West Yorkshire Combined Authority wishes to invite VCSE organisations to support consultation on a new ‘Region of Learning and Creativity’ strategy. The strategy will follow from the title of the Mayor of West Yorkshire’s manifesto for the 2024 Mayoral elections and will articulate how the delivery and development of skills across the region will be fundamental to achieving the ambitions of the Local Growth Plan. Partnerships will be at the heart of this strategy and it will consider how skills provision works with other areas such as employment, culture and health to be effective for more people.

Whilst there is lots to celebrate in West Yorkshire, the strategy will also acknowledge that currently not everyone is part of a ‘Region of Learning and Creativity’ but through further devolution the region has the ambition and partnerships to deliver for all communities.

The Combined Authority is keen to hear from VCSE organisations working to support people across West Yorkshire in a variety of ways to inform this strategy. An open engagement session will be held on teams on Wednesday 4^th February 11am – 12pm for Leeds based VCSE organisations. Please get in touch through skills.admin@westyorks-ca.gov.uk if you would like to attend, or if you can’t make that date but would welcome another opportunity to feed in. 

Although a formal consultation window will conclude soon, we will be looking to launch the strategy alongside policy announcements and stories from communities in the summer and welcome your input to this and ongoing development.