MEETING OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES Items in red are confidential Minutes of a meeting of the Board of Trustees (the Trustees) of Canal & River Trust (the Trust) held at 8.30am on Thursday 22 March 2018 at The Regatta Room, Park Inn By Radisson, North Street, York, YO1 6JF. Present Allan Leighton, Chair Dame Jenny Abramsky, Trustee and Deputy Chair Frances Done CBE, Trustee Ben Gordon, Trustee Janet Hogben, Trustee Tim Reeve, Trustee Sir Chris Kelly, Trustee Sue Wilkinson, Trustee Nigel Annett CBE, Trustee Manish Chande, Trustee In attendance Richard Parry, Chief Executive Julie Sharman, Chief Operating Officer Stuart Mills, Chief Investment Officer Sandra Kelly, Finance Director Heather Clarke, Strategy, Impact and Engagement Director Simon Bamford, Asset Improvement Director Mike Gooddie, People Director Gill Eastwood, Company Secretary (minute taker) Tom Deards, Head of Legal Catherine Kirkland, Senior HR Business Partner redacted 18/018 APOLOGIES No apologies were received. CHAIR’S WELCOME AND REMARKS The Chair welcomed all attendees to the meeting. The Chair reported that notice of the meeting had been given to all trustees entitled to receive it and that a quorum was present. The Chair reflected on the success of events that had been held in the preceding days, including the Chair’s farewell dinner, and a very good trip to Naburn Locks (with boat back to York) with Council members. The Council meeting had a series of interesting presentations with a good focus on the future not the past. The Trustees thanked the team who had planned the Reception which had fulfilled its proper purpose: The Chair noted that the outgoing Partnership Chairs were keen to do a proper RP handover and asked management to put in place a template for doing this, including the opportunity for outgoing chairs to meet their successors. 18/019 REGISTER OF INTERESTS AND DECLARATION OF INTERESTS IN ANY MATTER ON THE AGENDA The attendees declared interests and set out in Information Report Trust332. Trustees asked for the following changes to be made: • Allan Leighton, is no longer the Chair but is a non-Executive Director at Matalan Retail Ltd • Allan Leighton is the Chair of Element Materials Technology • Ben Gordon is no longer a Non-Executive Director of Britvic Plc • Ben Gordon is no longer a Non-Executive Director of St Ives Plc • Ben Gordon is Chair of Heal & Son Ltd • Ben Gordon is a Trustee of United Learning 18/020 MINUTES AND SCHEDULE OF ACTIONS The minutes of the Board of Trustees meetings held on 25 January and 1 March 2018 re written resolution were approved. Confidential Summary of actions arising from Board Meetings All matters arising were in hand or on the agenda. 18/023 Safeguarding Update [Trust334] RP presented the report which updated the Board on how the Trust implemented Safeguarding. RP personally leads the Safeguarding steering group. Trustees have been invited to complete the e-learning training on Safeguarding. The Audit & Risk Committee (ARC) has reviewed how the Trust managed risks around Safeguarding in depth The Trustees approved the “Safeguarding Children, Young People and Adults at Risk Position Statement”. 18/024 Governance Report [Trust335] GE presented the Decision Report Trust335 and drew the Trustees’ attention to various matters affecting the governance of the Trust. The Board • Appointed Tom Deards as the Trust’s Company Secretary with effect from 1 April 2018 • Noted that the Trust has an agreed mandatory standard for reporting Serious Incidents to the Charity Commission which is currently under review to ensure it remains fit for purpose. • Approved the winding up of Blackwall Estates Limited. • Noted the Charity Commission Regulatory Alert on Safeguarding and some Governance requirements provided for background information only • Ratified the Partnership member appointments set out as follows: ➢ John McNicholas, West Midlands Partnership – 1st term, 3 years to 1 March 2021 ➢ Imran Mirza, West Midlands Partnership – 1st term, 3 years to 1 March 2021 ➢ Laura Shoaf, West Midlands Partnership – 1st term extension of 12 months to end of February 2019 ➢ Philip Bateman, West Midlands Partnership – 1st term extension of 12 months to end of February 2019 18/027 Chief Executive’s Report [Trust337] The Board noted the Chief Executive’s Information Report Trust330 and the appendices which had been prepared by the Executive Directors. In relation to Appendix 4: Operations Report JS highlighted various items in her report and also updated on the recent breach at Middlewich which had occurred at the end of the previous week. The Asset Improvement teams have started work already with good progress. The Board confirmed that it was happy for the Trust to conduct an appeal for donations to assist with the cost and promote engagement (e.g erecting a viewing platform so that local people can view safely). JS also drew Trustees’ attention to the risks and opportunities around the current use of Sharpness Pilots. The Trustees noted Appendix 5: Asset Report. 18/028 Finance Director’s Report [Trust338] SK presented her confidential Information Report Trust338 which was noted. 18/030 AOB This was Gill Eastwood’s last meeting, due to her retirement. The Board thanked Gill for her support. 18/031 Close Date of the next meeting – • Thursday 24 May 2018 (Wales – Cardiff) (including joint event with the Welsh Bwrdd). There being no further business, the Chair closed the meeting at 1230. ------------------------------------------ Chair Board Meeting 22 March 2018 Information Report Trust334 Items in red confidential SAFEGUARDING UPDATE Richard Parry, Chief Executive 1. PURPOSE 1.1 The purpose of this paper is to update the Board on the implementation of improvements to Safeguarding governance redacted. Specifically, the Board is also asked to sign-off the Safeguarding statement attached for wide distribution across the Trust. 2. CURRENT STATUS 2.1 The Trust is committed to creating and supporting an organisational wide culture that promotes safeguarding for all staff, volunteers and members of the public. The Trust has a Designated Safeguarding Officer (and Deputy), an agreed Safeguarding policy, and all staff and volunteers receive mandatory e-learning training to ensure that they are aware of their responsibilities in this area. Any posts which work directly with children and vulnerable adults are identified, and staff filling these posts are subject to DBS checks. In addition, all volunteers and new staff joining the Trust are asked to disclose whether they have any unspent criminal convictions, and a positive disclosure is scrutinised by the Designated Safeguarding Officer to ensure we are happy to have these individuals working or volunteering (in their appointed role) at the Trust. 2.2 Whilst Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility, there are two key groups that have recently been established: • the Safeguarding Steering Group is chaired by the Chief Executive and leads on all strategic aspects of Safeguarding: • the Safeguarding Action Group is chaired by the DSO and addresses all and operational matters, actioning the decisions taken at the Steering Group. The terms of reference of these two groups is attached at Appendix 1. 2.3 The Audit & Risk Committee devoted a considerable portion of its recent meeting to this subject and has reviewed current activities in detail. The action points (short and long term) recorded at the ARC included: • Create a culture of Safeguarding redacted • Report to the Board annually on Safeguarding (in May each year) • We should adopt a “zero tolerance” for safeguarding redacted • Report on Safeguarding in the Annual Report • Create a Safeguarding positioning statement and seek Board approval • redacted • Review resources for Safeguarding to ensure sufficient • Ensure training reaches all staff and lead volunteers redacted and ensure all bank staff have face to face training given their role. • Trustees invited to complete Safeguarding e-learning course. • Vulnerable Customer training to be made available redacted • Develop the ‘credit card’ style prompt card and poster campaign • Review our operations to ensure young people and young/at risk volunteers are not on their own with anyone under any circumstances. • Safeguarding at Induction for volunteers and employees • Ringfence a dedicated safeguarding budget • Task and Finish group to risk assess events • Create minimum standards for partner groups re safeguarding and roll out • Conduct a Safeguarding Stakeholder Analysis 2.4 To address the action above, the Board is asked to consider and approve the Safeguarding Position Statement at Appendix 2 for publication across the Trust. APPENDIX 1 SAFEGUARDING STEERING GROUP - KEY RESPONSIBILITIES 1. To communicate a clear steer from the Trustees and the Executive Team regarding the strategic direction of safeguarding and communicate this to the Action Group 2. Establish and maintain clear communication across the Trust to ensure safeguarding strategy is consistently understood and applied. 3. To establish an appropriate Trust position to safeguard children, young people and adults at risk taking part in Trust activities 4. To ensure there are adequate resources available across the organisation to enable colleagues to effectively embed safeguarding systems and follow policy and procedures. 5. To approve changes to policy or standards. 6. To ensure the full Executive Team is regularly updated and briefed on actions and risk 7. To review and recommend investment or expenditure associated with safeguarding. 8. To ensure the Board is appropriately informed of significant and emerging risks and the plans in place to manage these. 9. To appoint the DSO and Deputy DSO and ensure their suitability for the roles 10. To champion a safeguarding culture across the organisation and ensure the status and credibility of safeguarding is suitably recognised throughout the Trust. SAFEGUARDING ACTION GROUP – KEY RESPONSIBILITIES 1. To advise on the legal context of safeguarding and Trust’s role and responsibilities in relation to this 2. To make recommendations for actions to be taken in relation to safeguarding and push these upwards via the Safeguarding Steering Group 3.