Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence.

None.

The Chair will consider the admission of any items of Urgent Business. (Late items of Urgent Business will be dealt with under the agenda item where they appear. New items of Urgent Business will be dealt with under Item x below).

None.

Members of the Board must declare any personal and/or prejudicial interests with respect to agenda items and must not take part in the consideration of those items.

None.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 8 September 2009 as a correct record.

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 8 September 2009 be confirmed as a correct record.

To appoint a representative to the Haringey Strategic Partnership for 2009/10.

RESOLVED:

That Partners should contact the Chair, via email, if they wished to take up this position.

The Board received a presentation on the new arrangements being introduced with respect to post nineteen education.

It was noted that the ? Act had now come into affect and that the arrangements for transferring responsibility for delivering post nineteen education from the Learning and Skills Council to ?? would be complete by April 2010.

Under the new structure Local Authorities (LAs) would become responsible for securing the provision of education and training for sixteen to nineteen year olds and nineteen to twenty-five year olds subject to a learning difficulty assessment.

Two new agencies were being created; the Young People’s Learning Agency (YPLA) and the Skills Funding Agency (SFA). The YPLA would support LAs by providing coherence of planning and budgetary control of the money transferred from the Learning and Skills Council.

The SFA would take on responsibility for post nineteen education, including responsibility for securing apprenticeships for sixteen to eighteen year olds and all adults. The SFA would also support employers and individuals obtain the education and skills via a new system that would be led by demand from both employers and service users.

The Board was advised that Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) would form a key role in identifying the needs of employers locally. It was anticipated that the LSPs would act as a conduit local networks enabling Partners to align local demand and supply.

It was noted that a briefing paper had also been produced by the Government, entitled ???, which gave a strong indication of the way in which it envisaged the role of LSPs developing with respect to post nineteen education.  There was agreement that this and links to other useful websites would be circulated to Board members.

Following the presentation there was discussion and in response to a query the Board was advised that the youngest age at which it was possible to complete an apprenticeship  was eighteen. However, this would be at the lower level and most employers preferred people to have completed the advanced apprenticeship.

The Council was complimented on the ease with which private sector employers had been able to access apprenticeship schemes and it was noted that this approach had played a large role in the success of these.

The Board discussed funding arrangements and it was noted that projects that had previously submitted bids for funding to the Learning and Skills Council would now need to apply to the SFA. At present details of the process had not been confirmed.

RESOLVED:

That the presentation be noted.

The Board received a report that provided an update on progress on commissioning the Board’s Area Based Grant (ABG) allocation for 2009-2011 and that set out further interventions and programmes of activity to commission the remainder of the allocations.

When the allocations for funding were agreed in May 2009 a sum of £250K was set aside as a contingency fund to enable the Board to respond to any unexpected demands. The Board was given an overview of proposals for spending this sum.

The Board was advised that a Partnership bid had been submitted to the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) for £1.44M of funding from the Future Jobs Fund (FJF). If successful this would lead to the creation of two hundred and one new jobs being created in the Borough. The HSP would determine how this funding was allocated.

The Board discussed progress made in establishing a Credit Union in the Borough and it was noted that the Council’s Cabinet Advisory Board (CAB) had considered three options for the format of this and it had been agreed that the Credit Union should be aligned to an established Credit Union. An allocation of £71K of ABG funding had been given to fund the initial costs attached to setting up the scheme.

It was noted that in order for the Credit Union to be successful creating momentum from within local community to support and sustain the project would be essential to its success.

The Board was advised that the importance of engaging with local people was recognised and that a series of meetings with stakeholders had been held and best practice had been applied in the engagement process.  It was noted that Community and Voluntary Sector organisations had also been consulted and that the Council ad worked with the Sector to identify opportunities where it could support the scheme.

RESOLVED:

1. That the proposals with respect to contingency/ reserve projects under the Haringey Guarantee Programme be approved.

2. That proposals for interventions/options under the Business Support and Enterprise Programme be approved.

3. That the proposed partial funding from the ABG for the post of Future Jobs Fund Coordinator be approved.   

4. That a report setting out further details of the monitoring arrangements in place with respect to these projects be submitted to a future meeting.  

The Board received a report that provided an update on the Future Jobs Fund bid that had been submitted to central Government on 30 October 2009.

In response to a query the Board was advised that although there was no obligation on employers to keep the people on beyond the six month period, bids that made provision for this by aligning funding with a view to keeping the posts in place, were considered more favourably. Where this was not possible provision was being made within the Haringey Guarantee to assist participants.

It was clarified that in order to be eligible for funding jobs had to have a community based emphasis. Therefore the majority of the jobs created had been within the Public Sector.

In terms of the pay received by people on the scheme it was noted that the minimum that would was the London Living Wage of £7.60 per hour. Where participants were placed in jobs at above Entry Level higher rates would be paid to reflect this.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.    

A verbal report will be given.

The Board received a verbal update with respect to the Mayor’s Economic Development Strategy for London.

The Board was advised that the Strategy had been published on 12 October 2009 and contained five key objectives:

There was a general feeling emerging that the Strategy focussed on central London and the Financial and Business industries and that there was insufficient focus and support for the outer London Boroughs. 

A consultation document had been received by the Council and the deadline for responses was 12 January 2010. The draft response would be circulated to Board members for comment prior to submission.

RESOLVED:

That the verbal update provided be noted.

The Board considered a report that set out performance against Local Area Agreement (LAA) targets within the Board’s responsibility during Quarter Two of 2009/10.

It was noted that performance against the Stretch Target with respect to Incapacity Benefits was still an area of concern and at present it was unlikely that this target would be met by the end of the year. A raft of measures were in place to address this including the establishment of a new Service Level Agreement (SLA) with Reed in Partnership whereby clients would also be able to access Council based initiatives.

The Board discussed the how the loss of reward funding, attached to achieving Stretch Targets, would be dealt with and the Board was advised that this was difficult to address at present as reward funding received with respect to all the Stretch Targets across the HSP would be allocated by the HSP itself. Therefore there was specific sum that could be used as a basis for approximations.

There was agreement that the Board needed to consider the arguments that it would put forward for obtaining reward funding before March 2010 and that a report should be submitted to the next meeting addressing this and setting out the maximum sums that might be available.

RESOLVED:

1. That the report be noted.

2. That a report should be submitted to the next meeting setting out the arguments that could be put forward for receiving Stretch Target reward funding and setting out the maximum sums that might be available.

The Board received a report presenting the Enterprise Risk Register and the current status of risks attached to the delivery of Local Area Agreement targets within the Board’s responsibility.

The Board was reminded that it had requested that an update was provided with respect to NI 153, which related to the number of working age people claiming out of work Benefits in the worst performing Neighbourhoods, at every meeting.

In response to a query the Board was advised that, at present, there was not a specific measure to compare how quickly people living in the West of the Borough as opposed to those living in the East of the Borough were able to get back into the job market. However, it may be possible to develop a measure to demonstrate this based on data with respect to JSA claims.

It was noted that the recent opening of Primark had led to the creation of three hundred new jobs in the Borough and it was anticipated that this would be reflected in Third Quarter data.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.  

The Board received a report that provided an update with respect to progress in relation to the main work programmes in place to tackle Worklessness in the Borough.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.  

The Board received a report that provided an update on the business and enterprise activities funded through the Area Based Grant.

In response to a query the Board was advised that the use of Alexandra Palace for the Film Festival ‘after party’ had been secured on a cost free basis.

It was noted that a significant proportion of the empty units in the Shopping City complex had now been let and consequently they had not been used as part of the ‘Empty Shops’ scheme. This was largely due to a number of smaller traders taking up short term leases.

The Board was advised the that the initiative to bring empty shop fronts back into use had been led by Cabinet Members. The first shop, situated on Stroud Green Road, would be used as exhibition space during December.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.

To consider any new items of Urgent Business admitted under Item 2 above.

None.

To consider any items of AOB.

None.

To note the dates of future meetings set out below:

• 2 February 2010

Dates for the new Municipal Year 2010/11 will be circulated once the draft Calendar of Meetings has been agreed.

It was noted that the last meeting of 2009/10 was scheduled for 2 February 2010.

The Board was advised that dates for 2010/11 would be circulated once the Calendar of meetings for the new Municipal Year had been agreed by the Council’s Cabinet.