Agenda and minutes

Councillor Neghat Khan – Other Council Business

Councillor Sam Webster – Leave

Clive Heaphy

None

To confirm the minutes of the last meeting held on 22nd March 2022

The Committee agreed the minutes of the meeting held on 22 March 2022 as a correct record and they were signed by the Chair.

For comment and noting

The Committee noted the work plan

This item does not contain any decisions that are eligible for call-in.

The Committee received a presentation by Paul Price-Hazelhurst Chief Executive Officer, and Jennie Willcock, Chief Finance Officer, Futures Group, which

highlighted the following:

(a)  For the financial year 2021/22, income was £18.8m, which represents growth of £2.4m over the previous year. £0.9m profit was made and the company has a healthy cash reserve of £4.7m. Over the next year investment opportunities in digital evolution to facilitate growth will be explored and the Business Plan will be aligned to that.

(b)  Costs are heavily weighted towards staffing which comprises approximately 75% of the budget. The headcount is growing and stands at 425 full time equivalents. Provision has been made for some redundancy costs but it is hoped any redundancies will largely be managed through natural wastage and redeployment. Overall the budget is balanced and includes £0.5m contingency.

(c)  The development of the company’s three year business plan involved D2N2, the Chamber of Commerce, Nottingham City and Nottinghamshire County Councils and other partners. It is aligned with the Council’s values and covers matter such as digital evolution and reducing the company’s carbon footprint.

(d)  Priorities include:

·  Levelling Up and Devolution

·  The UK Shared Prosperity Fund

·  The National Careers Service Re-Tender

·  A Governance Review

·  Premises Strategy

·  The Integration of the Careers, Skills and Employment Strategies.

(e)  Achievements include:

·  96.9% of year 11 students moving on to positive destinations and 4.8% of year 12 and 13 students being NEET against a target of 5.5%

·  300 unemployed customers securing employment

·  A 100% pass rate at end point assessment for Nottingham City Apprentices.

During discussion and in response to questions from the Committee, the following points were raised:

(f)  Futures’ income comes from a range of sources including the National Careers Service, local Councils’ NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training) provision and European Social Fund. The latter will be ending soon and will be replaced with the Shared Prosperity Fund. The company has a strategy of diversifying funding sources.

(g)  There are currently high levels of vacancies and Futures is looking to support people who want to change career as well as those starting out. Particular focus is made on areas where there are high levels of worklessness. Work is done with community organisations in these areas. Cases are becoming more complex resulting in an increase in appointment times.

(h)  Devolution presents an exciting opportunity to have control of the adult education budget. Work can be done to understand the level of budget that might be available.

(i)  Opportunities are being looked at to support adults to develop their foundation level skills to then enable them to progress to higher levels of skills.

Resolved to record the thanks of the Committee to Mr Price-Hazlehurst and Ms Willcock for their attendance and informative presentation.

To consider excluding the public from the meeting during consideration of the remaining items in accordance with Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 on the basis that, having regard to all the circumstances, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

The Committee agreed to exclude the public from the meeting during consideration of the remaining items in accordance with Section 100(A) of the Local Government Act 1972 on the basis that having regard to all the circumstances, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighed the public interest in disclosing the

information, as defined in Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act, as the

sensitive nature of the business affairs under consideration could, if made public,

prejudice the ability of the companies concerned to operate effectively in a

competitive market.

This item does not contain any decisions that are eligible for call-in.

The Committee received a presentation by Paul Price-Hazelhurst Chief Executive Officer, and Jennie Willcock, Chief Finance Officer, Futures Group.

Report of the Interim Corporate Director for Finance and Resources

This item does not contain any decisions that are eligible for call-in.

Ian Edward, Strategic Advisor for Companies, presented the report, updating the Committee on the latest position in respect of Council owned companies.

To confirm the exempt minutes of the last meeting held on 22 March 2022

The Committee agreed the exempt minutes of the last meeting held on 22 March

2022 as a correct record and they were signed by the Chair.