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HEY LEP Employment & Skills Board Terms of Reference 

Aims and Objectives

The HEY LEP Employment & Skills board aims to facilitate an efficient and fair local labour market where business can access a suitably skilled workforce, all local people can secure good quality, well paid employment regardless of their background and our young people can realise their potential. It will do this by:

  1. Providing strong leadership role on skills in the Hull and East Yorkshire (HEY) LEP area, engaging with employers and providers and providing employment and skills advice to the LEP.
  2. Bringing together local employers and skills providers to pool knowledge on skills and labour market needs, and to work together to understand and address key local challenges.
  3. Overseeing the development and delivery of the Employment and Skills strategy and Local Skills Report Action Plan to ensure that local people have the skills to compete for jobs by supporting skills development in key sectors that are critical to the growth of the economy.
  4. Ensuring the government’s requirements of the Skills Advisory Panels are embedded into the work plan and are commensurate with the activities of the board (see annexe 1).
  5. The work of the Employment and Skills Board will absorb the required duties of the Skills Advisory Panel (SAP).

Roles and Responsibilities

  1. To develop an ambitious Employment and Skills Strategy for the HEY area, including the plans for delivery, review, reporting and monitoring of the strategy’s outcomes.
  2. To generate analysis of local skills and labour market needs, to understand the local position. This analysis will be part of the Local Skills Report and will be reviewed annually to support curriculum planning.
  3. To focus on the understanding of wider dependencies in the HEY area to inform skills interventions e.g. identify transport barriers to access learning, develop pilot activities working with stakeholders and drive future skills capital investments.
  4. To use the skills supply and demand analysis to agree local skills needs priorities in the short and longer term.
  5. To consider how these specific needs will be met through local provision over time.
  6. To increase collaboration between employers and training providers to ensure that the skills offer meets the current and future needs of employers in HEY’s key sectors.
  7. Raise the profile of apprenticeships across the HEY area through the apprenticeship working group.
  8. To ensure that there is a co-ordinated approach in response to the Government’s policy and legislation regarding employment and skills across the HEY area.
  9. To ensure that there is suitable access, effective pathways and progression that meets sectoral needs.
  10. To work with employers and organisations to develop labour market information and to ensure this is reflected in better information and careers guidance.
  11. To take decisions in relation to joint actions to secure extra resources to strengthen the HEY region’s investment in priority areas relating to employment and skills, as well as to how funding for skills is allocated to meet the region’s priorities.
  12. To advise on and help implement, funding and investment decisions for local skills and employment provision.
  13. To assist colleges, universities, and other providers to deliver the skills required by employers, now and in the future.
  14. Build knowledge of the range of both local, regional, and national employment provision that exists or is planned.
  15. To oversee the development of pilot employment and skills initiatives
  16. To have an oversight and make recommendations to the main LEP Board on skills projects that are funded through LEP programmes.
  17. The LEP will continue to influence the coordination of local skills providers.
  18. Through existing working groups/partnerships by reviewing the current and future opportunities for HEY in areas such as apprenticeships, young people not in education, employment or training and careers service provision.
  19. The leadership of a Skills Network, which meets quarterly to discuss skills supply and demand.
  20. Membership of the Humber Principal’s Group, participating in discussions and suggesting collaborative opportunities such as that achieved by the Yorkshire and Humber IOT.
  21. Supporting pan-Humber skills activity where appropriate.
  22. The LEP will share the analysis of labour market intelligence data using the above mechanisms, via publication of the Local Skills Report and other relevant reports on our website and in discussion with our board and sub-boards, local authorities, and partners to ensure a shared understanding of local issues and opportunities.

Membership

Membership of the Board is governed by the requirements of the HEY LEP Board and various statutory authorities at national and local level. At present it will consist of:

  • Chair of the Employment & Skills Board (will be a member of the HEY LEP’s main board)
  • Chair of the Skills Network 1
  • Chair of the Talent Forum 2
  • A minimum of six business/employer/employee representatives of businesses of varied sizes and sectors relevant to Hull and East Yorkshire
  • The University of Hull
  • Representation from the Humber Principal’s Group
  • Representation from each of the HEY local authorities
  • School/Academy/UTC representation
  • Community and Voluntary Sector representation
  • Independent training provider representation
  • Jobcentre Plus/DWP representation 3
  • Education and Skills Funding Agency representation 3
  • Cities and Local Growth Unit representation 4

All members will be expected to attend meetings. If a member fails to attend for three consecutive meetings without reasonable justification, they will be asked to consider whether their place may be taken by someone who is able to commit fully. The final decision rests with the Chair.

Membership will be reviewed on a bi-annual basis and in addition when any major factors or government directives indicate a necessary change such as changes to the main LEP Board. Requests for additional membership will be considered by an Employment & Skills Panel convened at the discretion of the Chair who will consider each request prior to making recommendations to the Board.

Note

1 This will be a provider representative who would take a provider place on the board. The provider type may vary depending on the elected individual.

2 Will be an employer representative on the board.

3 Advisory capacity

4 CLGU representative will have observer status due to also undertaking the    Government’s area lead role of working with and assessing the HEY LEP.

Frequency of meetings

  1. The Board will normally meet bi-monthly at dates to be agreed by the Chair with Board members. This will be reviewed after the first year.
  2. The Chair may call meetings giving 7 days’ notice if circumstances require members to meet or decisions need to be taken in between normal Board meetings.
  3. The meetings may take place physically or virtually as circumstances determine.

Quorum for meetings

A quorum for meetings will be at least 50% of the current membership but must include the Chair or Deputy Chair.

Decision making

  1. All decisions by the Board will be in accordance with the New National Assurance Framework).
  2. All decisions will be made by a simple majority of those present at the meeting. In the event of a tie, the Chair’s vote will decide.
  3. Co-opted members will not have a vote.
  4. Urgent decisions required from the Board may be taken by electronic communication in between meetings, with the same requirements for quorum and declarations of interest as above.
  5. Any delegated authority for decision making will be reflected in the LEP’s Assurance Framework

 

How the Board will operate

  1. The Board will operate in a business-like, non-bureaucratic fashion.
  2. Board members will conduct themselves according to the Nolan Principles.
  3. Board members with personal, commercial or financial interests in any agenda items will declare them at the relevant points on the agenda and not participate in votes on those items.
  4. Draft minutes will be distributed within one week of the Board meeting.
  5. Meeting agendas, papers and minutes are to be circulated to members at least five days in advance of the meeting.
  6. Board meetings are confined to Board members and the LEP secretariat except for external presenters and observers, which have been agreed with the Chair in advance.
  7. Minutes of Board meetings will be made available on the LEP’s website once approved.
  8. In the Chair’s absence a member of the board will be asked to chair the meetings.

 

ANNEXE 1

Background to Skills Advisory Panels

  • SAPs aim to bring together local employers and skills providers to pool knowledge on skills and labour market needs and to work together to understand and address key local challenges. This includes both immediate needs and challenges and looking at what is required to help local areas adapt to future labour market changes and to grasp future opportunities. This will help colleges, universities and other providers deliver the skills required by employers, now and into the future.
  • SAPs are led by the Department for Education (DfE) and first emerged in the Conservative and Unionist Party manifesto in 2017. SAPs were established in all LEPs and Mayoral Combined Authority Areas by October 2019. All information about SAPs can be found here https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/skills-advisory-panels
  • SAPs help LEPs achieve strong governance arrangements, providing meaningful analytical capability and access to the right data. This will allow SAPs to:
    • Generate analysis of their local skills and labour markets to understand the local position.
    • Discuss and agree local skills needs priorities in the short-term and long-term.
    • Consider how these will be met through local provision over time.
  • Funding: The DfE SAP Programme Team have funded LEPs/MCAs each year to help meet their requirements and undertake meaningful analysis. Grant funding of £75k for this work is available for 2021/2022 subject to the proposals being agreed via a MOU.
  • SAP membership is set out by DfE SAP Guidance on Role and Governance. The SAP must include: all types of skills providers, employers (large and small, and representing both the private and public sectors) the voluntary and community sector, other key local stakeholders (including at least one local authority for non- Combined Authority areas).

DfE SAP requirements for 2020-2021

  • All SAPs must publish a Local Skills Reports (LSR) by spring 2021. The LSR will build on the existing skills analysis evidence base to help grow influence and engagement with local partners. The LSR will be updated in November 21 to align with curriculum planning with an annual review thereafter and full refresh every two years. The LSR will set out each areas’ unique skills landscape, progress on skills-related activities, successes, challenges faced and future local skills plans. It will provide a clear and consistent view of local skills needs across areas and will be a key source of local skills information to enable cross-area comparison and feed local intelligence to the national Skills and Productivity Board (SPB) and central government.
  • LSRs will help to grow the influence of SAPs locally by:
    • Acting as an engagement tool – a vehicle through which SAPs can directly engage, influence and rally employers and providers to support the local skills agenda.
    • Being a ‘go-to’ document for everything local-skills related – bringing together existing and new skills information into one consistent document common to all SAPs.
    • Clearly setting out key skills needs – ensuring local skills needs are visible to local partners who can then engage with them.
    • Feeding intelligence to the national SPB and central government – a consistent output common to all SAPs that the SPB can use to understand the needs and priorities of local areas and build a national picture of the supply and demand for skills.
    • Offering valuable insight and evaluation – detail the progress made on current local skills initiatives and outline future skills plans to plug key skills gaps.

The HEY LEP LSR is published HERE.