ABOUT US

Meet the Board ::: Strategic objectives ::: Tasks & projects
The story so far ::: Areas covered

A force for change

The Alliance sub region of North Nottinghamshire and North Derbyshire is rich in its potential for prosperity. As economic growth gathers momentum, the need has never been greater to ensure employers’ demands for a skilled and adaptable workforce are matched by the provision of high-quality education and skills development opportunities for local people.

Working better together

The Employment & Skills Board aims to provide a proactive forum to help those organisations involved in the provision of employment and skills development by providing opportunities to work better together. By effectively representing the needs of employers and employees, key strategic agencies and the communities of the Alliance sub-region, our aim is to improve the co-ordination of funding, planning and commissioning and maximise the impact of employment and skills investment to the benefit of everyone that lives, works and does business here. [Areas covered]

Organisations involved to date include local employers, regeneration agencies, business support organisations, local authorities, representatives for work based learning, further & higher education, the voluntary / community sector, Jobcentre Plus and the Learning & Skills Council. [Meet the Board]

High quality investments in response to local needs

The Employment & Skills Board is charged with monitoring the effective investment of resources across the North Nottinghamshire and North Derbyshire area to ensure key targets set down by local and strategic frameworks are met. This will include extensive research and evidence gathering and steering the commissioning activities of key funding partners to ensure only the highest standards of project delivery in response to the specific needs of our local economy. [Tasks & Projects]

MEET THE BOARD

The Employment & Skills Board draws together representatives from a broad range of organisations. Members have a common commitment to the importance of cohesive and collaborative working, identifying synergies, de-duplicating effort and delivering against unmet needs in the sub-region.

The Board currently meets quarterly, the most recent Board papers are available in the document directory.

You’ll find more information about individual Board members and the organisations they represent below.

BOARD MEMBERS

CHAIR
Frank Lord, LCA Ltd
Frank Lord has a long standing interest and commitment to the benefits of investing in learning and skills. Currently Chair of the Derbyshire Education Business Partnership, Frank is ideally placed both to represent the needs and interests of the wider business community and to stimulate greater collaboration with local employers in the development of fit-for-purpose training and development opportunities for individuals and businesses in the sub-region.

DEPUTY CHAIR
Andrew Street, Chief Executive
Alliance SSP
www.alliancessp.co.uk
The Alliance SSP’s primary role is to embed strategies that promote enterprise, skills and economic infrastructure and to encourage inward investment so that people from all communities can play their part and share in the benefits of sustainable economic development. The Alliance SSP is responsible for ensuring that regional economic development plans are delivered in the context of the specific challenges affecting those that live, work and do business in the communities of Chesterfield, Mansfield, Worksop, Newark and their surrounding towns and villages.

Kay Adkins, KAM Ltd
www.kamltd.net
Kay Adkins is Managing Director of KAM Ltd, a small business based on the Derbys/Notts border. As an employer and an organisation providing training, she is passionately interested in skills development in the workplace. In addition to being an East Midlands Business Champion, Kay is also an Interim Board Member for the National Skills Academy for Skills Active, an Executive Board Member for Derbyshire Sport and Chair of Bolsover Community Sports Network. Kay's business is very involved in working with the voluntary and community sector and is currently developing and delivering a training programme for volunteers in the London Borough of Newham - home to the Olympic Stadium and host Borough.

Sarah Bentley, Director
ESP (Employment, Skills & Productivity Partnership)
www.esppartnership.org.uk
The ESP is a regional skills partnership created in 2005. The organisation aims to align strategies and funding of public sector bodies involved in employment and skills provision and to work more closely with employers; helping to ensure products and services are fit for purpose and that businesses have the assistance they need to become more competitive.

Janet Charlton, General Manager
Nottinghamshire Training Network (NTN)

www.notts-training-network.co.uk

NTN is dedicated to raising the standards and professionalism of the work based learning and workforce development sector locally, regionall and nationally.

Rosie Duncan, Managing Director
EMQC Ltd

www.emqc.co.uk

Rosie is MD at EMQC Ltd and has been actively involved in promoting individual and business development for the last 20 years. She is also a National Training Awards Judge for the East Midlands. EMQC Ltd are specialists in organisational development, helping businesses and public sector bodies to improve their performance. EMQC also provides high quality assessment services to accredit both public and private sector organisations against a range of nationally recognised standards such as Investors in People and Charter Mark.

Geoff George, Economic Development Manager
Nottinghamshire County Council
www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk
Nottinghamshire County Council is working with its partners to promote a local economy where skills, wage levels and enterprise match or exceed national averages. Nottinghamshire is one of the largest local education authorities in the country. The Council serves a population of over 700,000 people and maintains 356 schools.

Richard Gill, Operations Director
East Midlands Business Limited
www.eastmidlandsbusiness.co.uk
EMB delivers the main Business Link service for Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire & Rutland, Nottinghamshire, Northamptonshire, under contract to emda, the East Midlands Development Agency. EMB has also been contracted by the Learning and Skills Council to provide the skills brokerage aspect of the regional Train to Gain service which operates across the East Midlands.

Don Hayes, Chief Executive
Enable
www.enable.uk.net
Enable is the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Voluntary and Community Sector Learning and Skills Consortium. It was established to enable voluntary organisations and community groups to effectively engage in the development and delivery of the local learning and skills agenda.

Sue Hepworth, Head of Nottinghamshire Health and Social Care Community Workforce Team, hosted by the Nottinghamshire County Teaching Primary Care Trust
Sue represents the interests of the wider Nottinghamshire health community, one of the largest employment sectors in the Alliance sub-region of North Nottinghamshire and North Derbyshire. This newly established Nottinghamshire Health and Social Care Community Workforce Team was developed, to build partnerships with the nine organisations in the county, (Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Trust, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, Nottinghamshire County Teaching PCT, Nottingham City PCT, Bassetlaw PCT, East Midlands Ambulance Service, Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, Nottinghamshire County Council and Nottingham City Council), to form a collaborative. The aim of the team is:

“To maximise capacity and capability of the health and social care workforce in workforce planning and development skills and competencies to ensure service requirements meet future Health and Social Care Community patient need.”

Nigel Jackson, Director of Economic Development - Nottinghamshire
Learning and Skills Council
www.lsc.gov.uk
The LSC has a single goal: to improve the skills of England’s young people and adults to ensure we have a workforce of world-class standard. The LSC is responsible for planning and funding high quality education and training for everyone in England other than those in universities.

Peter Jessop, Business Manager
Derbyshire Training Network
www.thederbyshirenetwork.org
The Derbyshire Training Network has been established to promote, support and actively encourage the culture of lifelong learning and economic development within the Derbyshire area.

Wes Lumley, Chief Executive (Deputy Sonia Coleman)
Bolsover District Council
www.bolsover.gov.uk
Bolsover District Council aims to enhance and improve the wealth profile, wellbeing and quality of life of the communities of Bolsover District. Bolsover District Council is committed to a vision of a district of clean, safe and flourishing neighbourhoods where people are served well by local services delivered to consistent standard of excellence.

Andrew Marsh, Economic Development Manager
Learning and Skills Council
www.lsc.gov.uk
The LSC has a single goal: to improve the skills of England’s young people and adults to ensure we have a workforce of world-class standard. The LSC is responsible for planning and funding high quality education and training for everyone in England other than those in universities.

Jean Pardoe, Chief Executive
Connexions
www.cnxnotts.co.uk
Connexions is the Government's advice and guidance service for all 13 to 19 year olds. It is available throughout England via 47 Connexions Partnerships with teams of personal advisers working with young people. Connexions Nottinghamshire is a company owned by Nottinghamshire Learning & Skills Council, Nottinghamshire County Council and Nottingham City Council.

John Sherwood, General Manager, EasyBags Ltd
www.easybags.net
John Sherwood is General Manager of EasyBags Ltd, a Mansfield based small company specialising in the manufacture and distribution of a unique catering product. With a background in Sales and Marketing management, John is particularly interested in recruitment, training and management and has worked as a company trouble-shooter.

Christine Southwell
Government Office for the East Midlands (GO-EM)
www.goem.gov.uk
GO-EM is the hub of central government in the East Midlands, with ten government departments under one roof. GO-EM works with regional partners and local people to maximise competitiveness and prosperity in the East Midlands and to reflect back the needs of the region to central Government.

Jan Stanley, Regional Organiser, Nottinghamshire & Derbyshire
Federation of Small Businesses
www.fsb.org.uk
The FSB is the largest campaigning pressure group promoting and protecting the interests of the self-employed and owners of small firms. The FSB is committed to a vision of a community that recognises, values and adequately rewards the endeavours of those who are self employed and small business owners within the UK. Formed in 1974, FSB has 200,000+ members across 33 regions and 230 branches.

Tom Stockwell, District Manager
Job Centre Plus, Nottinghamshire
www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk
Jobcentre Plus is a government agency supporting people of working age from welfare into work, and helping employers to fill their vacancies. Job Centre Plus aims to increase the effective supply of labour by promoting work as the best form of welfare and helping unemployed and economically inactive people move into employment By providing high quality and demand-led services to employers, Job Centre Plus helps fill job vacancies quickly and effectively with well-prepared and motivated employees. Working directly with individuals, Job Centre Plus provides assistance to those who face the greatest barriers to employment, enabling them to compete effectively in the labour market and move into and remain in work

Freda Tallantyne, Director
CHEA Partnership (Collaborative Higher Education Alliance)
The CHEA Partnership is a collaboration between eight FE and HE education institutions and local employers across the Alliance sub-region of North Nottinghamshire and North Derbyshire. CHEA enables businesses to engage with higher level learning and skills development thus ensuring training and development opportunities are in line with the needs of local employers and works to raise the profile of Higher Education opportunities for people of all ages in the sub-region. The CHEA partnership is working towards an overarching goal of 700+ new learners involved in training opportunities of at least level 4 or above.

Christine Wood
TUC (Trades Union Congress)
www.tuc.org.uk
Christine represents the trade union movement on the Employment and Skills Board. The Trades Union Congress brings Britain’s unions together to draw up common policies and lobbies the Government to implement policies that will benefit people at work. It also runs an extensive training and education programme for union representatives.
With 66 affiliated unions representing nearly seven million working people from all walks of life, the TUC campaigns for a fair deal at work and for social justice at home and abroad.

OBSERVERS
Stephanie Stubbs, Strategic Partnership Manager, Alliance SSP

SECRETARIAT
Heather Downey, Consultant, Employment & Skills Board

STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES

Employment & Skills Board Strategic Objectives

Integrated, productivity-focussed support for business: Investment in management development, innovation and enterprise support that is driven by and responds to the needs of the sub-region’s employers. Helping to build more successful and sustainable local businesses that offer higher quality employment opportunities for local people.
Maximum impact from local employment & skills investment: Improve the infrastructure and responsiveness of skills supply in the Alliance sub-region in response to the specific needs of the local economy.
Better access to education for young people 14-19: Help improve access for young people to development opportunities including higher education and to secure higher quality employment opportunities.
Broad employment and skills development support for adults at all levels: Helping more people of all ages to take up employment and aspire to better jobs.
Focus on key growth sectors and transferable skills: The Employment & Skills Board has a broad focus on identified sub-regional growth sectors (Logistics; Food & Drink; Heath Care & Public Services; Construction; Tourism & Leisure) alongside a commitment to more general and transferable ‘business to business’ skills.

TASKS & PROJECTS

Employment & Skills Board Tasks

Set and endorse strategic priorities for the sub-region in relation to learning, skills and employability, worklessness reduction and economic productivity
Share and disseminate knowledge and intelligence to help inform and review strategic priorities and provision requirements aimed at meeting the needs of employers and individuals
Review and/or commission strategic research where appropriate to improve intelligence on local labour market dynamics and current and future skills and employment demands
Identify gaps in provision and influence / commission mainstream and discretionary funds to fill these gaps

THE STORY SO FAR

Updated November 2007

The Board has now been in existance for almost a year, chaired by Frank Lord, LCA Ltd.

The full Board meets on a quarterly basis with a small Executive Group, chaired by Geoff George, Nottinghamshire County Council, meeting in between to progress actions.

The Board Terms of Reference and Work Plan can be found in the Document Directory.

Work is currently focused on looking at key sectors for the region, the impact of the current LSC and JCP ESF Co- Financing round, National Skills Academies and supporting Higher Level Skills.

AREAS COVERED

The Employment & Skills Board serves the Alliance area of North Nottinghamshire and North Derbyshire. In North Nottinghamshire, the Alliance sub-region extends to the four districts of Bassetlaw, Newark & Sherwood, Mansfield and Ashfield including the market towns of Mansfield, Newark, Retford and Worksop. In North Derbyshire , the Alliance area spans the districts of North East Derbyshire, Chesterfield and Bolsover.