Glasgow City Region is using its city deal to achieve real gains on local economic growth and skills. Annemarie O'Donnell explains how the region is now working to achieve even greater change

Last month the Glasgow City Region City Deal stepped up another gear, with a commitment by the leaders of the eight member authorities to develop a new vision for the future of the city region and the launch of a new regional brand and website.

The Glasgow City Region City Deal already boasts a number of firsts. The contract with government for the first and largest city deal in Scotland (and now the second largest in the UK) was formally signed in August 2014.

Our partnership of neighbouring local authorities, with Glasgow as lead authority, was the first ever city deal to benefit from funding from both governments – with £500m each provided from both the UK and Scottish Governments and local authorities borrowing a further £130m.

The £1.13bn infrastructure fund will deliver around 20 projects focusing on improving public transport and connectivity and unlocking new sites across the region for housing, development and employment over the next 10-20 years.

A further milestone was marked this month with the successful completion of the first Glasgow City Region City Deal infrastructure project – in East Renfrewshire Council.

Additional funding of £18.8m from the department of Business, Innovation and Skills will deliver three further projects for business, innovation and growth.

The University of Glasgow-led Imaging Centre of Excellence is expected to open in early 2017. The facility will house the first ever 7 Tesla MRI Scanner in the UK, costing £7m and allowing ground-breaking medical research into stroke, cardiovascular disease and brain imaging, as well as commercialisation facilities for clinical researchers and companies developing new products and services in the life science sector.

In May, the first city deal project to be completed in the city opened. The Tontine, a new centre of innovation, will inject £53.6m into the economy of the city region, support and sustain the development of high-growth SMEs in the enabling technology, advanced design and manufacturing and creative economy sectors.

Together with MediCity Scotland – a dedicated medical technology incubation facility based in North Lanarkshire – these will help cement the Glasgow City Region as an attractive location for new and established technology and the life sciences industries, creating jobs and attracting global investment.

Funding of £4.8m from the Department of Work and Pensions will support new skills and employability initiatives including In Work Progression, a unique pilot specifically focused on the care sector to improve progression opportunities for the lowest paid, predominantly female staff.

Using a new employer led approach the pilot will support the training and development of staff in low income jobs, boosting wages and reducing reliance on in-work benefits.

Learning from the pilot, which will be independently evaluated, is anticipated be rolled out across the whole of the UK.

The Working Matters initiative – involving regional employability partners working to a common approach for the first time – specifically targets those furthest away from the labour market, those in receipt of ESA allowance.

With traditional success rates into sustained employment generally very low, ongoing evaluation will enable the scheme to be responsive and flexible. Initial progress reports on both schemes are anticipated later in the year.

Across the overall programme it is anticipated that the city deal will support an increase of around 29,000 jobs in the city region in addition to 15,000 temporary jobs during the construction period.

Ultimately, the Glasgow City Region City Deal is about supporting business and creating jobs to grow the local and regional economy.

A lot of ground has been covered since the deal was signed in August 2014. Solid foundations have been established with a Programme Management Office and formal governance structures in place to manage and oversee the programme.

To date the city region cabinet has approved funding to the value of £82m, with all but one of our 26 projects on the way.

Successful collaboration was crucial to the original shaping and establishment of the city deal and will continue to be instrumental in how the eight partner authorities work together – alongside the UK and Scottish Governments – to generate regional growth and explore further opportunities to work together for the benefit of the region, our residents and businesses.

The exercise to develop a brand is a great example of our successful partnership working. A two-stage approach was adopted, with an initial extensive, independent consultation exercise carried out to ensure that the views of key partners as well as other regional stakeholders could be heard and taken on board.

By doing this, we were able us to understand and put a narrative around partner priorities and appetite for collaboration.

The outcome from this first stage was a set of findings and recommendations including an agreed new name for the Glasgow City Region City Deal – a change from Glasgow and the Clyde Valley City Deal.

Following approval of findings and recommendations by cabinet, a group of designers from across the eight member authorities developed a series of design options.

The approved brand design fittingly represents the partnership – with all member authority brand colours referenced and set in a strong, self-supporting structure that depends on all its component parts for stability and integrity.

Later this year, the leaders of the eight member authorities will announce a new manifesto which will set out aspirations for how the city deal will maximise the region's economic potential.

Plans outlining the full benefits to be realised by the programme over the 20 year period will also be issued.

Annemarie O'Donnell is chair of the Glasgow City Region City Deal chief executives' group and chief executive of Glasgow City Council

For more information and to keep up to date on progress visit www.glasgowcityregion.co.uk and @GlasgowCityDeal