One of my colleagues in the LSIP group is Dan Shelley and he published a piece involved on LinkedIn earlier today. His piece can be obtained on LinkedIn and Dan and I and a significant number of people have been involved over the last 18 months on this significant theme. The comment from Dan was “Sussex Chamber of Commerce have been leading the charge when it comes to developing a business led local skills improvement plan (LSIP) that will highlight the key skills needed to drive Sussex forward.” The people in the Sussex Chamber of Commerce agency that have participated on the LSIP theme include Ana Christie and Claire Witz who have both worked very hard to make Sussex LSIP very significant. One of the statements that the Sussex Chamber of Commerce published yesterday is below:

Over the last few months, the LSIP project team have been undertaking data analysis, stakeholder engagement and Key Sector Deep Dives to help build up a picture of the skills challenges and articulate the skills needs in the Sussex area. We will be developing all the intelligence and findings into Deep Dive reports which will be shared with stakeholders.

The findings from the Deep Dive reports will be worked up into a revised LSIP Roadmap for Change, detailing our updated priorities and solutions.

In March, we will be holding two stakeholder events to discuss the revised Roadmap for Change with stakeholders across the Sussex area.

There have not been many MPs who have referred to LSIP in Parliament and the only Sussex MP who spoke about it was Sally-Ann Hart who was involved in a debate entitled “Clause 1 – Extension of duty to provide careers guidance in schools” that took place back in January 2022 and she stated

I am delighted that East Sussex College in Hastings was part of the successful Sussex-wide application under the skills accelerator programme for a joint local skills improvement plan and strategic development fund pilot. I have been listening in to some of the LSIP virtual meetings to go through the various areas, including manufacturing and engineering, and it is fascinating to see the research and evidence that they have built up.

Given that the Sussex MPs have been corresponded with the LSIP involvement it would be fantastic if some of the others would raise the theme in the near future. The Government page on LSIP is available here.