Issue - meetings

The committee is requested to review the progress achieved by Chichester in Partnership in 2017-18 and its Business Plan for 2018-19 and to make any recommendations it considers appropriate to the partnership.

The committee considered the report included with the agenda.

Miss Loaring was in attendance.

The committee made the following comments and received answers to questions as follows:

·      Queried the figures in the cost benefit ratio of the Choose Work scheme and what this meant.  Miss Loaring undertook to provide an explanation of these figures to members following the meeting. [Post meeting note: The cost benefit analysis (CBA) is a system which looks solely at financial benefits; in this case:

§   Benefit of people moved off benefits and into work

§   Increased earnings of people achieving new skills

§   Benefits of reduced mental health interventions

§   Costs benefits from reduced number of NEETS

§   Improved wellbeing of individuals

§   Improved family wellbeing

There will be further benefits of the project (e.g. housing) but the above are those which can currently be measured. This is offset against the costs - the cost of employing people and delivering the project - and will take into account optimism bias, the accuracy of the data and increasing costs.]

·         Queried the availability of jobs in the district and the amount of people applying for those jobs. The Department for Works and Pensions (DWP) required people out of work to demonstrate that they had applied for work. As a result there were a large number of people applying for jobs for which they were not suited. Some jobs were seasonal or zero hour contracts so these were not a guarantee of permanent work. Skills mapping was required. Women wanted local jobs as they needed to be near their children and transport issues limited them. The profile of  clients supported by Choose Work had changed over time from the very young with challenges in entering the workplace to people who were more able to access the job market but increasingly had low level mental health or confidence issues.

·         The social prescribing project and its width in the district. All the GPs in the district were involved  and invested in this project. Two community referrers would work from surgeries in the north and two in the south.

·         Queried action 1.6 on the Annual Report supporting young people to access the apprenticeship scheme and the low outcome of 25%. The apprentice did not always get the job at the end of the apprenticeship. The Government was pushing businesses to take apprenticeships. Officers were supporting an apprenticeship graduation ceremony and this would raise the profile locally.

·         Queried action 1.3 in the report relating to the lack of funding available to train those on low wages to increase their skills. Chichester College had started to offer some free courses and Aspire being in the area had added to the offer. The partnership was promoting these courses to people. 

·         Challenge to provide business premises in areas which would otherwise be used for housing to enable local people to access opportunities for work. This was important in the South Downs National Park area (SDNP). Queried whether the SDNP was working with us  ...  view the full minutes text for item 210