MINUTES OF THE CORPORATE BOARD MEETING HELD ON THURSDAY
TH
14 MARCH 2013 AT THE PIBWRLWYD CAMPUS
Present:
Mr Roger Evans (Chair)
Mr Jon Daniels (Vice Chair) (from 18:15)
Mr Barry Liles (Chief Executive)
Ms Nicola Davies
Mr Nick Francis (Student Rep)
Mr Dave Gilbert
Mrs Jayne Hamilton
Dr Alun Hughes
Mr Gethin James
Mr Hywel Jones
Mr John Morrissey
Mr Elis Owen
Mr Philip Owen
Mrs Rosemary Pritchard
Mr Ben West
Mr Paul White
Mrs Debbie Williams
In attendance: Mr Marcus Beaumont (Clerk to the Corporate Board)
College Management:
Mr Mike Williams (Assistant Principal Planning, Information and Finance)
The meeting commenced at 18:00
Section 1 Preliminary Matters
ACTION
CB 13/3/1.1
Apologies
Mr Jake Cannon (Student Rep)
Dr Andrew Cornish (Assistant Principal Teaching, Learning and Quality)
Mr Peter Rees (Assistant Principal Learner, Estates and Innovation)
CB 13/3/1.2
Declarations of Interest
Mr Ben West declared that he is undertaking consultancy work on
Regulation for the merged University.
Mr Philip Owen declared that he is the Vice-Chair of the Governing Body
of Swansea Metropolitan University and is a member of the Council of the
merged university.
Mr Jon Daniels declared that his wife is employed as a Manager within the
college.
CB 13/3/1.3
th
Minutes of the Corporate Board meeting held on 6 December 2012
Item CB 12/20 3.4. It was agreed that the words ‘colleges banding’ in the
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RISK
last sentence should read ‘college’s branding’. Subject to
the above change the minutes were agreed as a true
record.
CB 13/3/1.4
Matters arising from the above mentioned Minutes
None.
CB 13/3/1.5
Minutes of the Special Corporate Board meeting held on 19
February 2013
th
The minutes were agreed as a true record.
CB 13/3/1.6
Matters arising from the above mentioned Minutes
None.
Section 2 To Approve
CB 13/4/2.1
Committee Report and Minutes of the Curriculum and Standards
th
Committee meeting held on 28 January 2013.
The Clerk gave an overview of the new Committee Reports requested by
the Search, Governance and Remuneration Committee and asked for
suggestions for improvements. The format was discussed and it was
agreed that an additional column be added to all committee reports
recording the risk level attached to each item. It was also agreed that the
Action be added at the foot of each page.
Mrs Rosemary Pritchard, Vice-Chair of the Committee, gave a resume of
the items covered by the report and minutes highlighting teaching and
learning observation outcomes (CSC 12/15.3.2) and Basic Skills
Qualifications results (CSC 13/2.2.2). The impact of the basic skills
results was questioned and Mr Mike Williams advised that the results
showed good progress for those learners who had been identified on
enrolment as requiring basic skills support. He also advised that this is a
new area of work so trend data for comparative purposes is not available
now but will be in the future. The Chair requested that data be presented
linked to the actions that generated it. Mr Williams advised that this is
provided for the committee. Mrs Pritchard confirmed that data analysis is
provided.
Mr Ben West brought the meeting’s attention to the Review of
Qualifications item (CSC 13/2.1.1.) and that a table of recommendations
would be brought to this meeting. Mr Liles apologised and requested, that
in the absence of Dr Andrew Cornish, this be carried over to the next
meeting. This was agreed.
The format of the Committee Report was further discussed in light of the
above discussion. Mr Liles suggested that the report should include only
acute issues however it was agreed to include all items but highlight those
requiring Corporate Board attention/action. The Clerk confirmed that if the
report highlighted no items for the attention or action by the Corporate
Board then the Board can take comfort that the committee feels it has no
concerns over the information provided to it. The minutes were
approved.
CB 13/4/2.2
Committee Report and Minutes of the Resources Committee held on
th
7 February 2013
Mr Hywel Jones gave an overview of the committee report and minutes
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Med
highlighting the new financial reporting format (RC 13/2.1), the
Safeguarding Report (RC 13/6.1.1), and the development of a new Five
Year Business Plan for the Farm. He also advised on the cash situation
of the college and approval granted to the development of a new Estates
Strategy. The minutes were approved.
CB 13/4/2.3
Committee Report and Minutes of the Audit and Risk Management
th
Committee held on 6 December 2012
Mr Philip Owen gave an overview of the Committee report and minutes.
The minutes were approved.
CB 13/4/2.4
Committee Report and Minutes of the Audit and Risk Management
st
Committee held on 21 February 2013
Mr Philip Owen gave an overview of the committee report and minutes
highlighting the high and medium recommendations within the Risk
Maturity – Governance and Risk Identification Internal Auditors report.
The minutes were approved.
CB 13/4/2.5
Committee Report and Minutes of the Search, Governance and
th
Remuneration Committee held on 28 February 2013
Mr Roger Evans gave an overview of the committee report and minutes
highlighting those items being brought to this meeting of the Corporate
Board for discussion. The minutes were approved.
Section 3 Awareness, Strategy and Vision
CB 13/5/3.1
Principal’s/CEO Report
3.1.1 The Chief Executive took the Committee through his written report.
He provided further background information relating to the
Common Contract for staff and the document produced by
ColegauCymru for circulation by colleges to their staff.
He
confirmed that the proposal is practically cost neutral to the college.
He identified the main changes to existing staff contracts and
advised that once approved the document would be uploaded onto
the colleges intranet landing page.
He confirmed that the
document is a ColegauCymru document not a college document.
The document was approved and it was agreed to be circulated to
staff.
3.1.2 The Chief Executive apologised that the printed version of the
Annual Report has not been received. The Clerk circulated a
Student Achievement 2011/12 list identifying those students, listed
by Curriculum Area, who have achieved an award or represented
the college at an external event.
3.1.3 The Chief Executive brought the Board up to date with matters
relating to the fatal road traffic collision involving a college bus.
The Chair praised the initiative taken by staff in responding to the
accident.
The Principal’s report was accepted.
CB 13/5/3.2
Campus Update
The Clerk introduced a new format for the campus update requested by
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the Search, Governance and Remuneration Committee which replaces
the previous one campus cluster report by a short report on all three
clusters.
Mr Jon Daniels joined the meeting at 18:15.
Mr Mike Williams gave an overview of the Myrddin Cluster highlighting the
Saint David’s day lunch in the training restaurant, Red Nose Day
activities, the Respect Campaign, Meeting with the County Council on
estates development and a bid for funding for a ‘state of the art’ loom. Mr
Morrissey advised that Mr Ashley Jones has won the final of the
Automotive Technical Competition held in Cardiff.
In the absence of Dr Andrew Cornish, the Principal brought the Board’s
attention to the college having ten rugby academy students within the
Wales U18 national squad reported in Dr Cornish’s update.
In the absence of Mr Peter Rees, the Principal brought the Board’s
attention to the visit by college students and staff to New Zealand for a
three week study tour.
The Chair thanked management for Update reports that highlight the
range of activities being undertaken across the campuses. The reports
were accepted.
CB 13/5/3.3
Corporate Board Member Matters
3.3.1 Governance Structures during transition and post-merger
Mr Barry Liles gave a presentation on governance structures,
including the current structure, recommendations from the
Humphreys Report, the impact of the forthcoming FE/HE Bill and
the current proposal within the Business Case for Merger. He
reported that there is still pressure from the Welsh Government for
the development of alternative governance models and described
the model being piloted by Coleg Gwent. Questions were raised
on various aspects of the presentation.
The Chair proposed that the meeting should consider the following
aspects of governance post-merger:•
•
•
•
•
Executive Board – composition and meeting frequency
Advisory Board – composition and meeting frequency
Relationship between Executive and Advisory Boards
Relationship with UWTSD
Sub-committee structure.
There was a far reaching discussion on all aspects of the above
during which it was decided to start by considering the committee
structure and building up from there. The Chair summarised the
suggestions including the development of a matrix structure
encompassing both campus and contact drivers with a formal
process for capturing information through links to the
partner/campus councils. There was clear agreement that the
development of an Advisory Service would be better than an
Advisory Board including the creation of a process that proactively
seeks input from wider stakeholders into the committees. It was
agreed that the current Corporate Board would continue until March
2014 as a shadow board.
There was concern that the structure did not end up with too many
layers. It was agreed that we should aim for a two tier structure
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High
with extended committee membership. It was also agreed to
enhance committee decision-making although it was recognised
that Executive Board decisions would have to be ratified by the
University Council. It was confirmed that the Chair of the Executive
Board would sit on the Council and that the college may have a
University Representative on the Executive Board who also sits on
the Council.
The routes for income coming into the college were discussed.
There was agreement that the college will need to be clear and
strong in articulating what it wants in terms of governance structure
and processes in developing the new group structure.
It was agreed that the current three committees Curriculum and
Standards Committee; Audit and Risk Management Committee and
Resources Committee would transfer into the new structure.
Mr Liles suggested that an Executive Board member should Chair
the Audit and Risk Management Committee. This was followed by
considerable discussion on the composition of the Executive Board
which resulted in the following being proposed:• The Executive Board should consist of a minimum of nine
members including one student member (non-voting) and one
staff member (non-voting);
• The Executive Board should meet at least four times a year with
the power to call additional meetings as required;
• There should be a minimum of one staff member and one
student member on each committee;
• The Advisory element should be a virtual process which has
formal links to existing consultative committees.
It was agreed that the Chief Executive, Mike Williams and the Clerk
will prepare a paper based on the above to go to a special Search,
Governance and Remuneration Committee for consideration.
CB 13/5/3.3
3.3.2 Link Governor Review
The Clerk requested feedback on the current Link Governor
process. Comments made by Link Governors present were very
positive. The Chair asked how staff found the process and both the
staff governors and Mr Mike Williams responded that staff found
the process to be very beneficial. The Clerk thanked members for
the feedback.
Section 4 Any Other Business
None.
Section 5 Date Time and Venue of next meeting
th
Thursday 20 June 2013 at 6.00 p.m. at the Graig Campus.
The meeting closed at 20:17.
___________________________
Roger Evans
Chair
____________________________
Marcus Beaumont
Clerk to the Corporation
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