Agenda item

Report from the Assistant Chief Executive.

Recommendations:

That Cabinet:

1.  Endorse the projects for submission to South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority for award of UKSPF for 2023/24 and 2024/25 as follows:

a)       Local Business Support

i)        £1,693,727 for sub-regional business support supporting three strands of “Launchpad” (start-up support); productivity and low carbon.

ii)        £234,870 capital for Rotherham’s business incubation centres.

iii)       £234,482 for social value to coordinate and enhance social value activity, focused on increasing local spend through anchor organisations’ procurement activity.

Consideration was given to the report which was the UK Shared Prosperity fund prospectus for years two and three. He explained that following Brexit, the Government committed to ensuring they continued regional funding under the name of the UK Shared Prosperity fund. 

In terms of developing the proposed the first thing considered was what were the EU funded schemes that the borough already benefited from, particularly in terms of business support and skills to ensure that the Council was not disadvantaged, that it was not losing out on some of the work already being carried out across the borough.

The theme around this was how the Council could use the money to advance a more inclusive economy.  This meant creating more indigenous businesses, more locally owned businesses creating wealth in the communities, including creating jobs for local people. 

He welcomed that in line with the Council’s commitment to a real living wage there was a desire to encourage those businesses to increase the rate of pay for those at the bottom end of the income scale.

It meant the Council would go further with it’s social value commitments to ensure local businesses were better able to access public procurement and benefit from the work that was created by the public sector spending in the borough.

It meant doing more to help local people to access job opportunities, with a set of skills proposals that would help people of all aspects meaning no one was left behind. This would enable support to be placed within the communities and for it to remain over the next two years.

He felt it was a good package of measures that would help people to move forward.

The Assistant Chief Executive explained the summary of proposals in appendix two included a list of anticipated impacts.  A more detailed proposals would be developed, if approved, to clarify those impacts both in terms of outputs and outcomes for the community.

The report was considered by the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board (OSMB) who welcomed the standalone report covering years two and three. During it’s debate OSMB considered how the priorities were chosen, how the impacts were measured, and anticipated impacts and whether the proposal was ambitious enough.  OSMB requested to receive an update report before the end of the municipal year.  OSMB supported the recommendations.

Councillor Sheppard echoed comments raised regarding the employment solutions which had an effect on people’s lives, working with people who were either a long time away from the working environment or were not able to access work.  He also mentioned the value from the creation of 40 paid traineeships, and 70% of those going through a six-month traineeship were now either in education or paid employment.

Resolved: That Cabinet:

1.  Endorsed the projects for submission to South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority for award of UKSPF for 2023/24 and 2024/25 as follows:

a)       Local Business Support

i)        £1,693,727 for sub-regional business support supporting three strands of “Launchpad” (start-up support); productivity and low carbon.

ii)       £234,870 capital for Rotherham’s business incubation centres.

iii)       £234,482 for social value to coordinate and enhance social value activity, focused on increasing local spend through anchor organisations’ procurement activity.

b)       People and Skills

i)        £1,291,013 for Rotherham integrated skills programme (RISP) providing four projects covering the journey from initial engagement with those hardest to reach, through to sustainable employment and career progression.

ii)        £421,502 for Children’s Capital of Culture to extend and expand the traineeship programme with further capacity building support for partners.

c)       Communities and Place

i)        £471,664 for Children’s Capital of Culture, including investment in existing and new events and festivals across the Borough, building capacity in community organisations and groups and creating more resilient models for grass roots programmes.

ii)        £370,094 for Open Arms Rotherham phase 2 for ongoing delivery of fortnightly one-stop shop sessions, in targeted neighbourhoods and further development of community infrastructure, including community leaders.

iii)       £100,000 for Reaching Out Across Communities, establishing local equality networks to ensure that current and future interventions are informed by and effectively reach all of Rotherham’s diverse communities.

iv)       £280,000 for town centre events to deliver a regular programme and increase footfall.

v)       £1,068,709 for the visitor and leisure economy, supporting the delivery of capital schemes across Rotherham, focused on major attractions, increasing visitor numbers, and improving skills

vi)       £80,000 capital for Active Lives, creating additional multi-sport play zones in local communities.

d)       Rural

i)        £200,000 for a small grants programme for rural businesses supporting rural micro and small enterprises and tourism and the visitor economy.

2.    Agreed to delegate authority to the Assistant Chief Executive in consultation with the Leader of the Council to determine revised and final allocations for the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, including allocation of funding to the three capital schemes within the ‘visitor and leisure economy’ proposal. This is to include provision for other eligible actions within the use of the fund should it not be possible to achieve full spend of the grant through the allocations above.

3.    That a further report to provide to OSMB in 6 months’ time indicating how the impact has been measured and monitored.