Issue - meetings

To provide the Joint Committee with a progress update on SPOKE (Local Authority projects):

Elevate Bracknell

Elevate Reading

Elevate Wokingham

Elevate Slough

Elevate West Berkshire

Elevate Windsor and Maidenhead

The Committee received a report updating it on spoke and hub activity in each borough across Berkshire.

A representative of each of the local spokes provided an update on the work of theirs to support the details presented in the report.  All indicated good progress with the main points being:

Bracknell Forest

·                     The Bracknell Hub had moved to the Open Learning Centre following the closure of Charles Square for redevelopment.

·                     The borough had hit all Cabinet Office targets except that relating to work experience.

·                     135 young people had signed up to Elevate in Bracknell Forest.

·                     Web site uptake was increasing but there was a need to do more work to identify how many visitors were actually young people.

·                     Partners had not been keen on business brokerage so the focus had turned to sector-based work instead.

Reading

·                     The Reading Hub had opened in April 2015 and was a very lively and attractive place to visit.  A number of partners were based there and employers were booked in to run sessions.

·                     More outreach was to be undertaken

·                     It had been decided to take a sector-based approach to brokerage so that work was targeted where there was a need.

·                     They Council was keen to get more people into work experience.

·                     The need to do more work with ethnic minorities, NEETs and over 50s had been recognised.

Slough

·                     A virtual hub had been launched in February 2015 as there was already a lot of infrastructure to support young people and Slough therefore did not need a new building and could allocate the resource in other ways where it was needed

·                     Job Centre Plus already provided in Slough what they were looking to provide so the Council had focussed the extra resources on filling the gaps rather than duplicating what was already there.  This approach was likely to help embed the programme for the future when funding ceased..

·                     The virtual approach was bringing bits of the Council, Job Centre Plus and other partners together rather than working in silos, leading to much better co-ordination of the services being offered to young people.

·                     The web site was a key tool to being used. 

·                     Attention had turned to work experience and traineeships.

·                     Work experience was, like elsewhere, proving to be hard but the Council had started a programme itself which included employability training.

·                     The long term unemployed were signing up to trainee ships.

·                     Slough was also looking at sector-based work aimed at upskilling in areas such as the construction industry and IT where needs were changing.  This was working due to the type of companies in the borough.

·                     Lone parent work with Gingerbread was also going well including confidence building and upskilling.

·                     In the coming year it was intended to focus on work experience and getting more employers to offer trainee ships

West Berkshire

·                     West Berkshire had also established a virtual hub due to the size of the borough. 

·                     The main aim was to get providers to work together and add value.

·                     The Council had established a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 31