Agenda item

The Slough Academy - Update

Minutes:

The Committee considered an update report regarding The Slough Academy project and the progress made since the last report was received in January 2019.

Members were advised that there were currently 12 Council employees undertaking apprenticeships in Adult Social Care, Procurement, Operational Management and Community Sport and Health.  Quarter 1 2019 currently showed apprenticeships being planned up to the end of 2024.  The number of apprenticeships were expected to peak at 47 in early 2020 and ranged from GCSE to MA levels across Adult Social Care, Early Years, Customer Service, Civil Engineering, Surveying Technician, Town Planning, Regulatory Compliance, Procurement, Human Resources and Accounting.  Quarter 2 would extend the roll-out from July 2019 onwards.

The Committee was informed that the recent Schools Forum meeting held in May 2019 had an excellent attendance with over 16 maintained and non-maintained Slough schools attending.  Support was provided by Service Leads from People Services, Finance and the Account Manager for apprenticeships from the Education and Skills Funding Agency.  Feedback from the schools had been very positive and it was hoped there would be an increase in the number of apprenticeships throughout schools in Slough. 

In relation to Phase 2 – Continuous Professional Development, Members were advised that the Council was due to implement a market-leading Talent Management System – ‘Cornerstone’ with two modules for learning management and performance management.  The system would provide the Council with the ability to develop a new approach to continuous professional development to build on the foundations established through the apprenticeship roll-out.  The system would provide a clearly defined career pathway for all staff with established organisational support through the integration of appraisals and Personal Development Plans.

The implementation of succession planning would ensure that the Council had a pipeline of talent in place to fill the next generation of roles required to support the delivery of future Service Plans.  The Cornerstone Performance Management module would assist managers and leaders in the Council to proactively identify potential emerging talent based on formal performance criteria.  This would ensure that staff were continually encouraged to develop and progress their careers and this would contribute to retention levels by ensuring the workforce was motivated to support the organisation’s Service Delivery Plans. 

Members were keen to support the growth and continuous professional development of the Council’s workforce.

(Councillor Brooker joined the meeting at 7 pm)

There was some discussion in relation to the Council providing work experience to students.  The Director of Finance and Resources reported that there was no government funding available to the Council to provide work experience.  In addition, he explained that historically these types of opportunities had not been well structured for the students and involved diverting staff resource to provide supervision.  He explained that providing work experience was not a priority of the Council and the organisation was currently unable to support this provision.

 

Resolved – That the report be noted.

Supporting documents: