Agenda and minutes

To receive apologies for absence of Members who are unable to attend the meeting.

All members of the Committee were in attendance.

To approve the Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 15^th March 2022.

The minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 15^th March 2022 were approved as a correct record.

The Chair provided an update as follows:

At its meeting on 5^th April 2022, Cabinet had approved the appointment of a specialist company to provide architectural, planning and development services to design, cost and obtain an implementable full planning permission for the low carbon housing pilot project. The comments made by this Committee, at the meeting on 15^th March, had been included within the report. (Minute 67)

The Councillors will be asked to say if there are any items on the Agenda in which they have disclosable pecuniary interests, which would prevent them from participating in any discussion of the items or participating in any vote upon the items, or any other interests.

No interests were declared.

Most debates take place in public. This only changes when there is a need to consider certain issues, for instance, commercially sensitive information or details concerning an individual. You will be told at this point whether there are any items on the Agenda which are to be discussed in private.

All items were held in public session.

The Committee will receive any petitions and hear any deputations from members of the public. A deputation is where up to five people can attend the meeting and make a presentation on some particular issue of concern. A member of the public can also hand in a petition at the meeting but that petition should relate to something on which the body has powers and responsibilities.

In accordance with Council Procedure Rule 10 (2), Members of the Public should provide at least 24 hours’ notice of presenting a deputation.

No deputations or petitions were received.

A report will be presented in respect of Kirklees Employment and Skills Plan 2022-2025: ‘Aspire, Achieve and Include’.

Contact:

Edward Highfield – Service Director, Skills and Regeneration

Gillian Wallace – Head of Employment and Skills

A report was submitted seeking feedback from the Committee in respect of the Kirklees Employment and Skills Plan 2022-2025: ‘Aspire, Achieve and Include’.

Gillian Wallace – Head of Employment and Skills and David Shepherd – Strategic Director, Growth and Regeneration attended the meeting to introduce the report and to give a presentation highlighting the following:

This was a co-produced locally specific plan. – set out how the Council would work with employers and key partners to develop…. Including maximising the opportuniyies of develotuion and levellinh up white paper.

Discussed with the Portfolio Holder and a number of stakeholders.

It would evolve, being amended and updated as…

The aim was to fit the workforce needs of Kirklees employers and the people of the district.

Whilst the pandemic had delayed the production of the plan it had also allowed for a period of reflection and consideration to ensure that the proposals are right for now and the future.

This was not an implementation plan but aimed to establish a list of priorities

Context and background including linkages with other strategies

Timeline and next steps

How the plan had developed

Challenges

The four priority areas identified as important

Delivery and Measurement of Outcomes

Questions and comments were invited from Committee Members, with the following issues being covered:

A definition of ‘sustainable’ was needed as this was a broad term in order to provide clarity in respect of the aspirations such as the …for 5000 sustainable homes.

Retrofitting was considered to be a huge area of growth that could be exploited if the necessary skills were increased

There were a wide range of skill sets associated with these areas from construction techniques to behaviourhal coacjing and financial…. And with the correct skills pathways in place Kirklees residents would eb able to benefit .

Money management and life skills were currently missing from educational programmes/curricula.

It would be good to be able to develop technical expertise to fill vacancies where there was a shortage of supply perhaps in collaboration at regional level. This plan was aimed at increasing skills at levels 2 to 4 perhaps some insight could be provided to people taking part so that they might consider this as a potential career in the future.

The …was welcomed  skills was a key issue in…

In respect of the real living wage… wages were one of the key elements and it was important that employers were consulted/engaged and felt that they were able to sign up to the plan; there were stakeholders across the board from smaller to larger…. Right way forward… At West Yorkshire level there was an interest in the Fair Work Charter and consideration would be given to how Kirklees could benefit from this. It was considered that the Council was in a strong position to demonstrate ‘what good looks like’ and to support employers to reach that standard.

The key to higher pay was skills development …

Transport was a key issue so that people could access jobs but also  ...  view the full minutes text for item 78.

The Committee will be asked to consider a proposal to establish an Ad Hoc Scrutiny Panel to scrutinise a number of the Council’s ongoing regeneration projects.

Contact:

Leigh Webb, Governance Manager

The Committee considered a proposal to establish an Ad Hoc Scrutiny Panel to scrutinise a number of the Council’s ongoing regeneration projects:

Huddersfield Blueprint

Cultural Heart

Dewsbury Blueprint

Small Centres Programme

It was noted that these projects would be take place over a lengthy timescale.

RESOLVED -

That an Ad Hoc Regeneration Scrutiny Panel be established with the Terms of Reference set out in the report on a cross party membership on the basis of a 1:1:1:1 ratio.

The Committee’s Work Programme for 2021-22 is attached for Member’s consideration.

Contact:

Sheila Dykes, Principal Governance and Democratic Engagement Officer

The current Work Programme had been circulated.

A schedule of meetings for the new Municipal Year would be sent out shortly after the Annual Meeting of Council on 25^th May 2022.

An informal workshop to discuss the Work Programme for 2022-23 would be arranged in June.

As this was the last meeting of the Municipal Year, the chair took the opportunity to thank all the members of the Committee for their contributions over the last twelve months and the Governance Officer for the support provided to the Committee.