Agenda item
SCRUTINY SPOTLIGHT
The Lead Member Employment and Skills, Councillor Oliur Rahman, will attend to report on his portfolio.
(Time allocated – 30 minutes)
Minutes:
Councillor Oliur Rahman, Lead Member Employment and Skills, gave a presentation on the key issues, achievements and challenges arising from his portfolio which focused on the points set out below.
The Chair informed members of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee that a
paper containing the main points of the Lead Member presentation and a booklet containing the annual review of the Skillsmatch initiative (April 2008 - March 2009) had been Tabled, copies of which would be interleaved with the minutes.
Successes
· Skillsmatch: successful job and training outcomes to date with analysis by ethnicity of the job brokerage programme funded and run by the Council.
· Future Jobs Fund: level of investment in employment initiative for 18-24 year olds running to March 2011, successful job outcomes of initial phase with analysis by employer and ethnicity.
Challenges
· Sustainable funding: given public sector funding pressures and potentially a change of Government, the Working Neighbourhood Fund was unlikely to continue with a huge impact on the scope for local employment and training initiatives.
· National Programmes: such as Flexible New Deal needed to be tailored to local need and therefore the Council must continue to influence commissioning. The Worklessness Multi Area Agreement was important to this.
Other Key Issues
· Olympics and Crossrail: successful job and training outcomes to date and action being taken to optimise opportunities.
· Job Centre Plus (JCP) & Canary Wharf: close working to secure jobs for local residents by targeting key employers should bear fruit. Canary Wharf Job Fayre had successfully contributed to this.
· Recruitment sessions and training for JCP staff being undertaken to support local residents in applying for employment with the Council. Replicated with NHS and Fire Brigade. Policy to reduce agency staff numbers to underpin this.
· Reducing Worklessness Amongst Young Adults 18 – 24 Scrutiny Review: Lead Member undertook to work closely with Councillor Sardar, Scrutiny Lead - A Prosperous Community, to implement recommendations from the review.
Members of Overview and Scrutiny Committee then posed a series of detailed questions to which Councillor Rahman responded. The question and answer session was centred on the following points:
· Percentage of unemployment in the Borough and how this compared nationally and locally. Lead Member to provide written answer.
· Tower Hamlets having a small proportion of residents employed in jobs associated with the Olympics, in comparison to other Olympic Host Boroughs, and how this could be addressed.
· Incentivisation of residents into employment: action to date/ scope to look at this further.
· Need for more comprehensive analysis of job and training outcomes for all equality strands and within equality strands. Also whether Equality Impact Assessments had been undertaken.
· Importance of a creative approach to mitigating unemployment: funding training for specific vocational licences and not gender stereotyping industries.
· Need for greater focus/ prioritisation of opportunities/ support for job seekers over 60, given intergenerational problems resulting from unemployment in this group.
· Need for transparent information about the funding/ budget of Skillsmatch to facilitate assessment of value for money. Lead Member to provide written answer.
· Need for greater focus/ effort on working with universities, circumventing academic resistance, to ensure graduates gained the necessary skills to gain employment.
· The requirement for a careful approach by the Council in taking positive action for local residents to gain local employment without being discriminatory.
· The lack of partnership working with the Third Sector in relation to employment initiatives, highlighted during the scrutiny review of Reducing Worklessness Amongst Young Adults 18 – 24, and the strategy/ initiatives being undertaken by the Lead Member to address this.
· Requested that Committee members be provided with quantitative evidence to supplement the anecdotal evidence that more local residents were applying for employment with the Council.
The Chair thanked Councillor Oliur Rahman for his detailed and helpful presentation and in particular highlighting the issues relating to Crossrail.