New legislation will give mayors powers to appoint “commissioners” to lead on delivery of their skills and employment policies.
The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, published this month, proposes that mayors could directly hire up to seven “independent appointees” who would act as their “extension”.
This could include appointing an unelected “skills and employment commissioner” taking over adult skills policy delivery that is currently overseen by mayors or local authority leaders.
In the legislation, the government is proposing a devolution “framework” aiming for every part of England to be overseen by a “strategic authority” which can take local control of seven policy areas including skills and employment, housing and planning, economic development and transport.
A strategic authority is a new category of regional government – including combined authorities, the Greater London Authority and some large local authorities – which will have an automatic right to gain new local powers.
The government argues giving mayors the “option” to appoint dedicated commissioners for each policy area will enable them to bring in “external expertise and full-time resource” to help them politically oversee their expanding responsibilities.
Currently, combined authority mayors with devolved adult skills powers can give leaders of local councils a policy “portfolio” to oversee, such as adult skills.
However, a government impact assessment published alongside the bill argues this practice “does not work optimally”.
It added: “Constituent council leaders are very busy with work for their own council, which are significant organisations with powers and responsibilities in their own right.”
The government believes that London’s system of allowing its mayor to appoint up to 11 deputy mayors with similar roles to the commissioner proposal is “vital” to managing their “significant workload” and in some cases, avoiding conflicts of interest.
Political support, with caveats
West Midlands Combined Authority mayor Richard Parker told FE Week he is in favour of mayors being able to appoint commissioners.
He said: “The Devolution Bill gives us a real chance to shape skills policy around what our region actually needs.
“By putting trusted local experts in post – people who know our industries, our communities and our challenges – we can close the skills gap and unlock new opportunities for local people and businesses alike.
“And this is just one of the new powers we could put to work to connect our skills system with employers – working closely with government.”
But Alessandro Georgiu, a Conservative London Assembly member, said that while deputy mayors are necessary for helping the London mayor “run the administration”, their quality “depends on the mayor” who appoints them.
He added: “In theory deputy mayors can be a very good thing, but only if you have competent people. Otherwise you’re just paying £130,000 per year for political hacks who don’t do the job properly.”
Georgiou said having strong scrutiny arrangements similar to London’s would be “crucial” to ensuring there is democratic oversight of commissioners.
He pointed out that the London Mayor’s work is scrutinised by 25 “assembly members”, paid £62,761 per year, who run a range of committees focusing on different policy areas such as transport, policing, housing and planning.
In comparison, most combined authorities are scrutinised by a single overview and scrutiny committee, made up of councillors from local authorities, who are paid much smaller allowances, such as £3,159 per year in the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA).
WMCA’s overview and scrutiny committee plans to meet only six times this year to scrutinise its mayor’s spending of about £1.2 billion each year, which adult skills is only a small part of.
Ambassadors for mayors?
The proposal to give mayors the power to appoint skills and employment commissioners has been welcomed by some devolution experts.
Sue Jarvis, co-director of the Heseltine Institute for public policy, practice and place, said commissioners could bring in a “level of expertise” that mayors or local authority leaders don’t have.
She added that commissioners could have more time than mayors to work “cross sector” with business, colleges and local authorities to raise awareness and “get people behind” new policies.
Alex Walker, a researcher at the Bennett Institute, said appointing commissioners “makes sense” as local authority leaders who are also portfolio holders are stretched by “other responsibilities”.
“I think on a practical level, the mayor can’t be everywhere at once. So, there is a rationale to having a commissioner who can act as a kind of focal point, as sort of like an ambassador, I suppose, for the mayor in that particular sort of area.
“But as the powers of mayors and suitable authorities increase, there does need to be a corresponding strengthening of scrutiny and accountability arrangements as well.
“And I think these are woefully weak as it stands – you do have overview the scrutiny and oversight committees, but they don’t really kind of conduct inquiries in any kind of meaningful sense, in the way that you’d expect a Parliamentary committee or even the committees of the London Assembly to do.”
Sue Pember, policy director at community learning representative body Holex, said the bill’s “clear breakdown” of responsibilities of different authorities is “helpful”.
However, she said the new devolved system feels “overly complex and bureaucratic” with skills and employment commissioners adding “yet another layer” of administration that could draw more funding away from frontline education delivery.
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