A report providing an update on activity being undertaken to support young people in the borough to prepare for work and to provide opportunities to upskill Council employees.

The Interim Assistant Director of HR and Organisational Development submitted a report which provided an update on activity being undertaken as part of the Team Reading Programme to support young people in the Borough to prepare for work and see the Council as a potential future employer, whilst also providing opportunities to upskill Council employees.  The report covered four areas Apprenticeships, a corporate work experience programme, mentoring and a proposal that the Council signed the Social Mobility Pledge.  The following documents were attached to the report:

Appendix A - Apprenticeship details as at August 2022;

Appendix B - Apprenticeship three-year Strategy;

Appendix C - 2021/22 Apprenticeship Strategy Performance Update;

Appendix D - Proposed FTE target for each service area and current apprentice numbers.

The report explained that apprenticeships could support the Council’s People Strategy by attracting, recruiting and retaining the best staff and by developing skills, knowledge, competencies and talent so that staff could reach their full potential and make a maximum contribution.  Appendix A provided a breakdown showing the number of apprentices by directorate/team.  The report also gave an update on the Council’s three-year Apprenticeship Strategy, attached at Appendix B.  Appendix C to the report showed the agreed success measures for the Apprenticeship Strategy and progress against these in Year 1 and Year 2.

The report explained that there were challenges with recruitment and retention of apprentices which would be addressed as follows:

·        Increasing the pay for apprentices to the Living Wage Foundation hourly rate which was currently £9.90 per hour, rising to £10.90 per hour on 1 April 2023;

·        Each Assistant/Deputy/Director would be set a target to ensure that 2.3% of posts in their service area were employed as apprentices, excluding any existing staff already undertaking an apprenticeship. This equated to 35 apprentice posts (the Council currently had 20).  A breakdown showing the FTE target for each service area and current apprentice numbers was included in Appendix D.

·        Funding for the 15 new apprentice posts would be created by top-slicing a percentage of existing salary budgets in order to create funding for each service area to appoint the minimum number of apprentices shown in Appendix D.

·        Raising managers’ awareness of the benefits of employing apprentices, and the commitment required of both them and their apprentice, through manager’s briefings, seminars, guidance notes etc.

·        Encouraging cross working between departments if teams do not feel they had capacity to train an apprentice over the full duration of the course.

·        The Council would be allowed to advertise some apprenticeship posts in particular areas to encourage applications, but not discriminate against others that applied from outside those areas.

The report also stated that the HR and Organisational Development team was working with managers across the Council to create a new corporate work experience programme, initially for students in Years 10 and 11 which aimed to show the wide range of career opportunities available, manage work experience placements more efficiently, support more students and provide a more impactful experience aligned to schools’ needs.  The work experience programme would be delivered to students over three separate weeks in the calendar year, allowing teams plenty of notice to plan for placement support.  The new programme had been piloted in February 2023.

The report explained that the Team Reading Programme for 2022/23 included an objective to explore opportunities for RBC managers to mentor young people in the Borough, prioritising secondary schools for young people from the lower income or least affluent areas of the Borough.  Ten organisations had been approached for details about their mentoring programmes, two of which (Starting Point and Chapter 2 Reading) would be supported initially.  Staff would be given the opportunity to volunteer to support these schemes and the Council’s existing Volunteering Policy would be reviewed to ensure that it could accommodate the volunteering commitment required by these mentoring programmes.

Finally, the report explained that the Social Mobility Pledge was a coalition of businesses and universities that encouraged organisations to be a force for good by putting social mobility at the heart of their purpose and committing to outreach, access and recruitment.  Organisations signing the pledge were required to make three commitments:

Outreach      We will work to reach out to schools or colleges to provide coaching through quality careers advice, enrichment experience and mentoring to people from disadvantaged backgrounds or circumstances;

Access          We will work to provide structured work experience and apprenticeship opportunities to people from disadvantaged backgrounds or circumstances;

RecruitmentWe will work to adopt open employee recruitment practices which promote a level playing field for people from disadvantaged backgrounds or circumstances.

The Outreach and Access commitments were covered by the proposals in this report whilst the Recruitment commitment was covered through work with Job Centre Plus and attendance at local job fairs at least once every quarter.  The report recommended that the Council signed the pledge to demonstrate its commitment to social mobility.

Grace Andrews and Maximilian Kalyuzhnov, members of the Youth Parliament, attended the meeting and asked questions of the Committee.

Resolved

(1)      That an increase in the hourly pay rate for apprentices, for example to at least the Living Wage Foundation rate (currently £9.90 per hour, increasing to £10.90 per hour from 1 April 2023), in line with the Council’s commitment to be a Living Wage Foundation employer be approved;

(2)      That each service area be required to ensure that at least 2.3% of their full-time equivalent posts were employed as apprentices.  This excluded current staff who were upskilling through an apprenticeship.  This would create at least 15 new apprentice posts at the Council by March 2024;

(3)      That the Council be able to advertise some apprenticeship posts to certain groups in line with social inclusion objectives, such as care-leavers, those living in the lower income or least affluent areas of the Borough and those with protected characteristics;

(4)      That the Council’s new approach to work experience which would commence with a number of pilot programmes during 2023 be noted;

(5)      That Council staff be offered the opportunity to volunteer as part of a number of mentoring programmes for young people in the Borough;

(6)      That the Council to commit to the Social Mobility Pledge.