With blue light services only a phone call away, noted Alan Woods, a Business Consultant at
Skills for Justice, “we cannot afford as a society for the fire and rescue services lacking the skills to respond to an emergency; it’s just not credible.”
Speaking to the room full of blue light service providers, Woods stressed that being smart about investing in skills is of “paramount importance”, explaining that if workforce skills were improved to the levels they are in Finland, it would increase UK growth by around 1% per year.
The temptation for organisations to find savings by cutting workforce investment is nothing other than short-sighted, he said, saying collaboration is a key method of responding to this. There is a changing culture of public services and employment in the UK, he argued, where questions are being asked about whether greater collaboration is needed between emergency services, as in Scotland where the fire and police services being merged.
The blue light services sector has been slow to react to or involve itself in the “revolution” going on in apprenticeships, Woods believed, and challenged employers to make it as simple as possible for young people to decide to do an apprenticeship instead of going to university.
He stressed the importance of effective talent spotting and talent management to ensure the greatest flexibility exists in the workforce, and noted the need to have a real emphasis on sustainability.
Simon Perryman, the Executive Director of the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES), praised the “exciting and valuable” work of
Skills for Justice.
The organisation’s focus on giving proper consideration to sustainability is admirable, he said, explaining that if jobs were maintained for ten years, every £1 put into the programme would generate £6 of value.
“We knew public money was going to have to be used differently at the start of the coalition government” he said, “so our vision was to put employers in the driving seat.”
The organisation, he said, had been focusing on three key areas: creating opportunities for all young people to get in and on in work; improving skills, productivity and progression for those in work; and building strong vocational pathways into higher level skills and jobs.
Giving the local government perspective, Councillor Rory Love from the Local Government Association’s Workforce Board, noted how councils had traditionally been striving to deliver more for less, whereas recently this has shifted to an emphasis on delivering less for even less.
He pointed out how the annual pay bill for local government is £22.5bn; illustrating how the kind of work carried out by
Skills for Justicehas helped local government focus on some really significant efficiency savings.
“Partnership with SfJ has certainly surpassed all our expectations” he stated, and urged other organisations to find out how they could help them too.
Acting Chief Executive of the JSSC operating as
Skills for Justice, Steve Clark, explained that over the last few years Skills for Justice had, despite maintaining its not-for-profit status, changed to operate more of a consultancy-based model where it treated the employers it worked with more like customers.
At a time when government is supporting proposals to move away from national occupational standards, there is a real risk the level of current standards – and the assurance they give to both employees and employers – will be jeopardised, he said.
All the work
Skills for
Justicedoes has a real focus on both cooperation and collaboration, he said, and improvements can still be achieved by increasing collaborative programmes, listening to employers and developing solutions that meet their needs.
Returning to the importance of ensuring the solutions are sustainable, Clark stated that this is absolutely a top priority:
“We are committed to change; we are in this for the long game.”