Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA)
AGMA acts as the voice of the ten local authorities of Greater Manchester (GM) and works in
partnership with a wide range of organisations including private, public and voluntary within the GM
city-region and beyond. GM is committed to developing a low carbon economy - a key priority of the
Greater Manchester Strategy - and to ensuring local business have the necessary skills and expertise
to access the commercial opportunities this will offer.
The opportunity to apply to become a Green Skills Exemplar came at just the right time AGMA, as
Anne Parkes, Project Manager for the AGMA Green Deal Programme explains, “There was quite a lot
of debate going on in Greater Manchester at the time around skills. We were delivering a lot of skills
related events; getting together skills providers and local supply chain companies. We had arranged
to meet with representatives from the Sector Skills Councils and they told us about the Exemplars
initiative.”
Being well advanced in their thinking about how the opportunities offered by Green Deal and ECO
could be maximised locally meant that AGMA was well placed to appreciate how the Exemplars
project could integrate with and support their wider Green Deal and low carbon ambitions.
“We had Local Authority drive and an existing major project focussed on Green Deal. We had two
NSA Hubs in Oldham and Trafford Colleges who were already investing heavily in low carbon and
energy efficiency skills training. The Exemplar project looked like an initiative that could bring all of
that together and give us a really strong focus. Not necessarily give us a lot of money, but give us
drive and focus and provide the momentum to keep going.”
AGMA were also keen to tap into the expertise available through the SSCs. Working collaboratively
with their GSA Skills Exemplar Project Officer, they developed a Skills Action Plan for the project
which highlighted how the funding and support from the project would be targeted to achieve
maximum impact.
Supporting local businesses to access Green opportunities through Local Authority procurement
Engagement with local business in GM was overseen by a cross business project team with
representatives from a wide range of partners; including the Chamber of Commerce, Oldham
College, the ten GM Authorities and the GSA Project Officer. The Skills Action Plan looked primarily
at engaging local supply chain businesses during the procurement process for the selection of GMs
future Green Deal and ECO delivery partners.
As Anne explains, “We tried to deliver as much engagement as we could during the procurement
process; looking at how we communicated with SMEs and the skills that they would need; in effect
producing a toolkit for GM, which took national documents and information and making it relevant
to local businesses.”
With the strong GM focus on low carbon skills, AGMA was able to secure, with Oldham and Trafford
Colleges, early Green Deal provider training funding from DECC. This enabled individuals to access
subsidised, fast track Green Deal Assessor training. This ensured GM had a supply of assessors
trained and ready when the next opportunity that came along.
In August 2012, GM were successful in securing DECC Go Early funding - £3million to drive early
Green Deal and ECO work in the region. Being an Exemplar directly supported this activity and
allowed for the first of AGMA’s first supply chain events. It also provided a strong focus for engaging
with employers regarding skills. As Anne explains, “The Go Early funding gave us the ability to
demonstrate to local business that there was demand for Green Deal work and funding was
available to deliver this. This was a strong motivator for local companies to acquire the skills
required to deliver the work.”
AGMA were also keen to look at how the Go Early initiative linked to the Exemplar project and how
tangible benefits could be achieved for both projects simultaneously. “We felt this was the most
effective way could work across both projects; having overlap so we could deliver outputs for both
projects at the same time.” says Anne.
Following early progress on the Go Early work, AGMA were then faced with potential disruption to
the Exemplar project because of delays with the introduction of Green Deal. The decision was taken
to procure for an interim, one year ECO Toasty framework, which could bridge the gap until the
Green Deal was operational and a longer term Green Deal Framework could be established.
Getting local businesses onto the interim Toasty framework was important for AGMA, as Anne
explains, “Because we had done quite lot of work already to get companies PAS2030 accredited and
because this was a short term contract, we took the decision not to go out to the whole market. We
went out to 40 business that ORB said were registered locally and had the correct accreditation. We
got 18 responses from these local businesses, which was very encouraging.”
The Exemplars project directly supported the introduction of the Toast framework, enabling AGMA
to deliver a number of Meet the Buyer events, educating local supply chain companies about the
potential businesses opportunities available through the framework and helping them assess how
prepared they were, in terms of skills and accreditations, to access those opportunities.
With the eventual launch of Green Deal in January 2013, AGMA were then able to proceed with the
procurement process for the main Green Deal framework. Despite being open to the whole market,
there was a strong local level of interest, with 20 submissions from businesses with at least a
presence in the GM city-region.
However, the delay in the introduction of Green Deal and the slow uptake of the initiative nationally,
has not been without consequence, as Anne discusses, “To be honest, at the point that we were
doing Go Early, there was a lot of optimism about Green Deal and ECO with local businesses being
very positive, if somewhat cautious about the potential for new work. But now, there is definitely a
lot more cynicism.
“I think the Go Early project is a real positive highlight in what has been a sometimes frustrating
process around Green Deal. We engaged project partners really well; getting housing providers and
public sector organisations training up staff to be ready for Green Deal. Go Early also provided an
opportunity for us to test a lot of the Green Deal processes; experience we are still benefiting from
today.”
Applying learning from the Exemplar project
Learning from the implementation of the Toasty framework will directly inform the work AGMA
undertakes once the Green Deal Framework is in place, although this may fall outside the lifetime of
the Exemplars project. “The supply chain work we did on the Toasty framework will directly inform
how we engage with supply chain companies for Green Deal. One of the key things we learned was
the need to start planning our events early, so we are starting to get set up now for our supply chain
event in March 2014. We also recognised that these events need to be more than just an
opportunity to meet the main Framework providers. There needs to be a wide range of SME support
available in one room; organisations who can provide employment opportunities, skills funding or
apprenticeships.” says Anne. “This will ensure that even if a business doesn’t get any direct work
through the main provider or doesn’t learn anything new or doesn’t want to get involved with one of
the providers, they at least come away from that session with some benefit in relation to skills or the
development of their business.”
Raising awareness of Green Deal and ECO
One area where the AGMA Exemplar project has had a major impact is in raising awareness, both in
the local business community and amongst partners, about Green Deal and the potential business
opportunities. AGMA have undertaken a lot of engagement work at the local, regional and national
level, through forums such as the Oldham Property Club, Chamber of Commerce Property Club,
Planning Group, North West Energy Forum, Salford University and Retrofit Roadshows. The impact
of this engagement is demonstrated by the fact that there was always a significant increase in the
number of enquiries received immediately following these events. This has been impacted by the
actual procurement process, which has restricted the extent to which AGMA has been able to
engage with business. “Once we make the announcement in January that we have got our partners,
engagement levels will start to build up again.” explains Anne.
The project has also allowed AGMA to raise knowledge and awareness within the organisation and
its partners too, with as much engagement internally as with the supply chain. This has taken the
form of presentations to every Local Authority about what the programme is and what it is trying to
achieve. Additionally newsletters and bulletins have gone out about Green Deal from the account
managers to each of their contacts in the Local Authorities. A local GM housing retrofit group has
also been key to reporting progress to partners as part of their remit to disseminate information to
the Economic Development team and generally lead on skills for the LA.
Making a real difference
“For me the big benefit we wanted from the Exemplar project was that we would actually do more.
It wasn’t just about bring people round the table; we wanted to actually delver incremental activity
as a result.” explains Anne.
A second key expected benefit was that the project would bring more learning expertise to help
shape what was needed locally in terms of developing training with the direct support and expertise
of the SSCs and other exemplars. “I don’t think we’ve learned enough about what other people are
doing in relation to green skills to be able to identify where we are underperforming and examples
of best practice for us to consider. There is plenty of acceptance that skills are important but not
enough concrete innovative ideas that have been fed in to GM to really make that step change.”
A market untested
It is difficult to say what specific market failure was addressed by the AGMA Exemplar approach,
given that the Green Deal market didn’t really exist at the time. At the time AGMA got involved in
the project Green Deal wasn’t live and the skills competency framework wasn’t in place. The
Exemplars were set up around the same time as the GSA was working on the competency
frameworks and getting the training packages in place. Anne says, “One of our drivers was the work
around skills. Green Deal was really new and being part of an Exemplar really helped us to
understand it in more detail. Being involved as an Exemplar helped us to be at the forefront of any
intelligence coming out around green skills training.”
Learning for the Future
Overall, the project has delivered real benefits for AGMA, its partners and local supply chain
businesses. However, a number of areas have been identified where the impact of the project could
perhaps have been increased. These include:
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The level of resource allocated to the project by AGAM to drive the project internally, which
was probably underestimated
The extent to which AGMA have been able to engage with the other Exemplars in the
project to effectively share learning and best practice, which could have been greater
A more active relationship between AGMA and the Exemplar Project Officer, with AGMA
being clearer about the support they needed and ensuring all of the available support was
accessed
Delivering added value
A number of activities delivered and supported through the Exemplars project have delivered real
additionality for AGMA; enabling outcomes that would not have been possible without the project’s
support. For example, the engagement of Oldham and Trafford Colleges with the GSA SSCs though
the project was a key contributing factor in them securing early training funding from DECC. This in
turn allowed them to get up and running with their Green Deal Adviser training earlier than would
have been possible otherwise.
The Exemplars project has helped to keep a focus on the skills agenda amongst AGMA and its
partners. It helped to ensure that skills was a key element of the Green Deal Framework
procurement process which AGMA has recently undertaken to appoint three providers to deliver
£400million of Green Deal and ECO funded retrofit work over the next five years. There there was
significant weighting in the procurement scoring criteria on skills and significant KPIs which carried a
large score.
Sustainability
For AGMA the key sustainable output from the Exemplar project is their Green Deal Framework,
which will be in place for the next three - five years. This will continue to provide opportunities for
local supply chain companies to deliver goods and services to the three primary contractors.
The Green Deal Framework will be monitored and reviewed by a Programme Board along with a
number of Special Interest Groups (SIGs) that will run throughout the life of the framework. One of
these SIGs will be responsible for skills and training ensuring a level of continuity and legacy for the
Exemplars project, keeping skills high on the low carbon agenda in Greater Manchester.
Furthermore, AGMA are positive about the engagement with the GSA and other Exemplars initiated
through the Exemplar project and are keen to see this carry on. Anne Parkes, “I think it is important
that the GSA find a way to keep the links with the Exemplars going post March 2014, because if they
don’t, I can’t see that anyone else is going to and the momentum will be lost.”