Agenda item

5.1

Public Question in respect of Apprenticeship Levy

5.1.1

Jake Hamilton referred to the new Apprenticeship Levy introduced by the Government. The effect of this was resulting in training providers facing cuts to their provision and not being able to meet delivery levels. Could the Council call on the Government to enable funding to be freed up to support these providers as a result?

5.1.2

Councillor Jackie Drayton, Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Families commented that the levy was on all organisations and was intended to create more apprenticeships. However, it was difficult for smaller organisations to do that. Sheffield had a strong commitment to apprenticeships. It ran the 100 apprenticeship programme. Opportunity Sheffield supported smaller businesses who wanted to take on apprentices but lacked the infrastructure.

5.1.3

Councillor Drayton was aware that not everybody was ready to become an apprentice so the Council also had a pre-apprenticeship programme and supported traineeships. She was also pleased to hear that the South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (SYPTE) had recently announced the expansion of the 16-18 bus pass to those in apprenticeships and training, in addition to those in education, and had also extended the period the pass could be used, through to August.

5.14

The Leader of the Council, Councillor Julie Dore, added that the current Administration had made skills one of its priorities. The levy was a new scheme which made employers pay for the benefit they received. The introduction of the levy had been announced by the Government without thought as to how it would be implemented or the impact on small businesses and she added that now it had been introduced, the faults with the scheme would be exposed.

5.2

Public Question in respect of Public Engagement

5.2.1

Nigel Slack asked, following the recent turnout in the Southey By-Election, what could the Council do to rejuvenate local electoral engagement? All out elections? Campaigning for PR at a local level? Given that Councillor Chaplin was the lowest polling Councillor in the Ward, did that mean that Councillor Chaplin would be up for re-election next year?

5.2.2

Councillor Julie Dore responded that the turnout for local elections was almost always lower than for a General Election. For a by-election, the turnout in Southey was actually fairly good. There were various reasons why people chose not to vote and she did not believe it was fair to say that 3 in 4 of the general public didn’t care.

5.2.3

Councillor Dore further commented that one of the problems at a local level was the way Councillors were perceived and presented by the media. The key was to raise the value of the role of Local Government and what Councillors actually did and to show people that when they did engage with the Council it worked for them. The Council had done a lot of work with colleges and the Universities in respect of engaging young people and the Council had worked closely with Sheffield 4 Democracy and Sheffield Live to try and increase engagement.

5.3

Public Question in respect of Elected Mayors

5.3.1

Nigel Slack commented that turnout for the Regional Mayoral Elections was an average of only 27%. Even Andy Burnham only had 28.6% of the vote and in Tees Valley only 1 in 5 of the electorate voted. Can the Mayoral position make any difference to the negotiations with central Government with such an insignificant mandate?

5.3.2

Councillor Dore responded that she expected the turnout for the Mayoral and Local Elections would not be as high as for a General Election as they had not received as much media coverage as General Elections usually did. Councillor Dore was in favour of Proportional Representation and she was disappointed in the Liberal Democrats only pushing for the Alternative Vote when in the Coalition Government, which actually set progress back. The vote on this had shown, however, that the public appeared to like the First Past the Post system.

5.4

Public Question in respect of Devolution

5.4.1

Nigel Slack commented that, in the elections last week, Derbyshire County Council changed from Labour to Conservative control. Has the Council considered if and how this might impact on the Devolution issues around Chesterfield’s inclusion as a ‘constituent Council’ in the Combined Authority?

5.4.2

In response, Councillor Julie Dore stated that, when the Government amended its own legislation, it gave the power and responsibility to Local Authorities to decide if they wanted to become constituent members. As far as Councillor Dore was aware, nothing had changed and Derbyshire County Council still wished to remain a constituent Council. Progress had stalled slightly as a result of the Derbyshire County Council Judicial Review. Devolution was a Government policy so Councillor Dore could not see this impacting on the regions.

5.5

Public Question in respect of Discrimination

5.5.1

Nigel Slack commented that he believed that bigotry and injustice should be challenged at every opportunity, if one was able to do so. This Council had a long history of similarly challenging prejudice at home and abroad. As a Gay man, the current situation in Chechnya was deeply disturbing and upsetting for Mr Slack. The apparent abduction, torture and killing of its own citizens for nothing more than loving someone of the same sex, for Mr Slack, puts that Government beyond the realms of normal human decency. To encourage families to murder their own children and to do so without any apparent challenge from the Russian Federal Government was simply appalling.

5.5.2

Mr Slack therefore called on the Council to, at the next available Full Council Meeting, bring forward a motion condemning the actions of the Chechen authorities and calling on the Russian Federal Government to speedily address the concerns of their own Gay community and communities around the world about this treatment of innocent men.

5.5.3

In addition, Mr Slack called on the Council to take a break from the usual tribal of the Chamber and to talk to other parties before the event to ensure a united front from the very start. To help facilitate this approach, Mr Slack would circulate this question to other party leaders and urge them to come together on this issue.

5.5.4

Councillor Dore commented that she shared the views and feelings of Mr Slack on this matter. She had campaigned for equality all her life and had worked closely with the LGBT community. She believed that it may be more effective, rather than just calling upon the Russian Government, to write to the Foreign Office to state that the Council was extremely concerned at recent events and requests that the Foreign Minister raises the concerns with his counterparts in Russia. As well as this, a Motion could also be put forward at Full Council as Mr Slack had requested.