of the economy. In an emerging clusters of excellence in the region, we've worked with the universities and a call for evidence to look at a range of issues, most notably around childcare and the impact that is having on the economy, and we've had a wide range of conversations and discussions with many of the members of this committee in in different settings we brought together a panel of independent experts earlier in the week to really scrutinise and challenge them economic assessment and had a really really good conversation then, but what what their thoughts are on on the way we've approached evidence and and what this means for emerging priorities.

and we had a workshop with local authorities and

integrated care board members, along with Centrica thriving places and the Centre for Local economic strategies to really try to unpick the challenges around, making this an inclusive economic strategy and what that means for sustainability and what that means for health, so a lot of activity I'll I'll pulse here and pass to Peter to go through some of the economic data and then we'll just end touch briefly on the framework before we open up the questions.

Peter Glover, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:13:05

thank you Jo, so we're having some technical problems with a sort of rendering the slides on the screen, so can I ask members of the committed to to try and follow the slides that'll be referring to within their packs, so first of all I'm kicking off with sla with pay on page 18 which even titled framework for analysis.

so what I'm gonna do is just give you a selection of the reflection of the evidence slides in your pack, rather than working through the old thing, because or partly because I'm conscious that we did discuss some of the elements during our discussion of the strategy in October, but I thought first of all it would be useful to give you a sort of overview of the overall framework that we're using to develop the evidence base, and this Felix mentioned we were, we will be publishing a comprehensive evidence pack in the next few days in terms of the approach they have and say overall purpose.

is to provide an assessment and understanding of West Yorkshire's economic needs as a basis for developing play strategic objectives, and those strategic objectives will be focused on delivering the vision for the West Yorkshire Plan and you ought to do that we have to understand first of all how West Yorkshire is currently performing and also how it's like to perform in the future in the absence of corrective action and the central focus as Felix mentioned is on productivity that is the basis for economic growth and also underpin underpins progress on on living standards.

and I'll be talking about central structure and economic geography which to which are key determinants of productivity, but in terms of this question about, I didn't find the problem without thinking about the solution, the solution very much lies with in terms of closing the productivity gap lies with increasing investment and also improving the supply of skilled people, and there are a number of potential levers that you can see in the in the sort of framework chart relating which which are crucial to attracting investment and also attracting retaining and deploying skilled people, and they relate to housing, the transport system and the availability of London premises, I'm not going to go into all of those today but they will be covered in the full evidence pack that will be circulating and then the final point which is crucial is that raising productivity does not automatically translate into inclusive growth.

and within that we consider the issues that act as constraints on those benefits being shared, those benefits of growth being shared across the full population of West Yorkshire.

so I am now moving to slides 20 or page 20 of your pack and that focusing on real productivity growth, so looking at recent performance on productivity in West Yorkshire, there is a substantial deficit of 14% in our output per hour worked between West Yorkshire and the national average, so output per hour worked is a central measure of productivity and so basically at the West Yorkshire economy is nearly 10 billion pounds smaller in terms of its annual output than it would be if it matched the UK average productivity performance.

so that's a substantial gap, bearing in mind that the whole economy of West Yorkshire is worth about 60 billion pounds per year.

and that gap has widened, that productivity gap has widened,

so in the period to 2004 and 2008 UK West Yorkshire productivity growth was similar to the UK average in thought to be higher.

but from 2008 onwards it's been growing at half half the rates, half the UK rate, you can see that called them Coakley's actually outperformed the UK average throughout the period from 2004, but you can also see that Leeds has underperformed since 2008 and now not obviously because of the size of Leeds as a key influence on West Yorkshire's performance.

in terms of looking to the future, the modelling we've done suggests, based on past trends, that that productivity gap that we currently have will widen further.

so I am now moving to.

slide 23 on page 23, and what we're looking at here at the industrial sectors, and there were two, there were two major areas of opportunity in terms of industry sectors in terms of addressing the productivity gap and their manufacturing and knowledge based services in manufacturing in the manufacturing sectors we have established special specialism like textiles and their problems of productivity performance.

is close to the national, average or above. In some cases, so the scope to improve property performance within those sectors is relatively limited. All that, though, we continue to need to continue to support them, so in terms of manufacturing, the illness will be very much on attracting additional specialism in high value segments, and some examples are set out in the slide in terms of service specialism. They tend to be heavily concentrated in the centre of Leeds and, unlike for manufacturing, this is a significant productivity gap for these activities, even though they are well established. So what we need to do that is attract additional investment into the sacked sectors and capitalise on the benefits of agglomeration, particularly within Leeds city centre. But Friday the both of these aspects. We need increased

we need the increased investment needs to be accompanied by a better availability of skilled people, and thus engineers, programmers, technicians and analysts and so forth.

so moving on now to

slide on page 26, so this is this slide essentially shows you.

maps the position of West Yorkshire in terms of its investment and skills performance, so a big part of developing our industrial base and raising productivity is about securing additional investment and also deploying high-skilled people within high performing businesses, as the diagram shows it's a bit small.

this presents big challenges as we are located firmly in the bottom left of the distribution of areas in the Scotter diagram, so West Yorkshire has low investment and low skills so we're operating in a low skill, low investment, low skills, low productivity equilibrium until 2013 at West Yorkshire as investment performance was actually similar to the UK average but then diverged in a negative way since then, so we estimate that investment needs to be raised by 2.2 point 6 billion pounds per annum to support our productivity objectives and in terms of skills, we have an estimated deficit of 100,000 high-skilled workers in West Yorkshire, so that's the increase we would need to make too much the UK average in terms of representation of high-skilled workers in the labour force and even to match the performance of Greater Manchester Roma we would need an additional 60,000 high-skilled workers.

so I'm moving forward now, quite plus quite a few slides.

two slides or page number 35, and that's entitled I think it's 35.

it's about West Yorkshire performing below the national average of the supply of skills.

so I'm not going to go into the detail around the investment deficit that will be presented in the full of pack that we'll be publishing, but with regard to building the skills base there are two routes to addressing that and we're gonna cover this very briefly, first of all it's about developing our indigenous pipeline of skills, so we have a number of skill supply issues highlighted in the pack, I'm not going to explore them in detail because we also cover them in October.

as you can see from this current page, we've got young people in West Yorkshire who were less likely to achieve qualifications at level 2 and level 3 as they entered the labour force at age 19. We have mixed performance across local authorities on entry rates into higher education, and there are also constraints on both public and private private investment in skills, so we're seeing lower levels of investment in skills and training and education over time amongst adults, and increasing the demand for skills through better availability of high skill jobs is key to incentivising people to invest in their own skills. I think coordination of supply and demand of skills is a sort of key, a key theme running through the through the evidence

OK, so I am now going to move on to page,

so another key aspect of building the skills base is attracting and retaining talent in West Yorkshire.

so on on page 43 42 sorry not pause 43 on page 42, he can see data from internal migration and what we can see from internal migration figures is at West. Yorkshire sees a net influx of people who move into the area for university, but then many of them are lost over time to other areas from their early 20 s onwards and to further illustrate this we have about 35,000 people with a UK domicile who qualify from West Yorkshire higher education institutions each year and the graduate outcome survey indicates that around a quarter of those are in employment at the 15 month mark and have a job location in West Yorkshire, so a retention rate of about a quarter of graduates.

so the key to improving that retention, attracting a return retaining.

talented around increasing the number of high-skilled jobs jobs in the area, so it shows the importance of a coordinated approach to supply and demand.

so the next slide is not actually in the pack, but it's about inclusive growth. So one of the central challenges of inclusive growth is about enabling people to benefit from the growth that is generated in the wider economy, and that's partly about connecting people to opportunities through improved transport, and we can see that there are big issues with that. So it's more difficult for residents of deprived areas to reach employment sites via the bus network compared with travelling by car and the disadvantage are obviously less likely to own a car. So I'm not going to go into the details around transport again will be considered in the main pot that we're about to circulate, but I think it's important to note that obviously it's not enough to deal with salt Fees' physical connectivity. Many of our most deprived communities are actually located in and around the city and town centres of West Yorkshire, including Leeds City Centre, and it's worth noting that the centrally located neighborhoods, even though the deprived tend to have relatively productive and dynamic economies, and so, even though opportunities are potentially within walking distance of residents of these deprived neighborhoods, they're not typically able to access them, and skills obviously plays a key part around that. So 15% of West the West Yorkshire population have no qualifications or qualified that most level which limits access to employment.

within that most acutely deprived communities, they are also the neighborhoods with the worst skills and qualification deficits, and in addition to that, of course, education outcomes for disadvantaged young people are significantly poor poor poorer than for the non disadvantaged.

okay so.

and then I'm just moving backwards to slide 49.

so this is about economic inactivity.

so the proportion of people in employment is West year in West Yorkshire is below the national average and the main factor behind that is the region's relatively high economic inactivity rates and, as you can see from the chart that varies as well by local authority. So we have 250,000 people of working age who are economically inactive when students are excluded from the figures and inactivity is also the main reason that some groups face late low employment rates. So within that I would include disabled people, women, people from ethnic minorities and also older older people, and that problem of inactivity has been intensified by the pandemic. So, for example, the number of people aged 50 to 64 who are inactive has grown by about 20,000 during the course of the health crisis. In the aftermath

a growing issue underlying inactivity is health, so we've got around 80,000 inactive people, a third of the total who are long-term sick and that number has grown by around 10,000 since the pandemic or more widely the number of people with a disability in the labour force is growing, so over the last decade the number of people of working age with a disability has grown by more than 90,000 to 390,000 so that's an increase of nearly a third.

and that includes a rapid growth in the number of people of disabled people who are in employment of around 67% over the last decade, but still only 57% of disabled people that are in a job.

so I'm now going to move to the slide.

on page 46, and that's just my concluding points.

which are available there for people people to read, so I'm not going to work through each of those, so a humpbacked future, thank you.

Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative) - 0:27:45

thank you, F Hayter staffing Phoenix, said at the beginning of this pretty.

can probably use the word depressing for its challenge, endlessness at this key challenges, and I think we not understand these challenges, I think when you see it brought together and the the gravitates, having all sorts of there is more at the the fish, the sharpened yeah, it might be helpful, maybe if we pass there and just ask

in terms of the the debt that Peter has described to us in the conclusions that is presented, we might have one or two people think about the the drawing out of Peter's conclusions and do is there a view on whether you feel that they represent the debt that you've seen this is something missing.

what

Natasha?

Mark Cowgill, Private Representative - 0:28:38

I yeah, I can definitely save from working with the economically inactive that yeah, it's very reflective of what you eat, what you've said, what I would ask is just in terms of reaching those individuals

Natasha Barbar-Evans, Advisory Representative (Voluntary & Community Sector) - 0:28:52

and understanding the challenges it sounds like we've got to grasp, for example, with serious health issues I know from studies we've done

Natasha Barbar-Evans, Advisory Representative (Voluntary & Community Sector) - 0:29:03

or at better connect the mental health challenges were one of the

one of the key areas, just in terms of understanding what those challenges are, and the surveys that were discussed right at the Star, actually, how how have we managed a distribution of those surveys and made sure that actually people, the people who who need it most, are actually answering the questions around what those challenges are,

how can you justify which surveys we surveyed referring to Surrey,

Peter Glover, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:29:33

just right at the beginning, Jo mentioned that there was a survey there have been, surveys have been done?

Natasha Barbar-Evans, Advisory Representative (Voluntary & Community Sector) - 0:29:37

Jo Barham Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:29:43

yes, it is a broader consultation and it was undertaken, so we did it through Combined Authority, your voice, application online, and so we did.

we have a range of.

a voluntary and community sector groups on our database that we sent the survey to, to try to make sure we got a range 0 0 voices represented, but up-to-date recognise that there's there's no easy.

that engagement piece is really important and we do need sort of targeted.

conversations with particular groups, so I think that's this certainly more that we want to do in terms of following up that that consultation in particular, reaching out to some of those community groups for further conversations with them, Sonia.

I was just going to add to that Natasha that, as part of the wider

Phil Day, Advisory Representative (Trades Union Congress, Yorkshire & the Humber) - 0:30:35

evidence base for the economic strategy, we have recently undertaken a piece of work in a direct consultation with young people around employments of parts of that will form part of the evidence base that goes into that as well.

so I guess what we've seen here is to get Peter to join Peter.

Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative) - 0:30:50

sorry, I didn't have anything to add on that specific report, thank

Peter Glover, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:30:58

Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative) - 0:31:00

you, I think it was Tim, it was probably.

thank sure I'm obviously particularly interested in the higher level

Tim Thornton, Advisory Representative (West Yorkshire Skills Partnership) - 0:31:08

skills elements in in the document, and I think it's good to see the recognition both of what you call the indigenous pipeline issue and also the one around graduate retention or indeed graduate acquisition and and and retention.

part of my sense is that

we've tended to pay more attention to the indigenous pipeline issue, perhaps because of some of its broader implications that we have to the graduate app acquisition and retention element, and it might be as a result that it's worth some further scrutiny of that perspective I used to spend a lot of time going round talking about.

Yorkshire and Humber as a skills magnet because we were in a very distinctive position regionally in that we were net importers and creators of graduate talent now I believe that picture is not quite as positive as it used to be, which is, I think, an issue of concern for while not just West Yorkshire but South Yorkshire and and North as well.

it is still true, nonetheless, that we are far more effective at retaining and importing a talent at that age.

broad age and retaining it than many English regions, so if you look at comparisons like the north-east of England, they are subject to a very significant drain off.

18 plus talent because of people exiting to go to university elsewhere and then not returning, I think it would, I think we would benefit from a deeper understanding of the of our relative strength in that area and what the challenges are in reinforcing and perhaps if we possibly can return into that unusual position as,

as a net creators of graduate talent.

OK, I think that's a good point.

Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative) - 0:33:07

you wanted to come back on that, please, yes, please, so we we've.

Peter Glover, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:33:11

recently

do they, especially in consultation with the OP, in conjunction with Yorkshire universities, looking at sort of graduate flows if not actually been that that works have actually been published yet, but I think it's about to be so, we do have quite a lot of intelligence or at Yorkshire and the Humber level our ads though that sort of graduate flows and retention performance.

which we which we could we could certainly show, but on the broader point about attraction versus the indigenous pipeline, this recently been welcomed it undertaken by resolution Foundation, where their assessment is that simply building the internal pipeline is not sufficient to generate the number of skilled workers it will be required, but the balance the balance between,

pipeline development and an attraction is obviously something that the Committee would you know it's a strategic decision about how.

what approach should be taken, I think?

thank you for that, nothing in the paper did say, 400,000 additional

Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative) - 0:34:15

contracts, which is not an insignificant amount on somehow collectively, we've got to understand what that means at and in what.

on flavours, thus, graduates should pay in terms of disciplinaries.

the signature or a couple of questions or a couple of comments or the questions of a public sector, an awful lot of people work in the public sector in this region, how how is that factored in here,

Mr Martin Hathaway (Private Sector Representative) - 0:34:45

because this all seems about business and we know that for some recent ratio showed that there has been an improvement in the quality have been,

productivity across the private sector, just not as good as elsewhere, but that virtually none for 30 years in the public sector, so how would we, how would we deal with that?

all at once, so the second question is graduates English

you said what the issue is, but is that the same elsewhere, rather than net importers and exporters of graduates from their region than I am and who do we compare to?

but it is also not recent proofing 120 years ago I was on the border graduate, Yorkshire, which was set up to transform this problem.

and over I, I don't see much link-up between this and the local authority's economic strategies. I'm not sure how they fit together at the moment and though they're nowhere near this detail, the local ones and and I noted that the greatness of what we are seeing, how they link up better with the work and then, if I, if I read this as evidence on its own, I'd be, I'd think twice about setting up a business and I just think there's got to be something in the evidence gathering bit of it that surround the positives, what we can do, what I think that that needs to come out or are at that evidence, stage as well. Thank you

thank you, Tom Cullen.

Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative) - 0:36:09

yeah, so this is in reference to the draft areas of action, page 67 last two bullet points which say that skills are a big driver of inequality between places and have a central role to play in an inclusive economy, and it says there is a need to move beyond just upskilling and understand where it might be appropriate to focus

Colin Booth, Advisory Representative (Further Education) - 0:36:25

support on lower level skills.

with the opportunity to open up in-work support, so I suppose my comment would be the the biggest lever.

that the Combined Authority has around skills in that sense is the adult education budget.

and the pressure on them at the moment on providers is the opposite of that, I think, don't know, I'm looking at Michelle to kind of confirm or deny and.

yeah, so we, as providers, were under pressure to increase participation at level 2 and 3.

and which will inevitably increase what we already have, which is waiting lists at the other end, so one that kinda says the opposite, I'm just curious what happens.

Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative) - 0:37:22

so so you're right that currently and that about half the education budget as the biggest lever and that we have, but of course if the minority of spend on on skills I think this is talking about about the full pace and I think you're absolutely right, we're trying to do it,

Michelle Burton, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:37:35

we're trying to do a lot with what was involved, which is which is not fit and for that for the need, so I would read this as being about

Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative) - 0:37:44

broader than than that that pot of money and about the scale of the challenge and what and and

Michelle Burton, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:37:50

you know the the broader spend and both public spending and, of course, what employers and individuals spend as well.

because you wouldn't share, so you're shifting the emphasis, then at the moment.

Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative) - 0:38:02

Colin Booth, Advisory Representative (Further Education) - 0:38:06

well, I think that I think the current strategy will drive our

Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative) - 0:38:10

approach to all commissioning, but I think that it's too soon to draw that conclusion directly.

Michelle Burton, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:38:17

yeah, but I guess whatever something has to happen, there's no collectively, yes, so we need to pull whatever levers we can, with all

Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative) - 0:38:25

of all partners to collectively address that issue, as well as obviously, constantly.

yes, I agree there is a real problem, is there's not enough money in the system yet?

thank you Chair, and so just a few things, one, some of which is

Cllr Silvia Dacre (Calderdale Council) - 0:38:48

coming back or what other people have said, so somebody said It's really depressingly reading, and why would a business invest, and I suppose one of the reasons to me is because actually there is an enormous amount of untapped potential out there, people who are only not skilled because they don't have the opportunity to have those skills and if businesses can find a way to harness that and encourage it, Dave

they can in effect being their first, so I think that's one way of looking at it, but I suppose also just it's just a reflection that still business and the local authorities together have just got to keep on pushing from this region to government whatever government that might be that there does need to be public sector investment in this area to help us unlock all the potential there is because the papers talk about the connectivity issues, both physical and digital, that there are and that just does need government investment ultimately, so we've all just got to keep working together

and somebody mentioned how we think it was again, you Martin, talked about how it fitted within the with the local authority strategies, and I think there has been a bit of a sort of to-ing and fro-ing around that, because my advice has been that Bradford, for instance have hung back on their strategy because they'd been waiting to see what this was like, whereas Calderdale had sort of cracked on with our inclusive economy strategy and just to prove that earlier this week at Cabinet but will recognise that we might have to go and look back look or look at it again slightly when we see what's coming out of this, but I think for nearly all the local authorities the most important thing is the ensnare in these figures in this information we have here there's talk about inclusive economy because for most walls that's just so central that we just don't want productivity at any cost if it continues to leave large sections of our population behind which really then took me on to slight page 62, the one that says boosting good work across all sectors of the economy because,

we are an employment and skills committee and I've been here before and said that ultimately not everybody is either going to want or going to be able to have a skilled job, and it's just as crucial that the unskilled jobs that a society needs to function properly are also well paid and so I think it's recognised by that slide that that's always got to be borne in mind and it goes back again to the inclusive and struck economy strategy point.

and I think that the pop, the slides, suggest or somewhere in there, it's suggesting that in fact, productivity can actually harm increases in skills levels and productivity at the top can actually harm those at the bottom, because obviously if you've got people with skills who can afford the more expensive houses then housing becomes more expensive and the people at the bottom of disadvantage Stephen Moore so yeah inclusiveness just absolutely crucial, I think to all of the local authorities.

thank you think Alex Loftus actually wants to come in and out of tempo

Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative) - 0:42:02

yeah just done the conclusions, but it says where structure under performs on skills supply, what does that mean with question 1 and

Cllr Alex Ross-Shaw (Bradford Council) - 0:42:12

then the other question just following on from that point?

I'm not sure if I'm clear from this in terms of what we need to do on a skill, so I'd like it talks about not having been underperforming on higher skill jobs and high-skilled opportunities, but I'm not sure what those high-school jobs or high-school opportunities are for them the skills sector and the skills supply to match it, so I don't think the doom and gloom data is being provided with any.

collateral content or context that can then help us and the colleges and universities respond accordingly.

Alex Miles, Advisory Representative (West Yorkshire Skills Partnership) - 0:42:46

Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative) - 0:42:52

so in terms of skill supply, we're talking about people with

Peter Glover, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:42:57

qualifications, basically so it's a point about we've got a low proportion of people in level 4, but we've also got quite high proportion of people with no qualifications or qualified below level 2 so we need pathway progression pathways so that that skill supply in terms of

the content of those high-skill jobs were essentially talking about management, professional and associated professional jobs in the main and in the full evidence, there's a bit more detail about that, but in terms of the jobs we're talking about, it's across it's crossed quite a wide range, I mentioned a few of them in my presentation so engineers,

technicians, digital professionals.

and also on the business side. So the big business, professional type roles, so we probably can exploit we can reach more detail around that. We've also got our forthcoming labour market report, which details are in a lot more sought Brandwatch. Some of those roles are

Alex Miles, Advisory Representative (West Yorkshire Skills Partnership) - 0:44:03

at level 4 and above roles are they so you know, some of those engineering technician digital on level 4 and above so what why do we need more level 4 and above, if the jobs out there, on request in Liverpool and above if they can be done at level? 3

Peter Glover, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:44:19

so a lot of the growth that's happened in the in. The employment base has been for jobs at level 4 and above over the last decade, and thus that is the keys of segment in terms of productivity, which isn't to say the other. Elements of the workforce are not important, so say technicians, they might be at level 3 and they're essential within the manufacturing sector, as we were talking about supporting innovation and research and development. So it's not purely about those level. 4 skills is about a broad-based approach as well, and maybe we can bring that out more clearly, but this is kind of fairly brief submarine walk. We just do. We don't want to get into a situation where we have

Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative) - 0:45:02

focused so on higher level that we don't have those pathways at entry

Alex Miles, Advisory Representative (West Yorkshire Skills Partnership) - 0:45:05

level when this kind of level 4 and above, or this may be unconscious bias towards lower level skills, not being productive, I don't think, is super helpful language may be if this is going to go in the public domain so yeah and then as colleges providers we just need to know what more.

in terms of the jobs and the skill, so we can create the content and the curriculum and the courses to support that, so I think that the

Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative) - 0:45:32

point that I guess we're gonna take away from that is we need to see the the pathway of skills at all levels has been important as the each are important and one can lead to another and there's a necessary.

in ponds to have low level low skills.

I guess his point has pointed up, but I think the way it's gotta be presented as part of that you have an ecosystem of skills.

so I think John Tim and then Joe.

thank you.

Tim Craven Private Representative - 0:46:05

to add two points, please to consider one in terms of the

the draft priorities, it's a

asked the question So what yeah so yeah, to do these things up, or what we're aiming at with this, but what's the target by by these interventions? Yet what impact are we going to see? Is it for me, it's all yeah, it's all some very good words, yeah, but actually they're what we're by doing these things, yeah, we're where we're aiming to get now, what what percentages are we seeing improving what gaps so we've seen closing and Phoenix at the beginning you mentioned there would be some marked

Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative) - 0:46:44

CFP, eyes and objectives, I wonder whether you could give us a any high level work that's been done on the and the level of ambition.

thank you Chair.

Tim Craven Private Representative - 0:46:56

Felix Kumi-Ampofo, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:46:59

we are not there yet so that that will come, but we know there the.

we have the points where we need to make sure we all agreed on the scale of the challenge, the ambition will then be made to close this gap, so what do we do, and that's very rapidly where we were getting to so after this round of sessions conversations are we having?

refining the evidence base, but quickly, moving into the exactly as you said, so what what are we gonna do the priorities there are really just an initial thinking about where things could be, but we are nowhere near actually agreeing a set of priorities nowhere near that.

but what we do not want is to have anything that could come across as a blunder and something that everybody will believe with. Everybody will agree with, because actually there are some tough choices that need to be made. So just going back to the conversation that Alex and Peter are having earlier on, there are some difficult choices we have to make about, because we only have so much money as calling Hussein really have so much in terms of resources, so where are we going to put our results or are we going to target, say, the lower levels to make sure everybody has a minimum level or are we going to have a different target? Those difficult decisions have to be made. We can't if we keep spreading

the Jump where we've been doing, so everybody gets a little bit, we will remain where we are, because that's what we've been doing for decades.

Tim Craven Private Representative - 0:48:40

I think that makes a that's what where does that fit Alex in terms of planning timescales?

where does that planning those difficult decisions as I get made whether they get surfaced?

so what I was saying right at the beginning, after today, I think

Felix Kumi-Ampofo, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:49:02

we've finished our round this cycle of committee meeting tomorrow, I hope so anyway.

we are, at the end of the week, a pre-election period coming very quickly.

the team that goes back, we publish the evidence. The work we're doing now is teasing out from the evidence base what those initial priorities look like. We will then come back to you to say, does this resonate as it makes sense, as we follow on from the evidence that you've seen, what are we missing? What are the wicked questions that we are avoiding all have missed in some way, so you know, in the end, these documents, these processes are negotiated

and is it's not sort of Phoenix or a group of people?

it adapt from somewhere coming up with stuff will will come back to you and to all Committees in the end, politicians will make the final decision about whether, but whether parties will lie.

it's irrelevant to this point.

and others.

Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative) - 0:50:04

can I just do a seconder yeah, so a second one in the

Tim Craven Private Representative - 0:50:10

papers would talk about meat yeah, I'll actually I'll levels of of the I can't see it anywhere in the year or in the actions in the priorities how we would go about.

addressing that because at the end of every academic year we're just adding.

yeah, adding to our challenge, and if we could, we could stop some of that if we could incentivise business and engage business and education to spend more time talking to each other.

yeah yeah, this was also marginally mentioned the Mayor's business.

Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative) - 0:50:45

because there was a huge discussion on the skills levels, NEETs, et cetera, that that committee as well, yeah so wrong.

Felix Kumi-Ampofo, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:50:57

yeah, so very well picked up, we definitely had some information on meat in the pack it may have falling out in the various refinements at a nearby, we'll just go back and make sure yeah, thank you, or is it in the package to follow on if it is whether it comes through in the

Tim Craven Private Representative - 0:51:11

priorities and the focus?

OK, thank you.

pets' Head, Jill and 10, but Tim as your point related to the other

Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative) - 0:51:22

tempts pointed out, okay, Joe and then.

thank you Chair. It was just touching on the point that Alex and

Cllr Jo Hepworth (Wakefield Council) - 0:51:30

Councillor Baker made about level 4 skills and inclusivity, but cos in Wakefield. We're struggling with level 3 skills. So if the main focus is level 4, we're not even achieving the Level 3 and is there any demand in Wakefield for a level 3 and level fall, which we've seen in previous papers to this committee? There isn't in Wakefield, so it's the end, part of inclusivity in the skill level for the job pulled it out there as well. So I think what Alice was saying is there might be level fall. Skills demand elsewhere, but there isn't Level 4 in Wakefield and especially if we're struggling with level 3 as well, so I just wanted to spot both those two points of inclusivity and the skill level. Thank you OK, I'll ask Phoenix, wants to come back on

Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative) - 0:52:15

that for the future, not what I'm going to see might seem a bit but

Felix Kumi-Ampofo, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:52:20

just go with me, Gooch,

with all these things, it's always attention.

do you?

put your resources to give people the skills they need for what is currently present.

or do you actually put your resources towards supporting people to reach a level which currently might not see my parents, but that's where you need to be?

so you need to be working both the demand and supply side if we forever supports people to be equipped to only work in industries that are currently present, requiring levels one two and three we will always be having this conversation about lack of prosperity and inclusion and poverty and deprivation because no matter what we say at that level wages are lower, however that is the present so there's there's something we need to be doing at that level to make sure we are meeting our current need, but where is the balance?

in terms of how we are equipping people with the skills they need so that they are, if their abilities mean, they can be level 4 and above irrespective of whether they live in Wakefield or Bradford or wherever they are able to access, gets that level and access the opportunities that brings that then leads to all sorts of things, about connectivity, being able to have a line of sight to a job wherever it might be, because I think I will challenge back thinking that you know somebody's living until you said Wakefield, I'm just being provocative here, because somebody lives in Wakefield that this might be that level, there are no jobs there, that person doesn't have to working with you. It's on us to make sure that person can access a job wherever that job is, or of course it will be great if we could have that level of employment and skill levels across the whole patch. This is a multigenerational job. I'm saying all of this just to say, When are we doing this when we do have these conversations, there's always attention, and we need to work together to make sure in the end, we agree where we put in the focus, the limited resource that we've got to be able to get there and in the end, wherever we agreed that that would be us officers where we put our shortlist

Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative) - 0:54:35

she is bidding to come back to that.

I completely going through from on that Felix, but we have a chicken

Cllr Jo Hepworth (Wakefield Council) - 0:54:43

or the egg in that situation with regards to businesses coming into the districts, because if we train all our people up to level 3 and 4 and there's no businesses coming in demanding our level of skill, they're going to go elsewhere and if we're all across West Yorkshire all trained up to this level, they're going to get further afield and we'll have this migration situation that we've got, where skilled workers are leaving West Yorkshire, so are we, the chicken or the egg which which comes first? We need people, businesses in to bring skill level up, or do we need the skill to bring businesses in, and it's the whole thing of what comes first. I think I might bring a paper to Tipperary because I think for now 10 I think you wanted to come in

Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative) - 0:55:23

with you forever, I think he might yeah, so perhaps I think this is

Tim Thornton, Advisory Representative (West Yorkshire Skills Partnership) - 0:55:29

it's at least a tangentially relevant point, and I guess it's another one about how well the evidence base supports the conversations in this case. Yeah, the conversations around the edge of our responsibility here in employment and skills

because actually, one of the good things I thought about the document was the way that it recognises the

interrelationships between issues and employment and skills, and in other areas I think health is particularly well represented in the document, and I think there is an increasing recognition of those into relationships, the one I wanted to raise as perhaps needing more profile is the interrelationship between employment and skills and innovation.

and I suppose one of the ways in which that manifests itself in the documents at the moment is that we have an analysis that, at its most granular talks about skills at level 4 plus, now actually, when you start to look at the intersection between employment skills and innovation,

it is often skills at levels 7 and 8 that are most critical and we tend not to see those because we are predominantly given figures at simply 4 plus, and now I know that some people may see this as being relatively marginal, but when you look at the areas in which we are most able to drive productivity growth where we're able to,

establish differentiation between West Yorkshire and other regional economies, then it is that intersection between innovation, employment and skills that is often the most critical factor, so I I think, should it's it's a request not necessarily for a massive information on level 7 and 8 but at least a sensitivity to Level 7 and 8 and how we connect that crossed the innovation agenda.

Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative) - 0:57:32

and it's thought that quarter-point GMT, you want to make any other comment.

and now, okay, okay.

Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative) - 0:57:54

next year, as it is to come back to K Phillips, is asking us for what

Cllr Silvia Dacre (Calderdale Council) - 0:57:58

we want as a priority, then I think it's probably obvious who I said that I would have to say.

all prior approval prior to the Calderdale would want you to have would be on the lower level skills, because you need those before you can have the higher level skills.

so for people to even have any chance of getting any further, they need to start, and we just think the risk of just concentrating on higher level skills is that you'll just have the whole bunch of people who just get left behind and you've got we'd say our priorities that you've got to start at the bottom.

Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative) - 0:58:38

thank you Ann and noted, I think, the polling review process.

Colin Booth, Advisory Representative (Further Education) - 0:58:43

in comment on the last two comments, so from Sylvia and then from Tim I I agree with that point and I think it was kind of trying to make a similar point earlier.

in response to Tim I, I agree with Tim in terms of the analysis and beyond level six to level 7 but as a country and as a region, and this is endemic in the EU we we have far too few people actually being qualified to level 4 and 5 we we go to level 3 then to level 6 and that's just historic in the whole structure of education in the country and if we're gonna make use of limited investment as a country and as a region we need more people to step off into skills at level 4 and 5 and then go beyond level six to level 7 to focus on Level 6 in high level skills.

Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative) - 0:59:38

OK, OK, thank you thanks for that, and I guess it seems a bad idea to look at a sculpture at both ends. Suddenly we've got to be able to think about that on the person that's needed for businesses, so they won't thrive and we've got to think about them because a level skills because without loss morale levels fall to account, so we need an equal system where we, in prioritising one thing we're not saying another thing is an important one, is how do we address things that are still important? While we might believe that the priorities might be these four things, for example, so I guess what we're asking for is a bit of reflection on the whole skill system.

seeing that within its context.

there is a very important use of how we describe skills and low level skills, possibly as maybe not actually a good way of describing skills because their skills, their important skills and maybe if we can get a narrative going in this section of the economy which is presenting skills from a very different perspective with a different narrative on it but managing to capture the province's support and where the weather yeah, whether it's 11 7 but I guess in terms of the allocation of resources, I think we've gotta be very clear on the priorities why they are priorities, how we articulate them and then how do we articulate what is important but might not be central government and how that might change over time and how the other players come in to be able for us to fund level 7 and above with maybe innovate UK another place,

so we've gotten to Tasha who wanted to come back and then I think Martin, then maybe we should move to the next.

Natasha Barbar-Evans, Advisory Representative (Voluntary & Community Sector) - 1:01:17

just really quickly, just in terms of all of this discussion, about the different levels we see, the the gap for economically inactive is getting wider and wider, and I think we just need to be careful where we do have the pots of money and those without funding is distributed but actually in terms of what the outcomes are and the outputs are from from that funding let's just focus on progression as opposed to.

you know putting an arbitrary target, so that'd be my asks.

ITEM No, thank you.

I'm a bit concerned that we're trying to do too much with too little little money, I am vitally responding and there's never going to be enough money in the world, but the most of the money that funds our skills does not come from through the Combined Authority. Currently it

Mr Martin Hathaway (Private Sector Representative) - 1:02:04

comes from all sorts of different sources and that whole funding system is broken. It doesn't we fund colleges in the wrong way, they deliver what they picked up the fund rather than what the need requires. There's not a president of the College, so it is a criticism of the funding line for that and so anything we can do to try and influence how those decisions made and match up the need of the individual land of the employers across the board.

Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative) - 1:02:37

Colin Booth, Advisory Representative (Further Education) - 1:02:41

I just gonna kind of make comment on again the national system and because we seem to be talking about how we allocate resources and if you think about the system beyond level 4.

the resources follow the choices of the students, so if more students study in West Yorkshire we actually bring money into the economy in less West Yorkshire because it's a national funding system if more

Colin Booth, Advisory Representative (Further Education) - 1:03:08

people in West Yorkshire choose to study at level 4 5 6 7 we actually draw national money into the economy in West Yorkshire, it's not about how we're allocating money, it's about how we're influencing our population and people to come in that draws that money and draws national funding, and that's it's not about who who allocates it, it's about how we drive the behaviours of our population.

Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative) - 1:03:38

yeah, which is one of costs linked to what we do not pay lower levels in some respects to drive on aspiration and an NHS tender yeah.

OK.

we are content that we've had enough input into this discussion and to feedback to further iterations of the document, I think one of the other key things that we should just probably summarise is that what has come across Nelly and everybody's comments is this importance of inclusive inclusivity.

however, we do we need to be doing everything we can to pull all levers on that.

6 Skills System Review

OK, though, shall we move on to the next item, then, which is the

Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative) - 1:04:20

skills system review and this is going to be presented by Shelf, thank you very much, thank you very that so at the meeting a month ago, Richard with you and it was thought it was a good time to review.

Michelle Burton, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:04:35

governance and.

as an operating model already around the skill system in in West Yorkshire, particularly in anticipation, perhaps of greater devolution, and that was it turned out to be incredibly timely with the announcements at level 4 devolution, coming when it did, which I think has really focused our minds on the importance of of this work and in the discussion that we had at this committee.

months ago you were particularly interested in governance and in the interaction between local governance structures and the work of this board and the different options for how that could be optimised.

so.

so the confidential appendix that you have is a draft that was current at the time when I sat there when the papers were published, which sets out what we're seeking to commission in this space, they have been further changes made since it was published.

and and we are high and aiming for that to to to be released imminently.

and a

would really like to take the opportunity to ask this Committee please, when we, when we do appoint somebody to carry out this work, please to to provide them with your your supports, your insights and your views as to the the the operating model for West Yorkshire on the employment and skills agenda and I'm going to pause at that point but I am also gonna take the opportunity to remind people if you do not have any questions about the appendix specifically

and please do alert us before you make your point so that we can ask for the live stream to be switched off.

OK any questions on the pepper other than the Hendrix of his.

this initial delivery model.

Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative) - 1:06:45

so no, not not entirely, so it's more about decision making, governance, ways of working, but yes, absolutely there would be implications for delivery and in terms of the roles in terms of how we want the system to work here in West Yorkshire and therefore the constituent roles of different parts of the system, so which parts of the system should have a delivery role, which parts of the system should be about strategic leadership, for example, and how do we

Michelle Burton, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:07:15

ensure that the and which perhaps the system should be about commissioning, which is a very important part of the devolved, functions that we have so far and doubts that we'd envisaged and going forward, so it's probably all of those parts of the system

because?

this this is honouring the devolution, where will the funding of Agrivert and making the most of it currently, but that would mean the Combined Authority is commissioning a picture-book piece of work and an organisation to deliver the piece of work on it, to make

Mr Martin Hathaway (Private Sector Representative) - 1:07:46

recommendations on whether it should deliver things in the future.

Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative) - 1:07:57

OK, so I think that question you ask him relates to 58 the appendix in terms of who does it, which I thought as well, so maybe we could take the livestream off and then we'll go to the past.

6 Skills System Review

OK, we're back on livestream now, so just to conclude, then that the Committee was asked to review the specification and engage with the support when with a review, when it commences we've got support in the room further and to engage, and I think that we've completed that item.

7 Decisions - WorkWell

good so item 8 Dennis D the next part of the agenda is the decision on work well, and I think Michelle you are going on your Sonia, Sonya, who is going to tell us about this item.

thank you Chair.

so this paper relates to two programmes under the banner of Work and

Sonya Midgley, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:09:06

Health. I work well and universal spot and employments apart. Work and health is an area where we're expecting significant changes through future level for devolution in West Yorkshire. So this presents a really good opportunity for this committee and for the work across West Yorkshire to align across the health integrated care board systems. The Job Centre system and alongside the work of of everyone around this terrible as well, in order to simplify what we all know is an incredibly complex landscape that has a multitude of strategic commissioners and even more delivery providers across West Yorkshire. So the paper outlines the application for work well and that full application is available to you as a confidential document.

the programme is aimed at supporting those out of work and those at risk of falling out of work due to ill health, and that can be swiftly supported to return to work is an ICB I see big integrate cardboard led application we're anticipating a little bit 15 vanguard areas in the country and a decision as to who's been awarded those areas will be made around Easter time we understand the proposed delivery model aligns with our existing employment support infrastructure and we also, but we also have we've also received some in-year funding which gives some capacity to recruit a post and to do some core design work with key stakeholders in the region to in anticipation of that future devolved work as well.

secondly, I just want to highlight to members that, as announced in the spring 2023 budget, so last year, supported employment programme to help disabled people and those with health conditions into sustained work called universal support is expected to be grant funded to mayoral combined authorities.

the detail remains extremely limited at this stage, but we are anticipating announcements in the run-up to elections.

with the roll-out of that programme from autumn 2024, I just wanted to highlight that this is a significant piece of work that will require the strength of partnerships that we have in West Yorkshire across the integrated care boards, local authorities combined authority and Job Centre Plus.

as I've already mentioned, we we fully intend to use some of the results that we've got through the in-year funding through work well to to help us plan for that. I'm very keen to see seek the views of this committee about that programme as as we get more detailed information about it, so the request in the paper is for this committee to consider and retrospectively acknowledge the West Yorkshire application for the work well programme and to endorse the acceptance of the funding. Should we be successful, but can I just remind members that that is the appendix is confidential, so if you've got specific questions about the application, can you just indicate so that we can turn a full live stream? Thank you, Chair,

so, just to be clear, then it's retrospective because you had to fit it in before this committee met, and there was in time for it to be

Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative) - 1:12:18

discussed here, so just just for absolute clarity, so if we were to take that part of this agenda item first, the work well are people content to acknowledge that.

moustache

yeah hugely supportive of this, I think this could make a massive

Natasha Barbar-Evans, Advisory Representative (Voluntary & Community Sector) - 1:12:41

difference, just don't ask, will VCF the sector be part of the partnership?

OK, thank you, so we note that Sonya and then the second part, then

Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative) - 1:12:54

this is the universal support programme on sick call to get to the bottom of it.

supporting people with disability.

we feel that the other part of it, the universal support for, for example, that's gonna be grant-funded, you gonna bring further information to us on that and you don't want there's nothing more, you can say on that, not least the provisions in the bill but what kind of pockets so that's just for our information.

thank you OK, let's move on now, then to the devolution Harper and Sam Josh is going to present an overview on this paper.

8 Devolution Level 4

thank you, Chair, Ya sorry to recap Liverpool devolution guidance was published in November 2023 by colleagues at D-lock, and it outlines a further move towards greater, devote funding and powers for eligible institutions, so them serious in the light.

Joshua Rickayzen, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:13:49

the guidance represents a move towards standardising devolution in England, rather than specific deals for each region. As we see previously, and while it is felt that this differs from West Yorkshire as full aspirations for devolution, the opportunity to pursue further devolution is of course, welcomed, and as such a letter to apply for a level for devolution was submitted by the Mayor and leaders on the 30th of January 2024 and, as was referenced by the Chair earlier in this meeting, a letter was published by the secretary of state on the 1st of March following the convention of the north, confirming that West Yorkshire meets the eligibility criteria for level 4 devolution, so next steps will involve combined 30 anti-lock officials working together on the implementation of this. The paper that you will have all received for this committee highlights specific aspects of level 4, guidance that are relevant to this committee, that includes the convening of a regional labour market partnership boards, to include relevant senior officers, including those from GWP. The devolution of non apprenticeship, adult skills functions which includes the removal of ring fences on free courses for jobs and granting further sector flexibility on bootcamps. You'll be able to see the conditions for those in the footnotes to the paper. Exploration of data sharing agreements with GWP and reviews to align boundaries of the outset with them CA boundaries which, as you know, will already is already the case in West Yorkshire.

so I'm going to solicit comments in a minute before I do that it is worth pointing out that the framework does specify the aspects of level fill devolution will be contingent on success of trailblazer deals in Greater Manchester and West Midlands, and that's particularly in relation to data sharing and featuring employment support, pilot, sorry and guidance for a deeper devolution deal in north-east was published on the day that the spring budget which did outline some key differences with level 4 guidance particularly around co-design skills pilots and exploring outcomes related to key stage 4 and key stage 5 that's not in your paper but,

I'll be happy to talk about that if, if people deem irrelevant.

secretary of State's letter made it clear that this is not the end of the line for devolution, so I would like to put posted a comment asking Members to firstly note the propositions of level 4 devolution in relation to employment and skills and also provide views on what West Yorkshire should be looking to secure in future. Devolution deals specifically around careers, employment support and adult skills in order to meet our strategic goals for a prosperous region with an increase in economy and well-paid jobs. Will so hand back to the Chair, thank you, Josh

very easy perpetuate, and I could use the footnotes, I thank you for that questions.

Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative) - 1:16:40

Councillor, Well, it's not a question, but it's just the answer to your.

request for years is surely that we just want that single budget

Cllr Silvia Dacre (Calderdale Council) - 1:16:54

without interference to spend, as we think fit across the region or in consultation between the Combined Authority and the authorities and other relevant bodies.

clear and simple.

any other comments for Josh Councillor Thompson.

Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative) - 1:17:12

chair yet welcoming, really positive steps towards deep devolution, but how do we then look at how we bring our vision and aspirations to

Cllr Eleanor Thomson (Leeds City Council) - 1:17:23

how we make them reality and then looking back to the skills review and some of what may come out of that, how how do we look together at how we can maximise the opportunities that this brings?

we are broadly absolutely welcoming this and then as yet and just really understand the importance of local decision making.

and how far that gets devolved down to penny what future governments may bring in the reports from Gordon Brown and other matters linked to it.

and the leaders of the core cities have made it really clear that national government needs to input understand how important local government is in in driving investment and economic growth, thank you.

thank you, I can see Josh has taken his own notes as, as you speak, Colin.

Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative) - 1:18:14

yeah, from the college's point of view, we would love to have a single

Colin Booth, Advisory Representative (Further Education) - 1:18:20

funding stream for adult skills and not have to mess around with a multiple streams.

that?

wanted that for a long, long time.

within that, the the the there's a comment about all SIPs and at the moment, colleges have a responsibility to respond to the

the money is somewhere else that the the the structure of this is a complete mess, and it's not just a complete mess nationally, so I'm not quite sure what our vision is for what happens to LCP, because at the moment

we have to do an accountability agreement which is attached to our funding agreement, which is completely separate from this.

we've got to respond to the LCP and then somebody else again has the money and we're looking in three directions at once.

I am very familiar from college and standing over it in Bradford and.

Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative) - 1:19:23

think sometimes there was an Aston Martin that they all said to the colleges accountability statement.

so yeah, I think that is tinted to be noted then.

sir Martin yeah, but the mcyp itself has no has no money.

it's not that the money doesn't come from the also that it is a year,

Mr Martin Hathaway (Private Sector Representative) - 1:19:47

it's another body altogether, so local scores of improvement or all of our employer representative bodies, in this case the chambers of commerce working with employers to provide a very small part of the or of the picture that of what the skills requirements are likely to be in the future but it's a very small point nowhere near that the the detail that Peter had been doped into on this overall analysis it's it's a snapshot of any particular time to try and help that system, so it's just a piece of research and that is your right. The the the the money train as wrong Elswitha has got no relationship will be able to say other than saying it has to support it, but it had to agree to that before it's seen that look forward to seeing the written documents and then so it's not any and the money itself does wolf the any money that goes into actually undertaking the research

be met any opportunity to be first to think about how we will care for both the Chamber and, as they all say, it's been developed and knitted

Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative) - 1:20:40

into the work of the power.

personnel 1.

but we were at a good time today and on cheering the on the West Yorkshire now, so it's a good time to do it.

any other observations, Alex yeah, just on the frequencies for jobs, avian boot camps, what differ, how will it look different to how it currently does when you've taken those restrictions, where do you know

Alex Miles, Advisory Representative (West Yorkshire Skills Partnership) - 1:21:06

what it will look like is there gonna be a consultation with the colleges and providers or if you're the kind of mapped out so so I can tell you what the what is on the table?

although there's some work to do on the implications of that's

Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative) - 1:21:22

unhelpful, it fully answer that so in terms of what's on the table for boot camps, the flexibilities are fairly minor, it is, it is though there is a lot that has to be retained in terms of the model, the branding the contractual requirements so that it becomes not devolved and with contracts patent the combined authorities contracts issued by Department for Education year on year that we bid for sorry so a nonVAT this is due to change, so the the elements that could change in regard to boot camps is the proportion of what we committed and that is outside of a prescribed list.

Michelle Burton, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:21:57

OK, I don't think that's probably that's probably not the biggest flexibility that you and other other and key partners would would want to see that I am on frequencies for jobs, we're talking about full devolution.

which and one of the real benefits of that is that it would enable us to think beyond

individual years, and that's a real constraint actually in our ability and Andrew and that of partners to to plan ahead, so that's that that could be really beneficial and but yet, when will we will work with the partnership to to look at how that's how it's implemented, so does that mean a multi-year funding envelope could be?

Alex Miles, Advisory Representative (West Yorkshire Skills Partnership) - 1:22:40

that could be a level 4 devolution opportunity, when you will need to look at how we, how we implement that, but we would we would our

Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative) - 1:22:47

anticipation is that full devolution of frequencies for jobs, should we meet the threshold, means that we are no longer constrained by year on year.

kind of spending roles in the way that that we are currently having to manage that does have practical implications as net for when you cannot run when you can roll.

Natasha?

that's music to my ears around the extended funding we do have some

Natasha Barbar-Evans, Advisory Representative (Voluntary & Community Sector) - 1:23:17

research which I'm happy to share with the Committee on the impact of short term funding on beneficiaries on the key workers and the organisations that are providing that in terms of the anxiety of of that, so I'm happy to share with that but absolutely music's mayors.

thank you for that.

thank you, but I just add one question, which was about the the

Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative) - 1:23:40

regional Labour Market Partnership Board to include relevant senior officers, including DWF paid, does that mean another border, does it mean weatherboard can be that bird?

yeah

that is the purpose of what we are saying back to them, as we already

Felix Kumi-Ampofo, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:23:57

have such arrangements here, so can we not set up a new board and current one-off arrangements serve that purpose or not, because otherwise we just making an already complex situation will be more complex, but with all of these level 4,

we are now going to enter if a year of discussions, negotiations and development of delivery plans with government, so none of this will be implemented.

no.

1st of April 25.

I push.

depending on the next government.

OK thanks for that Phoenix, any final comments.

Shirley Congdon (Private Sector Representative) - 1:24:51

Josh has that been helpful by yeah, that's really helpful, I mean if anyone does have any and we've talked a lot about adult skills and careers or if there are any thoughts on employment support, I'd welcome them but similarly not gonna force people to tell me OK so you've got an open invitation, but probably not open forever to her to forward any additional thoughts or questions to just dear directly.