Agenda item

The Board received an update on apprenticeships and traineeships with particular reference to children who were looked after by the local authority.

The Assistant Director of HR, OD and Engagement asked Members to focus on three areas:

• How the organisations they represented could support the strategy;
• How the work could more closely focus on care leavers; and
• How more care leavers could be directly attracted on to apprenticeships and traineeships.

The new apprenticeships strategy had been agreed in February 2020 and covered both apprenticeships and traineeships.

With reference to traineeships, the team was working closely with the 16-19 NEET Prevention Team.  Traineeships were part of an education and training programme which offered skills development and work experience to young people who wanted to find a job but may not have the necessary skills and experience.  The aim was for young people to move from a traineeship on to an apprenticeship or into employment.  It was important for the two schemes to work together.  A traineeship was not intended for the most disengaged young people or for those who were already in employment.

The apprenticeship scheme was a structured programme which had already seen real successes, providing a qualifications platform at all levels of the organisation, right up to level 8 (an MBA or other leadership and executive qualification).  An apprenticeship would involve learning on the job, with the apprenticeship levy covering training costs but not the individual’s salary.  For an organisation, an apprenticeship could be an important succession planning tool.

The scheme had a real focus on care leavers including:

• The development with the Commercial Team of a Social Value policy to encourage businesses in the Council’s supply chain to take on care leavers as apprentices or trainees.
• The creation of an internal taskforce with the sole focus of supporting care leavers into work or skills programmes.
• Ensuring the Levy Transfer policy required businesses to create opportunities for disadvantaged groups including care leavers.

It was important to recognise some of the challenges the scheme faced.  These included:

• Many care leavers’ areas of interest were not offered by the County Council.
• The number of opportunities for care leavers to be supported through an apprenticeship or traineeship was low, although this was starting to change.
• Current working conditions (ie working from home) were not always conducive to supporting traineeships.

In terms of future action, the new apprenticeship strategy provided a clear focus on care leavers and provided the basis for managers to provide more individual support for young people leaving care.  Every vacancy in WCC and WCF would be shared with the Care Leavers Team to establish whether any were of interest to care leavers.  Any care leavers who wanted to apply would be supported through the recruitment process.

The Head of Learning and Development informed Members that, with reference to the prioritisation of care leavers, the County Council was following the Department for Education Model which allowed for an exception to the standard recruitment process.  This recognised that it was not helpful to subject care leavers to the same rigorous recruitment and selection processes.  The Recruitment Team had a dispensation from the DfE which meant that any care leavers interested in a position would be guaranteed an interview (provided they met the minimum requirements) and offered one to one support.

A Member suggested that it would be important to liaise with district councils as they were also significant employers and had significant supply chains, including in the leisure sector.  The Assistant Director agreed to take forward the suggestion that the Chief Executive of the County Council could discuss this further with the Chief Executives of the District Councils.  This could also be discussed via the Local Enterprise Partnership.  The Chairman agreed that there was a much broader base if the organisations worked together.

A Member expressed support for the scheme and suggested, in relation to corporate parenting, it showed progress being made in treating children who were looked after with the same care that individuals would treat their own children.  It was suggested that contracts with major suppliers should include a requirement to take on apprentices, in particular those who were leaving care.  Members were informed that this was already part of the conversation with suppliers via the Commercial Team.

Further support for the apprenticeship strategy was expressed by Members of the Board and the proposal to extend available opportunities outside of the council into the wider business world was welcomed.

At the suggestion of the Director of Children’s Services, it was agreed that details of the team’s contacts in district councils would be circulated to District Councillors on the Board to allow them to further support the combined corporate parenting responsibility.  The Director went on to suggest that it would be helpful to have tangible targets for each organisation in relation to offering apprenticeships and traineeships to care leavers with organisations holding each other to account and challenging each other to take forward the practical work.

It was confirmed that under new rules recently introduced following the Government’s COVID-19 recovery plan, employers or training organisations could claim up to £1000 to help with an apprentices’ costs such as travel or uniforms.