SEEDA Business Support Briefing Session

30^th June 2011

The Government has decided that as part of its new policy on economic development all Regional Development Agencies (RDAs), including SEEDA, will close by 31 March 2012.

We are committed to closing in a highly professional way and have pledged to work closely with our partners, contractors and stakeholders to ensure that the past and future economic benefits of key programmes and assets continue to deliver the greatest economic value for the South East and value for money for the taxpayer. 

Up to 140 of SEEDA’s 220 staff will have left by the start of July either through transfer to other bodies taking on SEEDA programmes, or through redundancy.  The remainder will reduce down throughout the rest of the year.  This reduction in staff numbers - and capacity - is just one reason why we chose to hold a Business Support Briefing Session now.  We want to help our partners, contractors and stakeholders to understand what’s happening to SEEDA’s functions and assets, so that they can continue to pursue the best benefits for the South East. 

Agenda and delegate list

SEEDA Business Support Briefing Session agenda

SEEDA Business Support Briefing Session Delegate list

Presentations from SEEDA Business Support Briefing Session

Susan Priest, SEEDA Exec Director Business Development - The Business Improvement Landscape

Laura Pelling, Chief Exec, Business Link South East - Transition to the New Framework

Ben Smith, SEEDA Head of Financial Services Sector Team - Sectors and Clusters

David Riches, Partnership Director UKTI - Inward Investment, briefing for local partners

Ivan Perkovic, SEEDA Head of Economic Research - Where is it all going

Ian Coates, Area Director BIS Local - Introducing BIS South, Central and West

Economic Intelligence and Research 

Services, Assets and Staff, updated by SEEDA’s Economic and Research Team in June 2011, is a vital document sign-posting a wealth of valuable information.   It provides and overview of SEEDA’s Research and economics function and includes links to our economic, sectors and market intelligence resources housed on the SEEDA website.

The Economic Intelligence and Research Team's pages on this website provide 3 types of valuable data and information: 

• Latest economic intelligence;
• (regional and sub-regional) economy reviews; and
• research.

Please note that these assets will transfer over to South East England Councils on 5th July 2011.  SEEC will manage these resources.  They will not continue to provide the economic research and market intelligence function previously delievered by SEEDA.  The economic research function will cease altogether. The market intelligence function has transferred to PA Consulting. 

Evaluations

SEEDA's commissioned, independent evaluations provide a wealth of information about the impacts and outcomes of our projects and programmes. A selection of those produced between 2004 - 2008 are available on the OffPAT website.  You can access the evaluations by registering as a user as-per the instructions on the front page of the OffPAT website. 

Evaluations commissioned by SEEDA for the period 2008 - 2010 can be found on the SEEDA website.  To access these more recent evaluations click here and select “Evaluations” from the “Select Category” drop down menu. 

Sectors and Clusters

SEEDA’s 'high growth' strategy has focused on a group of six traded industries designated as priority sectors.  You can access sector 'propositions' for a slection of these by clicking on the active links below:

• Financial and Professional services;
• ICT, Software and Digital Media;
• Advanced Engineering and Marine;
• Aerospace and Defence;
• Pharmaceuticals, Life Sciences and Healthcare;
• Environment and Energy.   

Another key document, The Geography of Key Sectors in the South East, provides the evidence base for SEEDA's sector and cluster strategy. 

 

Skills

In Autumn 2010 SEEDA and the SFA produced the South East Skills Priorities Statement,  which provides an overview of skills required to support economic growth and sets out the skills priorities that require attention within and across the South East.  The Statement can be found on the SEEDA website:

The evidence base for the Priority Statement, produced in conjunction with the Institute of Employment Studies, will be of particular interest to those working in this area.

Major redundancy toolkit

Jobcentre Plus, SEEDA and Skills Funding Agency staff have compiled a toolkit designed for Local Authority, LEP and Jobcentre Plus staff with responsibility for responding to economic shocks.  The toolkit brings together good practice developed across South of England partners how best to respond to major redundancies. The toolkit is that it is not about imposing an approach to dealing with redundancies- many areas will already have established mechanisms and protocols- rather its an aide memoir or training resource for staff having to redundancies without prior experience, or/and where there are no established arrangements in the area.

For a copy of the toolkit please contact Lynda Jones, Senior Group Partnerships Manager at Jobcentre Plus: lynda.jones@jobcentreplus.gsi.gov.uk

Migrant labour in the South East of England

In light of the new annual limits on non- European Economic Area (EEA) migrants from April 2011, the South East Strategic Partnership for Migration (SESPM) and SEEDA jointly commissioned research to:

• Understand the scale and types of non-EEA economic migrants securing employment in a locality;
• Identify industries and occupations likely to be most affected by the annual limits on non-EEA economic migrants;
• Assess the adequacy of existing local learning provision and shape the future curriculum offers in order to meet the needs of an economy with less access to non-EEA economic migrants.

We hope the findings are of particular interest to Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) and Further Education Colleges and Universities in informing efforts to support local economic growth and labour market priorities. 

Impact reports are available for each of the seven LEPs covering the South East of England: Kent, Greater Essex & East Sussex; Coast to Capital; Solent; Enterprise M3; Thames Valley Berkshire; Oxfordshire City Region; South East Midlands.

European investment

SEEDA has been represented in Brussels since 2002, building relationships with European partners and policy-makers and ensuring that the South East’s voice has been heard. In order to ensure that partners in the South East have access to SEEDA’s accumulated expertise on European funding and partnerships, two legacy documents have been produced.

The first is a Directory of European Partnerships detailing a number of European partners established or identified through projects and the activities of the Brussels Office. It covers partners in five major sectors: aerospace and defence; automotive; environmental technologies; healthcare technologies and ICT.

The second is a Directory of European Funding opportunities and advice on how to make a successful proposal, based on SEEDA’s experience of winning funds. It is not an exhaustive list but a comprehensive selection of those funds that we believe will be of most interest to the South East.

BIS Business Improvement

The BIS Business Improvement Newsletter will keep you up to date with future developments to the business improvement landspace.

The LEP 'Tool Box' provides information on economic development activity across government departments and sets out possible avenues for LEP/Government cooperation.

BIS are also providing a 'contacts' page for a range of economic development activity areas, including support for innovation, mentoring, support for rural businesses, MAS, tourism and Olympic business opportunities, amongst many others, via its 'Getting in Touch' page.

The Solutions for Business good practice guide for LEPS can also be found here.  

External links

Contacts

Individual contacts for different aspects of government activity are set out in the relevant sections of the LEP Toolbox (see above). However, contact with government departments can also be made through the routes set out in BIS' 'Getting in touch with government' page. This includes contacts for all LEPs and the 9 BIS Local offices.

Contacts for each of the out-going projects and programmes managed by SEEDA, but transferring elsewhere can be found here .  Contacts for work continuing within SEEDA can be found here.