1000 Derbyshire Apprenticeships created as Derbyshire Conservatives extend our nationally-acclaimed scheme.

In early 2012 I secured financial backing to help 200 small businesses employing less than 50 people across the county take on a 16 to 18 year old apprentice for the first time in our Derbyshire Apprenticeship Grant for Employers scheme.

The drive was a huge success with every placement filled within six months − providing young people from across the county with a career start in a range of occupations including business administration, health and social care, and mechanical engineering.  The first apprentices have now completed their full training, and crucially are being offered full time employment with their company.

My vision for a local authority to support young people and employers was showcased as an example of best practice at the 2012 National Apprenticeship Conference, where I was invited to present to The Future of Apprenticeships, ‘Putting Theory into Practice’. (opens in a new window)

Setting achievable targets free from the obstacles that have prevented employers engaging with the National Programme, and within 6 months awarding all 200 placements to small businesses across Derbyshire, it was a clear indication to me for the appetite of this support from both our young people and private sector employers, so in November 2012, I secured further funding to extend the scheme to create another 300 apprenticeships.

It means, 500 private sector apprenticeships will have been created by 31st March 2013.

"Our Derbyshire grant for employers’ initiative has been a huge success and is providing support for businesses and young people in all 8 districts across Derbyshire.

 "Starting my career as an Apprentice Engineer, I am pleased Derbyshire Conservatives are giving the opportunity to 500 young people to start out in a new industry career and develop skills our businesses recognise as adding value to their workforce.

"Small businesses play a vital role in the Derbyshire economy and Conservatives are committed to supporting them to develop, grow and help our communities thrive."

We've joined forces with the National Apprenticeship Service who acknowledge our local authority scheme, as being top in the East Midlands and third nationally for investing in young people and business skills for the future, and matched our own funding to help us deliver 1000 Derbyshire Apprenticeships which is good value for Council Tax payers.

It means grants of £2,500 will continue to be available for employers to take on an apprentice, subject to meeting the scheme's criteria.  Initially I want our extended scheme to continue to target businesses employing 16-18 year old apprentices, but can be extended to 19-24 year olds where appropriate.

It will also keep targeting businesses employing less than 50 employees, as our economy is mainly made up of micro businesses but again we will be flexible and extend to businesses employing up to 250 and 1000 staff to increase the range, learning and work experience opportunities’ for our Young People.

"It is the ability to design flexible local schemes which won us national acclaim − responding to employers' needs rather than centralised regimes which are often inflexible to engage."

The Derbyshire employer grant scheme is running alongside our own drive to create 500 apprenticeships in Derbyshire County Council which is needed because of the aging workforce.

Businesses will be able to apply for funding through the Derbyshire AGE Grants scheme from January 2013, and I would encourage all employers to get behind our Young People and create an opportunity for them to start a bright and successful professional career.

Further information available from National Apprenticeship Service Small Business Unit on 08000 150 600

Trusted Trader is another flagship scheme set up by and run by Derbyshire County Council Trading Standards to promote the many honest, reliable local businesses and professional sole trades we have working in Derbyshire and ensure customers buy with confidence.

Being a Trusted Trader sends a clear message that you run a fair and reliable business committed to doing a good job at a fair price and gives potential customers confidence to contact you.

Trusted Trader (opens in a new window) is only for businesses that trade in Derbyshire, but can be registered elsewhere as long as 50% of their business is delivered to Derbyshire consumers.

All our Trusted Traders benefit from free advertising about the scheme to potential customers through the county councils publications schemes, including the popular Derbyshire Gold, and Business First magazines.

Access to Trusted Traders is always available on the county council’s website which has more than 120,000 visitors each month. http://derbyshire.gov.uk/trustedtrader (opens in a new window)

Trading Standards falls under my cabinet portfolio responsibility and following growing concerns about rouge mobility companies targeting our frail and elderly residents, alongside my Trading Standards team tracking down and bringing successful court action resulting in fines and imprisonment, I have worked with my team, and developed this service from a few hundred traders in 2009 to over 1300 today to become the largest scheme of its kind in England.

Whilst other Trading Standards services are being cut, with some near to home as in Derby City Council, I remain committed to improving local life, supporting business, helping consumers, and tackling unfair and unsafe trading practices.

Apart from holding rouge traders to account, bringing successful prosecutions and securing prison for the worst practices, other areas where my team has delivered good results include reducing salt and sugar with support from local butchers and bakers during our ‘Better Bread and Better Bangers’ campaign; Recovery from the proceeds of crime act, from Consumer Credit firms charging excessive interest rates and through Consumer Direct putting that money back into benefiting local communities.

I won’t pretend that Trading Standards like all services are not affected by the council’s budget, and the savings earmarked by the service could affect our ability to continue delivering some of these services, so I have set a strategy to make Trading Standards a Net contributor and no longer reliant upon council budgets which will see the services sustained by 2015 so that supporting responsible businesses and protecting consumers remains part of Derbyshire County Council.

One of Derbyshire County Councils flagship programmes is Digital Derbyshire which is a funded Conservative commitment to deliver the biggest ever upgrade of broadband speeds and reliable services across the county, which needs the help of local residents and businesses as it continues to gathers pace. 

I have been privileged to spearhead Superfast Broadband together with over 6,500 people who helped Derbyshire County Council become one of the first Council’s to secure £7.39m from the Government's Broadband Delivery UK scheme by completing a survey following the launch of our Digital Derbyshire campaign in 2011. 

That public consultation exercise received the highest number of responses in the history of the county council, and was shortlisted for two National Public Sector Communications and Public Relations awards.

The county council has already committed over £1m to Digital Derbyshire and has underwritten the remaining match funding to ensure at least £14.78m will be spent across the county on delivering broadband improvements by 2015.  In the background, I continued to lobby British Telecom to add further exchanges to their industry national upgrade, and was successful in securing a number not original planned for.  Those communities are now benefiting from better broadband, and over this next three years Digital Derbyshire aims to make superfast broadband (up to 30mbs) accessible to 90% of 180,000 remaining Derbyshire premises, with a minimum of 2mbs available to the last 10% in the most rural parts of the county.

Digital Derbyshire is now working to procure a private sector telecoms partner who will be expected to invest their own money and technology to deliver our ambitious programme.  Labour have signalled their intention to review our broadband plan, but any deviation from our plan will simply cause delays, and keep Derbyshire in the slow lane.

To maximise our chances against all other council’s competing for Superfast Broadband, Digital Derbyshire must demonstrate a demand - both from households and businesses.   It is important that we all recognise that our local broadband plan will be competing with all the other county councils in England and now further, the Cities which have received funding under a totally separate grant scheme.

Let’s be honest, as an ex telecommunications engineer myself, the number of available fibre installation engineers are going to have to work flat out to upgrade the country’s exchanges, and by showing demand in Derbyshire, we can ensure those engineers work in our County ahead of other areas.

People and businesses can show their support and register for our no-obligation demand registration by completing a short on-line form at www.derbyshire.gov.uk/digitalderbyshire (opens in a new window)

‘’I know there is a real hunger for better broadband across the whole of Derbyshire and we have made it one of our priorities to deliver it.

"We're grateful to the thousands of people who have already helped us make great strides towards delivering the biggest ever transformation of broadband in Derbyshire by supporting our Digital Derbyshire campaign."

"I urge people to fill the form in and to help family and friends to do it too.’’

"The scenario is simple − the greater demand we can show for better broadband in Derbyshire, the more investment we will attract and the sooner we can see it being delivered.’’.

"It will only take residents and businesses a couple of minutes to complete our on-line form, and it will have a huge impact on the future of broadband in Derbyshire."

Visitors to www.derbyshire.gov.uk/digitalderbyshire (opens in a new window) can also sign up to the new Digital Derbyshire newsletter which will bring regular updates on the programme's progress.

If you do not have internet access to complete the form you can visit any Derbyshire County Council library and use a computer for free, or use Call-Derbyshire on 08456 058 058.