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New Anglia Skills Advisory Panel Meeting
19th May 2022
Via Microsoft Teams
MINUTES OF MEETING
In attendance:
Adrian Orr, Suffolk County Council (AO)
Christine Futter, Norfolk and Suffolk Care
Support (CF)
Clarke Willis, Swallow Barns (CW)
Corrienne Peasgood, City College Norwich
(CP)
David Pomfret, College of West Anglia
(DP)
Glen Todd, New Anglia LEP (GT)
Guy Hazlehurst, EDF (GH)
Jan Feeney, Norfolk County Council (JF)
Julia Nix, DWP (JN)
Karin Porter, Norfolk County Council (KP)
Lucy Walker, ESFA (LW)
Michael Gray, Suffolk County Council (MG)
Natasha Waller, New Anglia LEP (NW)
Nova Fairbank, Norfolk Chamber of
Commerce (NF)
Paul Simon, Suffolk Chamber of
Commerce (PS)
Tom Brown, Green Light Trust (TB)
Yvonne Mason, The Mason Trust (YM)
Visitors:
Emma Taylor, Suffolk New College (ET)
Gurpreet Jagpal, University of Suffolk (GJ)
Simon Papworth, New Anglia LEP (SP)
Toby Warren, Suffolk Chamber of
Commerce (TW)
Apologies:
Catherine Richards, East Norfolk 6th Form
(CR)
Chris Gribble, Writers’ Centre Norwich
(CG)
Claire Cullens, New Anglia LEP Board and
SAP Chair (CC)
Cllr Rachel Hood, Suffolk County Council
(RH)
Cllr Stuart Clancy, Norfolk County Council
(SC)
David Gartland, Abbeygate 6th Form (DG)
Dayle Bayliss, Dayle Bayliss Associates
(DB)
Helen Langton (Professor), University of
Suffolk (HL)
Jason Parnell, Steadfast Training (JP)
Karen Gibson, Norfolk County Council (KG)
Nikos Savvas, West Suffolk College (NS)
Richard Bridgman, Warren Services (RB)
Seb Gasse, NCC (SG)
Stuart Rimmer, East Coast College (SR)
Stuart Smith, People with Energy (SS)
Tom Humphries, Norfolk County Council
(TH)
Tracey Cox, ESFA (TC)
Vince Muspratt, Norfolk County Council
(VP)
Viv Gillespie, Suffolk New College (VG)
Item 1: Welcome and Minutes
Corrienne Peasgood welcomed everyone and explained that she was chairing the meeting as
Claire Cullens had other work commitments and CP is a fellow LEP Board member.
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A special welcome was given to Toby Warren from the Suffolk Chamber of Commerce who
was observing the meeting due to the LSIP item on the agenda.
The minutes were reviewed and approved. All actions had been followed up:
- The Kickstart campaign had been well supported locally
- NW reported that GT met with RB, JN and representatives from NCC & SCC. A good
dialogue took place regarding Youth Pledge. A separate update will be issued with
the minutes.
- GT reported that the Norfolk & Suffolk Skills and Careers Festival took place on the 9th
and 10th March. Thanks to partner support, there were over 7500 young people
(record number) and 77 exhibitors. Feedback has generally been positive (2/3rds
stating is was good or very good). The prison stand got lots of positive comments as it
was so interactive. People valued the in person communication. Work is needed
around the SEND hour so the steering group will arrange to have a representative to
support the preparation for next year.
Item 2: DWP and Economic Updates
JN stated that between January – May 2022, there had continued to be improvements in the
employment rates and decrease in unemployment. Data for young people was promising.
Employers are having major recruitment challenges with more vacancies than people looking
for work. Thanks were given to NF for the Kickstart work. However, more recently, JN was
starting to see the young people not being kept on at the end of the placements which is
really disappointing.
CP commented that many young people are taking jobs without training to support their
families who are financially challenged. A discussion then took place around how HR
departments need to be more ambitious and flexible with their recruitment practices to
accommodate a wider group of people who may not perform well with traditional selection
methods. Mental health and wellbeing wraparound support is needed with employers taking
an active role in this.
JN commented that many qualified and able young people have been unsuccessful with a job
application and this has severely impacted their confidence levels so don’t readily reapply.
Often these people are supported by their families so they go under the radar of support
systems.
YM through icanbea is trying to encourage employers to change their application process
and get them to understand the transport challenges for young people.
TB reminded members that currently the Green Light Trust can take on 16-25 year olds with
an education, health and care plan (EHCP). This can take them on a journey from their
bedrooms to the workplace. Currently others can be picked up via ESF but it will be a
concern when this comes to an end.
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KP stated that the 16-18 NEET figures are increasing. Anxiety and lack of re-engagement with
the post-Covid world are real challenges. Also an increase of jobs without training.
JN also mentioned the challenges with accommodation and the lack of rental properties,
challenge between working vs benefits and known cases of people sleeping in cars although
in work.
SP stated that ½ million people have dropped out of the workforce in recent months likely
due to the economic shocks. The ability to access appropriate opportunities, long term
sickness, caring responsibilities and early retirements are key factors. This will result in not
just people being lost from the workforce but skills and knowledge.
SP conveyed that there has also been a plethora of skills analytic reports being released.
The British Chambers of Commerce long term study on training investment by employers
into their staff has shown a decrease. It is difficult to determine the motivation behind this.
The Learning & Work Institute’s Raising the Bar study states that there needs to be an
increase in private sector investment in their staff. The employer voice is important in
designing curriculum, but it needs to be wider than this.
PS commented that recently their own survey had backed up this trend in reduced
investment in training where for a long time, Suffolk had bucked the trend. His members
were looking for more agile, bite size training. They want to discuss options, not be sold to.
CF said that less over 50s were applying for caring jobs and were being more demanding
around the hours/days that they can work as they increasingly have more caring
responsibilities. Revisiting their work/home life balance is more important than salary.
CF also communicated that care homes are not able to easily release staff for longer term
training such as apprenticeships.
Item 3: The Future of Skills – the Knowns and Unknowns
CP set the scene by explaining the need for an awareness of the changes that are
forthcoming, what the drivers are and who needs to support them. CP has never known
more changes at one time in the education and skills sector at a number of different levels
and area of focus. With the range of qualifications being consulted on, this brings about
challenges and opportunities. Locally we are in a good place to support employers through
this change due to our existing levels of commitment and collaboration. Great changes have
taken place over the years, but we need to look how we can do more and do we have the
right representation and engagement business and sector wise. Our sector groups and sector
skills plans are very powerful and a good basis to build on.
Following the circulation of a paper highlighting the changing skills policy landscape, NW led
on a presentation summarising these supported by SP, ET, NF, PS, MG and JF. Areas covered
were:
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- Levelling Up
- Skills Advisory Panel
- Local Skills Improvement Plan
- Strategic Development Fund
- County Deals
- Skills Hub
- UK Shared Prosperity Fund
CP explained that for a lot of this work, timescales are short, unknown and/or out of our
hands but we need to be prepared to respond to them. The geography in the future may be
different to what we are preparing for now and therefore is is important to prepare in a
similar way to the Economic Strategy for Norfolk & Suffolk. Any strategy produced must be
written in a way that it can be divided up as necessary.
Feedback from members were then taken. This centred around:
- It is important to have the sector voice heard in discussions and governance
arrangements. Shouldn’t just be public sector.
- Collaboration is strong and important. Good to understand the regional needs and
drivers as well as the local ones.
- Skills narrative support funding bids. Important to focus this on skills and growth.
- Important to update the sector skills plans to keep them current.
- Need to engage more with industry.
- Too much focus on those unemployed/hard to reach.
- Would be good to have a face-to-face meeting with break out groups.
- Careers advice is still not as strong as it should be in schools, and it still is a confusing
marketplace for young people.
- Concern that funding is moving away from those with barriers to
education/employment particularly mental health.
- Businesses are looking for more flexibility with training. Supporting the reality that
few careers are for life.
- Policies have missed a lot of the higher-level education – shouldn’t be forgotten.
- Mustn’t lose the young person’s narrative when we move into LSIP governance.
- Need to raise the opportunities for SEND roles in the workplace.
- The VCSE should be seen as an important employer and not just for solving social
issues.
- Linkages between different groups and thinking of the end beneficiary.
- Continue to review gaps and address them.
- Don’t reinvent the wheel!
Item 4: Wave 3 Skills Bootcamps
NW gave an update on the progress. The LEP are still waiting for a decision from DfE. They
have been told it is very soon but had this said many times! Looking at c£1m bid to train 240
participants before end of March 2023. Interesting that people said today that training needs
to be shorter and more targeted so hopefully bootcamps will support some of that.
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Item 5: AOB and next meeting
Next meeting: July 14th from 10am.
