Agenda item

Briefing note

The Board considered a briefing note which provided an overview of Coventry City Council’s Apprenticeship Programme and informed the Board of the progress being made to ensure that the Council spends its £1m contribution to the Apprenticeship Levy fund.

Public sector apprenticeship targets had been introduced by the Government in April 2017.  The government had set a target for any public sector employer in England with at least 250 employees to employ an average of 2.3% of their headcount as new apprentices.  Coventry City Council as an employer had its own long-established apprenticeship programme and had won the Top Employer for School & College Leavers Award for 2016 – 2017.

In respect of the apprenticeship programme, the briefing note indicated that:

·  Between April 2018 – December 2019 the Council employed 141 apprentices which equated to on average 1.7% of the Council’s overall headcount and less than 1% of the corporate headcount.

·  The Council currently had 115 apprentices on programme, 28 were located within service areas across the Council and 87 were in maintained schools across the City.

·  The Council currently supported, through direct funding, 20 strategy apprenticeship posts with all other apprenticeship posts being funded directly by service areas or schools.

·  Council currently had 11 apprentices who are Looked After Children/Care Leavers (LAC).

·  3.94% of the Council’s workforce were aged between 16-24, whereas 46.37% of the workforce were aged over 50, which suggested a risk in terms of our skills and knowledge deficit over the next 10 years if not addressed.

·  In April 2018 - Dec 2019, there were 407 Grade 2/3 posts recruited to, which presented an opportunity to develop a talent pipeline for future talent, improve the diversity of our workforce and lead the way across the public sector.

The briefing note included data on the number of apprentices in post and a breakdown of apprentices by  directorate, level and ward.

In respect of the Apprenticeship Levy, the Board noted that it was introduced by the Government in 2017 to fund apprenticeships in England.  The Levy was a Council resource and was paid at 0.5% of the pay bill minus a Levy allowance of £15K for each tax year. The Levy was collected monthly by HMRC via the PAYE system and converted into digital vouchers accessed through a new Digital Apprenticeship Service account (DAS).  Levy funding could only be spent on Apprenticeship training and not used to support the recruitment of employees.

The yearly cost of the Levy to Coventry City Council was in the region of £1m, with approximately £600K allocated from the corporate wage bill and a further £400 allocated from our maintained schools wage bill.  The government also topped this up by a further 10%, making the total amount of funds available circa £1.1m. Levy funding lasts 24 months and if it is not spent in this period, the Council’s money is reabsorbed by the Employment and Skills Funding Agency.

The Board questioned officers on a number of aspects of the presentation including how the apprenticeship levy worked, how it can be used and asked what plans were in place to ensure that the allocated funding is spent within the timeframe.  The Board sought and received assurances that the Council maximised training opportunities for apprentices.

RESOLVED that the Board note the Council’s approach to delivering its Apprenticeship programme and the use of the Apprenticeship Levy spend.