North West Employers’ Annual Conference

On 21 July 2011 in Bolton, we held our Annual General Meeting (AGM) and we were delighted to welcome 30 of our Councillor Representatives from around the region. 

As an organisation, we are represented by councillors from every local authority in the North West and at the AGM the Chair, Deputy and Vice Chairs were elected for the year 2010/11:

Chair - Councillor Alan Dean (Liverpool City Council) 
Deputy Chair - Councillor Susan Quinn (Tameside MBC)
Two Vice-Chairs - Councillor Ged Bretherton (Wigan Council) and Councillor Brian Rigby MBE (Trafford MBC)

Following the business of the AGM, the NW Employers Team updated councillors on the work the organisation has done in 2010/2011.  Our Chief Executive, Liz McQue opened the session with a review of the year and introduced councillors to the NW Employers 2010/2011 Annual Summary that was written with our 3 key priorities in mind:

• Workforce and Employment
• Learning and Improvement
• Knowledge and Networking

Keith Power, our Director of Workforce and Employment updated members on the work of his team in 2010/2011.  His presentation concentrated on 2 key areas:

• Managing Change including Restructuring, More from the same/less, Reducing workforce numbers, Retaining and investing in skills
• Equipping organisations for the future including Talent pools - sharing / moving our talent, New ways of working - employee ownership, social enterprises, multi-agency teams, neighbourhood control, Employer role  

Kelli Pickford, our Director of Learning and Improvement joined us on one of her  ‘keep in touch' days from maternity leave and gave councillors an overview of what her team's achievements for 2010 looking at the key aims for the year and how specifically they have been realised.

• Build skills and capacity 
• Develop self sufficiency
• Respond to changing environment
• Share opportunities

Rene Barrett our Interim Director of Learning and Improvement) took councillors through the ‘what next' in terms of plans future for the team looking in particular at:

• Councillor Development
• Top Team Development
• Outplacement support package
• Coaching Matching Tool
• Audit to Enterprise Offer
• Large Scale change

Councillors were introduced to the new ‘at a glance document ' giving an overview of the work the organisation can offer and why organisations should connect with us.

Claire Haigh, our Leadership & Transformation Co-ordinator, took councillors through the work that has been done to support councillors in improving health looking specifically at what is on offer, the Knowledge and Skills Assessment and the wide range of quick guides now available for councillors. Claire gave information on the new'Championing Health in Your Community'programme for councillors and ended her session with a fun game of ‘Health and Well Being Bingo' with the prize for 1st place winning a healthy bowl of fresh fruit!

Our Chief Executive Liz McQue, and our Enablers' Commission Project Manager Dr Tom Goodwin officially launched NorthWest Connex - The Region's New Virtual Communications Platform that will significantly change the way we work as an organisation in the future. Tom took councillors through the platform outlining the main aspects and how specifically it can be used.

For more information on anything you have read here, please contact
Kathryn Martin
0161 214 7123