National Strategy for Economic Transformation Delivery Board minutes: May 2024

Attendees and apologies

Present

• Kate Forbes, Co-chair, Deputy First Minister & Cabinet Secretary for the Economy and Gaelic
• Barry White, Co-Chair, Former Chief Executive, Scottish Futures Trust
• Ewan Aitken, Chief Executive, Cyrenians
• Roz Foyer, General Secretary, Scottish Trade Union Congress
• Audrey Cumberford, Principal and Chief Executive Edinburgh College
• Gillian Docherty, Chief Commercial Officer, University of Strathclyde
• Douglas Millican, Former CEO, Scottish Water

Apologies

• Nora Senior, Former Executive Group Chair, Weber Shandwick and past Chair, Enterprise and Skills Strategic Board
• Uzma Khan, Vice Principle Economic Development and Innovation, and Deputy Chief Operating Officer, University of Glasgow
• Ellis Watson, Former Chief Executive, DC Thomson Media Group
• Sir Simon Lister, Managing Director, BAE Systems Naval Ships

Supporting Officials

• Gregor Irwin, Director General Economy, Scottish Government
• Aidan Grisewood, Director Jobs and Wellbeing Economy, Scottish Government
• Richard Murray, Deputy Director Economic Development, Enterprise & Labour Market Analysis, Scottish Government
• Mathew Cramb-Low, Head Economic Delivery Unit, Scottish Government

 

Items and actions

Introduction and Welcome

Barry welcomed members to the 13th meeting of the NSET Delivery Board and noted apologies from Uzma Khan, Sir Simon Lister, Ellis Watson and Nora Senior.

The minute of the meeting on 17 April was approved subject to any final amendments, to be submitted to the Secretariat by Friday 31 May.

Barry congratulated Kate Forbes on her appointment to Deputy First Minister (DFM) and Cabinet Secretary for the Economy and Gaelic and welcomed her return as co-chair of the NSET Delivery Board. Barry also noted that a number of board members were unable to attend, despite their best efforts, due to the board having to be rescheduled. DFM asked that the NSET Secretariat work with her office to schedule future meetings on as fixed a basis as possible.

Introductory Session with the Deputy First Minister, Kate Forbes

The Deputy First Minister noted that she was delighted to return to the NSET Delivery Board and highlighted that she had no intention of moving away from the core objectives of NSET and the focus on the wellbeing economy. She recognised the good progress that has been made in NSET and is keen to work with the board to build momentum and accelerate key actions.

She identified four areas where she would like to see immediate progress:

• increased investment in decarbonisation and green industry (Net Zero)
• increased private investment in affordable housing
• continued delivery of the empolyability and Fair Work programmes, reaching those furthest from the labour market
• consistent and coherent regulation for business

DFM expressed the intention of meeting with board members individually to discuss their experience of the last two years of NSET and to extending the boards tenure for additional three months whilst determining the longer term governance arrangements for NSET.

Barry thanked the Deputy First Minister and noted that the work of the board over the last few months has been extremely helpful and will be used to inform prioritisation within NSET. He agreed that extending the board for 3 months would be a positive step to give some time to consider the future governance arrangements.

Delivery Board Review and Forward Look

Barry invited reflections from the Board, the following points were noted:

• the good progress on innovation and development of Techscaler infrastructure over the last two years
• the green economy was recognised as the single biggest economy opportunity and there has been good progress but there needs to be more clarity on who is accountable and for what
• a question was raised requesting clarity on who was responsible within government for streamlining the consenting process. It was noted that accountability was split across the Marine Scotland, Offshore Wind and Energy Industries Directorates, however all Directorates are overseen by Roy Brannen as DG Net Zero to enable effective co-ordination. This area is recognised as extremely important to Scotland's economy and there is an agreement to strengthen resourcing
• huge opportunities to attract ethical investors, especially through the green economy
• recognition of the need for further discussions with unions as a trusted voice in transition from oil and gas and what it means for jobs
• the board have spent a lot of their time focusing on the issues around skills, but much more needs to be done to shift the dial on skills and employability
• welcomed focus on consistent regulation rather than deregulation in business and urged thet the unions are also involved in this area

DFM noted the work that has been done to date on developing priorities into tangible actions and streamlining processes. It was confirmed that the Programme for Government could not be published ahead of the UK election, but would be the opportunity to set-out the priority actions for the economy for the next two years. It was agreed that good engagement, building strong relationships and cross organisational planning will be essential to realising the Government's ambitions.

Future Economy Priority Actions

Barry invited Aidan Grisewood to give the board an overview of future priority actions.

Aidan noted that work continues at pace to develop projects within the following key themes - Investment, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, People, Making Business Easier. These themes have been designed to align with the NSET programmes.

Board members noted:

• it is important to be very clear about the pace - on what can be done now versus what will take longer i.e. place/regions feel like a priority but pace so far has been slow
• agreed on significant progress in Entrepreneurship. The Techscaler project is beginning to bear fruit and the twinning activity (with the NHS etc) has been good to see
• Pathways is making great progress and it has been good to see how Ana Stewart has been driving this forward with the challenges around funding
• expressed concern about the pace of progress within Skills as it's coming up to a year since the Withers Report and there are questions in the sector about the percieved inertia
• the offshore workforce has been involved in working towards a skills passport, it has been recognised that 90% of skills are transferrable to green energy jobs. This is important for getting the transition right
• previously struggled to articulate the big flagship actions of NSET, DFM's four priorities seem like flags in the groud that every one can stand behind
• with inactivity sitting at 23.4% further work is needed in the People theme. The partnership approach of No One Left Behind is welcomed along with the recent announcement to expand access to childcare services in six Early Adopter Community (EAC) projects. Further work is needed with occupational health on improving the health of the workforce
• welcomed Housing being considered as a national outcome and the Housing Taskforce however, this should not preclude short term priority actions on housing

It was noted that due to the pre-election period, planned publications including the Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan (ESJTP) would be delayed until after the election. The Green Industrial Strategy (GIS) would also be delayed, which should be read alongside the ESJTP, and it was now planned to be a shorter more succinct document setting out a clear signal of intent for the green economy opportunities.

NSET Annual Report

Barry invited Mat Cramb-Low to give an update on the plans for the second NSET Annual Report, the draft of which was previously circulated to members.

Mat highlighted:

• the publication date was still to be confirmed but that as it is a factual and retrospective document it should still be published in June
• significant progress has already been made in driving us towards our goal of growing a fairer, greener wellbeing economy. Two years in, 17 actions are now complete and 46 are in progress
• in response to feedback from Audit Scotland and the Public Audit Committee we have added delivery overviews per programme to more clearly link the delivery milestones to our long-term goals. We have also added a section on evaluation which outlines early evidence of impact two years into the NSET

Board members were asked to provide any further comments on the Annual Report to the NSET Secretariat by Friday 7 June

Closing and any other business

Barry thanked members and confirmed that this was the last scheduled meeting of the NSET Delivery Board and reiterated that he would be in contact with the board members to speak about the proposal to extend the Board for 3 months over the summer. A note of the meeting will be circulated in due course.

Actions

• DFM to meet with Board members with Barry's support
• Barry to contact members offline about 3-month board extension
• Barry White and Douglas Millican to speak with Roy Brannen (DG Net Zero) about ownership and accountability of offshore wind consenting
• Gillian Docherty to report on Entrepreneurial Campuses at a future meeting of the Board
• update the Board more on Housing as a National Outcome
• graphic representing a more visual depiction of NSET impact on the Scottish Economy to be included in the Annual Report