Minutes of the VISION 2020 (UK) Ltd Board of Trustees (Meeting 1) Held on 14Th May 2013

VISION 2020 (UK) Ltd Board of Trustees 13 May 2014 Agenda Item 4 Minutes of the VISION 2020 (UK) Ltd Board of Trustees (Meeting 6) held on 11 March at Blind Veterans UK, London Present: Nick Astbury (NA)-(Chair) Peter Corbett (PC)-(Treasurer) Amanda Ariss (AA) Lesley-Anne Baxter (LAB) Bryony Pawinska (BP) by telephone Jenny Pearce (JP) Richard Wormald (RW)

Apologies: Lesley-Anne Alexander CBE - observer

In attendance: Anita Lightstone (AL)-(Interim Chief Operations Officer) Chris Ward (CW)-(Executive Assistant), Minutes

1. Welcome, introductions and apologies for absence 1.1 Apologies were received from Lesley-Anne Alexander. 1.2 NA welcomed the attending trustees and staff members to the meeting. As it was CW’s first Board meeting everyone gave a brief description of their work and roles for her information.

2. Declarations of Conflicts of Interest 2.1 There were no declarations of conflicts of interest.

3. Notification of items to be raised under item 10 (Any Oth er Business, AOB) 3.1 There were no AOB items requested 4. Minutes of the last meeting held on 20 November 2013 4.1 AA requested that on item 10.1 “Positive discrimination” be changed to “Positive action” 4.2 Spelling error in 10.1 – ‘working’ should be corrected to ‘wording’ 4.3 Action: Chris Ward – 14 January 2013 Minutes to be corrected.

5. Matters arising 5.1 The following outstanding actions were discussed and agreed:

5.1.2 5.1.4 (20/11/13) RW is working with Parul Desai (chair VISION 2020 UK Ophthalmic Public Health group) to draft list of data/topics/information, which will be circulated to the Board electronically for contribution and comment. A request was made by PC and LAB that a draft summary be sent out to the Board after this meeting. 5.1.3 Action: RW to send out summary draft after the next meeting of the group on 8 April

5.1.4 5.1.10 (20/11/13) AL to prioritise taking the review of Governance and the Special Interest Groups forward AL had followed up with Ad-Esse about the review and their proposal presented to the working group. The working group decided not to pursue this approach and PC proposed that the review would be conducted by Phil Ambler, Director of Policy, Pocklington Trust. This proposal was agreed by the working group and Phil has prepared the project brief. This will be circulated to the Board with associated papers shortly after the meeting. 5.1.5 Action: AL to circulate to the Board for comment in the week commencing 17 March.

5.1.6 4.2 (14/01/14) 20 November 2013 minutes to be corrected is complete

5.1.7 5.1.5 (14/01/14) MB to write a detailed report on special interest groups together with a calendar of meetings and meeting intervals. 5.1.8 Action: MB to send out a calendar of the activities of the various Groups and Committees

5.1.9 5.1.7 (14/01/14) The Eye Research special interest group have met and have now a member who will attend both the VISION 2020 UK research groups. The group have agreed to take forward the proposal regarding eye health services research through a working group, but wish to establish a process for the consideration of future proposals. 2 The first meeting of the working group for the eye health services research will take place on 17 March. Initial members of this group are members of the eye research group as well as Aeesha Malik and Sir Muir Gray. 5.1.10 Action: RW to update Board at the next Board meeting 5.1.11 Action: MB to share with RW the template established by the ophthalmic public health group for the consideration of proposals and projects

5.1.12 5.1.9 (14/01/14) BP to circulate standing order amendments BP has made the amendments and it has been agreed that these will be circulated separately for electronic sign off. 5.1.13 Action: BP/CW will circulate electronically for electronic approval

5.1.14 5.1.13 (14/04/14) MB to obtain two quotes for the development of the website. Budget agreed at £15k. After initial exploratory discussions and informal quotes, £16K has been allocated in the 2014/15 budget for this work. MB is now preparing tender documents to take the development forward to the next stage. 5.1.15 Action: MB to forward the tender documents as soon as possible to the Board. 5.1.16 Action: LAB to support MB in development of the tender document

5.1.17 6.1.2 (14/01/14) MU/AL to follow up and correct College of Optometrists funding This has been followed up with Andrew Lane, Director Finance, College of Optometrists, and is now clarified. NA thanked the College for their continued support.

5.1.18 6.1.5 (14/01/14) Future financial reports to be presented as Excel spreadsheet and Word commentary is now in place.

5.1.19 6.2.2 (14/01/14) Draft budget amendments have been completed.

5.1.20 6.2.3 (14/01/14) Deaths in service cover to be investigated. BP suggested that MB should consult a broker about this matter. MB stated that he was currently obtaining quotes from Towergate. PC can recommend someone as well if required. 5.1.21 Action: MB to follow up as advised

3 5.1.22 6.2.5 and 6.2.6 (14/01/14) Membership levels to be checked and realigned if necessary This has been completed and all invoices have now been sent out for financial year 2014/15.

5.1.23 7.2 (14/01/14) AL to amend Business plan Completed and recirculated to the Board at the end of January Further minor clarification will be made to the wording of business plan, following the identification of an area of confusion.

5.1.24 8.2 (14/01/14) AL to negotiate benefits with Visionary for 14/15 financial year Discussions have taken place, benefits are agreed and documentation is being prepared.

5.1.25 8.5 (14/01/14) MB to contact MACs MACs are now members and have paid their membership fee

5.1.26 10.2 (14/01/14) AL to take forwards the recruitment and advertisement for new Board members. AL stated that this was all in progress with draft advertisements and draft action plan in place ready for approval. PC asked if the advertisements specify the skills being looked for and AL replied that they did. PC requested a copy of the skillsets listed. 5.1.27 Action: AL to send summary paragraph of required skill set to Board 5.1.28 Action: AL to circulate to the Board a summary of the Trustee recruitment advertisement when it has been agreed 5.1.29 Action: AA to send CW details of Trustee Works

6. Finance 6.1 Financial report end January 2013 PC reported on the new formats for financial reporting as agreed at the last Board meeting: a one page spreadsheet on Income and Expenditure plus a detailed seven page summary in Word. PC summarised that V2020UK is in good financial health with a secure platform for moving forward. There is no significant change to the situation from the last meeting and it is now time for making decisions as to what V2020 UK want to do regarding the Business Plan. NA stressed how grateful he was to organisations such as RNIB, Guide Dogs and College of Optometrists, and others, for their grants and donations to VISION 2020 UK.

4 It was raised that if the reserves are in excess of the agreed 6 month figure, we may face a possible future issue regarding justification of membership payments. NA said that the next stage would be deciding on how to spend the money now we have a Business Plan. PC added that V2020 UK activity would certainly be expanded.

7. Business Plan – Simw 7.1 Simw was led by Action for Blind People, supported by organisations from across the sector. A report prepared by Hugh Huddy, when he was the Inclusion Manager for VISION 2020 UK, suggested taking the report forward through campaigning and influencing. Implementation of the Seeing it my way framework is identified within the VISION 2020 UK business plan. The major question is how to ensure that Simw is taken forward? It needs strong leadership and VISION 2020 UK is well placed to provide this. AL suggested the next step should be a sector wide round table to explore approaches and roles for implementation.

It was proposed that not only was it a case of driving Simw forward but of integrating all the strands such as the Sight Loss Pathway and the UK Vision Strategy. There is a need for a standard way of articulating how it will all fit together, and how as a sector we would be using it for the benefit of people with vision impairment. It was suggested that what is required is a forum as the basis of the round table. It was agreed that VISION 2020 UK should host a round table to be organised to take place in the autumn. 7.1.2 Action: MB to organise a round table event and develop a briefing paper, to include a mapping diagram of how all the different organisations and ideas fit together. This should be sent out to the Board before the next meeting when it will be discussed further. 7.1.3 Action: AL/MB to suggest addition of some key external partners. 7.1.4 Action: AL to draft wording to articulate relationship between contributing document and groups.

8. Improving communications, marketing and PR 8.1 NA summarised the three options outlined in in the accompanying paper adding that he would prefer one communications team for both UK Vision Strategy and V2020 UK in order to relay one single message and to avoid confusion. Concerns were expressed regarding a joint post and suggestions made that a decision was delayed until the new CEO was in post in order to gain clarification of how UK Vision Strategy and V2020 UK would work together and the communications strategy required going

5 forward. It was proposed that the status quo should be maintained for the next few months. Discussions followed in which it was acknowledged that V2020 UK’s communications has greatly improved over the last 18 months and one indication of this was the number of new members. One reason for this is the input of the communications manager within UK Vision Strategy working across the two teams and supporting MB and V2020 UK in many ways, such as with the website and development of the leaflet. In order to keep up this momentum a communications officer for V2020 UK is required in the short term to start in June 2014 for an initial three months at a cost of approximately £8k. It was highlighted that this post wasn’t in the Budget for which AL apologised for the omission. The possibility of seeking grant funding from Guide Dogs was discussed but it was agreed that the budget should be amended to reflect the new post, although this would result in a deficit budget. NA summed up by saying that that the importance of a communications officer for V2020 UK was agreed and would be implemented. 8.1.2 Action: AL to amend the budget to reflect the new communications officer post for three months from June at a cost of £32k pa with 50% being funded from RNIB 8.1.3 Action: AL to work on the draft job specification for the communications officer and this to be completed within a month

9. World Sight Day – paper by Mary Bairstow The recommendation ‘to support the proposal to organise a competition to coincide with World Sight Day 2014 was approved by t he Board 9.1 Action: Mary Bairstow working with the CYP VISION 2020 UK group to organise a competition to coincide with World Sight Day

10. Interim Chief Operation Officer’s report 10.1 The Chief Operations Officer’s report was presented to the Board. 10.2 Regarding point 3.3.3 (the Commissioning for Effectiveness and Efficiency project), it was suggested that it would be beneficial to agree key messages and that VISION 2020 UK groups may be helpful for this. 10.2.1 Action: Sally Chandler, UK Vision Strategy Information and Operations manager, to contact RW regarding CEE key messages

11. Group Review Update This item had been discussed under matters arising

6 12. Vision Screening presentation – RW Please see Appendix 2 for a summary and Appendix 3 for the PowerPoint presentation.

13. Chairs’ of Special Interest Groups networking day 13.1 MB presented a report on the Special Interest Group networking day. 13.2 Action: MB to ensure that key documents such as the work plan, projects and TOR’s are on the website.

14. Any Other Business 14.1 PC asked if after the CEO interviews had taken place that the name of the preferred candidate could be circulated to the Board. 14.2 Action: NA to circulate to the Board the name of the preferred CEO candidate.

Next Board meeting date 13 May 2014. Venue – Blind Veterans UK.