Agenda and minutes

1.1  Apologies for absence from Cllr Potter.

2.1  None.

3.1  None.

4.1  Minutes of the meeting held on 18^th September 2017 were agreed.

5.1  The Chair welcomed to the meeting Cllr Carole Williams, Cabinet Member for Employment, Skills and Human Resources from London Borough of Hackney.  Also in attendance for the discussion was Andrew Munk, Head of Employment and Skills and Paul Horobin, Head of Corporate Programmes, Corporate Strategy.

5.2  The Cabinet Member for Employment, Skills and Human Resources was asked to attend the meeting to answer the following questions submitted in advance:

1.  Jobs strategy and the assessment of success.

2.  Evaluation, measures and identification of success

3.  Key commitments and deliverables by May 2018.

5.3  The Cabinet Member highlighted that this is first time the Hackney Executive has appointed a Cabinet Member for Employment, Skills and Human Resources.  Highlighting this is the first cabinet question time session focused on employment and skills.  Demonstrating this is an area of work that is important to the Council.

5.4  Over the past 12 months the Cabinet Member has focused on monitoring the performance and delivery of the Mayoral commitments.

5.5  The Council has been expanding ways into work to ensure job and businesses provide good work for local people.

5.6  Establishing a local corporate apprenticeship scheme across the council and delivering Hackney 100.  The Hackney 100 is a relaunch of a programme previously run by the Council.

5.7  The Council continues to work with government and employers to become an accredited Timewise council.  The timewise accreditation is in relation to employment within the council.  This means the Council has to demonstrate it is a good employer.

5.8  The Council become an accredited London living wage employer.  This has an external focus but looks at whether the Council is a good employer and how it is building relationships with other businesses in the borough to become good employers.

5.9  To recap as a minimum over the last 12 months the Cabinet Member has been reviewing the delivery on these commitments to ensure the Council is delivering to the timelines stipulated.

5.10  In reference to the indicators of success there are a range of indicators that the council is using.  It was highlighted for the corporate apprenticeship programme the council is using a dashboard that looks at the total number of apprentices; apprentices for 2017/18; total number of starts in 2017/18; total number of apprentices leaving the programme and the number who completed the qualifications and progressed into jobs within the council.  In addition the council has reviewed the number of application they processed for the corporate programme.  This programme was extremely popular.

5.11  There was the relaunch of the Hackney 100 programme.  The commitment was to recruit 100 in advance of 2017/18.  They currently have 57 confirmed placements with external organisations and 17 within the council.

5.12  In 2018/19 the Council will launch an employment programme.  This is aimed at increasing access to apprenticeships in Hackney for 16-24 year olds with barriers to employment.  The criteria for the measure of success will be the number of young people with special educational needs, care leavers and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

6.1  The Chair welcomed to the meeting Cllr Nicholson, Cabinet Member for Planning, Business and Investment from London Borough of Hackney.  Also in attendance for the discussion was Paul Horobin, Head of Corporate Programmes.

6.2  The Cabinet Member for Planning, Business and Investment was asked to attend the meeting to answer the following questions submitted in advance:

1.  Economic strategy and balance of job types

2.  Benefits of large corporate organisations moving into the borough and managing reputational risk.

3.  Evaluation, measures and identification of success

4.  Key commitments and deliverables by May 2018.

6.3  The Cabinet Member reminded the Commission the arrival of a new Mayor reset the agenda for the Executive.  In his role he has been setting the foundations for the new priorities so that after the local elections in May 2018 the Executive appointed can hit the ground running with established policies.

6.4  In response to job types there is an element of reacting to the external changes that materialise in the economy by using policy to react.  There is an element of this in economic development and across planning too.  In terms of work and work spaces The Council’s current reaction to the economy is currently out to consultation (The Local Plan).  Elements of that consultation include proposals to protect light industrial work space to the north of the borough.  To ensure there is no further erosion of industrial space in the borough.

6.5  In terms of work space the Council is currently considering bring forward affordable work space change.  This predominantly focuses on the south of the borough. 

6.6  Currently Hackney is the most progressive borough bringing a supply of affordable workspace through new developments.  Currently developments work on the principle of 80% of market value.  However when you apply this to areas like Shoreditch it does not provide what would be considered an affordable rent.  Therefore the Council proposes in the Local Plan to implement 40% of market value.  Bring forth a supply of affordable work spaces through new developments.  This was cited as an example of the policy intervention the council has the ability to implement.  Notwithstanding the intention to make this provision available to small businesses the Council cannot determine the sectors who will move into those workspaces.  This will be dependent on relationship management and building good relations with the business community.  This is key to the delivery of the Mayor’s objectives.

6.7  In relation to further investment this is investment outside the planning system (the section 106 obligation) into the wider community on a regular basis.  In some instances this could be investment into a new school or it could be financing internships through a sponsorship process.  But increasingly there is pressure on public finances to deliver on infrastructure like for example new stations.  This puts a greater need on the development of relationships with businesses so that capital can be raised within the borough.

6.8  There is a role for the council to deliver on those relationships this  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

7.1  The Working in Hackney (WiH) Scrutiny Commission held an information session on 29^th November 2017 with 4 external speakers from IPPR, Fabian Society, Resolution Foundation and Central London Forward.  The event was open to stakeholders, residents, the business community and council officers.

7.2  The Chair opened the discussion and outlined the key findings from the event.  The speakers covered the major trends on the future world of work and skills and outlined how this might impact Hackney.

7.3  At the meeting the Commission recapped on the key points they took away and the key themes relevant to Hackney.  The Commission was provided with assistance in identifying the specific trends that relate to Hackney and noted that some of these aligned to national trends.

7.4  Following this event 5 areas the Commission has identified they wish to explore in the review are:

·  Self-Employment – There has been a rise in self-employment and in Hackney 1-5 are self-employed, this is higher than London and UK average.  This covers a wide range of things from high skilled to low skilled, portfolio working, part-time and full time working.  The Commission is interested in looking at what the Council could be doing to support people who are self-employed.  This relates to the Council’s relationships building and management work with businesses.  They also noted examples of interesting models of support for this cohort.

·  Polarisation of jobs between high and low skilled – Looking at what comes first, the jobs disappearing or the ability to shape what happens.  The Commission heard about an interesting example in Manchester where they identified that human contact was still desired.  Despite the changes with automation in retail jobs they realised other jobs were starting to materialise because of the desire for human interaction.  They achieved this through the creation of markets. Fostering opportunities for face to face retail.

·  Automation – Connected to automation the Chair has come across a predication by Future Advocacy who has stated 20,000 jobs are at risk in Hackney.  The Chair will explore this prediction with the organisation.

·  Housing and land values – the Commission learned Hackney’s ratio of earning to rent is ¾ of the average person’s earnings.  The Commission wishes to explore the impact of this on local employment.  Interestingly the Commission noted that housing and land values is likely to be a trend that will not move or change significantly.  This led them to consider the importance of affordable work space.

·  The potential of local employers – using the Council’s influence to leverage that potential.  Hackney does have a range of employers and it needs to encourage the use of the apprenticeship levy and employee training to those that need to be up skilled.  This topic was also linked to schools.

·  Brexit Impact – a number of statistics showing the impact on sectors that relate to Hackney such as construction, hospitality and retail.  For example over 50% of employees in construction are not from the UK.  The Commission wishes to explore the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

8.1  Members talked about doing a visit to Here East to look at the new ways of working and their approach to workspace rental.

8.2  Members talked about having a focus group with the self employed.

8.3  Members talked about conducting site visits for this review in January 2018.  Members commented on exploring the following as site visits.

·  A visit to Here East to explore the diversity of employer and job roles.  To look at a work place that is growing and operating new ways of working.  To see new sectors, their new ways of working and informal networks.

·  Meet with group of self-employed workers

·  Meet with a group of workers from different employment backgrounds.

Members talked about not being limited to Here East but also looking at businesses in other parts of the borough e.g. the north of the borough that serves the Orthodox Jewish Community and capturing the use of business space in these parts of the borough.  To consider how the Council should capture the use of business space for future.

The Chair asked Members to bring the knowledge of their ward to feed into the review and site visits.

Members agreed to do 2 site visits 1) to visit an employment space (Here East) and 2) a focus group with workers.

Members also commented on exploring the benefits to Hackney when big businesses move into the borough bringing in their workers and using their cheap business space.

Members also commented on exploring the issue of sub-contracting – looking at how big businesses use little businesses.

9.1  None.