The September board meeting covered a wide agenda and saw the setting up of small scale focus groups to target high priority issues.

The meeting commenced with a presentation by Roger Begy on the economic profile of Rutland, which complemented a previous meeting presentation on Lincolnshire.

Specific items of business included a discussion around Post-16 Learning Developments in Rutland, following a presentation by Carol Chambers the Director of Children's Service for Rutland County Council, and also developing world class leadership and management development in Lincolnshire / Rutland with a presentation by Professor Andrew Atherton of Lincoln University.

The Board supported the 'direction of travel' of the Rutland Post-16 developments and also agreed to help facilitate more detailed, local employer / community consultation processes at the appropriate time.

The Board also supported the general direction of the leadership and management paper, emphasising the importance of provision that links in with other work-based learning provision and also, the need for provision to be accessible across the whole of Lincolnshire and Rutland, and to offer practical, as well as academic, training linked into business need.

Finally a short paper on Graduate Retention was discussed, and it was agreed by the Board that this was an important local issue, warranting further consideration.

In order to maintain momentum between Board Meetings, it was agreed that a number of small-scale 'Member Panels' would be held - these would cover Graduate Internships; Employer Engagement and 14-19 Planning.

ENDS