Economic Development and Enterprise
Thursday 27th November, Thistle Marble Arch Hotel - London, 08:45 - 16:00
Research & Development 2008: The Knowledge Transfer Challenge
Tuesday 2nd December, One Great George Street - London, 08:30 - 16:00
Workforce Management: Reducing Absence, Improving Well-Being, Increasing Effectiveness
Wednesday 10th December, One Queen Anne's Gate, 09:90 - 14:00
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Synopsis
The Government continually aims to foster an environment in which businesses are able to innovate, create and sustain jobs; and citizens are encouraged to learn, acquire skills and competitiveness, and enhance their employability. The hope is that through this deprivation can be tackled and sustainable communities delivered. Through economic development and enterprise, communities up and down the country will be able to experience sustainable economic development, regeneration and business growth. This should produce a number of desirable outcomes, such as helping tackle child poverty and increase employment rates.
The key drivers of the Government's policy on economic growth and productivity - employment, enterprise, skills, innovation, investment and competition - will be delivered by regional development agencies (RDA's) alongside the other key players, such as local authorities and business.
Delivery of successful policy on economic growth and productivity requires close working, and often co-delivery, between key partners with responsibility for these closely related policy levers. This often requires working across geographical and administrative boundaries.
Central to the development of this area will be regional skills partnerships. Their membership includes regional development agencies, local learning and skills councils, Job Centre Plus, the Skills for Business Network and the Business Links Network. Their role is to ensure that the strategy for the supply of skills, training and business support and labour market services is planned, managed and delivered in a coherent, collaborative way which reflects the priorities set out in Regional Economic Strategies (RES).
Jobcentre Plus has a key interest in ways of improving employment outcomes, particularly for people from disadvantaged groups and areas, and a shared agenda of reducing deprivation and improving economic activity. Jobcentre Plus will be a good source of local advice on measures to help the hardest to reach into work, including: lone parents; the over-50s; sick and disabled people; black, Asian and ethnic minority people; those without qualifications; ex-offenders; drug and alcohol misusers; and the homeless. They also share a commitment to reduce poverty by ensuring that those who cannot work receive their correct benefit entitlement.
RDA's - in consultation with partners for the development of regional economic strategies - also have responsibility for advising Government more generally on economic development. Government offices will therefore look to fully involve RDAs on proposals for this block, in particular how they fit with RES. Clearly, RDAs will also have a role, in partnership with others, for the delivery of economic development and enterprise. Government offices will ensure that arrangements are put in place to prevent any conflict of interest between these roles.