Agenda item

Digital Inclusion Working Group Final Report

Report of the Head of Regulation and Compliance

Minutes:

The Committee considered the report of the Head of Regulation and Compliance that presented formally the final report of the Digital Inclusion Working Group.

 

Councillor McKinley, Lead Member of the Working Group introduced the report and commended the recommendations contained within it to Cabinet.

 

RESOLVED:

 

That Cabinet be recommended to:- 

 

 

1.

The Working Group was impressed with the Visitor Economy (VE) ‘Passport to Success’ scheme aimed at college students across the Liverpool City Region coming into the tourism industry; whereby students are able to achieve a bronze, silver or gold passport standard to provide them with a range of opportunities to either gain quality work experience, an interview, apprenticeship or a full-time job.

 

The Working Group, at its meeting held on 23 May 2018 acknowledged that literary and numeracy skills should be embedded as a priority along with digital skills.

 

Accordingly, it is recommended that:-

 

(A)

The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority Employment and Skills Board be requested to consider the development of a Digital Skills Passport Scheme (incorporating numeracy, literacy and communication skills) to help Sefton residents to gain future employment, via the Learning and Skills budget to be devolved from 2019; and

 

(B)

Sefton Council, via Sefton@Work, in conjunction with local organisations such as Sefton Community Learning Service, work with the Liverpool City Region with the aim of exploring the application of such a Skills Passport for the benefit of Sefton employers and residents;

 

2.

Using the Poverty Modelling and Digital Inclusion “Mosaic” data, areas of high unemployment be targeted to enable those Sefton residents excluded from the labour market to develop their ICT skills to improve their opportunities for gaining future employment; 

 

3.

To facilitate the above the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority be requested to devolve sufficient funding to Sefton Council to appoint a project worker with the clear objectives of:-

 

(A)

Working with local employers to map ICT/digital skills;

 

(B)

Working with local partners such as Sefton Community Learning Service to develop and deliver bespoke training programmes to target residents in the areas identified in the Poverty Modelling and Digital Inclusion “Mosaic” data;

 

(C)

Identifying, using the data from the Poverty Modelling and Digital Inclusion “Mosaic”, a number of residents who would benefit from and be able to undertake training as referred to in 3. (B) above; and

 

(D)

Working with local employers to develop a compact agreement to enable those residents who successfully complete the bespoke training programme(s) to gain relevant employment; 

 

4.

If further opportunities arise for a roll out of the Include-IT project and to support the objectives of recommendation 2 then Sefton CVS be requested to consider such roll out to the priority areas identified within the Poverty Modelling and Digital Exclusion document; and

 

5.

the Head of Regulation and Compliance be requested to submit a monitoring report to the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Regulatory, Compliance and Corporate Resources to be held on 5 March 2019, setting out progress made against each of the recommendations set out in the report and that thereafter, monitoring reports be submitted to the Committee on a six monthly basis.

 

 

Supporting documents: