Islington Council is continuing its efforts to combat poverty and promote economic inclusion, as detailed in the recently released Inclusive Economy Annual Report 2024-25 exec summary. The council is addressing challenges such as ensuring cultural institutions like Sadler's Wells provide career pathways for residents, and supporting the Somali community by tailoring their approach based on generational differences and paying community members for their expertise.
The Corporate Resources and Economy Scrutiny Committee met on Thursday to discuss the report, which highlights the council's progress in supporting local businesses, creating jobs, promoting fair employment, and tackling inequality.
Councillor Santiago Bell-Bradford, Deputy Leader and Executive Member for Inclusive Economy, Culture and Jobs, presented the report, highlighting the council's achievement of its manifesto commitment to support 5,000 Islington residents into employment. The council is also on track to deliver 1,000 new apprenticeships. To ensure jobs created are sustainable, the council uses apprenticeships to upskill people already in existing roles, enabling them to gain qualifications for higher pay grades. They also require justification for not offering apprenticeships for jobs under a certain grade, ensuring accessible training pathways. The council also focuses on embedding a culture of prioritizing Islington residents for job opportunities across all teams and directorates. Based on the manifesto commitments we made in 2022, I'm proud to say, as we're kind of near the end of this four-year time, we're on track to meet those commitments,
said Councillor Bell-Bradford.
The report also emphasized the importance of the Affordable Workspace Programme, adult community learning (ACL), and social value in procurement. The Affordable Workspace Programme aims to provide affordable spaces for businesses to grow, addressing the need for intermediate 'grow on space' for small businesses that are too large for co-working spaces but not yet able to afford larger office buildings. The programme prioritizes providing grow-on space for small businesses and successful entrepreneurs, specifically targeting Black-owned businesses, businesses led by women, and young people, offering them low-cost entry into markets. ACL offers free courses, including English as a second language and basic maths, to residents, with a focus on BAME women from working-class backgrounds.
Councillor Wayne, Chair of Corporate Resources and Economy Scrutiny Committee, highlighted the importance of the borough's community organisations. He also raised the possibility of exporting Islington's 'IMAX service' to other boroughs. The 'IMAX service' advises people and helps them secure benefits. Islington has achieved $12 million over a period from 2024 to the end of the current year, six months ahead of schedule, through this service. Exporting the IMAX service to other boroughs could potentially generate income for Islington and help other boroughs improve their residents' access to unclaimed benefits.
The committee reviewed the Forward Plan of Key Decisions and the Scrutiny Committee business tracker to plan its future work programme.