Agenda item

To consider the draft revised Job Strategy.

Briefing note of the Executive Director, Place

The Board considered a briefing note of the Council’s Economy and Jobs Manager, that provided details of the Draft Jobs and Growth Strategy 2014-2017 and sought amendments and/or additions to 3 key objectives and the associated outputs section of the document, that should be considered by the Cabinet Member (Business, Enterprise and Employment) in finalising the Strategy prior to its consideration at the meeting of Cabinet on 13th May 2014.

The Jobs and Growth Strategy supported the vision and priorities of the Council’s Plan – Coventry Open for Business: Globally connected and locally committed. It also supported other City Council priorities in reducing poverty levels in the City; alleviating pressure from welfare cuts, reducing health inequalities and improving well-being. The Strategy reflected recent economic indicators showing improvements - unemployment was falling, business confidence was rising and new infrastructure was being built in the City. Despite the more favourable economic climate, it was recognised that many people still faced a multitude of barriers to finding employment.

The key objectives of the Strategy, including the focus on supporting young people who were not in education, employment or training (NEETs), remained unchanged from the first Strategy:

·  Secure job opportunities through investment – businesses and investors continue to recognise Coventry as the right place for them to invest and grow.

·  Help people get jobs – pursuing prosperity so that in Coventry everyone who wants a job will have the opportunity to secure one that matches their skills.

·  Help people improve their skills – local universities, colleges and businesses will equip people with skills that businesses and investors want and will locate in Coventry to secure. 

Targets set for 2014-2017, set at a similar or higher level compared to the estimated actual performance of the first 3 year strategy, had been based on prudent assumptions around securing external funding, as well as that Council annual funding remained at the same level as for 2014-2015.

The Board questioned the Officers on specific objectives in the Strategy as well as outputs and made the following points:

·  The objectives needed prioritising and the Board recommended that the objective that related to job creation needed the strongest emphasis throughout the Strategy.

·  The Strategy needed to be more ambitious: some targets were too soft such as recording the number of customer assists, and hard outcomes such as jobs gained needed recording. In addition, some targets were too low and not aspirational enough particularly ‘new businesses investing’ and ‘organisations influenced in their skills delivery’. Also, the outputs didn’t go far enough in driving the proposed activity forward and weren’t explicit i.e. instead of how many new jobs, it should state how many specific jobs e.g. scientists there would be.

·  The table of targets gave a partial picture; more information was needed to measure the success of the Strategy. In terms of new jobs, the number of jobs lost over the same period as well as gained would show the net gain of jobs created.  The same detailed context was needed for NEETs to provide details of how many people in total were NEET in each category, work, education and training.

·  Following discussion on areas highlighted in the Strategy as issues, such as skill shortages and graduate retention, Members felt that no solutions were offered to rectify these situations. In respect of one of the three objectives relating to equipping people with skills that businesses and investors wanted, the question was raised as to who  was predicting the skills needed and how were they going to be measured. Members did however recognise that this was a very difficult area to measure.

·  Sufficient credit needed to be given to partners in improvements seen in the economy; the City Council had a key role as an influencer in this arena but could not take the entire credit for improvements made.

·  The ability to put local procurement clauses into contracts was highlighted as an area that needed further consideration as a means of ensuring procurement processes were suitable for local businesses.

The Board would review progress on the Jobs Strategy as part of their future Work programme.

RESOLVED that the Business, Economy and Enterprise Board (3) notes the details of the draft Jobs and Growth Strategy 2014-2017 and agrees that the points raised by the Board be forwarded to the Cabinet Member (Business, Enterprise and Employment) for her consideration in finalising the Strategy, and included in the report to be submitted to Cabinet on 13^th May 2014.