Case studies

The West of England Combined Authority embraced digital and social media marketing to raise awareness of their ‘Future Bright’ skills service.

The combined authority argues that a devolved approach has made it easier to create stronger links and have more strategic conversations about how and what is delivered, based on need.

Although the existing Surrey survey data was a useful tool, the arguments benefited from being broadened out to encompass evidence and examples from beyond Surrey to demonstrate to new partners the economic benefits of employing hidden talent and that this is not just a local agenda but part of a larger set of issues being recognised and championed globally by both small and large employers.

Like many local authorities across the country, one of the challenges facing Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council as part of its COVID-19 recovery planning, was adapting and advancing its existing commitment to developing its towns and local centres.

The combined authority would like to see devolution across the whole of employment and skills, in order to join up support and avoid duplication.

The collaborative working of the South Ribble partnership and the Lancashire Mental Health to Businesses (MH2B) Building Blocks Partnership has allowed South Ribble to be a representative sample of the wider Lancashire area, meaning that the focus on the development can be on a much smaller area, with recommendations able to be rolled out over a larger area.

"devolution is fantastic and I think we've proved we can manage it".

Through the development of a Work Local model, the council wants to improve employment, skills and workforce development opportunities. By engaging with small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to understand their future workforce needs, and working with local partner agencies, the city council is building a support offer for local residents to develop job opportunities and career pathways.

Maldon District Council worked on a prototype project to understand the support requirements for school children transitioning from year 6 to year 7. The aim of the project was to identify children who may be going under the radar with unaddressed mental health concerns and would require support in transitioning from primary to secondary school.

The combined authority argue that devolving the skills revenue and capital funding in the UK Shared Prosperity Fund would better allow it to align all funding streams and produce a linear model which would offer support to people from transitions into work to progression in the labour market.