New Supply Community Benefits - Summary Report
North Lanarkshire Council · 16 November 2022
Back to Housing Committee — 16 November 2022 and its agenda
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North Lanarkshire Council Report Housing committee Does this report require to be approved? ☐ Yes ☒ No Ref Date 16/11/22 New Supply Community Benefits - Summary Report From Pamela Humphries, Head of Planning & Regeneration E-mail mallaghant@northlan.gov.uk Telephone Tony Mallaghan, Tel 07970 016251 1. Background 1.1 Community benefits are tangible, positive outcomes linked to public sector contracts, which help to improve the lives of local people in North Lanarkshire and help local communities to thrive. Community benefits help to boost employment and skills opportunities for local people and support local community initiatives, in addition to the general economic benefit the investment brings to each area such as increased opportunities for local businesses. 1.2 The Council is committed to maximising the delivery of community benefits. The procurements undertaken for any New Supply project includes a community benefit requirement which is assessed as part of the quality evaluation. 1.3 The Council predominantly use procurement Frameworks to deliver its new build programme where a points based approach is used and the supplier must deliver a stated number of community benefits points depending on the contract value. A list of Executive Summary The purpose of this report is to update the Committee regarding Community Benefits related to the new build housing programme. Recommendations It is recommended that the Committee: 1) Consider the contents of the report regarding the current position on the delivery of community benefits 2) Note that an update on community benefits from the New Supply Programme will be submitted annually The Plan for North Lanarkshire Priority Improve economic opportunities and outcomes Ambition statement (1) Ensure a housing mix that supports social inclusion and economic growth
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community benefit outcomes and associated points are provided which are specifically focused on recruitment and employment, however purchasers may agree on alternatives with the supplier depending on the needs of the local area. 1.4 As part of the Council’s Plan for North Lanarkshire to support young people towards more positive outcomes, collaboration between New Supply; Education and Families; Supported Enterprise and Employability teams helps facilitate work experience and opportunities to positive destinations within construction. There is a particular emphasis on supporting key priority groups, as part of the delivery of the Plan for North Lanarkshire and the Workforce for the Future Strategy to help tackle inequalities. 2. Report 2.1 Current Position 2.1.1 Community benefits for each new build development are pledged by contractors during the tender process and are monitored through the contract. The New Supply Team work closely with the contractors and provide relevant support and assistance to help maximise the benefits for local people and meet the council’s requirements. 2.1.2 A Community Benefits Development group has been established which meet every two months with the various stakeholders such as Education, Early Careers, Virtual Schools, Developing the Young Workforce, Supported Enterprise, the Apprenticeship team, and Employability services. The Group helps to co-ordinate and maximise opportunities created through the new supply programme, establishing clear lines of communication and developing plans to deliver and achieve the targets set out in each tender and to deliver the council’s objectives. 2.2 Community Benefits Menu 2.2.1 Each of the elements below describe the Community Benefits included in the council’s tender process. 2.2.2 Employment - Targeted Recruitment and Employment The new supply team collaborate at the early stages of each project with ALEO “Routes to Work” to maximise the partnership with the contractors to match the right job for the right person within North Lanarkshire and to tackle any training requirements to support people into employment. Understanding the contractors’ proposed community benefits activities and outcomes from future projects, helps with forward planning, and the ability to collaborate with internal and external stakeholders prior to the commencement of the project to achieve maximum benefit. All relevant stakeholders meet at the Community Benefits Working Group chaired by New Supply to collaborate and discuss future plans and requirements. As outlined in Appendix 1, since 2019, there have been 31 local people employed through Community Benefits from key priority groups such as people who have been unemployed for more than 6 months and/or have no relevant experience and/or women returning to the labour market. A further 9 employment opportunities for people from priority groups are projected. The posts provided must be a minimum of 30 hours per week and last a minimum of 26 weeks. In addition, 23 new start apprentices have been employed with 6 more forecast. The apprenticeship must be filled either by a person aged 16 years of age or older. There have also been 14 workplace placements which lasts a minimum of 2 weeks for an unemployed person 16 years or over and include
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vocational tasters, to enable the person to gain a meaningful insight into the construction sector and/or business operations evident with the supply chain. Collaboration at the early stages of each development has proven to help secure a meaningful work placement or permanent position. Good examples of success and collaborative working include the Department of Work and Pensions “Kickstart Scheme” which provides an opportunity to offer young people facing multiple barriers to employment to not only gain valuable experience of the industry but also potentially access long term employment and careers. As part of the Kickstart Scheme, which provides full time employment for 6 months as well as a supported training programme, two young people successfully progressed to permanent employment in January 2022, after completing the work placements programme on our site in Wishaw. 2.2.3 Education • Scottish Apprenticeship Week 2022 Collaboration with Education and Families is delivering prescriptive education events the schools and young people need through careers events and work experience. During the pandemic North Lanarkshire Council asked the contractors to come up with learning material that could be delivered virtually. In early 2022, with restrictions not fully eased to allow face to face sessions, North Lanarkshire Council’s community benefits team worked together with Developing the Young Workforce, Skills Development Scotland and contractors to plan and deliver construction related education sessions as part of the council’s Scottish Apprenticeship Week “Introducing the Apprenticeship Family” and “Careers in Construction” event. The event which ran over the week of 7th March was a huge success and included 23 interactive workshops with the aim of increasing awareness of the apprenticeship family, the range of career opportunities available in the construction industry, what these careers involve, pathways into them and support and advice available as to how young people can find and get the job that is right for them in the industry. 23 interactive sessions were delivered to 29 North Lanarkshire schools and 2,400 young people accessed the workshop sessions. An average of 105 pupils per session, approximately 600 young people per day. To mark International Women’s Day on 8th March a number of sessions were set up that day and throughout the week highlighting Women in Construction. The events targeted all pupils P7 to S6 but many of the sessions were also open to younger pupils at primary schools. The sessions were delivered by employees and apprentices from contractors working in North Lanarkshire as part of their community benefits. Examples of how these sessions could be used in future might include incorporating them into school career events, to help young people understand what apprenticeships are and the benefits of them, to raise awareness of the range of jobs in construction and to reduce barriers to help make parents aware of the opportunities that are available to the young people. It is intended to continue to run virtual sessions in conjunction with face to face sessions as a hybrid approach to gauge how successful they are with a view to reach more
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young people. Virtual sessions can also be added to a library of information for each school to tap into at various times of the school curriculum. • Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS) Training for Additional Supported Needs (ASN) Sector Another initiative supported by one of our new supply contractors involved delivery of bespoke training to help reduce barriers for our young people with additional support needs, in preparation to enter the world of work. Five pupils from Buchanan High school participated in the CSCS training. Each of these pupils has an additional support need from Global Learning Delay to Autism and at least two pupils have severe difficulty reading and writing. The pupils required the course to be well structured, clear, practical where possible, and support to be given in reading and writing. The appointed contractor has been instrumental in providing workshops to suit the needs of the young people. With the use of videos, activities and discussion the contractor created a solid foundation of understanding in Health and Safety in Construction. All five pupils have taken and passed their SQA Health and Safety in a Construction Environment exam, as has their teacher. All are scheduled to take their CSCS Exam in autumn 2022 and will also attend a site visit to one of NLC’s larger construction sites. As part of the plan for North Lanarkshire, helping to break down these barriers to achieve these accreditations will help our disadvantaged young people into a construction related career. 2.2.4 Enterprise – Supply Chain Development As part of Supply chain development, the Council encourage appointed contractors to get involved in “Meet the Real Buyer” events. These events are useful in terms of engaging with small businesses within the area to help them develop and grow their business. An example of this is that as part of their Community Benefits, a new supply contractor delivered a Meet the Buyer session to approximately 30 construction businesses in partnership with Business Gateway Lanarkshire. This session covered how to join their supply chain and the process for securing work from them. They discussed future projects and upcoming activities that the local supply chain could be part of. 2.2.5 Community Engagement - Financial support There has been engagement with the Communities Team to develop new approaches to implement community benefits including Participatory Budgeting (PB). This allows officers who understand local communities at grass roots level to create a process for giving community groups an input to how and where funds should be spent in a fair and transparent process. It is intended that PB will be the preferred method to implement community benefits financial support and will be part of a future Community Benefits Wish List process. Some examples of financial benefits provided to communities are outlined below: • £250 donation to Chryston Gala Day 2022. • £300 donated to the Health Improvement Team to help disadvantaged young people during the holiday period. • £3,000 donation to Sunnyside Café within Volvo Construction at Newhouse Industrial Estate.
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Sunnyside Café is a training cafe for young people with additional support needs within Volvo Construction at Newhouse Industrial Estate. This is an initiative created for young people from local ASN schools to attend for periods of real work experience, they will also have trainees who were due to leave school in June on paid placement while working in partnership with the college to ensure they will achieve qualifications/training for their CV and get them ready for work. The remainder of the budget outlined in Appendix 1 has still to be apportioned through the Participatory Budgeting process. 2.2.5 Non – Financial Support Community Benefits team receive requests or ‘wishes’ from local community groups. There have been a number of non-financial support activities carried out with an approximate value £9,000 where the New Supply Team co-ordinate and collaborate with other internal and external agencies to achieve goals / activities and outcomes. Contractors who are part of the New Supply programme have donated various items such as training time, and excess construction related materials that may otherwise have been re-cycled or sent to landfill. There are multiple benefits with this process including environmental and financial savings such as: • 50 internal doors which were excess material with an estimated value of £2,920.00 donated to Getting Better Together in Shotts. • £80 worth of materials such as plywood, offcuts of skirting board, door facings, and fixings were donated to Viewpark Conservation group, which were used to make benches and signposts for the nature walks in the area. • £2,400 worth of excess brick donated to the restorative justice team to use of community projects – such as making brick planters for two allotments and a brick planter to support a tree at a 5 day centre in Wishaw. • £1,778.50 CSCS training (Signs & Symbols) and Construction Health & Safety Awareness’ training for Buchanan High school – as per 2.3.2. • £150.00 worth of excess timber donated to the Men’s Shed, Coatbridge. 3. Measures of success 3.1 Contract performance and community benefits are proactively managed against a number of Key Performance Indicators that are managed by the New Supply Team. Appendix 1 shows an extract from the New Supply Community Benefits Tracker showing measures of success from 2019 to date and the forecast for the coming months. 4. Supporting documentation Appendix 1 Measures of success from 2019 to date. Pamela Humphries Head of Planning & Regeneration
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5. Impacts ( http://connect/report-template-guidance ) 5.1 Public Sector Equality Duty and Fairer Scotland Duty Does the report contain information that has an impact as a result of the Public Sector Equality Duty and/or Fairer Scotland Duty? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? If Yes, has an assessment been carried out and published on the council’s website? https://www.northlanarkshire.gov.uk/your-community/equalities/equality-and-fairer- scotland-duty-impact-assessments Yes ☐ No ☐ 5.2 Financial impact Does the report contain any financial impacts? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, have all relevant financial impacts have been discussed and agreed with Financial Solutions? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.3 HR policy impact Does the report contain any HR policy or procedure impacts? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, have all relevant HR impacts have been discussed and agreed with People and Organisational Development? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.4 Legal impact Does the report contain any legal impacts (such as general legal matters, statutory considerations (including employment law considerations), or new legislation)? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, have all relevant legal impacts have been discussed and agreed with Legal and Democratic Solutions? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.5 Data protection impact Does the report / project / practice contain or involve the processing of personal data? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, is the processing of this personal data likely to result in a high risk to the data subject? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, has a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) been carried out and e- mailed to dataprotection@northlan.gov.uk Yes ☐ No ☒ 5.6 Technology / Digital impact Does the report contain information that has an impact on either technology, digital transformation, service redesign / business change processes, data management, or connectivity / broadband / Wi-Fi? Yes ☐ No ☒
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If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? Where the impact identifies a requirement for technology, has an assessment been carried out (or scheduled) by the Enterprise Architecture Governance Group (EAGG)? Yes ☐ No ☒ 5.7 Environmental / Carbon impact Does the report / project / practice contain information that has an impact on any environmental or carbon matters? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.8 Communications impact Does the report contain any information that has an impact on the council’s communications activities? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.9 Risk impact Is there a risk impact? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the key risks and potential impacts, highlighting where the risk(s) are assessed and recorded (e.g. Corporate or Service or Project Risk Registers), and how they are managed?
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Appendix 1 - Measures of Success Extract from New Supply Community Benefits Tracker Completed Community Benefits 2019 – 2022 * 1 year constitutes no of completions from 1st Sept – 1st Sept of the following year. Targeted Recruitment and Employment 2019 2020 2021 2022 Completed 2019-2022 Forecast 2022/2023 TRE01 New Entrants – Key priority Groups 4 4 10 4 22 6 TRE02 New Entrants – no relevant experience 1 2 6 9 3 TRE03 New Entrant - Graduate 1 TRE04 New Start - Apprentice 1 7 15 23 6 Targeted Skills & Training 2019 2020 2021 2022 Completed 2019-2022 Forecast 2022/2023 TST01 Work Experience Placement (16 + years of age) 5 0 0 9 14 50 TST02 Work Experience Placement (14 - 16 +years of age) 0 1 1 2 TST03 Work Experience Placement - Graduate TST04 Careers Event 2 1 1 25 29 31 TST05 Site Visit 3 9 12 17 TST06 School Mentoring or Enterprise Programme 1 0 6 7 0 Supply Chain Development 2019 2020 2021 2022 Completed 2019-2022 Forecast 2022/2023 SCD01 Supply Chain Briefing with SME’s 1 3 4 2 SCD02 Business Mentoring for a SME’s Community Engagement 2019 2020 2021 2022 Completed 2019-2022 Forecast 2022/2023 CCE01 Financial Support for a Community Project 3 3 3 7 16 0 CCE02 Non-Financial Support for a Community Project 1 7 7 15 1
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Extract from New Supply Community Benefits Tracker 2019 - 2022 Targeted Recruitment and Employment Pledged Completed Forecast 2022/2023 TRE01 New Entrants – Key priority Groups 19 22 6 TRE02 New Entrants – no relevant experience 4 9 3 TRE03 New Entrant - Graduate 0 0 1 TRE04 New Start - Apprentice 8 23 6 Targeted Skills & Training Pledged Completed Forecast TST01 Work Experience Placement (16 + years of age) 46 14 50 TST02 Work Experience Placement (14 - 16 +years of age) 3 1 2 TST03 Work Experience Placement - Graduate 0 0 0 TST04 Careers Event 37 29 31 TST05 Site Visit 16 12 17 TST06 School Mentoring or Enterprise Programme 1 7 0 Supply Chain Development Pledged Completed Forecast SCD01 Supply Chain Briefing with SME’s 3 4 2 SCD02 Business Mentoring for a SME’s 0 0 0 Community Engagement Pledged Completed Forecast CCE01 Financial Support for a Community Project 14 16 0 CCE02 Non-Financial Support for a Community Project 5 15 1 Pledged = Total number of community benefits pledged from new build contracts awarded from 2019 to date. Completed = Total of completed community benefits from 12 developments from 2019 to date. Note total number of completions are higher than post contract award. Some pledges still to be achieved are included in the forecast figure. Forecast = Total includes the community benefits still to be delivered from 5 developments in progress or just started. A further 44 projects, total of 1880 units still to commence post September 2022 – 2027 which will become part of the forecasted figures as they complete the tender process. These figures will continually change as developments complete and new developments begin.