On the 23rd March the Derbyshire Public Service Compact will be presenting a breakfast workshop sponsored by University of Derby Corporate and supported by the Derbyshire Network. The event is entitled "How are you preparing to do more fore less ? : Have you got the leaders with the right skills to deliver ?" and will help you keep up to date with current information about education policy developments and how to continue to provide workforce development opportunities in austere times.

At the event key inputs will be delivered by colleagues from the University of Derby, New College Nottingham, Derby College and The Derbyshire Network. The event has a specific focus on promoting leadership and management development for public service professionals and there will be an opportunity to explore opportunities for collaborative working to ensure access to Leadership and Management Programmes. We want to use the interactive, facilitated session to focus in on the results of the recent overarching TNA for the public service sector (produced by the Compact) to explore what the employers need in terms of leadership and management skills to 'deliver more with less'.  We also want to ensure that the workshop leads us into getting agreement on a next stage - to match employer needs to provision with a wider range of potential providers. A full copy of the agenda is available via this link. the The event runs from 8 am until 10.30 am and you will be able to enjoy breakfast on arrival. The cost of the event is £60 per delegate. To book a place all you need to do is to contact the Compact facilitator Chris Donkin via chris@donkinitex.co.uk

I have recieved the following information realting to a Jobs Fair to take place next week from Henry Murray of Jobcentreplus. He writes: 

"Please make public sector professionals aware of a city jobs fair being put on by the Council and organised by myself. It will take place on Tuesday, 24 January and is being staged at the assembly rooms in Derby. It is running in 2 parts: (i) 10 until 2 is aimed at the young unemployed residents of the city - 16 to 24; (ii) 3 pm until 7 pm the Jobsfair is aimed at the 500 City Council employees currently facing redundancy. I have been informed that the Chief Exec of the Council, Adam Wilkinson, has agreed we open it up to ALL employees facing redundancy etc from the public sector/service.

We have invited a large number of employers along and also a number of support organisations who will be on hand on the day. I have  arranged for the HMRC to have a stand and be there to answer any tax related questions people may have."

Hope you can support this event and many thanks to Henry for supplying this information

WLDC and the City of Lincoln Council are co-hosting an Employment and Skills Fair on Thursday the 9th Feb between 10.30 am and 1.30 pm at Riseholme. To find out more please phone 01427 676656 or click here to download a flyer for the event.

Many thanks to Nicoya Palastanga of WLDC for supplying this information
 

The Compact has recently secured support funding from TUC Unionlearn to promote 8 ‘Get on at Work’ events in Lincolnshire and Rutland.

The TUC have invited Chris Donkin to engage with 8 public service organisations (or their partner organisations) in Lincolnshire and offer them support for an event which would feature the following:

Access to On-Line Basics and a chance to log on and try the tasks
Access to a Literacy Skills Check
Access to a Numeracy Skills Check
Access to support from a local training provider (to be nominated by the participant organisation)
Access to the event facilitator – for organisation, delivery of the event and professional support/signposting for further CPD for individuals
Access to and support from TUC Unionlearn (either from local ULRs or a Unionlearn Support Officer … or both) 
 

These events have been commissioned as ‘follow-up’ work following the delivery of 24 Compact supported successful ‘Test the Organisation’ events over the last 18 months. These tests saw over 500 people ‘tested’ with over 200 progressing to basic skills training. The intention (once again) is to put on a ‘learning taster’ (these events will be badged as ‘Get on at Work’ events) to encourage employees/volunteers/service users to sample a learning experience and hopefully then enroll on an appropriate course.

A couple of additional notes about these events:

If your organisation has already taken part in a Test the Organisation event then you are still eligible to participate in this event.

The TUC do not want to restrict this offer to mainstream public sector organisations and an organisation in your supply chain (including a third sector organisation) would be eligible to participate.

Each participating organisation will get £100 from the TUC to support the event (e.g. catering, publicity etc)

The event will probably take about 3 hours (hence an extended lunchtime session or an identified half day would be good)

Chris Donkin is seeking to support the roll out of this initiative before the end of February 2012.
 

If you (or one of your partner organisations) are interested in taking part then please email Chris Donkin via chris@donkinitex.co.uk

The Money Advice Service offer a free advisory financial service to public service employer organisations and PS employees.

Set up by Government, the Money Advice Service offers free, unbiased and independent money advice on the phone, online and through face to face group and one to one sessions. The service can offer support to employers, employees and partners on anything from redundancy, choosing a pension or how to save £1,500 a year

You can try their new health check service or see their Xmas Campaign by clicking this link to find out more.

Or ... to explore how they can help your employees and partners then contact karl.walkinshaw@moneyadviceservice.org.uk

The latest Central England Newsletter from Jobcentreplus is now available. Information on Get Britain Working, the Innovation fund and other JC+ initiatives is available.

To download this newsletter please click this link.

Many thanks to Derrick Brown of Jobcentreplus for providing this bulletin

As regular visitors to the site will know the L&R Compact have supported many 'Test the Organisation' events. In addition to the Reports on the 'tests' that are available from this site, you can now access two Case Studies by clicking the links below

Skills Linc Support Testing Times in Lincolnshire !

NKDC Test Event - the test and the follow-up 

Issue 13 (Nov 2011) of the Learning Lincs Training Bulletin is now available via this link:

http://www.involvinglincs.org.uk/documents/issue%2013%20nov%202011.pdf

The courses available in this brochure may well give public sector (as well as third sector) organisations a chance to get cost-effective solutions for basic training issues (e.g. IT, Health & Safety, First Aid etc)

Many thanks to Janet Clark of Learning Lincs for providing this information 

Many thanks to Derrick Brown of Jobcentreplus for the following information re ACAS training:

If fellow members of the PS Compact are not on the e-mail distribution list from ACAS, then they may be interested to know that they run from time to time interesting seminars that are relavent to the Public Sector as employers. The attached is for information, you can see from below there is a link to receive the updates direct or forward to a friend if you so wish

https://obs.acas.org.uk/ViewEvent.aspx?EventId=185861

Many thanks to Julie Harris (Compact Stalwart and now working at the University of Derby) for this update:

Dear Public Service Compact Member,

The University of Derby Corporate (UDC) has developed a number of short courses that maybe of particular interest to member organisations of the Public Service Compact in these current times of change.

'Managing organisational change' and 'What is emotional intelligence?' form part of the Managers Toolkit and are being delivered in the next few weeks. The link below provides more information and details of how to register. Places are limited and will be filled on a first come basis.

http://www.derby.ac.uk/corporate/courses/short-courses/managers-toolkit

The following link takes you to the short course page on the UDC website and gives you information about all of the forthcoming courses and registration details.

http://www.derby.ac.uk/corporate/courses/short-courses

If you would like to discuss any of the courses or cannot see what you are looking for then please get in touch. We are currently developing our short course portfolio for January 2012 onwards and would welcome the opportunity to work with you on providing the right solutions to meet your business needs.

Kind Regards ... Julie

Jason Cowell has recently reported on the lessons / issues / benefits of using a MLE within Lincolnshire Police

His report can be accessed by clicking this link

Many thanks to Jason for this contribution

Now in its ninth year, the annual NCWE Awards are designed to reward organisations that offer outstanding placement opportunities and encourage work experience and graduate internship providers to continue to raise quality standards.

The Awards give employers the chance to be rewarded for the thought, time and effort they have put into helping students or graduates get the very best from their placement and enhancing their employability. They also highlight the business benefits that students have brought to a company.

Anyone can nominate an employer for an award - a student, graduate, careers adviser, or the employer themselves.

Click this link for more deatils.

http://www.work-experience.org/ncwe_awards_2012.htm

Thanks to Janette Goodchild for sending this information for publication on this site.

The following public sector professionals have offered to be 'work shadowed'. Many thanks to Paul, Jane and Nicoya. Please feel free to get in touch directly - email addresses given below.

Jane Newman (City Of Lincoln Council)
Job Role : Work Based Learning Officer
Jane.Newman@lincoln.gov.uk

Specialising in Apprenticeships and links to other Public Sector employers and National Apprenticeship service
What would you gain observing me  - would be tailored to peoples needs
An insight into the day to day and strategic aspects related to developing and running a successful wide ranging apprenticeship programme
A chance to meet some apprentices and see how apprentices can benefit your business and why you should employ them
Widening awareness of how a City Council operates
How the apprenticeships work overlaps with HR, legal, Support, Internal and external agencies and how complex the subject can be and why we offer the support we do to other organisations to enable them to employ young people

Paul Collins (Boston College)
Job role : Director of Business Development
paul-c@boston.ac.uk

Responsible for employer engagement, commercial income generation, apprenticeships, international and HE development.
I think it would be useful for someone who wanted to gain a perspective on working in further education and the issues effecting a senior manager in this sector.

Nicoya Palastanga (West Lindsey District Council)
Job Role : Employment and Skills Project Manager
Nicoya.Palastanga@west-lindsey.gov.uk

My role is about encouraging and promoting learning in the community, including with employers, but also looking at how to tackle worklessness. The role doesn’t exist elsewhere in Lincolnshire,

Thanks to support from the Skills Funding Agency and TUC Unionlearn the Lincs and Rutland Compact was able to facilitate seven more 'Test the Organisation' events in the public and third sectors in Lincolnshire.

Over 100 people were tested with more than 50% likely to access subsequent numeracy support. The report on the latest round of tests can be downloaded from this web site by clicking on this link 

the Public Services Coaching Network project is being rolled out by the NHS and involving partner contributions from the Police and local authorities.

The Network is made up of trained and experienced coaches in Lincolnshire's public services organisations who can offer coaching on a reciprocal basis to colleagues in other public services organisations, including County and District Councils, the NHS and the Police.

A recent Steering Group meeting agreed that going forward the Steering Group should stay in touch with and connected to this project. The web address for the project is:

www.lincolnshirecommunityhealthservices.nhs.uk/coachingpool/node/32

Janette Goodchild of the Compact's R&R Group wishes to alert Compact members re the opportunity for CPD available soon - she writes:

Here is a link to a flyer with details of the next two Lincolnshire CIPD events, I wondered if you would alert PS compact members to these and also advertise on the website. Events are open to anyone with an interest in the subject or who wants to come along and network. The next meet is on Wednesday 16th November from 7pm and promises to be an interesting evening exploring whether personal bias or logical thinking as the upper hand in our decisions when recruiting people/hiring help. Our speaker for the evening is Dr Pete Jones a Chartered Psychologist. Cost for non-members is £15 and for members £5.

Hope you can support the event on the 16th November

The Pearson Centre for Policy and Learning have published their October update. Please see

http://www.pearsoncpl.com/category/updates/ 

for 'Policy Watch' update. Thanks to Paul Collins of the L&R PS Compact for providing this line

The excellent inputs from Sue Fielding of Jobcentreplus and Debbie Scott from the Princes Trust delivered at the recent MakingDerbyshire Work event are now available for download.

Please go to the Derbyshire page and look under the Workforce Development heading

Coolleagues ... please note this plea from Sandy Morrell at Lincolnshire County Council ... hope you can help !

LCC are committed to developing a excellent graduate programme and currently have seven graduates on placements throughout Lincolnshire.  The graduates would benefit from having an external mentor to assist them in their personal development and to share their knowledge and experiences of working in a public sector organisation.  If you are able to commit to mentoring a graduate in Lincolnshire, meeting about four times a year I would love to hear from you.

Please note Sandy' email address is sandra.morrell@lincolnshire.gov.uk

Michelle Whitby of Lincs Police advises:

I am responsible for planning and co-ordinating a variety of training for Lincolnshire Police and we currently have places available on the following course:

IOSH Safety for Senior Executives course at Police HQ, Nettleham Thursday 6 October 2011 - 9.30am until 4.30pm

The cost for this 1 day course is £85.00 plus £25.00 for IOSH certification, per person.  Refreshments and lunch will not be provided, however there is a canteen and vending machines on site.

This course is delivered by Human Applications an external company who have been delivering a variety of Risk Management training for Lincolnshire Police for a number of years.

I would be most grateful if you could filter this information through to your colleagues in the Compact, and ask them to contact me direct for further details or to reserve a place.

You can get more info about this course by clicking this link

Many thanks to Michelle Whitby for this contribution.

Peter Fleming of the LGA Improvement Board writes: 

Dear colleagues,

It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to this first, new style, monthly Improvement Bulletin.

As newly-appointed Chairman of the LGA Improvement Board, I am keen to ensure that the work we do here at the LG Group to lobby on your behalf and to support councils to improve is grounded in what councils say they need. But I am also clear that we need to encourage and at times challenge councils to innovate and experiment.

So over the next 12 months our priorities will be to:

support strong and effective local leadership
promote innovation and experimentation and share emerging lessons widely
help councils become more productive
influence the transparency agenda in a way that helps councils strengthen local accountability
help councils continue to improve – in particular utilising our Taking the Lead seven-point support offer.
I am also clear that we need to get better at exploiting new insights and fresh perspectives that come from forging new links with a wider range of partners. That's why I am so pleased to be able to commend to you the Design Council's Public Services by Design programme (see separate item).

I look forward to working with you and for you – please do not hesitate to let me have your thoughts or suggestions about this work (email Improvement@local.gov.uk).

Cllr Peter Fleming
Chairman, LGA Improvement Board 

Paul Collins, The Chair of the Lincs and Rutland PS Compact Learning and Development Group, is showing a lead in the use of new technolgies by recording his view of the world on a personal blog.

The blog features a rainbow of content stretching from 'Worst Tombola Prize Ever' to the Governments Free Schools initiative.

To read the views of 'Captain Paul' please visit

Children’s Links (CL) is a progressive and innovative national charity that works with children, young people, families, communities and other children’s sector professionals to improve the quality of children’s life experiences and ensure that they can achieve their full potential.

CL's work includes leading the field as: a national specialist training provider for children’s services; a play developer and play services provider in many different environments including forces communities; a family support provider in many differing communities including prisons and immigration centres; a childcare provider 0 – 16 and a sector support organisation.

CL would like to recruit Trustees to join the Board of our growing National Charity.  We have several vacancies and are particularly keen to attract:

o Young people who may be joining a Board for the first time and still be in school.
o People with experience in finance, ICT, fundraising, marketing, and commercial business.
o Trustees from the Hampshire area where we are currently expanding our portfolio.

Trustees are vital to the success of CL and this is an exciting opportunity for new trustees to join a dynamic organisation, get personal experience at Board level and make a real difference to children, young people and their families. 

The Board meets 6 times per year for a minimum of 2 hours a session on a voluntary basis; once appointed CL pay for out-of-pocket expenses. Induction and other support or training will also be encouraged to enable you to fulfil this key role.

Application is by CV with a covering letter to explain your interest in joining the CL Board.  The deadline for applications is 10.00 on 19th September 2011. 

Interviews will be offered in one of two locations please indicate your preference:

o In Hampshire between 17.00 and 19.00 on 26th September 2011 in Aldershot, Hampshire.

o In Lincolnshire at our Horncastle office in October, date to be confirmed.

Applications from young people and individuals from all sections of the community are welcomed.

If you would like an application pack, please contact Childrens Links on 01507 528300 or email HR@childrenslinks.org.uk quoting the job title.

West Lindsey District Council will be hosting their popular annual Employemnt and Skills Fair on. Training providers, local employers and third sector organisations wil all be in attendance supporting this event.

To download a flyer for this event click here

Find out more about jobs, training, skills and advice available in West Lindsey - please try to support this event 

Thanks to Nicoya Palastanga of West Lindsey District Council for providing this information

The University of Lincoln have advised of an intersting vacancy for a Learning and Development Co-ordinator now being advertised.

For more details please visit www.lincoln.ac.uk/home/vacancies/

Many thanks for Tracey Flynn of the University for providing this information

ETS are presenting two workshops in Boston for those who are thinking of setting up a social enterprise. This workshop could be of powerful assistance to those working in public service who are faced with or threatend by redundancy and wish to plot their next venture - as a member or leader of a social enterprise.

The workshops are on Sat 9th July and Thurs 14th July and are very reasonably priced. For more details click this link to download a flyer.

Many thanks to Shamima Noorduddin of ETS for providing this information

Elizabeth Wilson of HotProspects has kindly sent through an update on how HotProspects are supporting graduate recruitment and also how you can get involved - she writes:

"Just a quick note to let you know that although much of the funding available for skills and recruitment has ceased, ERDF’s £1,000 grant-funding towards graduate recruitment is still available through HotProspects – until September.

The grant allows SMEs in the East Midlands to access fully supported recruitment for project-based or permanent graduate level positions, so if any of your business clients or contacts are considering a project requiring higher level skills they will probably be eligible for the grant.

In addition, if the project is related to environmental sustainability, the business can claim 25% cash back on the graduate’s salary for up to a year. This is available on a first-come first-served basis and there are only 8 slots left.

HotProspects only have until September to get as many SMEs as possible to take advantage of the funding, so I’d be grateful if you could spread the word.  

I’ve attached a Best Practice Guide to Internships, which may be of use to your contacts, and also a leaflet with HotProspects’ contact details. Please feel free to pass these on."

Many thanks to Elizabeth for this update and please take a minute to download the docs she refers to by clicking the above links.

Issue 7 (April 11) of the Learning Lincs Training Bulletin is now available. This issue has 21 pages of courses that can be accessed by both the public sector and the third sector. Everything from Commissioning and Procurement to Leadership and Management.

Please have a look through the bulletin. You can download a copy by clicking this link.

Many thanks to Janet Clark of Learning Lincs for providing this bulletin.

Karl walkinshaw of CFEB is a great supporter of the Compacts and he writes to tell us that CFEB is being re-branded as The Money Advice Service. Karl and his organisation will continue to offer high quality services to the public sector. Karl has emailed in with an update - please see below:

"I am delighted to let you know, from Monday 4th April, we will become the Money Advice Service, a new independent advice organisation here to help everyone manage their money better. My email address will change to karl.walkinshaw@moneyadviceservice.org.uk and our new website will be available at moneyadviceservice.org.uk. My telephone number and postal address will stay the same.  

As well as a new name and branding, we will continue to offer the services you have been receiving as well as some exciting new ones. All of these services continue to be funded through the finance industry and at no cost to yourself and your organisation. Here’s a quick summary:

Making the Most of Your Money

Our workplace offering will continue to add value to your employee benefits package and we can offer support to those facing redundancy. If you have these sessions booked in with us rest assured we will deliver these for you. If you have not yet booked sessions as part of your employee benefits package, there has never been a better time and you will be some of the first to receive the new presentation. 

Redundancy Handbook / Retirement Handbook and Parents Guide to Money.

You will be able to order the new versions of these handbooks from the 4th April. Email me with your order and we will send you them direct.

 A5 Money Advice Guides and Booklets

You will continue to be able to order booklets direct from myself and from our new website, including Making the Most of Your Money booklets. The new booklets will be updated and branded the Money Advice Service. Feel free to email me on Monday with details of your order.

Money Advice Line

Our Money Advice line is available for anyone seeking money advice on 0300 500 5000.

 Money Advice Face to Face Service (NEW)

From 4th April our new unbiased face to face money advice service goes live. For more details of how to book this service please contact me.

Money Advice Health Check (NEW)

This new web based interactive tool is currently in development and we are seeking opportunities to partner with organisations who would like to add value to their current website and intranet offering. Please contact me direct for more information.

Best wishes

Karl Walkinshaw | Regional Manager | East Midlands | Consumer Financial Education Body (CFEB)

With almost 50 registered users for the 'Community of Prcatice' platform, Heidi DeWolf has kindly produced a basic 'User Guide'.

To download the User Guide click here

Many thanks to Heidi for producing this guide. To register as a member of the Community of Practice please email Chris Donkin via chris@donkinitex.co.uk for an invite

Earlier this year the Prime Minister, David Cameron announced plans for 16 year olds to take part in the National Citizen Service, a flagship initiative supporting The Big Society agenda. The Lincolnshire & Rutland Education Business Partnership (The EBP) is delighed to announce that Lincolnshire will play a leading role in this pilot, working in partnership with the Cabinet Office and the Department for Education. From over 250 applications, The EBP will be one of only 12 organisations to pilot this innovative scheme which will act as a gateway to the Big Society for many young people, supporting them to develop the skills and attitudes they need to become more engaged with their communities and become active and responsible citizens.

During the summer holidays of 2011, The EBP will be working with 120 young people aged 16 from the City of Lincoln and the East Coast of Lincolnshire. This pilot seeks to encourage social mixing amongst young people from different communities. The young people will be encouraged to work together as they participate in a programme of activities, all aiming to develop young people into responsible citizens who are supportive of their local community.

To find out more about the service and/or to get involved contact Sarah Hastings of EBP by emailing sarah.hastings@eblo.org.uk

Don’t miss the opportunity to highlight your Apprenticeship successes!

 The closing date for the Apprenticeship Awards is now only two weeks away and we want to have the best possible representation from the most outstanding Apprenticeship employers and apprentices from across the country.

For more information on how to enter click this link.

The e-version of the Conference Delegate pack is now availbale for download and can be 'grabbed' by visiting

http://www.empscompacts.org.uk/landr/seconf.asp

Please visit this web site after the event for feedback from the Conference

The 'Test the Organisation' initiative for 2011 is now well and truly up and running. The project is co-funded by The Skills Funding Agency and the TUC but is delivered by the Compact and it's member organisations.

Taking part this year are ELDC, NKDC, NHS Lincolnshire, Bishop Grossteste and Boston College from the Public Sector. From the third sector, Abbey Access Centre, Voluntary Action Rutland, Childrens Links and Hartsholme Community Centre. Not all 'tests' have taken place yet but it seems clear that the target of 200 people screened for numeracy issues will be considerably exceeded.

Keep visiting this site for furthe updates.

Following the recent meeting of the R&R Group they have decided to focus their future attention on:

(i) taking advantage of public sector funding for training and development; (ii) what training is available for public service employers; (iii) procurement of training; (iv) support for public service workers facing or threatened by redundancy and (v) the role of the third sector in providing services post the CSR.

For more details on how to get involved with the work of this group email The Chair via angela.stansfield@jobcentreplus.gsi.gov.uk

The Compact Working Group Chairs have decided to combine the L&D and L&M Working Groups. In essence this is is a re-merging of the two groups as the L&M group were constituted in the Spring of 2010 to focus solely on Leadership and Management issues.

The aspiration of the younger group was to act as a 'task and finish' forum to develop the use of IT in L&M and to disseminate good practice via a series of workshops. With these major goals achieved, the groups has basically 'finished its task' !

The re-mereged L&D Group will be Chaired by Paul Collins 

With the Conference still almost a month away the bookings for the event have just hit the 50 mark. However, the venue (Bishop Grossteste University College) has a large hall and more can be accommodated.

To book a place on this event email Chris Donkin via chris@donkinitex.co.uk

At a meeting yesterday of the Chairs of the PS Compact Working Groups a way forward was brokered that has secured the future of the Compact until at very least December 2011.

The solution is that some of the larger member organisations will pay a subscription fee to fund facilitation support. It is anticipated that there will still be some funding left over to finance a Compact 'Good Practice Event' in June 

Thanks to contributions from subscriber orgnisations, funded facilitation support will be available to the Compact until (at least) early summer.

It is still not too late to contribute and if your organisation wishes to fund specific Compact activity then in the first instance you should contact the Chair of the Steering Group Jackie Hewlett Davies via the Compact facilitator by emailing chris@donkinitex.co.uk

Investing in Volunteers for Employers is the UK award recognising commitment to best practice in employer supported volunteering. It is designed for any size of company that supports its employees to volunteer and is flexible enough to recognise the full range of volunteering that may be offered by an employer.

Investing in Volunteers for Employers will provide your business with the confidence that employees are volunteering within a well managed programme that best supports your community.

Through a structured step by step process, Investing in Volunteers for Employers supports you to evaluate your current practice and benchmark your work against a nationally recognised standard.

The Standard is managed locally by the lead volunteer development agency of each individual country of the UK.

For more information visit http://iive.investinginvolunteers.org.uk

Lifelong Learning UK is delighted to present a refreshed and updated Workforce Strategy. We have worked with the National Partner Group to refresh and update the Workforce Strategy to make sure it can support the further education sector through current changes.

This year in an exciting new approach, we are working with members of the National Partner Group to produce four supplementary documents for the further education communities of work based learning, adult and community learning, colleges and specialist colleges. These practical documents will support each community to interpret and act on the priorities and themes of the Workforce Strategy in a way relevant to them.

The report was produced by LLUK in partnership with the Association of Learning Providers and through consultation with work based learning providers.Other supporting documents will be made available on our website in March.

Weblink is:  http://www.lluk.org/2011/01/a-refreshed-workforce-strategy-for-the-further-education-sector-in-england

Following the Compact Steering Group meeting held earlier this week, it has been decided that the first Good Practice Event to be hosted under the new 'event driven' regime will be abreakfast workshop entitled "Supporting Your Workforce from Transition to Transformaton".

The event will be hosted by Derby City Council and will feature inputs from Job Centre Plus, Derby City Council and The Derbyshire Learning and Development Consortium. To reserve a delegate place email chris@donkinitex.co.uk

Do you seek a new career or relationship? Want to improve your health, wealth and boost your confidence? A workshop to be held at the end of the month may be of interest to you.

It will be an interactive empowering and inspirational morning with attendees taking away valuable tools and techniques to they can use their own ‘Sat Nav’ for life’s journey to their chosen destination. The workshop will look at how thoughts and feelings drive our behaviours. How our values and beliefs can limit achievement of dreams. There will be an opportunity to take part in an hour long coaching session too.

Beverley Simms was a great supporter of the Compact when working in the sector and is now working indepently and will be facilitating this event. To book please visit: www.eventelephant.com/journeytosuccess 

The Derbyshire Compact will in future be focussed around arranging and delivering good practice events. From Jan 2011 the role of the Steering Group will be to plan and deliver these quarterly events.

The first event promoted by this new regime will be an event centred around 'Making the transition to the new political environment' to be held in March 2011. Keep visiting the news section of this web site for more details as they are confirmed. 

CVS Northamptonshire have just published their training schedule for 2011. It is packed with interesting courses including 'what to do in the event of redundancy' which may be of interest to some in the sector at present.

To download this brochure please click here.

Many thanks to John Stroud for providing this information 

TUC unionlearn has run an innovative project "Unions Brokering Management Skills" which is sadly drawing to a close and they wish to invite you and the employers you work with to the dissemination event, at which they can share their findings and report on the many successes the project has had on business and individuals. The aim is to stimulate further management and leadership training amongst employers enabling workers to achieve and aspire high level qualifications. The event is designed to be interactive with 2 short workshops, "East Midlands has Talent" and "Developing Talent" run by the TUC's training partners.

Full details of times and venue and booking arrangements are available via this link. Spaces are limited and a quick response would secure your place.

Many thanks to Mick Brightman of TUC Union Learn for providing this invitation.

Beverley Simms was an active Compact member when working at Northampton College. She is now working independently and is offering to act as an Equality and Diversity Coach for sector organisations.

Beverley has a wealth of knowledge and experience of Equality and Diversity attained whilst working for Northampton College and the Learning and Skills Council. She has worked at strategic and operational levels supporting creation and delivery of policies, contributing to development of Single Equality Schemes, conducting Equality Impact Assessments, supporting the assessment and subsequent award of Investors in Diversity to Northampton College, supporting recruitment campaigns to increase minority staff into senior management positions.

To find out more of how Beverley could support your organisation - please click here

NIACE are holding an online workshop on the 13th January to explore and disseminate ways of using new technologies to deliver informal adulta nd community learning. As many public service employees access ACL courses this is obviously of interest to the sector,

To find out more about this virtual event please click here.

Many thanks to Wendy Coy of Learning Lincs for provding this information.

A comprehensive list of adult training opportunities that public service employees may wish to access has been supplied to the Compact.

Please click here for a link to the Training Bulletin produced by Learning Lincs and Lincs2gether.

It lists numerous local, regional and national skills, learning and workforce development opportunities.  Thanks to Wendy Coy of Learning Lincs for providing this information. We hope it proves to be useful to many.

Northamptonshire Probation Trust is seeking exceptional candidates to deliver the following roles,
 
• Community Engagement Manager
 
• Interventions, Partnerships & Commissioning Manager

The roles have a starting salary of £34,677 and are an opportunity to shape the delivery of Offender Services for the benefit of our community.  For further information please visit www.northants-probation.org.uk ... or the links below for more details of each vacancy

• Community Engagement Manager
 
• Interventions, Partnerships & Commissioning Manager

Many thanks to Julie Bradley of Northamptonshire Probation Service for providing the above information

Lincolnshire County Council have recently published their Skills for Life Brochure detailing where public service employees can go to get help to address literacy, language and numeracy issues. You can download a copy of this brochure by clicking this link.

The LCC have also produced their GROW brochure with details of all Ad Ed courses. These courses ar open to sector employees. The prospectus can be obtained by clicking the link below.

http://www.lincolnshire.gov.uk/section.asp?sectiontype=topic&catid=1934

 Many thanks to Silvia Hanley of LCC for supplying this informatiom. 

The Lincolnshire Diversity Partnership have just produced their first newsletter. The aim is simple 'to keep E&D firmly on the agenda in these difficult times'. A bright and well produced document, the newsletter with up to date information on current developments in this area. The newsletter is available for download by clicking this link.

Many thanks to Alison Smith of Bishop Grotesste University College for supplying this newsletter.

Northamptonshire County Council is hosting a Big Society summit at Kettering Conference Centre on Saturday 2nd October 2010 in partnership with the Northamptonshire Community Foundation.

The aim of the all-day event will be to develop a common understanding of what Big Society means for the county and some of the early steps we can take along the journey to helping communities to help themselves. The Summit will also serve as a showcase for some of the projects and initiatives already in operation across the county which demonstrate the principles of Big Society. The agenda will include interactive working, keynote addresses from notable individuals and the opportunity to question them, as well as case studies and workshops. it is expected that the day to last from 9:15am to 4:15pm.

For more information or to book a place please follow the link below;

http://www.northamptonshire.gov.uk/en/news/Latestnews/Pages/BigSociety.aspx

Kerry Senatore of Connexions writes to Compact member organisations via this web site 

I am pleased to be able to invite you to the county’s first ‘Inspiring Achievement Employer Awards’ at The Castle Theatre, Wellingborough on Wednesday 3rd November 2010 from 6.30-9.30pm.

With over 70 nominations from schools and their partners these awards celebrate the impact a huge number of local employers have on young people in education.

The awards ceremony will be an opportunity for schools and colleagues to reward our local employers for their input. Compéred by Jon Sleightholme, our ex-England rugby player, with entertainment from various talented young people across the county the evening should be one to remember!

I have attached an invitation for your organisation. Please could you ensure your Chief Executive, Head Teacher or Senior Management are made aware of the invitation as well as any other staff members who have been involved in employer engagement.

I hope you or a colleague will be able to attend on the evening.
Please contact us on 01604 614939 to confirm your attendance by 1st October 2010.

Thanks to Kerry for this contribution and a flyer for this event can be downloaded by clicking this link

The link here http://www.lgcplus.com/5018558.blog provides a good update on the list of Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) and you can do a search for latest info on LEP Proposals on Google since there appear to be stories or blogs released regularly.

The proposal by North Lincs who wish to have a Humber LEP is available via this link http://www.northlincs.gov.uk/NorthLincs/News/MinistersNowConsideringLEPP
roposals.htm. 
 
Our Greater Lincolnshire proposal is available on the LCC website or the Lincolnshire Enterprise website. www.lincolnshire-enterprise.com
 
The Peterborough/Cambs proposal is available via this link
 
www.yourlocalenterprisepartnership.co.uk/.../Gr-Cambridge-Gr-Peterborough-Local-Enterprise-Partnership.pdf 
 
A total of 56 bids to set up local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) have been submitted to the coalition Government.

The figure has been confirmed by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills following yesterday's national deadline for bids.

The University of Northampton are hosting a 'Highway to Health' conference in partnership with Aim Higher and the NHS on the 14th October. This is a chance to find out more on NHS careers, progression routes and about the advantages of working in the NHS.

To download a poster that contains details of how to apply for a delegate place - please click here.

Many thanks to Ann Comerford of Aim Higher for providing this information.

The minutes of the May meeting of the E&D Practitioners Forum are available for download. Please click this link to view:

http://www.empscompacts.org.uk/landr/docs/LincsandRutland/LDP%20Minutes%2026th%20May.doc

Enable (the VCS Umbrella Organisation for Training and Development in Notts and Nortahants) have recently produced a new briefing on 'Apprenticeships and the Voluntary Sector'. The briefing identifies 'what an Apprentice is', 'How does the Apprenticeship scheme work' and also the benefits to a third sector organisation in taking on an Apprentice.

The briefing can be downloaded by clicking this link.

Many thanks to Alexis Rich of Enable for supplying this information. 

West Lindsey District Council are hosting an 'Employment and Skills Fair' on Tuesday the 7th September in Gainsborough between 10 am and 2 pm. To find out more please phone 01427 676657 or click here to download a flyer for the event.

Many thanks to Nicoya Palastanga of WLDC for supplying this information

Catherine Klimes has recently contacted this web site to give us some good news from the University of Northampton. She write:

I thought the Compact web site visitors would like to hear some good news regarding Hayley Fountain - a student who was mentored by two colleagues from the Northamptonshire Learning and Disability Partnership Board earlier this year through the University's Pilot Disability Mentoring Scheme.

She graduated back in July 2010 and went on to secure a post through the University's Funded Graduate Internship Scheme. She joined a small business called ‘Artclass’ based  in our University Portfolio Centre at our Avenue Campus. The studio is involved in a range of things, and from what I understand, her employer is thrilled with Hayley and hopes very much he might be able to retain her once the funded Internship comes to an end at the end of next month.The work suited Hayley as it was directly in her field  and as the hours were part time it also fitted well around her medical considerations. I think the work the mentors did with Hayley went along way in giving her the confidence to apply for and secure her Internship and the University will definitely be calling on her to act as a role model and case study.

Many thanks to Catherine from the University of Northampton for providing this excellent news item,

The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy have recently published a guide for public sector managers entitled "Leading in Hard Times". The booklet is a response to the new contraints that sector managers now find themesleves working under. The guidance is for everyone involved in the leadership of public services and can be downloaded by clicking the link below

http://www.empscompacts.org.uk/landr/docs/LincsandRutland/CIPFA_Leading_in_Hard_Times_June_20101.pdf

Many thanks to Andy Brookes of Lincolnshire County Council for sending in this report for dissemination.

Recently there has been a toolkit produced by the Homes and Communities Agency to help large organisations procure services more effectively ... and address the skills agenda at the same time. The foreword to the toolkit states: 

At any time, maintaining and creating jobs is a priority. Against the backdrop of the current economic downturn, now more than ever it is absolutely vital. As the national housing and regeneration agency, we have an important role to play in maximising employment opportunities, as well as helping to ensure that industry has the
necessary skills to build the homes and communities the country needs.

We believe that homes and jobs should go hand in hand and we’re working hard to safeguard and create employment and skills opportunities for local people through our investment in housing. That is why we are embedding employment and skills initiatives in our operations and encouraging our partners to do the same.

We’re committed to providing practical advice to support this work. So in partnership with legal and procurement experts, we’ve developed an employment and skills guidance and toolkit for registered providers.
This guidance will help our partners to develop and implement robust employment and skills strategies and build requirements into the procurement processes of construction projects. It provides a framework for registered providers, contractors and the supply chain and includes tender documentation, templates for procurement and contract
clauses, benchmarks that set outputs required per scheme and best practice examples of successful employment and skills initiatives sourced from across the country.

This guidance builds on government and local authority guidance previously commissioned by ConstructionSkills. The full guidance document is avialble for dowload by clicking the link below.

Please note that although the guidance is contruction specific it may be that the information will be of interest to the public sector more widely.

http://www.empscompacts.org.uk/docs/Nottinghamshire/Developer-Contractor-Guidance%20for%20Eand%20S.pdf

Following on from the presentation by Shared Service Archirects at the Northants L&D meeting in June, the 'Architects' are now hosting a number of one day workshops. Manny Gatt of Shared Services Architects writes:

After six months of research and following a successful pilot earlier this year, we are ready to launch our ‘Accelerating Innovation in Shared Services’ one-day workshop.

Co-designed with Professor Victor Newman, a leading exponent in the field off ‘fast innovation’ and forged from the practical experiences of public sector professionals leading shared service projects, this one-day master-class has been specifically designed to build the skills and knowledge in innovation and creative techniques across shared service project teams.

You’ve already experienced the shared service architects approach to learning. Academically rooted, practitioner focused, our shared service architect's toolbox and taught programmes has received 100% recommendations from over 200 public sector delegates who have attended our programmes. Our new workshop adopts the same principles.

Delegates attending the ‘Accelerating Innovation in Shared Services’ workshop will receive the ‘Innovation in Shared Service Toolbox' containing a suite of tools, techniques and templates that can be used immediately and are proven to have a real and lasting impact on the creativity and breakthrough thinking of teams.

We have produced a one-page introduction to Victor Newman’s “Accelerating Innovation in Shared Services’ as a pdf attached with this news item for download

To download a flyer for the workshops please click this link 

Newark and Sherwood District Council are currently supporting three Apprentices. The Apprentices are loving it and the organisation is benefitting from the strong contribution from the youngsters.

Read more about this impressive success story by clicking here

Many thanks to Sue Kimber of the Council for providing this Case Study

The 'hand in glove' relationship between the NHS in Nottinghamshire and TUC unionlearn was evident again during a very effective partnership aarrangement that sought to encourague participation in learning during Adult Learners Week.

This year the focus was on wellbeing within the learning agenda and ULRs within the NHS helped stage a number of successful events during the week.

A Case Study of the events can be accessed by clicking this link

Many thanks to Jo Beckwith of the NHS for supplying this information

Last month the Shared Services Architects were kind enough to give a presentation at the Northamptonshire Compact Learning and Development Theme Group meeting. They have now provided the Compact with an e-copy of their Summer 2010 Magazine.

In this issue there are Case Studies, reports on collaboration in FE and also a very informative article on 'Shared HR in local Government'.

To download a copy of this e-mag please click this link

Further to the news item relating to the Regional Skills Strategy posted yesterday (see below) EMDA have now published an 'East Midlands Skills Priorities Statement' setting out the skills required to support economic recovery and growth in the region.

The statement can be downloaded by clicking this link

EMDA are conducting a consultation process to canvass opinions on what should constitute the regional skills strategy. The deadline for responses has just passed and the NHS have submitted some interesting views including the following in response to the question: What kind of skills do you feel that young people need to make them work ready?

How to behave in the work environment, getting used to a 37.5 hour week, health and safety, interview skills, application forms rather than CVs (NHS does not accept CVs)

Customer care, communication, verbal and non-verbal, good listening skills, how to work in a team, partnership working.

To be aware of what employability skills are through greater links with business and education and teachers/advisors becoming aware of them too.

The full NHS response can be downloaded by clicking this link.

Many thanks to Jo Beckwith the Widening Participation Manager of the NCTPCT for providing this information

Leading By example Toolkit. Is a self assessment & reference tool developed by Local Authorities and JCP Plus to help Public Sector organisations assess where they are with Workforce development issues such as Apprenticeships, LEP, staff development etc. You can access more information and the background to this using the following link:

https://www3.jgpskills.co.uk/leadingByExample/Public/Report.ashx?r=12003_1

Although it refers specifically to Local Authorities, the toolkit can be equally useful for the NHS too and this message was promoted at one of the workshops during the Working for Wellness event in Nottingham.

As part of Adult Learners Week staff in the Culture and Adult Education department of the Lincolnshire County Council took part in a Learning at Work Day. Part of the day included staff having access to the 'Test the Organisation' resources for numeracy and literacy. The tests proved very popular and here is some feedback from the participants

“Interesting to find your own gaps of knowledge”

“Doing the maths and English tests has given me a good insight into them and will help me to empathize with my customers”

“It was a real challenge to get the grey matter working; but enjoyed it!!”

“Very well invigilated and made me feel welcome and comfortable and I really enjoyed the test”

“Excellent way to achieve a qualification on an accredited course.  Relaxed, familiar surroundings but formal and professional”

The full report of the Learning at Work Day is available by clicking this link.

Many thanks to Angela Seal of the County Council for sending in this report

Members of the Lincolnshire and Rutland Compact have been working for some time to develop a tailored Business Administration Apprenticeship for the public sector.

Following solid ground work by Vicki Blissitt (NAS), Angela Seal (Lincs CC) and Carl Francis (WBA) the Compact submitted a tailored unit for the Business Admin framework for those working in the sector for approval.

A national consultation took place and over 200 responses were made. The overwhelming feedback was to endorse this approach. Lincs County Council will be recruiting Apprentices on to the "Business Administration (Public Service) Apprenticeship" programme from August.

This programme will be available nationally from July. Many congratulations to Vicki, Angela and Carl and indeed all involved within the L&R Compact for having the foresight and energy to develop this approach.

The results of the consultation can be accessed via this link.

The Business Admin Public Service unit descriptor can be downloaded by clicking this link 

The Northants Compact staged an excellent 'Equality Impact Assessment' workshop on the 13th July. Feedback from the attendees shows that this event has been well recived and is perceived to be of use to professionals in addressing the E&D agenda in their organisations.

Many thanks to the Fire and Rescue Service for hosting this event and to Sian Butler of the Service and Kate Birch of Northamton College for making the key inputs.

Please click this link to get downloadable access to the materials used in delivering the workshop

The 'Key Messages' from the Notts Compact Coaching and Mentoring Workshop hosted by Rushcliffe Borough Council in June are now available.

Please click this link to read and download

The Northamptonshire Learning and Skills Consortium supports the third sector in the county. They are seeking to appoint a new development worker based in Kettering but working countywide.

To download full details of this vacancy please click here.

Applications close on the 19th July

The Compact's Regional 'Dissemination of Good Practice' Event held in Grantham in late June has been well received.

Fifty delegates attended and each of the five counties described the specific project work undertaken in their counties. Leics kicked things off with 'Routeways into Employment, Northants focussed on the E&D work undertaken by the Compact, for Notts it was Procurement, Lincs & Rutland related the partnership work in progress to develop collaborative approaches to Leadership and Management training and Derbyshire rounded things off with news of their exciting 'Action Learning Sets' project.

The 'key messages' from the event can be access by clicking this link.

The five presentations are also available for download from this web site.

December 2009 saw the launch of the Equality Framework for the Fire and Rescue Service.

http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=10499684

The Fire and Rescue Service Equality Framework (FRS EF) is a bespoke version of the Equality Framework for Local Government (EFLG). It allows fire services to build on the work they have done with the EFLG, and the previous Equality Standard, while taking account of the services that they provide.

Each Fire and Rescue Service is permitted to have a Peer Assessment against this framework by 2012, Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service wish to have a critical friend review against the framework this November. They require 4 ‘critical friends’ in total. They have one individual confirmed hence need to source 3 people from an equality background to come and assist in a three day assessment of the fire service in relation to the equality agenda.

If this is something you would like to partake in please contact Sian Butler (sbutler@northantsfire.org.uk) and she will supply further details.

On Friday the 18th June Rushcliffe Borough Council hosted a Nottinghamshire Public Sector Good Practice Coaching and Mentoring Workshop. The hosts presented the Rushcliffe experience and both the County Council and Mansfield District Council also described their journey in promting access to coaching and mentoring to their workforce.

The event was attended by representatives of local government organisations, the NHS, the Police, the Fire Service, FE and the Third Sector and was very well received.

To access and download the presentations from this event please go to the Workforce Development section on the Nottinghamshire page of this web site.

Many thanks to Anne Cotterell of Rushcliffe Borough Council for leading on and Chairing this event.  

As part of the Northamptonshire Compact's ongoing commitment to developing collaborative approaches to addressing the E&D agenda, the Compact has produced it's first E&D newsletter. It is hoped this newsletter will be published every 6 months.

Please take the time to download (by clicking this link) and print and read of how partnership working has helped to develop E&D good practice in the sector in the county.

As stated on the final page to get involved in this aspect of Compact working please contact either Chris Donkin or Sian Butler of the Fire and Rescue Service.
 

Efficiency East Midlands (EEM) is a brand new Procurement and Benchmarking consortium of housing providers. It's key aim is to bring together all registered Housing Providers in the region to show how working together can bring savings to their organisations. EEM are launching on the 19th July at Castle Donington. The launch event may be of interest to the public sector more widely. 

If you are interested in this launch event you can download flyer by clicking this link.

To apply to attend and for further information about EEM please contact Pete Smith of Nottingham City Homes (and Chair of the Notts Compact Procurement Group) by emailing pete.smith@nottinghamcityhomes.org.uk

Northampton College has become the first college in the East Midlands to be awarded the Investors in Diversity (IiD) standard, in recognition of the continued commitment it has shown to promoting inclusion, equality, and diversity.

The College has shown continued dedication to the active promotion of diversity within the organisation, and – with the construction and implementation of a Single Equality Scheme – has become one of only ten colleges in the country to achieve the IiD standard, awarded by the National Centre for Diversity.

The standard helps organisations adopt and develop a set of characteristics and behaviours which can lead to real and sustainable gains through culture movement. The award will help the College to further develop and sustain an inclusive and adaptive organisational culture and environment, as well as a providing a helpful method of measuring success.

Kate Birch, Director of Human Resources at the College said “It’s fantastic to be amongst the first colleges to be awarded the Investors in Diversity standard. We really have worked hard over the last few years to promote all aspects of diversity within the College and achieving the standard is testament to that. We’ll continue to further develop and sustain the inclusive and adaptive organisational culture and environment we have established – this is just the beginning of our diversity journey.”

During Adult Learners week NHS Lincolnshire and Age Concern Lincoln both promoted a 'Test the Organisation' event to allow employees the opportunity to see if they needed to brush up on their maths skills.

Over 60 people took part in the two test events and the outcome is that many staff from the two organisations are now ready to attend numeracy courses. The events were supported by the Skills Funding Agency with Lincoln College and South Nottingham College providing opportunities for the workforce to access further training.

The report on the NHS 'Test' can be accessed by clicking this link

The report on the Age Concern 'Test' can be accessed by clicking this link

The East Midlands Apprenticeship Awards took place last Thursday at the Round House in Derbyshire. It was a great evening, with the following winners from our area:

Large employer of the Year – City of Lincoln Council; learning provider Lincoln College

Apprentice of the Year – Joel Dowse; employer City of Lincoln Council, learning provider Lincoln College

Finalist for Young Apprentice of the Year – Kevin Gilbert; provider Grantham College
 
Congratulations to all

As part of the University's committment to diversity, they run mentoring schemes for students with diabilities or dyslexia and also for undergraduates from an ethnic minority

You can find out more about these schemes by pressing this link

Many thanks to Catherine Klimes of the university for supplying this information.

A groundbreaking consortium of East Midlands housing organisations is set to be launched next month to show how working together can make huge cash and efficiency savings.

Efficiency East Midlands(EEM) –is a brand new Procurement and Benchmarking Consortium of housing providers. Its key aim is to bring together all Registered Housing Providers in the East Midlands to show how working together can bring savings to their organisations

The consortium will be officially launched on Monday 19th July at the Castle Donington Race Circuit. Registration will be from 8.30am for a 9.30am start.

For full details click this link

Many thanks to Pete Smith of Nottingham City Homes for providing this information

As part of Adult Learners Week, Ashfield District Council staged a very successful 'Test the Organisation' event. The voluntary 'test' event saw 25% of the workforce participating with many expected to enrol on SfL courses to address their identified issues.

The event was a model example of how TUC Unionlearn and a PS organisation can work together to support access to training.

The 'Ashfield Experience' can be downloaded by clicking this link.

Many thanks to Jacqui Mansell of Ashfield District Council for supplying this Case Study 

Much of the work in the five Compacts is common to all five sub-areas. However, over the last year each Compact has undertaken pilot work that has been unique to their county. In Leicestershire the Compact seeks to promote new routeways into employment to support the recruitment into the sector of disadvantaged groups. In Lincs and Rutland they are developing partnership approaches to Leadership and Management training. In Northamptonshire the Compact is addressing E&D issues by collaboration. In Derbyshire an 'Action Learning Set' approach is being employed to help public sector professionals to address SfL issues within their organisations. In Nottinghamshire the Compact's Procurement Theme Group have developed a Code of Practice to be included in tenders to encourage sub-contractors to share the sector's commitment to training.

To disseminate the good practice that has emerged from this pilot work, the Compacts are staging a regional event. This breakfast event will take place at the Ramada Hotel in Grantham on the morning of Thursday the 17th June 2010. An agenda for the event is attached to this email.

There are still places available - to book a delegate place at this event email chris@donkinitex.co.uk

An agenda for the event can be downloaded by clicking this link 

Northampton College has pledged its commitment to the continuous development of the skills and knowledge of its staff as well as its students, with the signing of a Lifelong Learning Agreement.

The College Principal and representatives from the three Recognised Trade Unions (Unison, AMIE and UCU) formally signed the Agreement on Friday, 21 May. The agreement defines the principles and objectives to support the growth of Lifelong Learning opportunities and the delivery of effective training opportunities for all College employees.
 
Principal Len Closs said, ‘We’ve held the Investors in People (IiP) standard for over ten years now, and continually update and review our Staff Development Policy to ensure the learning and development requirements of our staff are met. In signing this agreement we will work in partnership with the Unions to reinforce the culture where learning is seen as an integral part of the development and training of our staff.’

Liz Gray, who signed the Agreement on behalf of Unison ,said, ‘We’ve always challenged the view that learning is something you only do while in education – we all need to continuously learn and develop our skills throughout our lives. Unison will work in partnership with the other unions and the College to promote learning initiatives to our members.’

The College has established a Lifelong Learning Committee, which will be responsible for introducing, implementing and monitoring lifelong learning initiatives.

JTL, the principal work based learning provider for the building services engineering sector, has agreed to put £1m from its reserves towards supporting those employers recruiting electrotechnical Advanced Apprentices in England this year.  In addition to its standard grants package which already includes payment of all college and assessment costs, examination and registration fees and up to two attempts at the AM2 test , JTL has agreed to offer an employer grant of £1,000 for the first 1,000 electrotechnical Advanced Apprentices aged 16-18 recruited.  This grant will be available immediately.

For full details of how to apply - click this link

Many hanks to Julie Harris of NAS for providing this information

Recently Nottingham City Homes hosted an event to help delegates develop an 'Integrated Employment and Skills Strategy'. This event was well received and many Compact member organisations attended.

There was good coverage of the Procurement issue with the 'One in a Million' scheme being disseminated and the Compact's Code of Practice being made available for delegates.

All presentations are available for download by clicking this link

Many thanks to Pete Smith (the Chair of the Compact's Procurement Group) for providing this material and also for organising such a splendid and useful event.

After an approach from the Compact the Skills Funding Agency and TUC Unionlearn provided some support funding so that the Public Sector and the Third Sector could stage 8 different 'Test the Organisation' events in Lincolnshire and Rutland.

From the Public Sector West Lindsey DC, South Holland DC, the Fire Service and the NHS took part. From the Third Sector Community Lincs, TaylorITEX, YaSiG and Voluntary Action Rutland particpated. The project has engaged with over 200 people and has stimulated significant demand for SfL training.

To download a copy of the project report please click here

Yesterday the L&R Compact staged a very sucessful workshop to consider the issue of the 'Design in Public Service. The event benefitted from an excellent lkeynote input from guest speaker Professor Andy Penaluna of Swansea Metropolitan University. His presentation and e-copies of all the other presentation are available on the Compact web site. Also available for download are two key reports on the importance of effective design in public service.

Please visit the 'Design Workshop' section accessable from the 'Special Events' tab on the Lincs and Rutland page

You still have time to order Adult Learners' Week materials!

A range of free and affordable Adult Learners' Week resources - including posters, pens, balloons, bookmarks, bunting and cotton bags are available to help you brand and run your activities. Check out the Event in a Box, a complete kit of materials for an event of up to 50 participants.

Click this link to download more information and how to get your box

Many thanks to Lucie Andrews of Business Link for providing this information

Derby City Council believes in Apprenticeships as the way to train its future workforce and invest in young people. At present the Council has 60 apprentices; and it intends to establish more Apprenticeship opportunities this year.

To read and download the full Derby City Council Case Study click this link

Many thanks to Julie Harris of the National Apprenticeship Service for providing this information

The Compact has received the following communication from Connexions and we are pleased to give access to the first NEWS Newsletter  

"We are pleased to be able to send you the first newsletter from Northamptonshire Education and Work Service (NEWS) I hope you will find the information of interest.  We are still building our database of contacts so please forward this to any colleagues in your organisation that you feel should receive it.

If you have been forwarded a copy and would like to receive this information directly in the future please send your contact details to news@connexions-northamptonshire.org.uk  Happy reading!"

Click here for the April 2010 version of the Newsletter

www.4you2.org.uk/workrelatedlearning/docs/NEWS_Newsletter_FINAL_screen.pdf

The latest newsletter from the Northamptonshire Skills and Learning Consortium is now available.

This monthly mailer intends to provide a brief overview of consortium activity, an update on current projects and information on new opportunities for those involved in the VCS.  For further information on any items included in this mailer, or for any questions you have, please contact local Development Workers:

Alexis Rich        07891 826 994    alexisr@enable.uk.net
Emily Fairley     07891 826 881    emilyf@enable.uk.net

To download the newsletter - please click this link

The Northants Compact R&R Group recently expressed interest in having a look at some generic job descriptions for the Future Jobs Fund.

They have been supplied for download and reference by Job Centre Plus. Click here to view the JDs.

Many thanks to Aysha Rahman of JC+ for supplying this.

Public Sector Workforce Skills 2010 on Tuesday 21st September is your opportunity to discuss and debate how the public sector can create a highly-skilled Britain, served by an entrepreneurial, innovative and dynamic workforce.

This conference, now in its second year will bring together over 300 key decision makers from across the UK. Representation is taken from local authorities, central government departments, the NHS, colleges, universities, schools, regional development boards, training groups and the third sector.

With high calibre speakers, this is an unrivalled opportunity for you to hear how to raise standards and deliver the skills that will make the UK’s public sector workforce the world’s leader.

We look forward to hearing from invited speaker, Sir Gus O’Donnell, Secretary of the Cabinet and Head of the Home Civil Service from the Cabinet Office to discuss the government’s vision for a ‘New Professionalism’ by unlocking the creativity and ambition of public sector workers and establishing new relationships between the government and professionals.

To download a flyer for this event - Click this link

http://govnet.msgfocus.com/q/14xt4X9pwWLUHx/wv

Mansfield District Council have recently produced their 'Use or Resources' (UoR) report on 'Positive Outcomes for Young People' in Mansfield. The report highlights the execellent work that the Council are doing to provide work experience opportunities and also to offer Apprenticeship contracts.

The full report can be downloaded by clicking this link.

Many thanks to Gemma Etches of MDC for providing access to this report.

The Notts and L&R Compacts are supporting 12 different 'Test the Organisation' events - four in the third sector and eight in the public sector. The tests are being part funded by TUC Unionlearn and by the LSC - many thanks to both for their support.

 More information will be posted on this site as the scheme rolls out - keep visiting ! 

The recent 'Achieving and Progressing' event held at Sunley Management Centre is helping to shape Compact activity for 2010-11.

To download the notes from the workshops from this event please click here

At the recent meeting of the Derbyshire Compact Recruitment and Retention Group, Sue Bainborough of Job Centre Plus gave an excellent presentation outlining the potential of the Future Jobs Fund for the public sector.

Her update can be downloaded from the 'R and R' section - as can the minutes of the meeting

The Notts Compact buddying scheme is now well underway. Eight different 'buddies' are providing peer support to help 14 different organisations either commit to the Skills Pledge or increase their Apprenticeships intake.

For more on this innovative scheme see the Workforce Development section of the Notts page

The National Apprenticeship Service is delighted to bring you the East Midlands Apprenticeship Awards 2010.

If you employ apprentices, or if you are an apprentice or on an e2e programme, you could be eligible to apply
for one of the exciting awards for 2010.

You have the opportunity to join in the celebrations by applying for an award or nominating a person or an
employer for an award. You can also be involved by attending the awards dinner, or taking advantage of one
of our sponsorship packages.

To download a nomination form and to get more details click here

The University of Lincoln is looking for mentors to help their students gain the valuable 'soft skills' that are required when they graduate and start their careers. This could be a very useful development opportunity for HR workers in the sector them and would certainly benefit the students.

For further information about this scheme click this link.

Many thanks to Sara Hobson of the University for providing this information.

NHS East Midlands has signed up to the Backing Young Britain campaign and has agreed to promote the regional campaign, recognising the importance of building a high quality workforce for the future and the under representation of young people currently in the NHS.  This also reinforces our commitment to employment strategies that are consistent with our values of quality, fairness and inclusion.

A target of 505 apprenticeships for the region has been agreed with Department of Health to be delivered by March 2010. To date 247 apprentices have commenced training or have start dates planned. Over 60% of these apprenticeships will be for young people aged between 16 – 24 years old. In addition to this, work experience is being offered to apprentices that have been made redundant from other industries, recognising the importance of our corporate contribution in the current economic climate.

NHS East Midlands made a successful bid to the Department of Work and Pensions Future Jobs Fund in the first wave to create 30 posts for six months for unemployed young adults with mental health or learning disabilities. This benefits of the approach for the individuals is to improving their employability and bringing wider benefits to them in terms of their inclusion, physical, mental and social wellbeing.

The key powerpoint presenations from the very sucessful and very well attended 'Embedding Apprenticeship Programmes' breakfast event held at Notts County FC yesterday are now availble for download.

Click here for the National Apprenticeship Service presentation

Click here for the Nottinghamshire Training Network presentation

Click here for the Nottigham City Homes 'Case Study' presentation

Derby College launched Apprenticeship Week in Derbyshire by hosting an event for local businesses to discuss the benefits of taking on Apprentices.

Speakers at the event included Derby South MP Margaret Beckett and John Forkin from Marketing Derby.

A full report from this excellent and well attended event is available by clicking this link  

A conference event is to be held by the East Midlands PSA 16 Sounding Board on Thursday, 18 February 2010 at Trent Vineyard, Nottingham. The objectives of the event are to:

 * Share practical approaches and case studies on how employers in the region have delivered improvement in employment opportunities for people identified in PSA 16 as experiencing social exclusion.
 
* Demonstrate the benefits for organisations working on this agenda.

* Provide opportunities for participants to engage in projects and networks to support delivery of their priorities.

Participation in the event from senior professionals in HR, occupational health and policy making roles will be especially welcome.

For more details about the event click the link http://www.events.eastmidlands.nhs.uk/all/2121

Derbyshire Compact supporter Frank Lord has sent in this information about the National Training Awards that will be of interest to many in the public sector.

"Given my involvement with both the National Training Awards for the East Midlands Region, and in my role as Chair of The Derbyshire Employment & Skills Board, I would like to promote the National Training Awards.  These awards are an excellent way to promote the Skills Agenda and highlight achievements. 

Free information sessions are being run in February and March by experienced NTA Professionals, who will walk prospective applicants through the process of preparing an entry and give hints and tips on what the Judges are looking for.  You will also learn how to gain the most out of composing your entry.  The opportunity also exists for you to learn about past NTA entrants and hear from previous winners on what made them so successful, and how they have benefitted from entering and winning.  Details of these sessions can been found by clicking this link – places are limited."

Many public sector organisations have found it very useful to work with the TUC and the local Union Learneing Reps to promote training and development. The Compacts continue to develop links with the TUC to work together to meet the professional development needs of the workforce.

If you are not yet fully engaged with TUC Unionlearn you may be interested to know what they have to offer and how they can support the sector.

A Guide to TUC Unionlearn in the Midlands has recently been published and it is available for download by clicking this link.

Many thanks to Alan Cook of TUC Unionlearn for supplying this guide

Selling to the Public Sector is a series of seminars to be held in various locations in April 2010 to help local businesses understand the rules and regulations about procurement. These events provide information to help local businesses of all sizes tender for work with the public sector, not just in Lincolnshire but further afield. This half day event will give you the opportunity to understand how to complete and review standard public sector Pre Qualification Questionnaire and Invitation To Tender documentation for your business with help from procurement professionals.

Places are limited to ensure you are able to network with all the delegates. To book your place on the Selling to the Public Sector event please fax Charlotte Robson on 0844 5555220 or contact Charlotte at Commerce House, Outer Circle Road, Lincoln, LN2 4HY

To download the flyer for these events please click here

Many thanks to Glynis McEwing of Procurement Lincolnshire for providing this information.

Grantham College have been successful in their bid to secure funding to deliver a course entitled “A Foundation Degree for Leadership and Management for Public Sector employees engaged with Health and Social Care” on behalf of the Compact.

Wayne Dyble of Grantham College has invited HR and L&M professionals to a planning workshop to further scope out the structure and content of this course. The planning meeting will be a half day meeting starting with lunch at 12.30 on Tuesday the 19th January 2010. Interested Compact members are encouraged to attend.

To download an agenda for the workshop please click here.

December was a busy month with 3 Steering Group meetings and six Theme Group meetings taking place across the East Midlands.

The minutes and papers are now available for download from the county based pages.

In their efforts to secure support funding for the Compacts beyond March 2010 the Steering Group Chairs have produced a 'portfolio of benefit' document.

This document outlines some of the successes of Compact working thus far and is available for download by clicking here.

As part of the Council's commitment to support staff development anybody working for Lincolnshire County Council in Culture and Adult Education will have the opportunity to refresh their skills in literacy and/or numeracy and gain up-to-date qualifications, in a fun and friendly way.   

For Family Learning Tutors  and other Council employees this will be the opportunity to take an up to date Level 2 qualification.  The Council are planning on offering staff testing facilities during Adult Learners’ Week (May 2010).  Further details will follow.

Many thanks of Amanda Holmes of LCC's Culture and Adult Education team for providing this update

Selling to the Public Sector is a series of seminars to be held in various locations in April 2010 to help local businesses understand the rules and regulations about procurement. These events provide information to help local businesses of all sizes tender for work with the public sector, not just in Lincolnshire but further afield. This half day event will give you the opportunity to understand how to complete and review standard public sector Pre Qualification Questionnaire and Invitation To Tender documentation for your business with help from procurement professionals.

Places are limited to ensure you are able to network with all the delegates. To book your place on the Selling to the Public Sector event please fax back to Charlotte Robson on 0844 5555220 or post the form below to Commerce House, Outer Circle Road, Lincoln, LN2 4HY

To download the application form please click here.

Many thanks to Glynis McEwing of Procurement Lincolnshire for providing this information.

The City of Lincoln Council have won the 'Large Employer of the Year' award for 2009 at the East Midlands Apprenticeship Awards event.

Congratulations to all at the Council who manage and deliver this long standing and very sucessful Apprenticeship scheme which now boasts that 200 former Apprentices are employed by the Council.

To read their story please click this link

Asset Skills have been awarded a contract by TUC Unionlearn to manage and deliver the Get on at Work project in the public sector over the next six to eight months.

An information sheet has been produced by Asset and can be downloaded by clicking this link.

Many thanks to Aidan Jackson for sending this information.

NHS Nottinghamshire County, in partnership with the Skills Academy for Health, has addressed a number of organisational needs through the development of a tailored Apprenticeship programmme.

Now the video is available on the internet. Click this link to see the impressive young Apprentices describe their experience.

http://www.nottspct.nhs.uk/my-nhs/video-and-interactive-area/246-apprentice-scheme.html

Many thanks to Jackie Brocklehurst for the web reference.

NHS Nottinghamshire County, in partnership with the Skills Academy for Health, has addressed a number of organisational needs through the development of a tailored Apprenticeship programmme.

To find out how they did this click this link to download the Case Study

On October 22nd the National Apprenticeship Service will launch the ‘Good for Business’ campaign. The campaign will run until the end of November, and then for a further month in January. The objective of the campaign is to increase the number of Apprenticeships available, in particular to those aged 16-18. We will be focusing our marketing and communication efforts on employers to engage and explain the business benefits that Apprentices can bring to an organization. Employers in both the public and private sectors will be targeted. 

This campaign is a continuation of the work started in February and March with the Sir Alan Sugar TV advertising which was very successful at raising awareness and employer interest in Apprenticeships. This campaign will focus ‘below the line’ to convert the high interest to leads, and more Apprenticeship places.

The theme, Good for Business has been tested with groups of employers who liked the style and directness of the messaging and design. National and Regional Press and Radio Advertising will be used alongside PR, Digital and Direct Marketing.

For more information see the NAS website www.apprenticeships.org.uk

New College Nottingham are hosting an event on the 2nd December 09 to illustrate how they can support public sector organisations in employing and training Apprentices.

A flyer for the event can be downloaded by clicking here.

Please contact Daryl Thomson for more information via daryl.thomson@ncn.ac.uk  

On the 10th November in London NIACE are hosting a national event to illustrate how local authorities and their partners can develop and implement a vision for better, employment, skills and life oppportunities for adults.

To find out more and to book a delegate place go to:

http://www.niace.org.uk/campaigns-events/events/every-adult-matters 

Learning Lincs are organising an event in Lincoln on October the 29th to encourage small organisations to try to gain contracts from the public sector.

Procurement Lincolnshire will be providing generic training on understanding, completing and evaluating a Pre-Qualification Questionnaires. Specialist information on engagement and tendering will be provided by Adult Social Care and Children’s Services.

If you are a third sector organisation interested in providing services to the public sector then Come along and gain an insight into the Pre-Qualification Questionnaires and Invitation to Tender process.

Click here to download a flyer for this event.

Many thanks to Emma Strafford of Learning Lincs for supplying this information

The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills has recently published the 'Promoting Skills through Public Procurement; guide. The foreword of the guide states:

"The clear message in this Guide is that there are opportunities to embed skills and apprenticeships at all stages in the procurement process. The Government looks to all procurement professionals in Government to take these opportunities, in whatever ways are appropriate for the particular procurement exercises they are handling. This includes working with existing contractors on a voluntary basis post-contract award to encourage them to provide training and apprenticeship opportunities for their project workforce."

A full copy of the Guide can be downloaded by clicking this link.

Many thanks to Nigel Jackson of the Nottinghamshire LSC for making this available.

At the recent Workforce Development Theme Group of the Nottinghamshire Public Sector Compact we received an excellent presentation describing how Apprenticeships are now part of the workforce development plans within the NHS in the county.

The presentation and some useful resources (i.e. a Training Provider Brief and Guidance for Managers in Employing Young People) can be downloaded from the Resources page on this web site.

Many thanks to Jo Beckwith for the presentation and for supplying the downloadable materials.    

Barbara Adlington our key contact with Job Centre Plus is keen to ensure that all local sector organisations get the benefits of working with Job Centre Plus as part of a Local Employment Partnership (LEP). She has advised us of the great progress made by Lincolnshire Co-op and the moral of the story is that your organisation can access similar suppport. Barbara writes:

Lincolnshire Co-operative has signed an agreement to enter into a Local Employment Partnership with Lincolnshire and Rutland Jobcentre Plus. It means the Society is committed to working with Jobcentre Plus to provide opportunities for those seeking employment. The Society's Head of People and Performance Heather Lee said:

"We believe the services Jobcentre Plus runs in our trading area are vital to those local communities. We have worked closely with Jobcentre Plus on many initiatives over the years to help people find work and help us find the right people for our jobs. The LEP is an extension of that work.

We are also delighted to have been re-accredited with the 'two ticks' symbol because that shows that we welcome applications from disabled

people and are positive about their abilities"

Many thanks to Barbara for this contribution.

“Erewash Borough Council is signed up and committed to the Backing Young Britain Campaign, as our organisation is committed to mentoring school leavers to help them find their feet in the jobs market, providing work experience places and volunteering places, delivering successful Government Future Jobs Fund initiatives. We have signed up as a member of the local employment partnership with Job Seekers Plus to make sure our job vacancies are advertised to local unemployed people.

We work in partnership with Erewash Partnership Ltd who have successfully secured funding through neighbourhood learning in deprived communities to offer 50 training places for first step training to help people access work over the summer and beyond.”

Sue Blakeley, Director for Regeneration & Community, Erewash Borough Council

For more information see http://interactive.bis.gov.uk/backingyoungbritain/backing

Compact stalwart Janette Goodchild has alerted Compact members to the potential of 'Growing Ambitions' .. please see below - Janette writes:

"I've come across an organisation called Growing Ambitions to build an on-line UK resource of careers speakers to talk to young people about the world of work. Growing Ambitions is a social enterprise and all speakers are volunteers. They are keen to have a broad spectrum of speakers from apprentices to executives across all parts of the UK. Anyone can sign up for free.

In addition, for a small fee organisations can have a Growing Ambitions portal on their intranet facilitating internal communications and communication with local education establishments.

Please will you make members of the Public Sector Compacts aware, the web address is www.growingambitions.co.uk "

Many thanks to Janette for this contribution

The latest (issue 3) Newsletter for the Joint Investment Framework (JIF) between the LSC, the NHS EM and Skills for Health has just been published.

It notes that during the lifetime of the JIF that over 4000 learning interventions have been completed by NHS staff. Other articles describe regional success stories in committing to the Skills Pledge, increasing Apprenticeship opportunities and addressing Skills for Life issues.

To download a copy of the newsletter please click on this link

Bolsover District Council are offering an exciting opportunity for a new appointment to co-ordinate the delivery and development of the Bolsover and District Apprenticeship programme. This innovative arrangement will create 90 Apprenticeships in the public and third sectors by March 2012.

For an application pack please click on this link ... but hurry, your application needs to be submitted by September 11th.

Learning Lincs is the umbrella organisation for Third Sector Organisations enaging with training in Lincolnshire and Rutland. They have just produced their first newsletter. It states:

"Our newsletter will endeavour to keep you up to date with all the latest news from the sector, feature case studies on our members and all you need to know about providing, procuring or accessing learning and skills in Lincolnshire and Rutland."

To download the newsletter click this link. Many thanks to Emma Strafford of Learning Lincs for providing this for Compact members.

In the early part of 2009, the Compacts supported the research element of a study conducted by the TUC entitled "Supporting Unionlearners into higher education in the East Midlands".

This report has recently been published and is a very interesting read. The report can be downloaded by clicking this link.

Many thanks to Jake Jackson of the TUC for providing this report.

The Local Government East Midlands Workforce Learning and Development Network have flagged effective liaison with the Compacts as an aim of the group in their Terms of Reference. Specifically they propose to:

"To provide a forum to consider, discuss and exchange views and information on a range of issues in relation to workforce learning and development and to facilitate the sharing of information from other regional public sector partnerships such as the five Public Sector Compacts. http://www.empscompacts.org.uk/"

We look forward to working more closely with this group in the future. To download a full e-copy of their Terms of Reference click here.

Many thanks to Jan Mehmet of Lincs County Council for this piece of news.

In partnership with the LSC and Boston College the Compact are organising a programme of Leadership and Management Master Classes.

The first in the series is 'Partnership in Public Service' will be held on the morning of the 21st September and high profile contributors will set the scene with a series of presentations. The guest speakers include Nigel Howells, Mick Gill and Paul Collins. There will also be an oppportunity for attendees to experience 'speed partnerships'

It will be fun and productive - to download a flyer for this event click this link

Nottinghamshire Connexions are holding an Opportunities Day for potential Aprentices at their Carlton Street Centre on Friday the 4th September. To download a flyer for this event click on this link.

Many thanks to John Endersby of Connexions for supplying this information 

Action Learning Sets (ALS) are based on the philosophy that learning is maximised through doing, Action Learning Sets aim to provide participants with space to reflect on their own work issues, to gain insight from those around them to learn new ways of doing things, and get the support to put them in to practice.

The Derbyshire Compact are committed to exploring the ALS approach to develop common approaches to Leadership and Management training. At the recent Workforce Development Theme Group meeting, the 'Key Players' outlined the benefits of the ALS method. A summary of their input can be downloaded by clicking on this link. 

This summary (below) has been kindly provided by Angela Stansfield of Job Centre Plus - many thanks to Angela 

"Local Authorities have a role to play in tackling worklessness as well as delivering public services. The Public Sector is responsible for employing 1in 5 of the UK workforce it is therefore vital that the role of Councils as employers is not overlooked.   Following recommendations from a report conducted by Cllr Steven Houghton (Tackling Worklessness:  A review of the contribution and role of local authorities and partnerships) Local Government, Cabinet Office, several Local Authorities and Jobcentreplus have produced a Strategic Framework & Toolkit that provides a self-assessment tool based on criteria on LAA and PSA 16 targets.  The expectation is that this is driven forward at the highest level to help LAs, JCP and other partners to increase the numbers of apprenticeships and those from disadvantaged groups recruited into Local Authority jobs.  This also makes good business sense as Nationally Local Authorities currently spend over £2 billion on the services of Recruitment Agencies at an average cost of £7,750 per recruit and have over 91,000 vacancies each year.

We have therefore been asked to start this process and will be initially contacting the 2 top tier authorities (Derby City and Derbyshire County Council) who will be contacted by Derbyshire Jobcentreplus District Manager, Bob Kendall to begin discussions."

The Compact will be working closely with the Lincolnshire and Rutland Employment and Skills Board in the future. There may even be an opportunity for partnership working in staging events and/or workshops and/or Master Classes - watch this space !

Roy Harper has kindly supplied a summary of the work of the Employment and Skill Board and this can be downloaded by clicking this link.

Roy will also be joining the Compact Steering Group

The website www.jobsgopublic.com has just undergone a recent re-vamp and the new and improved version can be accessed via the link quoted. At present there are over 800 sector vacancies advertised on this platform.

The site also produces a regular newsletter and the Aug 09 edition can be downloaded by clicking this link.

Thanks to Dianne Jeffrey (a Derbyshire Compact Stalwart) for sending this information.

Recently the L&R Public Service Compact held a workshop entitled 'Managing Talent and Succession Planning'. The event featured an excellent input from the City of Lincoln Council explaining how they try to meet the aspirations of their talented young people. The workshop also include a presentation from Thomas International to demonstrate their personaility profiling software that is used by two of our sector organisations. The Council's Case Study is available on the L&R page of the web site under Special Events (Managing Talent).

The workshop also allowed sector professionals the opportunity to discuss 'managing talent' issues within their organisations. The output from this discussion makes interesting reading and contains some good tips. To download the 'key messages' please click this link. Many thanks to Keith Tharby of Boston College for facilitating these discussions.

Thanks also to the University of Lincoln for hosting this event and supplying an excellent buffet to conclude the workshop.

Public Service organisations will be sharing a joint stand at the next JobsFair, held at the Walkers Stadium, in Leicester - on Wednesday 23rd September (10am-6pm), organised by the Leicester Mercury (newspaper)

'Finding your way back to work'
This event will offer details about real jobs, careers advice and voluntary work experience opportunities. There will also be career talks, and one to one employment advice sessions throughout the day.

This stand is part of the new routeways in the city and county (offering training pathways to prepare people for employment), these include retail, construction, public service -health and social care, business and hospitality/food manufacturing. 

South Holland District Council have provided a Case Study describing how they have increased the number of young people working for their organisation. Of specific interest to other sector organisations will be the intoduction of the 'Apprenticeship First' scheme to increase the number of apprentices employed by the Council.

To download the case study click this link.

The Integrated Employment and Skills (IES) agenda covers a range of services aimed at supporting unemployed people back into work. Whilst initially the focus of the IES offer was on supporting those furthest away from the Labour Market, the impact of the economic downturn has required an earlier, more urgent response to support employers who are reducing the size of their workforce and individuals who are either under notice of redundancy or who have already been made redundant.

Di Pudney of the L&R LSC has prepared an update paper on the various initiatives that are availble to support the IES agenda. This paper is available for download by clicking this link.

Many thanks to Di for this update and to Lynne Alexander for presenting the paper at the recent L&R Steering Group meeting 

Learning Lincs are the Learning and Development Consortium for the Third Sector in Lincolnshire and Rutland. Last moth they staged a 'Workforce Development Best Practice Event'.

High on the agenda were the Apprenticeships and Skills Pledge issues. Delegates have identified both barriers and positive factors in addressing these issues - on balance the feedback is very positive as the Third Sector seek to access training for their workers and volunteers.

The feedback from the event can be downloaded by clicking this link.

Many thanks to Emma Strafford of Learning Lincs for this information.

Earlier this week I met with David Bell the Cheif Executive of Standing Ovation - an organisation specialising in supporting organisational change.

Standing Ovation are keen to work with the public sector and to read more about how they could work with your organisation download the full desciption of their approach (known as the 'Organisational Orchestra') by clicking this link

Chris Donkin

Lincolnshire County Council are heading up 'Procurement Lincolnshire' a shared service for procurement for local authorities in Lincolnshire. The group recently ran a series of training seminars aimed at the business commmunity in Lincolnshire. The Report from these well attended seminars makes very interesting reading and the report can be downloaded by clicking this link.

Procurement Lincolnshire are now organising a series of follow up events to articulate 'Top Tips for winning business with the public sector' and details of these events (to be staged in Oct 09) can be downloaded by clicking this link.

Many thanks to Glynis McEwing of Procurement Lincolnshire for providing this information.

Many public sector organistions are currently considering engaging with the 'Test the Organisation' initiative. Mansfield District Council (MDC) have recently 'tested' their employees.

The project has proved to be both enjoyable and fruitful with many MDC staff now accessing literacy and numeracy support.

The MDC experience is now available on this site. To download the Case Study please click this link.

Many thanks to Lorraine Powney of MDC for providing this information.

The East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) have developed a comprehensive set of documentation to help them to deliver their Skills Pledge committment. Their Action Plan is wide-ranging, robust and regularly monitored. They also have (as a reult of their Skills Pledge committment) developed a Communications Strategy to keep employees informed and an Apprenticeships policy.

At the recent meeting of the Workforce Development Theme Group Peter Burnett of EMAS gave a presnetation explaining how they deploy this set of documents to support their Skills Pledeh committment.

The documents are now available for download from the Workforce Development section of the Notts page. Many thanks to Peter for this contribution.

The Council for Indutsry and Higher Education has produced a report entitled "Graduate Employability - What Employers Think".

This report can be downloaded from this site by clicking on this link.

Many thanks to L&R Compact stalwart Janette Goodchild for supplying details of this new research. 

Public Sector and Third sector organisations are encouraged to sign up to the government’s new graduate internship scheme.

Graduate Talent Pool is a new internship scheme aiming to help employers boost the skills of their workplace and help graduates kickstart their careers.

NCVO and BITC, on behalf of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), are inviting third sector organisations to attend a regional dialogue session - the half-day sessions are running across England during June, allowing attendees to find out how to get involved with the scheme.

Information on Graduate Talent Pool is available at www.direct.gov.uk/graduatetalentpool, and dates and details of the regional events can be found on our website:

www.ukworkforcehub.org.uk/news

The Nottingham City Council are bidding for 600 new jobs to the 'Future Jobs Fund' (FJF). They are actively seeking partner organisations in the sector to work with them. With this in mind they are hosting an Information Event on the 23rd June so that potential partners can find out more.

If you would like to attend this event then download a flyer by clicking this link. To find out more about the FJF please visit the 'Other Resources' page of the Resources section on this web site.

Derbyshire Compact stalwart Lucie Andrews of EMB has been kind enough to provide us with an excellent SfL 'Case Study'. In order to develop the basic skills of their employees the Fire and Rescue Service have developed a Skills for Life Strategy featuring a 'whole organisation approach' to the issue.

The Fire Service state: "In a Fire and Rescue Service context improved SfL are an essential element in delivering all aspects of the services objectives and for enhancing personal development. Learning opportunities should be made available to all staff and the organisational aspiration should be the attainment of numeracy, literacy and ICT skills at level 2 for all staff. From recruitment to retirement SfL improvement should be encouraged, supported and developed."

To download the entire strategy document click this link

The Compact have been advised of some Apprenticeship Events for the Public Sector organised by the AoC. Emily Betts of the AOC writes:

Please find below information regarding the forthcoming complimentary Apprenticeships for the Public Sector Seminars, hosted by the National Apprenticeships Service (NAS).  We thought that these events may be of interest to yourself and your colleagues and I would be very grateful if you pass these details on to anyone within your network that you think may be interested in attending . 

The events are in collaboration with the Association of Colleges and the Association for Learning Providers and will take place in June in London and Manchester, for all those public sector organisations considering taking on an apprentice.

The events will explain how Apprenticeships work in the public sector, share good practice, and more importantly, give key decision makers in the public sector face to face time with Colleges and providers to see what might work in their organisation. Speakers will include representation from NAS, AoC and ALP and both events will have a Ministerial presence from the Department of Innovation Universities and Skills.

The seminars provide a unique opportunity to meet with key NAS, AoC and ALP personnel as well as to meet potential Colleges and learning providers who will be able to assist you in your apprenticeships scheme.

For further detail and an agenda or to register for one of the events, please go to:www.aocmsevents.co.uk/apprenticeships2009

Both events are free to attend courtesy of NAS and will include lunch and refreshments. There is no limit to the number of delegates from one organisation that can attend.

Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions. If there is someone you would prefer us to contact directly please do let me know and I will update our records. 

Emily Betts
Events Department
AoC Management Services Ltd              
Tel:    020 7299 6980   

During the ‘Skills Pledge in Action’ briefing held on the 1st May a workshop slot gave delegates the opportunity to flag areas where they would appreciate and benefit from further support and from whom. These areas have been documented and feedback has been given to the appropriate support agencies.

To download the delegate comments click this link

LINCOLNSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL IS SUPPORTING THE CMS / DMS QUALIFICATIONS AS PART OF ITS 2009/2010 MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME.  

LCC WOULD LIKE TO EXTEND AN INVITATION TO ITS PUBLIC SECTOR PARTNERS TO PARTICPAPATE IN THIS OPPORTUNITY TO ACCESS THESE QUALIFICATIONS AT A HIGHLY FAVOURABLE RATE

EACH QUALIFICATION IS A PART-TIME PROGRAMME SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED TO MEET THE NEEDS OF PRACTISING MANAGERS AND LEAD TO A NATIONALLY RECOGNISED AWARD.

A NUMBER OF BRIEFINGS HAVE BEEN ARRANGED TO ALLOW MANAGERS AND STAFF INTERESTED IN THESE PROGRAMMES TO ATTEND A SHORT PRESENTATION AND DISCUSS THE PROGRAMME WITH STAFF FROM THE UNIVERITY, LCC AND MOUCHEL LEARNING PARTNERSHIP.

For more details and a downloadable course leaflet please click this link

Compact supporter and contributor Raj Patel of Nottingham City Homes (NCH) has provided us with a NCH Information Pack for managers and employees to help roll out their 'Pilot Mentoring Scheme for BME and Disabled Employees'.

This scheme provides opportunities for work shadowing and is designed to assist with career development in general.

To download the pack simply click this link

Raj also prepared a powerpoint presentation to describe the scheme this too is available for download by revisiting the 'other resouces' section of the Resources page.

Many thanks to Raj for making this material available to all.

The Future Jobs Fund is a fund of around £1 billion to support the creation of jobs for long term unemployed young people and others who face significant disadvantage in the labour market. The Fund was announced in Budget 2009 and is to be spent over the next two years. It is a challenge fund which invites organisations to submit bids for funding.

The fund is run by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in partnership with the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG). The Fund aims to create 150,000 jobs. These will be aimed primarily at 18-24 year olds who have been out of work for a year. This will support the guarantee that from 2010 everyone in this age group who has been looking for work for a year will get an offer of a job or training lasting at least 6 months, and so we are keen to encourage bids from all areas across Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales).

The fund will also specifically target 50,000 jobs in unemployment hotspots and anticipate that around 10,000 of the 150,000 jobs created will be green jobs. We want to encourage innovative bids to create jobs and the Government is keen to work with local authorities, social enterprises and charities to turn this important priority into a reality.

Who can bid?

Bids can come from anyone, but we have a strong preference for partnership bids. We expect the majority of bids to the Fund to be led by local authorities, sub-regional, city region and local partnerships, or by national or local public sector and third sector bodies. We expect that bids to the Fund will be mainly from larger organisations - as a guide, bids should aim to create at least 30 jobs over a six month period. However, we are also keen for small and micro organisations, including social enterprises, to be involved, and so we strongly encourage such organisations to work in partnership with local authorities and/ or other third sector organisations to develop joint bids. We will continue to refine the bidding processes to ensure that we meet our aims and organisations of all sizes are involved.

Thanks to Thomasin Nicholds of Childerns Links in Horncastle Lincs for providing this information.

To download the Guide to the Future Jobs Fund please simply click this link

Lincolnshire and Rutland now has a Third Sector Learning and Skills Consortium organisation - Learning Lincs. The organisation based in Sleaford has been formed to support workforce development in the Third Sector. The formal launch of the Consortium is scheduled for 24th June - the Compact has been sent details of this event and we are informed that Compact members are invited to attend this FREE Event. We are advised:

"Come along and meet the members of our Steering Group and the
lead members for the 3 Strand Working Groups – Quality Issues, Learning Communities and Workforce Development.The Launch Event is open to all potential members so come along, find out
what your Consortium is doing for you and sign up for membership! This is your Consortium - join us and help Learning Lincs to enable all Third Sector organisations to play a full role within the learning and skills arena in Lincolnshire and Rutland."

A downloadable flyer for this event can be obtained by clicking this link

A national conference to be held in London on the 16th September will give delegates the opportunity to hear of the latest plans being put in place to develop skills in the public sector and how the government intends to deliver a workforce fit for the 21st century.

To download a flyer for this event - click this link

The Cabinet Office have just launched a new Guide to Social Return on Investment through the SROI Network 

The SROI Network is a network dedicated to the consistent and effective use of SROI. It is a membership organisation with members who are practitioners, academics, funders and investors with an interest in the use and development of  social return on investment. The growing membership is led by accredited practitioners who have pioneered SROI in England, Ireland and Scotland. 

This site is for anyone interested in SROI or anyone wanting to contribute to the growing bank of knowledge and experience of measuring social value.

To download the guide please click here

The Federation of Small Businesses is hoting an event in Nottingham on the 10th July where the agenda features an illustration of how local authorities and other public sector bodies can help small businesses.

To download a flyer for this event please click this link

At the last full meeting of the Workforce Development Group held on the 31st March it was decided that a 'one-off' working party was to meet in late April to frame the first draft of the Action Plan.

That has now been done and the plan is available for perusal from the 'Workforce Development' section of the Nottinghamshire web page.

Many thanks to Sue Hepworth, Anne Cotterell and Lorraine Powney for their work on this. The plan is still draft and will be considered by the Steering Group on the 18th May.

If you are managing a learning disability service as part of your support for employees with learning disabilities then you may want to attend an LDQ (Learning Disability Qualification) update event. Free information and training sessions are being held throughout the East Midlands in the next two months. The sessions in Lincolnshire are in Louth on the 10th June and in Grantham on the 15th June.

A downloadable flyer citing all the dates and venues can be accesses by clicking this link.

Many thanks to Compact contributor Christina Begley for providing this information.

Boston College are promoting a range of activities as part of their committment to Adult Learners Week. Opportunities include 'Interview Techniques and Self Promotion', 'Digital Photography' and 'Researching Your Family Tree'.

Public Sector employees are very welcome and the College would like them to participate. Further details can be found in the lastest version of the College's Adult Learning Newsletter - avaialable by clicking this link.

Cathie Clarke of EMCBE has advised the Compact of a very useful resource. The Local Government Task Force (Constructing Excellence) have produced a very useful booklet on '10 Success Factors That Make a Procurement Champion'.

This brochure can be viewed or downloaded by clicking this link.

Many thanks to Cathie for the referral.

Bev Dalzell of Job Centre Plus has emailed the Compact web site to inform colleagues of the current support initiatives available from JC+. Here are three key updates that may be of interest:

How JC+ can help your organisation with a LEP

JC+ Services to Employers

JC+ Advertising a Vacancy

Click the links above to find out more ! ... many thanks to Bev for providing this update. 

Jeanne Booth has emailed the Compact to let colleagues know of a very interesting event that is to be staged in Worksop next week. She writes:

Hi Chris ... I thought you and your colleagues involved in supporting workforce development in the public sector might be interested in this. It is an opportunity to hear about a number of sources of guidance for people wanting to combine learning and earning and to network with others.  Please pass it on. You can book by emailing the form to leapahead@ntu.ac.uk - they are taking late bookings but probably best to do as soon as you can.

You can download a flyer for this event by clicking on this link.

Thanks again to Jeanne for this information.

The first meeting of the newly established Procurement Theme Group will meet on the 1st May. The Group will be Chaired by Pete Smith of Nottingham City Homes.

The Agenda for the first meeting and the draft Terms of Reference for the Group are available for download from the 'Procurement' section on the Nottinghamshire page.

To get involved contact the Compact facilitator Chris Donkin via chris@donkinitex.co.uk

Lincoln College and the Compact have joined forces to present an Event to look at various ways to address literacy, language and numeracy issues in the workplace.

The event is FREE for Compact members and will take place on the afternoon of Thursday 30th April. The main feature of the event is a theatrical production from Gilfillan associates to illustrate the issue by role play. Other contributions will describe what support is available and how the 'Test The Organisation' scheme can be delpoyed to help identify need for training.

To download an agenda please go to the Special Events' section of the L&R page. To book a place at the event simply email Chris Donkin via chris@donkinitex.co.uk

The Derbyshire Public Sector Compact are hosting a 'Skills Pledge in Action' event on the 1st May at Derby College Mackworth.

The delegates will be provided with breakfast and this FREE event will cover all aspects of delivering your Skills Pledge committment - including addressing SfL issues and increasing the intake of Apprentices. To download an agenda please click this link.

To book a delegate place - simply email Chris Donkin via chris@donkinitex.co.uk

Business Link are advising SMEs how to 'sell' their services to the Public Sector.

Selling to the Public Sector is a series of seminars to help local businesses understand the rules and regulations about procurement. These events provide information to help local businesses of all sizes tender for work with the public sector, not just in Lincolnshirebut further afield. This half day event will give you the opportunity to understand how to complete and review standard public sector Pre Qualification Questionnaire and Invitation To Tender documentation for your business with help from procurement professionals.

To find out more and/or to book a place please visit:

http://apps.rebsis.com/evocos/ClientApps/Silverbear.Web.EDMS/public/default.aspx?tabid=36&id=1239&p=&orgId=1&guid=11d02837-5897-4b4b-8e10-d9d2a05438ec

The Workforce Development Group is now established and meking progress. The group is Chaired by Sue Hepworth of the Nottinghamshire Health and Social Care Community Workforce Team.

The Group met on  the 31st March and have now set performance targets for the priorities that were established by the Steering Group.

See the 'Workforce Development' section on the Notts page for more details.

Regular Compact contibutor Rachael Hosking of Lincolnshire County Council has sent this information (below) about the exciting new vacancies site for local governmment - thanks Rachael.

=============================================

 LGjobs.com - free job listings for councils

LGjobs.com The official local government jobs website owned by the IDeA on behalf of the sector, is now offering free job listings for all councils in England and Wales. The service is designed for councils by councils and is a one-stop shop where any prospective candidate can easily find local government jobs and careers information.

What does your council get for free?

• Self-service job listing - post your jobs when you need to free job listing for 30 days on a Disability Discrimination Act (DDA)-compliant website
  listings include branded job descriptions.
• Candidates can request an application pack through a form on the site
• Reporting on vacancy performance and application statistics 
• A diverse range of candidates driven to your listings via targeted marketing and the IDeA’s network of sites
• Increased traffic to your job listings when candidates sign up to receive jobs by email
• Online map showing vacancy location

Why do it?

To save money - the estimated annual spend by all councils on printed media recruitment advertising is in excess of £600 million. Placing job adverts on LGjobs.com for free could realise 80 per cent savings on recruitment advertising costs.

To attract the right talent - more and more candidates are searching and applying for jobs online. Figures show 76 per cent of job seekers say they have applied for a job via the web and 80 per cent of graduates apply for jobs exclusively online. Internet advertising reaches a wider range of potential candidates with the right skills and experience for your council’s jobs.

To raise your council’s proile a web search fr local government jobs reveals a massive seven million links. LGjobs.com appears first on that list  thats just two clicks away from your council’s jobs.

To raise standards – transferring processes online has the potential to make council recruitment quicker, safer and more secure – plus it meets equality and diversity standards. By advertising jobs on our accessible and compliant website, your council can avoid duplication of resources and promote jobs to a more diverse audience.

The Train to Gain Web site now features a really useful 'Employers Guide to Training'. To access this information, please visit:

http://www10.employersguide.org.uk/egtnat/

Last week the Steering Group met for the first time in over a year. With a new membership drawn from key postholders in the sector and building on the enthusiasm for collaborative working demonstrated at the 'Working Together' event the Group (led by Marje Toward of Nottinghamshire County Council) got to work ! 

The Terms of Reference have been established and the Group have also nominted the priorities for the 09-10 session. See the 'Steering Group' section on the Northamptonshire page for full details

The Government recognise that these are difficult times for employers. In response, the LSC are focusing on providing real help to ensure that businesses and individuals get the support they need to help them survive the recession and make the most of the new opportunities the upturn will bring. The LSC are working to create opportunities and flexibilities to help support businesses re-skill and up-skill their staff.

In these challenging times, businesses need to keep a tight rein on costs. Yet it is vital that employerscontinue to invest in skills. Past research shows that businesses that do not train their workforce are 2.5 times more likely to fail than those that do.

A new factsheet is available describing training opportunites available to employer organisations (e.g. T2G, Support with the Skills Pledge and Apprenticeships). To download a copy of the factsheet click here.

The key messages from the Working Together Event held on the 6th March are now published on this site.

Please visit the Newsletter section of the Nottinghamshire page to donload a full report - including pictures from the event.

To get involved with the work of the Compact by joining one of the three working groups (i.e. the Steering Group, the Workforce Development Group or the Procurement Group) simply drop an email to the Compact Facilitator Chris Donkin via chris@donkinitex.co.uk

Job Centre Plus have recently published two helpful guides to assist sector organisations who are managing a programme of planned redundancies. These leaflets are under the 'Find Your Way' banner and the generic leaflet is subtitled Help for your business with training, recruitment and redundancies. The other descibes 'rapid response' from JC+ and is specifically to offer help for business with redundancies.

These brochures can be downloaded by clicking the links above.

Following on from last years success the Derbyshire Skills Festival 2009 will be held for three evenings.

Two Evenings at Pride Park Stadium, Derby on Tuesday 29 & Wednesday 30 September.

There will be also be one evening at the Queens Park Sports Centre, Chesterfield on 24 September

Keep visiting this site and further details will be posted nearer to the date of the event.

The East Midlands has taken great strides during the past couple of years to begin the process of developing a strong enterprise culture. “East Midlands – The Enterprising Region” will:

Update on progress with the development of the Enterprise Culture Strategy

Launch the regional Unleashing Enterprise campaign

Demonstrate exemplar work being delivered in the region at universities, colleges, schools,in businesses and in disadvantaged communities.

To download a flyer for their conference on the 26th March click here.

The Notts Compact Steering Group have a new Chair. Marje Toward Acting Service Head of HR at the County Council has agreed to take on this challenging role.

The next meeting of the Steering Group is at 10.00 am on the 17th March at County Hall. Why not join Marje and let's frame the priorities and activities for 09-10. To register your interest contact the Compact facilitator Chris Donkin via chris@donkinitex.co.uk - to download an agenda go to the Steering Group section of the Notts Page

The Greater Nottingham Partnership are hosting a one day workshop / conference on procurement on the 25th March. The event will give professionals in the sector grappling with this issue the chance to work through some of the practical problems that can arise.

To download an invite and agenda for this event go to the procurement section on the Notts page.

Uniquely among the EM Compacts, the Notts Compact has placed a big emphasis on using the benefits of collaborative working to address the procuement agenda.

A theme group will be established to look at this issue. To kick things off, Nigel Jackson of the Notts LSC has written a paper on procurement. This can be downloaded from the Procurement page on this web site.

South Derbyshire District Council currently have a vacancy for a Training and Development Officer. 
 
Please find attached a copy of the advert and a link to  their website for more details - Job Desciption and Person Specification

http://jobs.derbyshire.gov.uk/southderbyshire/index.asp

Job Centre Plus held an event for the public sector to explore how we can collaboratively address the issue of worklessness.

The aim of the event was to support public sector employers who are recruiting and/or making people redundant.

Notes from this event are available and can be downloaded by clicking this link.

Leicestershire Public Service Compact News

The Compact admin staff have recently received the updated Apprenticeships availability grid for Derbyshire.

There are so many different opportunities in so many different vocational areas. Now is the time to invest in a young workforce. See  and download the full list from the top of the 'Workforce Development' column on the Derbyshire page.

The East Midlands Development Agency (emda) is committed to raising the skills profile of the region, and in 2006 launched HotProspects, the East Midlands Graduate Recruitment Service. HotProspects is designed to help regional employers attract some of the most capable graduates, and to encourage our graduates to embrace the many opportunities in the region’s six counties.

Through hard work and significant support from the region’s public sector and ten universities, the service has placed over 800 graduates in full time employment and become commercially sustainable - no longer dependent on the public purse.

Now, three years later, the service is even better equipped to respond to market demands.  Three core strands of activity are being rolled out across the region to address the varying needs of the economy. To see full  details of the activity being pursued by HotProspects in each strand please click the link here

On the 28th January 2009, Chris Donkin gave a presentation to colleagues at the Derbyshire LSC's "Learning Day". The presentation outlined the story so far and recognised the achievements of the Compact in it's first two years. He also gave a flavour of 'what next' with a preview of the draft annual priorities for 09-10.

The presentation can be viewed or downloaded by clicking here.

A good practice seminar was held on Thursday 26th February 2009, with workshops focusing on working with adults with learning difficulties and disabilities, adults with mental health issues, offenders and people moving from incapacity benefits. 

A briefing on the Highcross (retail) model was also shared, explaining how the PSC Operations Group is working to apply the same approaches.

Skills and knowledge exchange database

A Skills Exchange website is now available, to provide public service employees with the opportunity to share their experience and gain knowledge and a better understanding of each others ways of working.

Register your skills and expertise online, and see what others are offering.  www.publicservice-skills-exchange.com

This opportunity is open to employees across the East Midlands.

If you have already participated in a skills exchange experience, we would really like to hear from you.  Please send your comments to rbridges@llclp.org.uk or call 0116 279 5036

A recruitment section has been introduced to the PSC website, which links to a range of Public Service organisations websites www.llclp.org.uk/PSC-Recruitment 

Contact rbridges@llclp.org.uk if you would like your organisation adding to this page.

The LSC commissioned a project to develop promotional materials providing a regional framework with a local and specific focus for use with Public Sector employers at senior levels, recruiters within organisations and elected members and to develop an added value local consortium model which will make it easier for more Public Sector employers to venture into offering apprenticeships.

The lead organisation to deliver this project was Leicestershire and Leicester City Learning Partnership. To view the report please click here.

Many Compact members will have attended the Regional Skills Challenge Event on the 30th September. At this event Phil Hope MP, the Minister for the East Midlands, set out his Skills Challenge to the Public Sector.

In brief it is that over the next three years we should (i) Up skill 60,000 sector employees to level 2 standard; (ii) recruit 5,000 local people not in work and (iii) increase the proportion of young adults in the public sector by 25%.

To read the full text of Phil's "Challenge" please go to either the 'Skills Pledge' section of the Derbyshire page, the 'Learning & Development' section of the Northants page or the 'Skills Pledge' section of the L&R page.

The FREE Breakfast Event being staged at the Admiral Rodney Hotel Horncastle on the 30th January still has a few delegate places left available.

If you wish to book a place please email chris@donkinitex.co.uk

The December issue of the Derbyshire Compact Newsletter is now available from this web site. Look out for a summary of activity from our Chair and updates from our two working groups.

Be sure to SCROLL DOWN to locate the Newsletter section so that you can access this issue. 

The December issue of the Lincolnshire and Rutland Compact Newsletter is now available from this web site. Look out for a summary of activity from our Chair and updates from our two working groups.

To locate the Newsletter section please go via the 'News' tab.

The L&R Public Sector Compact is staging yet another FREE event in January. This time we will be looking at the issue of Graduate Recruitment and retention. (Many thanks to Lincolnshire Enterprise for funding this event)

It is often said that there are not enough graduates working in the public sector. It is also often said that public sector organisations need to employ more young people. In Lincolnshire and Rutland we have the additional issue that many of our local under-graduates go off to find work elsewhere in the country once they have completed their degree. Employing graduates is not just a good idea - it is not as scary as you may think !
 
The Compact has identified many current initiatives that are available now and will support public sector organisations who are thinking of fishing in this talent pool. We have decided that it would be a good idea to inform professionals working in the sector of such initiatives and schemes with a view to playing a role in increasing the number of graduates employed in the sector in our two counties. Hence on the 30th January at the Admiral Rodney Hotel in Horncastle we will be hosting the "What Graduates Can Do For You" Breakfast Briefing. You can download an agenda from the 'Special Events' section of this web site.
 
Why not come along and hear more at this FREE event. There will also be an opportunity for you to ask specific questions relating to support available for organisations considering moving in this direction. To reserve a delegate place simply send an email to Chris Donkin at chris@donkinitex.co.uk and he will send you confirmation of your booking and directions to the venue.

To whet your appetite we have made available on this site a very interesting article lifted from the JC+ web site entitled 'Young workers teach old dogs new ticks'. See also the 'Special Events' section of this web site. Many thanks to Derrick Brown of JC+ for providing this link.

In the December 2008 Newsletter published by the National Council for Work Experience (NCWE) there is a very interesting article on ' The increasing importance of work experience for students'. The Newsletter is available for download from the Graduate Recruitment section within the Recruitment and Retention tab.

Many thanks to Janette Goodchild for sending this in

As we move into the third year of Compact activity in L&R it is very likely that we will seek to get the Vol Com (or third) sector more involved with our work.

Children England (formerly the National Council of Voluntary Child Care Organisations) have recently produced a report/handbook that has been designed as a resource for people with different levels of experience of consultation and of working with the third sector. The document is available for viewing and/or download by visiting the newly created Vol/Com section that is accessible via the 'Other Info' tab on the L&R page.

Many thanks to Thomasin Alsop for sending this in

The Sector Skills Council 'Skills for Care' have updated their Leadership and Management Strategy. With our Compact considering developing tailored L&M training it is interesting to note that this SSC has got L&M high on their agenda.

The document is available for viewing and/or downloading from the new L&M option that can be found under the Learning & Development tab on the Lincs and Rutland page.

Many thanks to Christina Begley for supplying this information.  

The Job Centre Plus Local Employment Partnership Dec 08 Newsletter is now available. Please see the newsletter link on the Derbyshire page to read it and download it.

An interesting article in this publication noting the success of our recent Skills Pledge / Jobs Pldege Breakfast Briefing - also included in the edition a cracking good picture from the event.

Grantham College are hosting an evening to showcase their PCDL (Personal and Community Development Learning) programme by offering FREE tasters on Monday 12th Jan from 6pm to 9pm. Public sector employees will be welcome and it may be that this 'non qualification' learning environment is ideal for getting public sector employees back into learning - and then progressing to formal training.

To find out more phone 0800 9524004. Below is a list of the tasters available:

Intro to Health & Fitness – Learn about the differences between health and fitness, improving, nutrition & training. 

Intro to using your Video Camera – Quickly learn those tricks that will set your family videos apart from the rest, basic techniques, tips and tricks. 

Intro to Warm Glass – Would you like to be able to create your own beautiful jewellery and ornaments?  You will learn glass cutting and kiln forming. 

Intro to Felt Making – Would you like to create your own accessories to wear or give as gifts?  This will introduce you to the basic techniques in order to create 3 dimensional objects such as scarves, hats, handbags and accessories. 

Intro to Digital Camera – Create a calendar using your favourite photographs.  Download your photographs from your digital camera, image editing, memory stick to save and USB cable to connect. 

Intro to Sign Language – A basic introductory course, learning the basics of sign. 

Intro to Massage – An Introduction back and shoulder massage.  Swedish and aromatherapy techniques. 

Intro to Nails – Introduction to manicure, filing and cuticle work. Hand and arm massage. 

Secrets of the Chefs! Contemporary Fish Cookery – Introduction to preparation, cooking and presentation of modern fish cookery. 

Secrets of the Chefs! Contemporary Pastry Work – Introduction to modern techniques, dishes and presentation of pastry. 

Wine Appreciation – Introduction to the types and origins.  A guide to purchasing and storage.  Introduction to matching wine with menu items. 

Intro to Brickwork – Cutting and rolling mortar, spreading bed joints and bricklayer’s toolkit. 

Intro to Carpentry – Correct use of tools, construction of joints, saw stool and benchwork. 

Intro to Plumbing – Cutting and bending copper pipe.  Understanding the water supply, Draining plumbing systems and waste water systems. 

Intro to eBay - If you’ve always wondered how eBay works, now’s your chance to find out. 

ESOL in the Workplace Taster –Essential workplace matters such as health & safety and customer service are covered in this course which helps to improve accuracy, efficiency and effectiveness, communication and productivity. 

ESOL Taster – Is English your second language? If English isn't your first language and you'd like to improve your skills, this is the place to start.

Phil Hope, Minister for the East Midlands, has been visiting events and companies in the region to support driving up skills levels. He launched the Public Sector Skills Challenge at the Walkers Stadium in Leicester to urge public sector organisations to ensure their staff have the skills they need to be more effective and efficient in serving the community.

To read full details of his visit to our region (and to download a report with pictures) go to either the 'Skills Pledge' section on the Derbyshire Page, the 'Learning & Development' section on the Northants page or the 'Skills Pledge' section of the L&R page

The Derbyshire Public Sector Compact (PSC) held a breakfast briefing on Friday 14th November 2008 at Derby College Conference Centre to urge employers to get to grips with the Skills Pledge. 

At the briefing Mick Brown welcomed guests and kicked off the session by introducing the Skills Pledge, explaining what it is all about and how to make it work for your business.

Other organisations including Job Centre Plus, Derby Homes, Bolsover District Council, East Midlands Business and Derbyshire County Primary Care Trust each had a slot in the limelight encouraging employers to discover the benefits of Skills Pledge and Jobs Pledge for themselves.

Andy Pidluznyj of Job Centre Plus discussed ‘What the Jobs Pledge is all about and making it work for you’. ‘Signing the Jobs Pledge – Accessing Support for Recruitment’ was raised by Annabelle Barwick of Derby Homes with Angela Stansfield of Job Centre Plus.

Stuart Tomlinson of Bolsover District Council and Linda Pearson of East Midlands Business covered ‘Committing to the Skills Pledge – why we felt it was right to commit’ and Amanda Rawlings, HR Director of Derbyshire County Primary Care Trust talked passionately about ‘Committing to the Skills Pledge – the benefits we anticipate in accruing from making the Commitment’.

A plenary session explored the next steps for interested sector organisations and support available. Nigel Jackson of the LSC chaired the session with Angela Stansfield, Andy Pidluznyj, Linda Pearson and Chris Donkin (Facilitation Support for the Compact) all answering questions from the floor.

Over 40 delegates attended the session with 18 different sector organisations giving a clear indication that they want to pursue their interest. The PSC is now working with East Midlands Business to ensure that those organisations who have demonstrated their enthusiasm will now ‘sign up’ to the Skills Pledge.

The key messages from this event are available for download from the Skills Pledge section of the Derbyshire web page

On the 26th November the Department for Work and Pensions are offering free 'How to Employ Ability' workshops at the Petwood Hotel in Woodhall Spa - from 9 am to 12.45

At the event you will have the opportunity to:

Improve your confidence in recruiting and retaining disabled staff

Meet businesses who already employ disabled people

Find out what support is available and meet the Jobcentre Plus team in your area

Improve your understanding of the legal context and theDisability Discrimination Act (DDA)

All delegates will receive copies of practical, easy to digest guidance,including material from the Employers’ Forum on Disability and SHiFT.

So don’t miss out on the talent disabled people have to offer your business.

To register, please e-mail your details to Sue Bale at lincoln.employerengagement@jobcentreplus.gsi.gov.uk

The LSC have recently produced two short reports that will help us to promote Apprentices in the Public Sector.

The Executive Summary of the 'Expanding Apprenticeships in the Public Sector' describes how we can overcome the barriers to increasing apprenticeships and how what the LSC can do to promote the increased take up.

The other report is a short guide for public sector employers.

Both of these documents are available for download from the 'Promoting Apprenticships' section on the Lincs and Rutland page of this web site.

One of the most visited pages on this web site is the 'vacancies' page. We now have a distinct URL for this page. It can be accessed directly by visiting www.publicservicejobs.org.uk

 To advise people of the variety of jobs available from this platform the Compact has created a flyer that can be downloaded, printed and used at Recruitment Events.

Visit the Career Opportunities section of the Lincs and Rutland site to view it.

On Monday 27 October, DIUS and DCSF are hosting a summit for public sector leaders to launch the drive to increase apprentices working in the public sector.

Secretaries of State: Rt Hon Ed Balls MP and Rt Hon John Denham MP will be setting out their vision for Apprenticeships in the public sector to key decision makers and opinion formers, from the NHS, Local Government, Education and the Criminal Justice Sector.

Their vision will include the setting of a level of ambition for the number of Apprenticeship starts in the public sector to a level comparable to the private sector; and will provide a call to action to the delegates, many of whom are public sector employers nominated by regional LSC colleagues to work with us to champion Apprenticeships and galvanise activity across the public sector.

The summit will also be the formal launch of the Civil Service Pathfinder, which will provide over 500 Apprenticeship places in the Civil Service and provide an opportunity to showcase best practice across the public sector, to hear about barriers which may be preventing take-up, and ways to overcome them. LSC Regional Director for the West Midlands, David Cragg, will be on a panel chaired by Ian Watmore, talking about activity within the West Midlands.

Finally, the LSC has produced some leaflets for employers on the benefits of Apprenticeships in the public sector, including case studies, and also an Executive Summary of LSC commissioned research into increasing Apprenticeships within the public sector, both of which will be distributed to delegates at the event.

Derbyshire currently have 454 employers who have agreed to participate under a Local Employment Partnership (LEP) agreement. In the first 2 week of October 33 employers have agreed to an LEP.

This is an aspect of job Centre Plus' work that the Compact seeks to support. Please see the first LEP Newsletter (from the newsletters link) and also see the agenda for the Skills Pledge / Jobs Pledge Breakfast Briefing in the 'Skills Pledge' section.

On the 14th November at Derby College Conference Centre the Compact will host the 'Derbyshire Public Sector Skills Pledge / Jobs Pledge Breakfast Briefing'. Please see the agenda for this FREE event in the Skills Pledge Group section of the web site.

To book a delegate place - please simply email Chris Donkin at chris@donkinitex.co.uk

An Event for strategic and operational staff from regeneration, commissioning and planning backgrounds - at Clumber Park Hotel Nottinghamshire on 12th November 2008.

 For full details of this event please visit: www.esballiance.co.uk/newsletter/invitation.html 

The most recent IiP Newsletter has an interesting article on the first year of the Skills Pledge. A survey of 800 organisations has reported some very positive feedback - including the fact that over 80% of the organisations are likely to reccomend the Pledge to other organisations.

The full article is available for download from the Lincs and Rutland page by going to Other Documents housed within the 'Skills Pledge' drop down menu.

Thanks to Eryl Prentice of the LSC for supplying the newsletter.

The recent meeting of the Skills Pledge Group noted an action point to: 'Examine the organisations whom have made the commitment or completed the process to gather examples of best practice'.

With reference to this a member of the group has sourced an exemplar from a large organisation giving an inication of the form of words that may be used in making the Skills Pledge committment. This document has been made available on the web site in the Skills Pledge section and can be downloaded.

Many thanks to Linda Pearson of East Midlands Business for this contribution.

The first meeting of the Skills Pledge Task Group took place in Matlock recently.

A first action plan has now been established. This can be downloaded from the Skills Pledge section on the Derbyshire page.

Also available for dowload are the minutes of their first meeting.

The main focus of the early work of the group is going to be to organise and deliver a 'Special Event' scheduled for November the 6th to give sector organisations the chance to find out more about the Leitch Skillls Pledge and to showcase some of the sector organisations based in Derbyshire who have made the commitmment 

Lancashire County Council have embedded an ambitious apprenticeship scheme that is offering long term unemployed the chance to gain valuable work experience.

Please click the link for more details of this interesting initiative:

http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=8559085

The first meeting of the Workforce Development Task Group took place in Ripley last week.

A first action plan has now been established. This can be downloaded from the Workforce Development section on the Derbyshire page.

Also available for dowload are the minutes of their first meeting.

The Improvement and Development Agency for local government (IDeA) has created a new online Community of Practice to cover Apprenticeships in local government.  The network will form a single information site for those involved in the delivery of Apprenticeships within the local government footprint.

 Join for free now at http://www.communities.idea.gov.uk/welcome.do

As many of you will know there is a set of tailored brochures now available in the East Midlands to support Apprenticeships in the Public Sector.

These brochures have been produced separately for each county and have been distributed widely. In L&R and Northants a review of the effectiveness of the approach has been undertaken.The HR professionals in these areas were asked four questions and eight responses were received. The results were as follows:
In answer to the question "Did you like the appearance and content of the leaflet – the general message ?" - all 8 respondents answered yes !
In answer to the question "Do you feel that the use of local Case Studies is an effective way of promoting Apprenticeship programmes in the sector ?" ... again all 8 answered yes.
In answer to the question "Do you feel that there is a benefit from producing a ‘sector specific’ brochure or do you feel that generic material promoting Apprenticeships is likely to be as effective ?" there was a mixed reaction - 4 said yes and gave reasons why and 4 said that generic material may be as effective.
In answer to the question "Do you feel that using this material internally will increase the uptake of Apprentices within your organisation ? What support would you need to encourage you to pursue the idea?" four of eight gave a positive response.
Overall the brochures have been well received and may well prove to be instrumental in increasing the number of apprentices in the sector.To receive copies - simply email chris@donkinitex.co.uk. To see the full results of the survey - please visit the 'other documents' section on this web site.

As part of a review of year one working a review of the Terms of Reference was carried out by a small working party of the Steering Group.

At the Steering Group meeting in June the revised version was adopted. The main change is an indication that the Compact will be a 'member organisation' forum.

The new Terms of Reference can be downloaded from the Steering Group page on this site

Lynne Alexander of the local LSC has reported that the National LSC has looked into the potential for an E&D Practitioner’s Association.  The outcome was positive, however the LSC itself has no current plans to progress a project of this nature. 

As yet there is no professional qualification in the pipeline.

The 'Apprenticeships In the Public Sector' event hosted by the L&R Public Sector Compact earlier this month has been commended by the delegates.

The feedback has now been processed and the summary indicates that those attending found the content to be "excellent" and that their 'needs had been met'. One delegate commented that " .. it was great to hear about apprentices from employers themseleves and how their committment had made their programme effective"

The key messages from the event are available on the L&R page. Then access 'Special Events' then 'Apprenticeship Event'

Later today the Steering Group will consider the report on year one working prepared by Chris Donkin. The review also makes recommendations on how to move forward to ensure that in year two we derive the maximum benefits from collaborative working.

The complete report is available for download on this site - please see the 'Other documents generated by Compact activity' section.

Janette Goodchild, the Proect Leader for PAYP will be attending the next R&R Theme Group meeting. She is hoping to engage with the Compact to tell us more about the initiative.

Positive About Young People (PAYP) is an initiative which is being developed by a group of
employers in Lincolnshire and Rutland to recognise their commitment to young people in the
workplace. It consists of a series of agreed standards indicating what is expected of an
employer if they wish to be recognised as having a positive attitude towards young people at
work.

See also the PAYP reference document in the 'Recruitment and Retention' section on this web site

Mike Crosby of the LSC has flagged this article (below) as of interest to Compact members

While employment rates remain high in the UK, many businesses still testify to there being a lack of adequately skilled workers to recruit from.

Launching LocalGovTV’s Skills and Apprenticeships series today, Skills Minister David Lammy addresses this concern and discusses the immense challenge posed by rising competition from India and China.

To view this content visit: http://www.localgov.tv/cgi-bin/details.pl?action=pre&id=409

Mr Lammy discusses the pivotal role Local Authorities will play in addressing the national skills deficit and encourages them to act as brokers between employers and their immediate community.

He also defends the Government’s decision to allow private sector companies - such as McDonalds - the right to offer accredited training programmes, insisting the qualifications will have direct portability.

If your organisation would be interested in participating our Skills and Apprenticeships series, do please email me with a short paragraph outlining your story and any commercial partners you may be working with.

Best regards,

Gerry Price
LocalGov.TV
A GBTV Channel

If you wish to reply then mail to geraldine.price@localgov.tv

As we move into year two, the Chair of the Steering Group has this message for all Compact members (also to be found in the April Newsletter)

Colleagues
 
As we move into the second year of the Compact it is useful to reflect on the experience of the first twelve months. We have now embedded a working arrangement where two established Theme Groups (Recruitment & Retention and Learning & Development) are implementing actions to address issues of common interest. You will read of the the progress that these groups are making elsewhere in this newsletter. During the first year we have also delivered a series of good practice seminars that have promoted collaborative working within the sector and have been very well received.
 
At the recent Steering Group meeting we had a debate as to where we should focus our efforts in the future. We had a discussion structured around answering the following questions: (i) Should the Compact require a formal commitment from the participating organisations ? (ii) Is the Steering Group the right size and shape ? (iii) Where and how can we most effectively link with other complementary groups ? (iv) Should we set ourselves "hard" targets ? (v) Is there scope for a regional approach ? (vi) Are our action plans effectively meeting the stated aims of the Compact ? The initial feedback from the Steering Group was that we should consider introducing a 'Members Charter' for organisations to signal their commitment to partnership working and we should consider setting performance targets for the Compact around commitment to the Skills Pledge and increasing apprenticeships in the sector. We also felt that we could do some work to ensure that the Steering Group was more representative of the sector as a whole. I will be working with members of the Steering Group to frame a proposal for 'year 2 working' for consideration at the next Steering Group meeting in June. We would be interested to hear your views and how you may be able to contribute. The continued success of the Compact relies on the input from professionals working in the sector. If you wish to contribute to the debate please email the Compact facilitator Chris Donkin (chris@donkinitex.co.uk)
 
Many thanks for your support for the Compact
 
Nigel Howells
(Chief Executive of East Lindsey District Council and Chair of the Lincolnshire and Rutland Public Sector Compact Steering Group)

The Derbyshire Compact is now taking root and has become established as a forum for professionals in the sector to share good practice and work collaboratively to address issues of common interest.

Going forward into year two the Compact has carried out a review of progress made in year one. The interim findings from this review were recently presented to the Steering Group and the key messages can be dowloaded by accessing 'other documents generated by Compact activity' on the Derbyshire page.

At the recent Steering Group meeting it was agreed that the Compact has made excellent progress during the first year of existence.

To build on this and to plot the way forward the SG will be carrying out a 'mini review' of activity including a new look at the 'Terms of Reference' ... if you have any comments on how the first year has been for you then contact Chris Donkin by email - chris@donkinitex.co.uk  

The key messages from the Skills Pledge Breakfast Briefing can be accessed from the Special Events tab on this web site.

Also contianed in this document is some feedback from the Q and A Plenary

At the recent Skills Pledge Breakfast Briefing Emma Strafford (The Learning and Development Manager at HMP Morton Hall)  told delegates how literacy was taught by being embedded in a 'Beginners Spanish' class !

The contact details for the provider delivering this course have been provided by Emma and they are : Tel. 0115 9146175 email rob.jeremy@snc.ac.uk . This looks like a 'South Notts College' service. If any of the Lincs FE Colleges could also provide this service - please get in touch and I will make your contact details available also

The Skills Pledge Breakast briefing took place on the 19th March and was heralded as a great success. Feedback from the event is very positive with all delegates complimenting the 'content' of the event and the overwhelming consensus was that the attendees felt that their 'needs had been met'.

We are now looking forward to many more sector organisations in Lincs and Rutland signing the pledge. A full e-version of the delegate pack is available for download in the 'Special Events' section of this web site. 

The LSC have indicated that they can support two more organisations to help them establish the 'qualifications profile' of the organisation.

In the first phase of this 'mini-project' Chris Donkin worked with East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) and East Lindsey District Council (ELDC) to help them find out if they were 'Skills Plege Ready'. In both cases the organisations discovered that the number of employees in their organisation qualified at below level 2 standard was less than 20% of the workforce. This has encouraged EMAS and ELDC to consider committing to the Skills Pledge.

If you wish to be one of the 'extra two' organisations, please contact Chris Donkin (chris@donkinitex.co.uk) ASAP.

After a period of design and development and a big contribution from Ark ICT Solutions of Spalding, the new look web site has arrived.

If you are reading this on the old version of the site .. just click on the Lincolnshire and Rutland tab on the left of the screen to be re-directed.

The next major Compact Event is the Skills Pledge Breakfast Briefing on the 19th March 2008.

Contact Chris Donkin chris@donkinitex.co.uk to book a place

Click http://www.empscompacts.org.uk/landr/oichildren.asp to dowload the event flyer / invite and also more information about the PAYP initiative.

An East Midlands Project funded by the the LSC's Regional Skills Fund is examining why the sector attracts a disproportionately low number of apprentices. Work is underway in each county to look at barriers to participation - both real and perceived.

In Lincs and Rutland the investigative phase of the work has been concluded and Chris Donkin has compiled a report. The main findings are as follows:

 To download a complete copy of the report go to the Lincs and Rutland page and to the 'other activity' section.

Writing in the December Newsletter published by the Lincolnshire and Rutland Public Sector Compact, Nigel Howells (Chair of the Steering Group and Chief Executive of East Lindsey District Council) sent out the following New Year message encouraging colleagues to participate in Compact activity. Please download the newsletter for updates on current activity.

Hope you have a successful and prosperous 2008.

The E&D Event staged by the Compact last week was well received by the delegates. A 'diverse' set of presentations described the various approaches to E&D training at (i) Lincs County Council; (ii) EMAS, (iii) HMP Morton Hall and (iv) The Lincolnshire Partnership Trust. Feedback was very positive with the content of the presentations being acknowledged as 'excellent'.

The presentations are downloadable from this site - visit the Lincolnshire and Rutland page and go to 'Other documents generated by Compact activity'. The "Key Messages" from the event are available on the same page in the L&D Theme Group section.

Brian Skinner the Chair of the Work Based Academy sends this message to Compact members :

I was delighted to be able to make a presentation to you on the benefits of Apprenticeships  at the Public Sector Compact meeting on 26^th September.  If you do employ young people aged between 16 and 24 who are not engaged in learning, then I recommend you look at Apprenticeships as a way of developing these young people.   If you would like more information, or a face-to-face meeting about the scope of apprenticeships and the way they can work for you, please do not hesitate to contact me. (07966247647 - email bryski@btconnect.com)

A welcome spin-off from yesterdays Clear Wins Event is that it is clear that the Trade Unions are becoming more involved with the work of the Compact. It is now apparent that the Union Learning Reps can play a major role in supporting our work. For more information on the Union Learning Rep initiative click the link below:

http://www.unionlearn.org.uk/

Please check out the Lincolnshire and Rutland home page.

 We have established a page to advertise vacancies in the sector. Please click on the link on the L&R page for more details.

It is our intention to encourage as many public sector organisations as possible to provide us with the link to their vacancies

On June 13th over 30 representatives from 22 different Public Sector Organisations attended a consulation event at Lumb Farm to explore and progress the Action Plan for the Derbyshire Compact, outlined by the Steering Group.

An Open Space forum was followed by two focused discussion groups who considered issues on the themes of Learning and Development and Recruitment and Retention. 

Notes and a questionnaire from this event can be found in the Learning and Development section of the Derbyshire web page.

The Lincolnshire and Rutland Public Sector Compact Steering Group met for an informal meeting earlier today to take feedback from Nicola Marshall on the main issues facing the sector in the two counties. A very informative report was presented. Please access the document and download. It's a rattling good read !

The Alliance received a report on progress so far and have endorsed the work of the project.

Considerable progress was achieved in a very productive meeting. Liz Searle (The Area Director of the LSC in Northants) was elected as Chair. The Northamptonshire Training and Development Partnership (NTDP) were nominated and accepted the role of 'faciltating agency'

The draft minutes from this meeting have been posted on the Northants page of this site.

The minutes of this meeting will be posted on the Derbyshire page of this site soon.

Roisin Murray of the Business School of the University of Derby was elected as Chair. Best wishes to Roisin and the group.

The minutes of these meetings will be posted on this site soon.

Keep visiting the county pages for updates.