With economic issues making the national and regional headlines it is reassuring to see positive action being taken in Sheffield to further stimulate economic growth and sustainability.  This issue of our newsletter demonstrates clearly how the whole ‘family of partnerships’ works together to achieve the ambitions set out in the City Strategy.

 

Creative Sheffield held an event in conjunction with Sheffield Digital Campus and Yorkshire Forward to celebrate the creative and digital industries and the impending launch of Sheffield's Digital Campus. The creative and digital sector is growing all the time and this is an important development that will help bring the best creative talent to Sheffield.

 

Alongside this, the Work and Skills board are busy making sure that Sheffield does not suffer from a skills shortage and has put together a plan to get more people back into work.

 

Creative Sheffield is also concentrating on increasing the number of higher skilled jobs (Level 4 – the equivalent to a university degree) as part of their remit to increase economic growth.

 

In addition our Local Economy Board runs the BiG – Make it Your Business initiative, which aims to boost business start-ups in the city. This combined effort will undoubtedly deliver improved and sustainable economic growth for Sheffield.

 

The recent EUROCITIES Environment Forum and UK Sustainable Cities debate were incredibly important for Sheffield.  Strategically it was a great week for discussing the key environmental issues, and also provided us with a platform to showcase Sheffield to senior figures from countries from all over Europe and the UK.

 

We will shortly be welcoming Kirstie Haines, as our new permanent Deputy Director,. Kirstie brings with her a wealth of experience and a strong focus on performance management and record of translating strategy to delivery, through partnership.  She will make a valuable addition to the team. 

 

We also have new board members joining us in May from the private, public and voluntary, community and faith sectors.

 

Finally, as testament to partnership working in Sheffield I would like to take a moment to thank the relevant partnerships for all their hard work in helping the Council achieve Beacon Status for the city’s work on provision for 14-19 year olds, health inequalities and building better public spaces, as well as for continued innovation and excellence.

 

Jane Brown

Director, Sheffield First Partnership