Declarations of Interests:
None
Witnesses:
Lien Cross, Consultant – Organisational Development,
Surrey County Council
Joy Hurman, Lead Consultant – Learning and Development,
Surrey County Council
Mary Lewis, Cabinet Member for All Age Learning
Luis Moore, Apprentice (Recruitment Team), Surrey County
Council
Key
points raised during the discussion:
-
An introduction to the report was provided by
officers who highlighted that apprenticeships would support Surrey
County Council (the Council) to develop and retain a skilled and
flexible workforce capable of responding to future changes in local
authority service delivery. Apprenticeships also
created opportunities for staff by providing a
framework for the whole workforce to undertake relevant
qualifications helping to raise knowledge and aspirations. Members
were informed about the “Vision for Apprenticeships
2020” which outlined the UK Government’s aspirations to
increase apprenticeships nationally through a 0.5% levy on all
employers in the UK with an annual pay bill in excess of £3
million. As part of the Apprenticeship Reforms, the Council is
required to pay £2,040,000 annually into the Levy and has a
target to employ over 600 apprentices per year across the Council
and local authority maintained schools. The Committee was reminded
that information contained within the report was orientated
specifically towards the Council’s internal apprenticeship
recruitment.
Rose
Thorn arrived at the meeting at 10:10am
-
The Committee heard that factors such as the
recruitment freeze as well as the Council’s Transformation
Programme had impacted on the ability of services to recruit
apprentices and that this would continue to cause challenges over
the coming months. Members were informed, however, that it was
important to ensure the right structures were in place to support
recruitment and retention of apprentices by ensuring effective
linkages between services within the Council and improving
collaboration with external partners. An Apprenticeships Task Force
had been convened to establish the structures required to ensure
that the Council was in a position to recruit and retain
apprenticeships once there was greater stability across
services.
-
The Committee asked how the Council would measure
success in delivering against its Apprenticeship Strategy. Officers
highlighted that recouping the money committed to the Levy and
delivering against the Council’s Public Sector Target for
annual apprenticeship starts would collectively provide a good
barometer of success in delivery against the Council’s
Apprenticeships Strategy. Members heard that it was also important
to ensure the Council was able to keep apprentices once they had
completed their training to ensure that the skills and knowledge
they had developed were retained in-house. The Council was in the
process of gathering evidence to understand what made a good
apprenticeship to inform is own training offer.
4.
Clarity was sought by the Committee on the number of
apprentices that were employed by the Council. Members were advised
that the Council employed 371 apprentices who were each at
different stages of their training. Members heard that funding
drawn-down from the Levy could only be spent on training costs and
not on salaries pre-apprenticeship programmes.
5.
Members asked whether there was potential to
collaborate with partner ...
view the full minutes text for item 5