Richard Hindle

1
Richard Hindle Alan BruceSQW Consulting
2
Review of Economic Development Regeneration
Skills Report Key Recommendations

• Workshop 27th January 2009
• Richard Hindle Alan Bruce SQW Consulting

3
What we will cover

• Describe questions we set out to answer explain
  the research
• Context - policy background skills debate
• Key Findings
• Headline recommendations
• What next

4
The Commission

• January 2008 IY/YF commissioned SQW
• Audit of regions skills to deliver the Great
  Places to progress SNR
• Concentrated on public sector economic
  development regeneration skills
• Why this relatively small group?

5
Public Sector ED Regeneration

• Egan, ASC other work identified them as
  critical because they have responsibility of
  bringing together other professionals
• Skills gaps are met more directly in the private
  sector, most immediately by higher pay,
  recruitment and other incentives and by more
  flexible working
• If the region is to tackle SNR restructuring it
  has to address public sector delivery capacity as
  a matter of some urgency

6
Main Consultees

• Yorkshire Forward
• 22 Principal local authorities
• Partnership organisations, including city regions
  regeneration partnerships
• Professional bodies
• Most relevant Sector Skills Councils
• Recruitment interim management companies
• HR directors
• Private voluntary sector forums

7
Policy context

• 2004 Egan Review of skills required to implement
  the Governments Sustainable Communities Plan
• ASC study Mind the Skills Gap 2007
• ASC and RCEs
• Sector Skills Development Agency - UK Commission
  for Employment and Skills from April 2008
• Needs to be set in wider context
• UKs historic skills deficit Leitch Review
  2005
• Sub National Review of Economic Development
  Regeneration 2007 ?

8
Egan Review Sustainable Development
9
RES concept of Great Places,
10
Local Government Workforce

• In England and Wales employs nearly 2.3 million
  people
• 1 in 10 of all people working
• Largest single sector and 45 of the public
  workforce
• Approximately same number of part-time and
  full-time workers
• Women account for a significantly higher
  proportion of part time workers, and nearly
  three-quarters of all employees, compared with
  slightly under half (49) for the whole economy
• Average labour turnover rate over the last decade
  has varied between 13 and 15 per annum
• Almost 90 of all authorities regularly report
  recruitment and retention difficulties with one
  or more professional/managerial occupations
• LG workforce generally older than that of the
  whole economy

11
Yorkshire Humber recruitment problems
Source Local Government Pay and Workforce
Strategy Survey (2006), regional breakdown
12
Method and Approach

• Split into two key questions
• What is the nature of the skills gap at regional
  level?
• What is the appropriate policy response?
• More emphasis on qualitative information
• Focus on practical steps to improve key generic
  skills

13
Which skills are critical?

• We believe that it is the generic skills,
  behaviour and knowledge that will make the
  difference between successful delivery and
  failure
• Egan Review
• Most work has concentrated on demand supply of
  particular professionals!

14
Process

• 100 individuals
• 30 organisations
• F2F telephone interviews
• Focus groups
• All 22 local authorities
• 75 public sector 25 private 3rd sectors

15
Headline Findings (1)

• 95 response rate!!!
• those engaged in regeneration are extremely well
  qualified
• almost all have achieved NVQ4 or above
• more than 60 NVQ5
• many had more than one advance qualification and
  several had two distinct, relevant professional
  qualifications
• positive, both individually and on behalf of
  their organisations, about meeting SNR and other
  challenges
• almost half were confident or very confident
  about their organisations ability to meet future
  challenges, including SNR
• only about a fifth were doubtful or very doubtful

16
Headline Findings (2)

• Almost all felt that individually
  organisationally they had the necessary skills,
  but were much more ambivalent about their
  organisational and sector capacity
• 90 believed that skills especially capacity
  are currently inhibiting delivery
• Apparent contradiction explained by need for
  constant updating and upgrading of skills 60 of
  respondents were keen to stay working in this
  sector within the region
• Next biggest group (20) expect to retire in the
  next 3-5 years
• Disregarding latter, almost three-quarters were
  keen to remain within their current activity
• reflects a very high degree of commitment and job
  satisfaction

17
Headline Findings (3)

• generic skills are key
• almost 90 rating this and capacity as more
  important that any shortage of particular
  professions
• RTPI trained planners dominated senior
  appointments, with just over 50 in this category
• most described themselves as ex-planners who
  had developed into regeneration professionals
• negative image of the profession among
  politicians and the public.
• perceived to be much more acceptable to argue for
  an upgrading of the capacity for regeneration
• key difference between larger and smaller
  authorities
• ¾ of latter picked the same particular skill
  strengths, community engagement, partnership
  working of various kinds and engaging difficult
  to reach groups

18
Headline Findings (4)

• less obvious pattern for larger authorities
• but 50 identified issues such as change
  management and cross-sector partnership working
  as relative areas of weakness
• 90 keen to work together with neighbours,
  sub-regional partners or the RDA to develop
  increased or shared capacity and skills in
  dealing with new challenges, especially
• transport planning
• innovation creativity
• understanding the low carbon economy
• urban design

19
Typology of capacity and skills issues

• labour market
• not enough qualified people, poor retention,
  candidates lack right aptitudes, inadequate
  generic skills mix, lack of relevant experience
  
• knowledge exchange and management
• knowledge management for change, evaluation
  review, thinking-time, CPD, innovation,
  information exchange
• organisation capacity
• capacity or resources shortfall, Silo working
  within organisations
• partnership working
• cross sector cooperation, inter- agency working,
  Sub-regional multi-area working

20
Headline Recommendations Labour Market

• Additional joint labour market working by
  Integreat, Yorkshire Forward and LGYH
• More part-time or flexible employment, as a way
  to retain the expertise of early retirees
• More secondments and better work experience
• Further research work should be considered to
  investigate skills issues for the private and
  voluntary sectors

21
Headline Recommendations - Knowledge

• Increase Integreats profile in Knowledge
  Exchange, Innovation Management.
• Develop the Integreat and the Yorkshire Forward
  websites as sources of good practice improve
  links to other sites
• Follow the lead of Yorkshire Forward and raise
  the profile of evaluations
• Build links with existing professional networks
  especially where they are specifically addressing
  generic issues in CPD
• Employers work with institutions to consider how
  best to accredit on the job training in generic
  skills

22
Headline Recommendations Organisations

• Commit to jointly preparing for the proposed
  economic assessments and agreeing parameters
• Partners should commit to action to raise the
  profile of successful activity within the region
• General support to LGYH in any member training
  initiatives designed to improve their
  understanding of economic or regeneration issues
• Shared specialist resources for smaller
  authorities

23
Headline Recommendations - Partnership

• Partnership bodies should be asked to engage in
  dialogue about the practical ways in which they
  might be assisted by Yorkshire Forward, LGYH and
  Integreat
• Consider whether a specific network facility
  might be provided to encourage LSPs to contribute
  to this skills debate

24
Where Next?

• Overall - the Yorkshire Humber regeneration
  sector is keen to meet the challenges of SNR and
  economic recovery while acknowledging the extent
  of change required
• In many cases issues raised are already being
  partly addressed by current activity
• In others they will require an innovative
  approach

25
Conclusions

• More than 30 recommendations around capacity and
  skills issues, broadly dividing into the four
  categories
• Integreat, Yorkshire Forward and Local Government
  Yorkshire Humber agreed to take forward
• This all needs ongoing input from practitioners
  better networking

26
Contact
Richard Hindle Director SQW Consulting t. 0113
389 9737 e. rjhindle_at_sqw.co.uk w. www.sqw.co.uk

Alan Bruce Senior Associate SQW Consulting t.
01484 665913 e. abruce_at_sqw.co.uk w. www.sqw.co.uk