Agenda item

Report of the Chief Operating Officer, York and North Yorkshire LEP

Considered –

A report by James Farrar, Chief Operating Officer, York and North Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership regarding the Department for Education (DfE) requirements in relation to the Adult Education Budget and the associated costs.

James Farrar introduced the report and gave an overview of the key points, as summarised below:

·       Adult Education was a statutory responsibility which came with devolution and was currently £11.2m across York and North Yorkshire.  Currently there were 17k learners and almost 180 different providers and both NYC and CYC were providers

·       What was being devolved was the role of the DfE in relation to the strategic management of the £11.2m and in order to do this a number of statutory responsibilities were required to be met.  These included

a)    The Secretary of State for Education would need to be assured that York and North Yorkshire were operationally ready to administer the AEB

b)    Parliament has to legislate to enable the transfer of the statutory duties

c)     Agreement of a memorandum of understanding between the Department for Education and York and North Yorkshire to provide appropriate assurance

d)    Learner protection arrangements agreed between the parties

·       There would be an opportunity to bid for funding to support the investment needed to meet the readiness criteria, though any funding would need to be matched locally.  The estimated costs of this would be £975k over two years – the bid to the DfE would be £480k, with £494k match funding needed.  Approval was sought for £494k from the CA from the Mayoral Investment Fund to leverage £480k from the DfE

·       The existing LEP Skills and Employability Board (SEB) would act in an advisory capacity with formal decisions taken by this committee which had the correct political representation.  It was also recommended that the NYC s151 officer be given delegated authority to accept the funding from the DfE

Members’ questions were responded to as below:

·       In response to a question, James Farrar confirmed that a councillor from NYC could be nominated to sit on the SEB alongside a councillor from CYC

·       Clarification was requested on why the allocation of funding from the DfE to be matched was not a 50% split.  James Farrar advised that the DfE funding could only be used for new posts and positions, whilst funding for existing staff must come from the matched side, which accounted for just over half of the total

·       James Farrar explained the advantages of having devolution of the Adult Education Budget, which included local control and local leadership enabling closer alignment with the economic needs and opportunities within the region, and increased flexibility in how the service was delivered

·       In response to a question on governance and how decisions would be brought forward from the SEB, Lisa Dixon advised that work was still underway on the details of governance and further reports would be brought forward in due course

·       The Chair referred to the change of working practices for the LEP in working with Members and the importance of ensuring full public visibility of procedures

The voting members of the committee indicated their unanimous support for the recommendations in the report.

Resolved –

1)    That the YNY MCA will receive £9m Mayoral Investment Funding on creation of the MCA with power to invest that funding in advance of the Mayor being elected. It is proposed that £494,816 Mayoral Investment Funding is allocated to enable the MCA to drawdown £480,494 from DofE and to support the required work in meeting the investment readiness conditions required to devolve the AEB Budget.

This is as set out in the business case at Appendix 2.

2)    That the existing YNYLEP Skills and Employability Board (SEB) take on the role of the Project Board with the addition of elected members from each Local Authority to oversee the implementation stage and drive progress.

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3)    That prior to creation of the Mayoral Combined Authority (MCA), North Yorkshire Council are acting as the Accountable Body for MCA funding. Therefore it is recommended the North Yorkshire Council Corporate Director – Resources (s151) be given delegated authority to accept any funding ultimately offered as a result of the business case submitted to DfE for AEB implementation funding in consultation with co-chairs of the Joint Committee.