Sir George Monoux College

SIR GEORGE MONOUX COLLEGE

Minutes (Ordinary Business) of the Corporation Meeting held on 31 March 2015

Present Alan Wells (Chair of the Corporation), Brian Westbury (Senior Vice-Chair of the Corporation), Jeremy Bromfield (Vice-Chair of the Corporation), Jonathan Bush (Vice-Chair of the Corporation), Riddhi Bhalla, Theo Ellis, Marlene Greaves, Victoria Neal, Paolo Ramella (Principal), Kandace Sutherland-Campbell, Talia Chirouf (Associate Member of the Corporation).

Clerking Services Jane Stroud (Temporary Clerk to the Corporation).

In Attendance David Ball (Vice Principal: Corporate Services), Louis Strover (Acting Vice Principal: Curriculum). Staff Observer Farhana Juhera (Observer).

1 Apologies for Absence and Quoracy

Apologies for absence had been received from the following members of the Corporation: David Johnston, Stewart McLean and Alistair Owens, and also from Robert Smith (Clerk).

The Chair announced that Michelle King had resigned.

The meeting was quorate.

Jane Stroud was appointed as Temporary Clerk for the meeting.

The Chair welcomed a member of staff, Farhana Juhera, as an observer to the meeting. A second member of staff had been unable to attend because of the NUT industrial action that day.

2 Declarations of Interest

3 Draft Minutes of the Previous Meeting (Ordinary Business): 24 January 2015

It was noted that the draft minutes had received approval by the Chair of the Corporation for circulation.

They were approved as a correct record of the business transacted and prima facie evidence of the proceedings to which they relate with the following amendments:

Agenda item 6 Corporation Succession Strategy: The last sentence was replaced with: ‘The revised paper should be circulated following changes made by Chair’s Action to reflect the discussion at the meeting.’

Agenda items 7 Corporation Member Commitment, and Agenda Item 8 Governor Link Protocol: The following sentence was added to the end of each agenda item: ‘The revised paper should be circulated following changes made by Chair’s Action to reflect the discussion at the meeting.’

4 Matters Arising from the Draft Minutes (Ordinary Business): 24 January 2015

The Chair confirmed that the final version of the papers for agenda items 6, 7 and 8 had been circulated to members following the last meeting.

5 Audit Committee : 17 March 2015

A verbal report was received from the Chair of the Audit Committee. The meeting had been inquorate. The Chair had, after consultation with members, drawn up a specification for Associate Members to be appointed to the Audit Committee.

6 Governance and Nominations Committee: 12 January 2015

The draft minutes were received from the Chair of the Committee. The following points were highlighted:

 Two applications had been received to date in response to advertisements in order to recruit an independent member of the Corporation. Interviews would be held on 27 April.  The English Colleges’ Code of Governance did not appear to offer added value to the College for the reasons given in the minutes. The College should continue to monitor its development and use in the Sector.  The Bye Laws were the subject of a separate agenda item.

7 Personnel, Appraisal and Remuneration Committee: 27 January 2015

The unreserved draft minutes were received from the Chair of the Committee. The following points were highlighted.

 A schedule of policies and procedures for review had been prepared. The Trade Unions had been consulted and the process had been good for building constructive relations. The policies and procedures that had been revised so far had taken into consideration comments received and had been updated in line with regulations and legislation. The policies and procedures that impacted directly on the Corporation were appended to the minutes for approval by the Corporation.

It was resolved THAT the following policies and procedures, attached to the minutes, be approved: The Conduct and Disciplinary Policy and Procedure, the Grievance Policy and Procedure, the Restructuring and Redundancy Policy and Procedure, and the Capability Policy and Procedure.

It was agreed that the Personnel, Appraisal and Remuneration Committee should be responsible, on behalf of the Corporation, for the review and approval of HR policies and procedures that did not have a direct impact on the Corporation.

 Focus Groups had met and had had an impact. HR had been working with staff and an official survey would follow shortly. A paper on Focus Group Feedback and Staff Survey for 2015 was appended to the minutes.  HR had also been in constructive dialogue with the Trade Unions.

The Chair of the Corporation said that it was important that a ‘you said, we did’ document is produced for circulation to staff.

The Chair of the Committee requested that the Focus Group outcomes be combined with the Staff Awayday feedback.

8 Resources Committee: 3 March 2015

The draft minutes were received from the Chair of the Committee. The following points were highlighted:  The Budget was a tight one but it was well managed.  Student numbers enrolled were good.  Reference was made to the corrected minute by which the Committee had proposed that if the Sixth Form College Association (SFCA) national pay award amount exceeded the budget allocation for this item, then the Committee would make a recommendation to the Corporation on the matter. If the national pay award amount was within budget then the Committee should be authorised to implement it.  Steward McLean had been appointed Vice Chair of the Committee.

In answer to a question David Ball, Vice Principal: Corporate Services informed the meeting that the College had been unsuccessful in its recent bids to the Department of Education for capital funds. Six colleges only had been successful with their bids. The rest of the resources had been allocated to schools and academies. The College would make similar bids again next year.

In response to another question the Vice Principal confirmed that the banding referred to in agenda item 8 was for the number of contact hours students have at the College. Initial indications were that funding would increase. However, he had queried the figures for Bands 4 and 5 with the Education Funding Agency. All 16 to 18 students should be in the highest band. Students who were over 18 on the census date were only entitled to 80% funding. It was noted that the latter students were those who had previously been unsuccessful and that they were therefore likely to need more resources.

9 Quality and Performance Committee: 9 February 2015

The Chair of the Committee had sent his apologies. There was a discussion in which the following points were made:  The College was more successful in placing girls than boys at university. This reflected the national picture but the College had put in place strategies to improve the performance of boys, addressing motivation, course content etc.  60 students had received offers to Russell Universities, but only 40 of the 60 places had been taken up. The Principal confirmed that this was mainly due to students choosing not to take up the university places, not to weak results.  The Chair of the Corporation reported that he had met his counterpart at Leyton Sixth Form College the day before. There was merit in talking to neighbouring institutions and he would try to meet other Chairs on a regular basis in order to facilitate horizon scanning. There might also be value in a shared Awayday.

10 Principal’s Report

The report was taken as read. The Principal gave the following responses in answer to questions:  There had been a drop in applications between March 2015 and the same time last year, but there had been some improvement in application numbers since the report itself had been written. Conversion from offers to enrolments was the most important factor. Last year the conversion rate had been 37%, and it was pointed out that 400 young people who had not applied had turned up at College during enrolment. Members asked if they should be concerned about the number of applications at this time. The Principal responded that the College was focusing on improving the conversion rate but that action was also being taken to improve the number of applications. The number of interview dates had been increased, and now included dates during the Easter holidays. Applications were also being promoted on the website and in social media. Post cards were being sent to all interviewees to remind them about their offers. In addition the College was speaking directly to schools and was planning a newspaper promotion aimed at parents in April.  The Principal confirmed that there were 13 new providers in the area and that these were affecting application rates. It was noted that student numbers was the 4th highest risk on the risk register and members requested that mitigating actions be shown in more detail against the risk on the risk register.  The Chair of the Corporation reflected that the Corporation should consider how it received important information on changing student numbers, and the worst case scenario financial impact. The Chair of the Resources Committee reminded members that the Committee had received a useful sensitivity analysis of student numbers at its last meeting. The Vice Principal: Corporate Services undertook to provide a paper for the June meeting of the Resources Committee on the impact of a shortfall of student numbers. Next year’s funding would not be affected.  The Principal stated that the local demographic profile meant that there would be an increase in pupils attending secondary schools from 2017, and attending colleges in subsequent years.  Clarification was given that John Kenyon had been contracted as a consultant in the Senior Leadership Team to cover existing vacancies, and had not been appointed as a member of staff.

11 Strategic Plan 2015-18

The plan (a confidential paper), written by the Chair of the Corporation and the Principal, was received from the Chair. He explained that the purpose of the paper was to identify the big strategic issues that the College needed to consider. He asked members to consider if there were any other strategic issues that should be considered other than those identified in paragraph 4. He proposed that single meeting issue groups be set up to discuss the issues. The paper named the College managers who would participate in each group, but he would like to appoint at least one Corporation member to each group.

There followed a discussion in which the financial pressure on colleges and increased competition for student numbers were noted. It was possible that local authorities would encourage co-operation, including co-operation between smaller and newer institutions so that they could offer a wide choice, as sixth form colleges did currently. Merger had not been included in the list of issues as it was considered to be too remote a scenario. The Associate Member offered to circulate some relevant papers on sharing good practice. All matters discussed fell within the big strategic issues identified.

It was resolved THAT the issue groups should meet before the Corporation Awayday in May, and that the Chair would appoint Corporation members to the issue groups.

12 Review of Payroll Policies and Draft Internal Audit Service Report: Payroll

As there was no immediate cause for concern It was resolved THAT these items be referred back to the Audit Committee for their review.

Progress would be reported back to the Corporation. Action on Payroll policies would also be monitored by the Personnel, Appraisal and Remuneration Committee.

13 Responses to Focus Group Feedback: Staff Survey

The report, written by the Head of HR, was received from the Principal. Members welcomed the actions that had already taken place and future plans to respond quickly to the outcomes of the focus groups. The Chair of the Corporation requested that feedback from both the Focus Groups and the Awayday be given to staff before the next staff survey in April / May. The Personnel, Appraisal and Remuneration Committee would monitor continuing progress.

14 Management Accounts 2014-2015 to Period 6: 31 January 2015

The Management Accounts were received from the Vice Principal: Resources. The title in the paper should refer to the period ending January 2015, not October 2014. Changes to the scoring system for financial health of the sector were expected and would be monitored. It was suggested that too many General Further Education and Sixth Form colleges were designated currently as outstanding and this might change in the future. A significant number of colleges scoring highly for no debt did so because no one was willing to lend to them.

It was resolved THAT the Management Accounts be approved.

15 Bye-Laws of the Corporation

The proposed Bye-Laws and a paper outlining the changes proposed by the Governance and Nominations Committee was received from the Chair of that Committee. The proposed changes provided clarification and ‘tidied up’ some existing clauses.

It was resolved THAT the proposed Bye-Laws of the Corporation be approved with the following amendment:

 Remove from paragraph 8.5 ‘is eligible for election as its Chair’. (It was decided that co-opted members of the Audit Committee should not be the Chair the Committee)

16 Draft Terms of Reference: Audit Committee

The draft terms of reference of the Audit Committee were received from the Chair of the Audit Committee .

It was resolved THAT the draft Audit Committee Terms of Reference be approved with the following amendments:  Composition paragraph 3: should read ‘Associate members of the Committee may be co-opted and can count towards a quorum’.  Frequency: replace ‘At least once per term’ at the beginning of the first sentence with ‘At least twice a year’.

17 Risk Management Report

Members noted that the highest risk was uncertainty over funding and the regulatory environment after the election. The Chair of the Audit Committee reported that he had been invited to attend a meeting of the College’s Risk Management Committee. He agreed that an additional column should be added to the Risk Register: committee ownership of risk.

It was resolved THAT this item be referred back to the Audit Committee for their review. 18 Schedule of Corporation Meetings 2014-15

The following dates and times, already scheduled, were noted:

Saturday 9 May 2015 (9.30am) to form part of a Corporation Conference Tuesday 7 July 2015 (6.30pm)

19 Schedule of Corporation Meetings 2015-16

The following dates and times, already scheduled, were noted:

Tuesday 8 December 2015 (6.30pm) Tuesday 22 March 2016 (6.30pm) Tuesday 5 July 2016 (6.30pm)

The following dates and times for Corporation conferences during the 2015-16 academic year were noted:

Saturday 10 October 2015 (9.30am) Saturday 23 January 2016 (9.30am) Saturday 14 May 2016 (9.30am)

Corporation conferences could include formal business meetings where these were required.

20 Any Other Competent Business

The Chair would speak to individual members when attendance fell below acceptable levels.

21 Date and Time of Next Corporation Meeting

Saturday 9 May 2015 (9.30am)

The (ordinary business) meeting finished at 8.20pm.