Cabinet Member delegated decision Decision Due 30 March 2015

Cabinet Member delegated decision
Decision Due 30 March 2015
Employment and Training Supported by Section 106 for 2014/15
Wards: All
Report Authorised by: Strategic Director, Delivery: Sue Foster
Portfolio: Councillor Jack Hopkins, Cabinet Member for Jobs and Growth
Contact for enquiries:
Dawn Redpath, Head of Employment and Enterprise ;
Phone: 0207 926 0298; Mobile: 07867352401 dredpath@lambeth.gov.uk
Report summary
The purpose of the report is to set out the S106 spend on employment and training in 2014/15
and demonstrate the contribution this spend makes to the achievement of corporate priorites
and manifesto outcomes. Employment and training S106 spend for 2014/15 is £777,423. This
spend has achieved the following outputs
April 2014 – Jan 2015
Output/outcome
Total Number
Lambeth Working Brokerage (222);
Construction (67); Ex-offenders (20);
Apprenticeships (44); Partnership jobs could not have been achieved without LW
financial or other support - (273)
626 Lambeth residents into Jobs
Training and Qualifications Lambeth
College/South Thames College: PreEmployment, CSCS, Fire Warden, Abrasive
Wheels, Traffic Marshall, PASMA; Astin’s
Drylining Provision; Mears Academy
(Painting & Decorating); Mainport Plant
Training; Cladding
Funding leveraged into Lambeth
Prospects; Jobcentre Plus Flexible Support
Fund ; City Bridge Trust ; Construction
Employer Accord; PRG; Lambeth College
SFA funding
140 Lambeth residents achieve
qualifications and training
£1, 030M
Finance summary
A total spend of £777,423 is required for all Employment & Training projects in 2014/15.
The funding for these projects is S106 related and is part of the core funding for the team. The
funding has allowed the team to continue to fund job brokerage activity, apprenticehsips,
Construction jobs and training, access to pre-employment training and pay staff salaries. The
funding must be spent in accordance with Lambeth council’s planning policy and S106 SPD and
drawn down at the end of the financial year, against incurred costs.
The full year expenditure on employment and training to be funded from S106 is expected to be
£777,423
Recommendations
1. To approve the funding for these projects. The funding for these projects is S106 related
and not part of the core funding for the team. The funding must be spent in accordance with
Lambeth council’s planning policy and S106 SPD and drawn down at the end of the financial
year, against incurred costs.
2. To note impact and outputs from S106 spend for Lambeth residents.
1.
Context
1.1
Regeneration and growth in Lambeth represents a very significant opportunity to trigger
positive economic changes for local communities (both resident and business) ;
however, this will not happen automatically. Coordinated local partnership efforts are
needed in order to create pathways into jobs, improve skills and apprenticeships offers
and ensure that local communities are part of, and can benefit from the regeneration that
is taking place.
1.2
The council has a range of levers to ensure that development and inward investment
have a positive local impact; one such lever is planning policy which seeks to encourage
local access to skills, training employment opportunities afforded by the development
and mitigate against the loss of employment land. S106 agreements include a financial
contribution in recognition of the costs that are incurred through this activity.
1.3
The use of S106 funds must be in accordance with Lambeth’s planning policy and in
particular the S106 Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) which sets out what
approach the council will take to implementation of local planning policy in line with the
Lambeth’s Unitary development Plan (UDP) and the London Plan.
1.4
Lambeth’s SPD demonstrate the intention behind the allocation and use of S106


Local training for Construction - ‘The Council is seeking to promote access for
local people in construction training and jobs to promote skilled employment
opportunities for local residents, and address issues in relation to the long term
shortage of skilled labour in the construction industry’
General employment and training ‘For development schemes that have a
significant impact in creating new long term employment opportunities – the
Council will seek voluntary agreements to enable access to employment
opportunities. The Council will also seek financial contributions to help support
those sections of the Lambeth workforce that have no registered qualifications by
providing training and support to enable access to newly created employment
opportunities arising from development’
2.
Proposal and Reasons
2.1
The Employment and Enterprise team match existing S106 covenants and related
employment and skills plans for each development to ensure that the funds are used in
accordance with these policy guidelines. The projects supported by these funds will
enable Lambeth citizens and businesses to access opportunities generated by
development and support business growth.
2.2
The service contributes directly to the achievement of the following outcomes in
Lambeth’s Community plan (2013-16) and Outcomes Commissioning Framework:



People achieve financial security
All young people have opportunities to achieve their ambitions
Lambeth plays a strong role in the London economy
2.3
The projects meet the obligations of the S106 agreements by providing training, and
supporting local people in securing employment in Construction, or in other growth
sectors.
2.4
The Employment and Enterprise service contributes directly to the achievement of the
following Manifesto targets



2.5
Support the creation of 5000 new jobs for local people
Work with small and large employers and encourage them to employ local
people
Offer every young person access to jobs support, training or an apprenticeships
The use of the S106s which cover Local training and Construciton and General
Employment and Training have achieved the following outputs and outcomes in 2014/15
to date
April 2014 – Jan 2015
Output/outcome
Total Number
Lambeth Working
626 Lambeth residents into Jobs
2.6
Training and Qualifications
140 Lambeth residents achieve
qualifications and training
Funding leveraged into Lambeth
£1, 030M
Lambeth Working
The main spend on employment is directed through or associated with the council’s jobs
brokerage service – Lambeth Working.
Lambeth Working supports the delivery of local providers who work with Lambeth
residents seeking employment by providing access to employment and training
opportunities across the strands of delivery detailed above. Lambeth Working works
through both direct delivery, and partnership working to maximise the numbers of local
residents entering employment.
The unique positioning of Lambeth Working as a brokerage within the council enables
the projects to use the council’s policy levers such as S106 and procurement activity to
generate employment and training opportunities. These opportunities are then
disseminated through Lambeth Working Provider Network and local people supported
into them.
2.7
In addition to direct delivery of employment services, a range of partnership projects are
match funded and/or managed by Lambeth, such as the City Bridge Trust Apprentice
Support Fund. S106 funding is also used to support research for the Jobs and Growth
Commissioning team for Community Budgets, and to support the development of new
bids such as New Homes Bonus via consultancy.
2.8
Central London Forward is a sub-regional strategic organisation representing eight
central London local authorities. CLF have commissioned delivery of Central London
Forward Into Work, an employment initiative with four organisations delivering in
Lambeth, one of which has a specific focus on women into construction. Membership
fees for CLF equating to £30,000 for 2014-15 have been allocated from S106.
Further project details can be found in the Expenditure Approval form found at
Appendix 1
3.
Finance
3.1
The full year expenditure on employment and training to be funded from S106 is
expected to be £777,423
3.2
The funding for these projects is S106 related and not part of the core funding for the
team. The funding must be spent in accordance with Lambeth council’s planning policy
and S106 SPD and drawn down at the end of the financial year, against incurred costs.
3.3
To date, £482,223 of S106 spend has been allocated to Employment & Training
projects, leaving a further £295,200 as yet unspent. This unspent budget comprises the
following: Invoice received and submitted for payment (£10,710); Spent, invoice not yet
received (£117,618); Staff costs to end of 2014-15 ( £116,500); Spend profiled to end of
2014-15 (£ 50,372).
3.4
Profiled spend includes candidate travel costs, training costs for delivery to April 2015,
project costs and recruitment events.
The Section 106 funding comes from two different Section 106 sources, which have
slightly different purposes:


Local Labour in Construction – which addresses specific opportunities in terms of
training and employment in construction and other employment opportunities arising
from the development. £411,348
Employment and Skills – which addresses general employment and training
opportunities that will benefit the borough, and residents of Lambeth. Total approved
funding sought from this source is £366,075
3.5
A breakdown of how the Lambeth Working sub projects, and other employment projects
are funded by these two Section 106 sources is provided in Appendix 1. In a number of
cases sub projects/other projects are funded from both sources, in accordance with
project specific activities.
4.
Legal and Democracy
4.1
The Council has an obligation to spend s.106 monies only for the purposes set out in the
individual agreements made with developers.
4.2
Under s.137a of the Local Government Act 1972, a local authority may provide finance
which in their opinion is in the interests of, and will bring direct benefit to all or some of its
inhabitants. If in any financial year a local authority provides financial assistance to a
specified body or fund then, as a condition of the assistance, the authority must require
the organisationto furnish to the authority a statement in writing of the use to which that
amount has been put.
4.3
The European Commission has adopted a package of EU state aid rules for the
assessment of public compensation for services of general economic interest which
enables member states to better support companies providing SGEI. Amounts of up to
€500,000 over three years are now deemed not to constitute state aid because it does
not affect competition or trade between Member States. All social services become
exempted from the obligation of notification to the Commission, regardless of the amount
of the compensation paid. The services concerned include "social needs as regards
[…], access to and reintegration in the labour market, and social inclusion of vulnerable
groups".
4.4
In some instances, expenditure may be deemed public procurement and will therefore
be subject to the provisions of the Public Contracts Regulations 2006 (or 20015) and
officers should therefore seek advice on a case by case basis.
4.5
This proposed key decision was entered in the Forward Plan on 27 February 2015 and
the necessary 28 clear days’ notice will be given. In addition, the Council’s Constitution
requires the report to be published on the website for five clear days before the proposed
decision is approved by the Cabinet Member. Any representations received during this
period must be considered by the decision-maker before the decision is taken. A further
period of five clear days - the call-in period – must then elapse before the decision is
enacted. If the decision is called-in during this period, it cannot be enacted until the callin has been considered and resolved.
5.
Consultation and co-production
Consultation has taken place formally during a meeting of the Lambeth Working
provider network meetings (Oct 2014, Feb 2015) where views were sought on the role
of Lambeth Working and the role of partners.
Monthly 19+ Skills and Employment meetings are held between Lambeth Council
Lambeth college, JobCentre Plus and Lambeth council to ensure that local training is
being developed to meet demand and a range of joint porjects developed to meet
resident need.
Lambeth Working staff have taken part in the development of the resident engagement
activity as part of the development of the Community budgets pilot.
Informal consultation with employers is on-going as part of the outreach and
engagement activity that the brokers undertake and the views of both businesses and
residents seeking employment are fed back into the Lambeth Working monthly review
meetings.
6.
Risk management
(R – risk/ A – action to mitigate)
R – Failure to meet jobs targets
A-
a) Adopt more rigourous monitoring within team
b) Team and individual target setting
c) use learning and development and away days to motivate team – encourage
social value thinking and action – reward high achievements – focus on quality
R - Failure to recruit good quality staff
A–
a) Use regeneration network for more senior roles
b) Use Penna
c) Consider secondments etc
d) train up redeployed staff – positive attitude is key
R - Failure to engage employers
A-
a) Use new CRM to carry our sector led marketing and employer engagement
drives
b) Use local politicians to engage with employers large and small
c) Use employer incentives to engage
d) Ensure high quality service through good staff training and management
7.
Equalities impact assessment
Employment - Of all clients that were supported by Lambeth Working Brokerage in
13/14, 78% were identified as being from ‘priority groups’(50+, lone parent, refugee,
benefit cap affected, person with disability, aspirational family, work programme, young
person of black heritage)
8.
Community safety
Lambeth Working has a specialist offenders service which works with both ex-offenders
in the community, and prisoners due for release into the borough. The service works to
reduce re-offending by ensuring that prisoners are linked in with essential services and
have maximum opportunity to undertake training and find employment following their
release. This service worked with 80 people and to date has placed 15 ex-offenders into
work in 14/15
The prevention of costs assocated with the potential crime of this group that have been
moved back into work or training is hard to assess however likely to be considerable.
9.
Organisational implications
9.1
Staffing and accommodation
All staff in the service are members of the Neighbourhood Regeneration and
Employment and Enterprise team and were impacted by the restructure which took place
in February 2015. The rationale for this restructure was provided in summary in 1.4
earlier in this report.
Lambeth Working delivery staff moved to Brixton Library in February 2015 just ahead of
the staff accommodations moves office moves within Phoenix House which form part of
the YNTH project. Currently 9 Lambeth Working delivery staff are located in the library.
9.2
Procurement
The council’s procurement process have been adhered to in all procurement exercises
undertaken in 14/15. There are no major procurement exercises planned.
The team will work more closely with procurement colleagues in 14/15 with a view to
improving the economic outcomes (apprenticeships, training, jobs) that can be achieved
through direct council spending.
9.3
Health
Access to employment is a key component in maintaining health and well being for
residents. 78% of those accessing Lambeth Working come from ‘priority groups’ one of
which is listed as people with a disability. The council is part of the pilot programme
‘Working Capital’ which will support work programme leavers into employment; many of
these candidates will have health related barriers to work. The council is also involved in
the Community budgets pilot which will identify vulnerable JSA signers and provide them
with early intervention services in order to reduce the length of time they spend claiming
benefits and support a swift return to work.
10.
Timetable for implementation
Date
Action
27th Feb
Added to Forward plan
20 March
Report published
30 March
Decision taken
8 April
End of call in
9 April
Implementation
Audit trail
Consultation
Name/Position
Sandra Roebuck
Programme Director for
Strategic Neighbourhoods
and Investment
Lambeth
cluster/division or
partner
Employment and
Enterprise team/
Business Growth and
Regeneration Delivery
cluster
Mike Pocock
Delivery Director, Business
Growth and Regeneration
Date Sent
Date
Received
Comments in
para:
06/02/15
11/02/15
06/02/15
10/02/15
23/02/15
04/03/15
3
23/02/15
26/02/15
4
26/02/15
26/02/15
4.2
13/02/15
16/02/15
Sue Foster
Strategic Director for Delivery
Hamant Bharadi
Head of Finance
Legal Services – Michael
O’Hora
Democratic Services – Gary
O’Key
Councillor Jack Hopkins
Delivery officer meeting
Procurement Board
External
Enabling/Integrated
support /Financial
planning and
management
Enabling: Integrated
Support
Enabling: Corporate
Affairs
Cabinet Member: Jobs
and Growth
23/02/15
Report history
Original discussion with Cabinet Member
Report deadline
Date final report sent
Report no.
Part II Exempt from Disclosure/confidential
accompanying report?
Key decision report
Date first appeared on forward plan
Key decision reasons
Background information
16.02.15
12 March
N/A
No
Yes
27.2.15
OR 2. Expenditure, income or savings in
excess of £500,000
Lambeth S106 Supplementary Planning
Guidance revised 2013
Appendices
None.
APPROVAL BY CABINET MEMBER OR OFFICER IN ACCORDANCE WITH SCHEME OF
DELEGATION
I confirm I have consulted Finance, Legal, Democratic Services and the Procurement
Board and taken account of their advice and comments in completing the report for
approval:
Signature ______________________________________ Date ________________
Post Dawn Redpath
Head of Employment and Enterprise
I confirm I have consulted the relevant Cabinet Members, including the Leader of the
Council (if required), and approve the above recommendations:
Signature ______________________________________ Date ______________________
Post
Cllr Jack Hopkins,
Cabinet Member for Jobs and Growth
Any declarations of interest (or exemptions granted):
Issue
Interest declared