MINUTES OF THE BOARD MEETING HELD ON 1 OCTOBER 2015 (Normal Business)

Transcription

1 The Bournemouth and Poole College MINUTES OF THE BOARD MEETING HELD ON 1 OCTOBER 2015 (Normal Business) Members Present: James Hampton Chair In Attendance: Roger Blaber Vice-Chair Val Winzar Clerk to the Corporation Diane Grannell Principal Michael Johnson Vice-Principal Guy Spencer Sharon Collett Vice-Principal Tom Millar Ken Roberts Exec Director of Resources Gail Ninnim John Parker Director of Human Resources David Ford Lorna Gibbons Apologies John Taylor Caroline Foster Staff Member Chiani Ribeiro Student Member/Apols Deana Penn Student Member/Apols PART A 108/15 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE Apologies were accepted from Lorna Gibbons, Chiani Ribeiro and Deana Penn. 109/15 DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST No interests were declared. 110/15 PRINCIPAL S UPDATE The Principal advised that the Board will receive an update on the KPIs at the November 2015 meeting. The Executive Team gave early verbal updates on the following: i) Enrolment 2015 The Vice Principal Finance & Commercial Development gave the following headlines on enrolment to date: numbers are currently 30 short of allocation - 3,282 compared with the College target of 3,311 and the 3,377 contract. However, approximately 10 students per day (net of drop-out) are still being enrolled as a result of a very successful Open Event in September. Numbers are lower than expected in Hair & Beauty and Hospitality. Adults are on target at 1,300 but student numbers and funding work differently to and it has yet to be established whether the funding allocation will be met. Post-meeting note: The WESS MIS team have subsequently forecast actual funding based on recruitment to be 30k more than the revised allocation Apprenticeships are recruiting well and will exceed target (including the extra growth allowance). If the College chooses to, it can over-recruit on Adult Apprentices. Post-meeting note: The WESS MIS team have subsequently forecast Adult Apprenticeships to be 53k behind budget. The overall picture on HE looks better than expected because post-budget the decision was taken not to run Culinary Arts and Public Services courses which, between them, were budgeted to achieve income of 156k. HE is currently estimated to be 30k under budget. 1

2 Sixth Form College has exceeded target. The national trend is for late enrolment but it should be noted that this prolongs the Day 43 period. Every student who has applied late goes through the same rigorous enrolment process rather than being fast-tracked as was previously the case. Everything is being done to limit lost students. It was noted that one college has changed the time for start of classes from 9am to 10am which appears to have significantly increased enrolment numbers and last year added 1% to attendance and success. However, it will not be good for student employability. Academic results for The Vice Principal Curriculum, Quality & Student Experience gave the following headlines with the caveat that academic results are still being collected approximately 1,100 Functional Skills and 200 vocational results are still to come in. Engineering vocational qualifications (not Apprenticeships) are reporting 85% success, compared to 67.6% last year. Sport vocational qualifications 76.84% SR this year, compared to 57.93% SR last year. The Chair asked the Vice Principal to pass on the Board s thanks and congratulations to the Engineering and Sport teams for these achievements. AS 70.42% SR this year, compared to 62.87% SR last year. GCSE Maths 92% pass rate A*-E, 20.4% A*-C GCSE English 96% pass rate A*-E, 40% A*-C Functional Skills: Maths 64.34% last year currently 51.41% and causing concern; English 69% last year currently 65.66%, expected to rise to around 70%. Vocational quals 81.9% SR last year, predicted 83% SR this year Value-Added on AS has shown a significant improvement Financial results for 2014/15 The Vice Principal Finance & Commercial Development advised that the first draft set of financial accounts for 2014/15 received by Baker Tilly this week show an operational surplus of 256k. The cash position is slightly down (700k) on forecast due to paying contractors earlier than anticipated. Year-end cash in bank is 1.2m. To contextualise the College s financial position, the Principal added that 29 colleges are currently in financial difficulty and many are setting deficit budgets of as much as 1m. RESOLVED: To note the verbal reports. 111/15 COLLEGE POLICIES REQUIRING BOARD RATIFICATION i) Updated Safeguarding Policy Members asked what amendments had been made. The Clerk advised that some small changes in wording had been made to reflect the updated government guidance documents Working together to safeguard children (March 2015) and Keeping children safe in education (July 2015). Also, many College policies were being updated to include reference to the Prevent agenda. Members suggested that, for the future, updated policies should indicate the differences from the previous version. No other issues were raised. New Prevent Policy No issues were raised. i Updated Student Disciplinary Policy No issues were raised. 2

3 RESOLVED: To approve the three policies under review. 112/15 CODE OF GOOD GOVERNANCE FOR ENGLISH COLLEGES Board Members noted and agreed the Clerk s recommendations. With regard to the review of Committee performance, not previously undertaken, the Clerk advised that the Search and Audit Committees would be undertaking a self-assessment review of their performance at their November 2015 meetings. No other issues were raised. RESOLVED: To approve (i) the formal adoption of the Code of Good Governance for English Colleges, and ( the recommended amendment to Governance Policy GP3.3: Assuring Performance. 113/15 SEARCH COMMITTEE REPORT Members reviewed and formally agreed the following recommendations, previously agreed by i) Delegated authority to the Board Selection Panel to appoint the new Vice Principal Curriculum. The Principal updated the Board on the appointment. 38 candidates had applied. These were long-listed to 10, and short-listed to 5 following short interviews via Skype. One of the 5 shortlisted subsequently withdrew and 4 attended the selection day on 28 September. Of these, the Board Panel agreed on 2 possible candidates and delegated responsibility to the Principal to have a further conversation with them and make the final choice. The Principal gave some background information and rationale for her choice, and recommended that Mrs Jacqueline Page be appointed Vice Principal Curriculum. The Principal requested that the appointment be treated as confidential until after Monday 5 October 2015 in order to allow Mrs Page time to speak personally to her current employer. The appointment of Caroline Foster as Board Member for the 3-year term 01/09/ /08/2018. (NB Caroline Foster left the meeting for this item.) i The amendment of the term of office for Staff Board Members from 3 years to 2 years and associated amendment to Governance Process Policy GP5.3: Tenure of Office. Members requested an update on the recruitment of a replacement Staff Board Member. The Clerk advised that three good nominations had been received for the position and voting is scheduled to take place w/c 5 October. RESOLVED: To approve (i) the appointment of Mrs Jacqueline Page as Vice Principal Curriculum; ( the appointment of Caroline Foster as Board Member; (i the new 2-year term of office for Staff Board Members. 114/15 MINUTES OF LAST MEETING The minutes of the meeting held on 2 July 2015 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair. RESOLVED: To approve the minutes. 115/15 MATTERS ARISING AND BOARD TRACKER Members raised the following items: Minute 86/15: College Improvement Plan Performance against Priority 3: Student Progress update requested on the implementation of ProMonitor. The Vice Principal Curriculum, Quality & Student Experience advised that there had been some technical challenges in some curriculum areas which should be resolved by Week 4. Minute 95/15: Budget 2015/16 reassurance requested on planned Protocol / agency staff savings. The Executive Director of HR advised that centralised, Executive authorisation had been introduced for the use of any agency staff, with requests from managers being 3

4 challenged and alternatives suggested and implemented. Where agency spend not in the budget is agreed, managers are tasked with producing a plan to bring their budget back into line. This process of central authorisation is being extended to include all staffing and includes weekly meetings to review any staffing requests. Work has also started on developing an alternative, in-house short-term staffing provision. The best prospect for achieving this is a joint project with Brockenhurst, through WESS. The contract with Protocol will end on 31 July It was agreed that the Executive Director of HR would flag up any adverse variances. Some members felt that no pay increase would have an adverse effect on staff morale. The Executive Director of HR advised that the big issue for colleges was the increase in National Insurance contributions and employer pension contributions, equating to a 5% increase in the pay bill. The Principal advised that since the Board approved the 2015/16 Budget in July, the Skills Funding Agency had further reduced Adult funding, leaving the Budget 93k adrift of break-even. However, the Principal recommended that the final enrolment outcome should be confirmed before a revised Budget is presented for Board approval. EDHR VP F&CD RESOLVED: To note the updates and agree the Principal s recommendation to defer the revised Budget pending finalisation of enrolment data. 116/15 CHAIR S ACTIONS The Chair confirmed that he had met individually with the majority of Board Members and carried out a performance review. The Chair informed Members that he would be attending the AoC Annual Conference and AoC SW Governance Summit in November RESOLVED: To note the Chair s actions. 117/15 ANY OTHER BUSINESS Standing Items i) Confirmation of agenda items for the November 2015 meeting It was agreed that the following, previously requested items would be included on the agenda for the 5 November 2015 Board meeting: Presentation by Head of Sixth Form College (pre-meeting slot) International Business Pensions Liability Report The requested Treasury Report will be reviewed by the Finance Advisory Group in November 2015 and presented to the Board in December Members were assured that the discussion slots in the new agenda format would, in future, be preserved for items previously chosen and agreed by Members and should primarily focus on teaching and learning issues. Items for future meetings The following items were requested: Pay and conditions, including performance related pay (Strategic debate Jan?) Pay increase debate (December meeting) Agenda Tracker i Feedback on learning walks and other curriculum area activity Members agreed that the Exceptional Student Awards evening in September had been an excellent event. iv) Verbal Feedback from conferences / events attended No feedback was given. Other Items The Chair acknowledged that this was Sharon Collett s last Board meeting. Members 4

5 thanked her for her contribution to the College as Vice Principal Curriculum, Quality & Student Experience, and wished her well in her new post as Principal of City College Brighton & Hove. 118/15 DATE OF NEXT MEETING: Thursday 5 November 2015 (including Board Dinner) 119/15 EVALUATION Members gave the following feedback on the day s proceedings: More consideration should be given to room layout to ensure that all Members are visible to each other. Impressed by balance achieved between information-giving and discussion. Request that all Members receive a full set of curriculum area information sheets. There was perhaps a little too much information to take in. More time should be allowed for debate. Badged as a strategic planning meeting but not sure if any decisions were made for example, diversifying income. Future strategic sessions should include items for decision. It was agreed that issues raised today (in particular, Area Reviews) would spark big strategic decisions at future meetings. Excellent chairing. Enjoyed the Principal s presentation on Area Reviews. The Board needs to be proactive rather than reactive. Hopefully, this will come through at the next strategic planning day in January 2016, building on today s discussions. As there are a number of new Board Members, it would be useful for the agenda to include a distribution list. PART B - CONFIDENTIALITY 120/15 EMBARGO: The appointment of Mrs Jacqueline Page to be treated as confidential until after Monday 5 October