approved by Board North Education Alliance NHEA Board of Trustees - Board meeting

Minutes of a Meeting held on Thursday 23rd May 2019 at 6.00pm In the Conference Room at Queen Mary’s College, Basingstoke

Present: Mr Jon Soar (Chair of Trustees) Mrs Ali Foss (CEO NHEA) Mrs Rosemary Hood Mr Steve Lutener Ms Julie McLatch Mr Mike O’Dwyer Dr Janice de Sousa (9/10 quorate) In Attendance: Ms Kate Need (Assistant Principal) – till 6.25pm Mark Henderson – MHN (Deputy Principal) Dr Toni Baldwin - TBN (Company Secretary)

53. INTRODUCTION AND APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE Apologies were received from Pat Murphy, Jean Thorpe, John Wright and Irfan Khan.

54. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST None declared

55.1 QMC’S TEACHING AND LEARNING LINKS WITH BASINGSTOKE SCHOOLS The Board received a presentation from Kate Need, Assistant Principal on the work taking place in partnership with Basingstoke secondary schools. Kate Need explained that a few years ago Hampshire Local Authority had run a schools development programme for Basingstoke schools and following this the ‘deputies group’ set up as part of the programme had continued to meet regularly. The group’s main focus was on using educational research to underpin teaching and learning in the different institutions.

55.2 Kate Need reported on a number of coordinated activities including, inset day sessions, support for minority subjects, initial teacher training and taster days/revision assemblies. The Board heard that one of the main aims of these activities for QMC was to raise the aspirations of students within Basingstoke secondary schools. The Board discussed some of the links in more detail:  Modern Foreign languages – QMC language staff had previously provided support as needed, for example, a member of QMC staff had been shared with Costello to provide Spanish teaching in the whilst their teacher was on maternity leave. However, for 2018/19 a more systematic approach was being taken with QMC providing weekly GCSE language sessions for secondary school students in Basingstoke in French, German and Spanish. Students would come to the College to enable them to be taught in larger classes by subject specialist.  BASCITT – students on the Basingstoke Schools Initial Teacher Training, run by Dove House, were now based at QMC for their central training sessions and placed in schools across Basingstoke. The trainees had a number of sessions from QMC staff as well as a week-long post-16 placement.  Contacts had been made between teaching staff across Basingstoke through these activities, for example, a member of staff from Bishop Challoner had been involved in the new skills based ‘Training Book’ being developed at QMC to replace ‘Mark Book’.

55.3 One of the Trustees was interested in the ‘coordinated inset’ and Kate Need reported that the date was arranged across Basingstoke by the ‘deputies group’. In 2017/18 there had been activities based on different educational themes in schools across Basingstoke and in 2018/19 the inset day activities had been arranged around subjects. The majority of Basingstoke schools had participated in the joint activities although some schools ran internal training for staff. One of the Trustees asked if the coordinated inset and other links between schools were making an impact. Ali Foss reported that results in Basingstoke schools were gradually improving; this could not be attributed to any specific intervention but in her view, as some of the schools were so small the only way that they could improve was by working together. The Board were pleased that QMC was working in a ‘system leadership’ role to support links between schools and that there was currently momentum to keep teaching and learning initiatives going and embed improvements.

Kate Need left the meeting

56. MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING Minutes from the NHEA Board meeting held on 3rd April 2019 (paper NHEA 47/18 circulated with the agenda) were approved as an accurate record and signed by the Chair.

57. MATTERS ARISING AND OUTSTANDING ACTIONS The Board discussed matters arising and outstanding actions from previous meetings that were not covered elsewhere on the agenda. 180327 NHEA Minute 8.3: Policy review – ongoing – Anti-Fraud and Anti- Bribery Policies to come to next Audit Committee meeting. 180710 NHEA Minute 10.3: logo and website for NHEA –on hold pending budget discussion 18/19 NHEA Minute 21.3: Chair’s meetings - ongoing 18/19 NHEA Minute 23.1: BYOD now in place for some Trustees – Trustees being added to new logins at each meeting. 18/19 NHEA Minute 44.4: DfE review of Level 3 provision – details of response to consultation circulated to Trustees and Local Governors following the last meeting. 18/19 NHEA Minute 45.2: Update on response to changes to the Adult Education Budget to be re-scheduled. 18/19 NHEA Minute 46.3: The College was unsuccessful in its CIF bid (capital funding for estates upgrades) 18/19 NHEA Minute 49.2: joint NHEA/BCoT information sharing event – BCoT were responsive to the idea but have asked that this event be scheduled for the autumn term. 18/19 NHEA Minute 49.5: opportunities for Trustee and Local Governor training had been circulated and an induction event had been held at the College attended by 2 Trustees and 2 Local Governors.

58.1 UPDATE FROM CHIEF EXECUTIVE Ali Foss updated the Board on national and regional developments within the College Sector.  Alton College had now merged with Havant and Southdown College to form an FE College with three campuses 2 of which were previously Sixth Form Colleges (Alton and Havant).  (Kent) had been the first College in the country to be placed into education administration under the new insolvency regime.

58.2 Ali Foss reported that a structure and prospects appraisal was being carried out by the FE Commissioner on behalf of (a General FE College). A number of institutions local to Southampton, including FE colleges, Sixth form Colleges and a 16-19 academy (previously a sixth form college) were known to be participating in discussions. The Trustees discussed some of the reasons why Southampton City College had required intervention: there had been a large reduction in the Adult Education Budget, a general demographic dip of 16- 19 year olds, travel difficulties within the city limited the catchment of the College, the reputation of the College was less good than some of the other institutions in the area and Southampton City College, as a small college was less resilience to changes in student numbers/ funding. However, Ali Foss reported that potential student numbers in the area around Southampton City were due to increase significantly in the area over the next few years. The Trustees were very interested to hear that the Schools Commissioner was involved in the review as one potential option could involve a Multi Academy Trust. The Board asked to be updated, if possible, as the negotiations progressed. Action: Update on regional issues AFS

58.3 Partnership between QMC and AWE The Trust Board noted a draft collaboration agreement between Queen Mary’s College and AWE (paper NHEA 48/18 circulated with the agenda) regarding partnership working. Collaborative work was planned to support a wide ranging programme of STEM activities for school pupils across Basingstoke and Deane and North Hampshire and included some financial support from AWE for the QMC Science Centre. Ali Foss reminded the Board that the Science Centre at QMC had been initially set up almost 20 years ago with AWE to provide students with opportunities to participate in practical science based activities. Recently, the number of schools using this facility had decreased, due mainly to a reduction in school budgets impacting schools’ ability to fund pupil travel to College. Following discussions with AWE, they had agreed to fund a minibus so that primary school pupils could be offered free transport to the Science Centre and also fund a minimum of 3,500 sessions each year for three years to be offered free to primary school pupils in the area. The Trustees briefly discussed the Science Centre and other aspects of the QMC/AWE partnership such as the year 10 science fair to be hosted by QMC and the STEM mentoring programme for QMC students.

58.4 The Trust Board considered if there were any risks, including reputational risks, associated with the agreement, one of the trustees questioned the figure of 3,500 Science Centre sessions with primary school pupils, however, Ali Foss reported that this was well within the capacity of the Science Centre which had, in the past run up to 5,000 sessions in an academic year. Following discussion, the Trust thanked Ali Foss for her work in renewing the partnership and were pleased to approve the three year partnership agreement from 1 September 2019 for signature. The Board noted that the Science Centre would be ‘relaunched’ in the Autumn Term.

58.5 2019 Student Recruitment Update The Trustees noted a paper detailing current applications by school (paper NHEA 49/18 circulated with the agenda). Ali Foss also provided a handout detailing demographic changes to the potential student population surrounding QMC. Ali Foss reminded the Board that there had been a steep demographic dip over the last few years with the potential 2019 intake being the smallest for many years prior to a gradual growth in potential student numbers over the next few years. Ali Foss reminded the Board of various trends in recruitment:  A-Level students from Andover had, in the past, often travelled to Basingstoke to attend college, however, the majority of students from this area now tended to study at Andover College Sixth Form Centre (part of ).  Large numbers of Basingstoke secondary school age pupils were still being educated in secondary schools out of town such as Perins (near Winchester) and Robert Mays (in Odiham). These students were then used to traveling out of town and tended to go to Colleges outside of Basingstoke along with their secondary school friends.

58.6 Ali Foss explained to the Board how student numbers were predicted, calculating the number for each school using the percentage of each school cohort that had attended QMC in previous years. The Trustees discussed application rates from each school in turn with Mark Henderson and Ali Foss highlighting schools with increases or decreases in applications. The Trustees heard that there were several very small year 11 groups in the Basingstoke town schools and that the College had seen significant swings in application numbers (both up and down) from several of its main feeder schools. There were also more applications from independent schools and schools with only a few applicants across a wider geographic area, for example, towards Reading and Newbury. Ali Foss reported that these changes meant that QMC were less confident in making their student number predictions than in previous years.

58.7 The Trustees asked what the College was doing to encourage applications and Ali Foss and Mark Henderson reported on a range of approaches:  The SUN project was doing a lot of work with years 10 and 11 to raise the aspirations of secondary school pupils and encourage them to apply to QMC.  Soft marketing activities such as revision assemblies were taking place.  The admissions team were continuing to visit schools and attend events in the town.  Planning was taking place for the new parents evening and the taster day to keep students involved with QMC.

59.1 REPORTS FROM COMMITTEE MEETINGS The Board noted that the Local Governing Body meeting scheduled for 1st May had not taken place, mainly as the member of the College Management Team due to present the substantive item had been unable to attend.

59.2 Finance Committee 16th May 2019 The Board noted minutes from a meeting of the Finance Committee which had taken place on 16th May 2019 (paper NHEA 50/18 circulated with the agenda). Jon Soar reported on the main issues from the meeting: Teachers pay award (paper NHEA 51/18 circulated with the agenda). Negotiations between the SFCA and Unions on the teachers’ pay award had been long and difficult this year, teachers had had several years of the public sector pay cap of 1% and now that this had been lifted Unions were pressing for a 5% pay rise. After much negotiation a variable scale of 3% for lower paid teachers falling to 1% for those higher up the scale had been agreed. Ali Foss reported that for QMC this had resulted in an increase of just over 2% on the pay budget. One of the stumbling blocks in the negotiations had been that SFC which had converted to academies had benefited from additional ‘schools’ funding to cover the pay award but that SFC within the FE sector had not received this payment. The SFCA had suggested that the pay grant could be given to staff as a non-consolidated bonus, however, the Unions at QMC had agreed with the recommendation to stick to the agreed pay scales. The Board noted that with this increase staff on the lower end of the pay spine would for the first time in a long time, be better off than similar level staff in secondary schools.

59.3 NHEA – Policy for Asset Disposal (paper 52/18 circulated with the agenda). Irfan Khan introduced this policy and following discussion the Board approved the policy with the addition of statements confirming that all electrical equipment should be disposed of through appropriate WEEE disposal routes and that all IT equipment should be wiped of data before disposal.

59.4 March Management Accounts (paper 53/18 circulated with the agenda). The Board noted the accounts to the end of March 2019 which had been discussed at the Finance Committee meeting and were following the budget as expected. Jon Soar reported that the Finance Committee had asked Irfan to confirm with the Auditors the accounting procedure to be used for the DfE £150k capital grant. Irfan Khan also reported that the AAR Annual Accounts Return had been submitted. The Board noted that Irfan Khan had been asked by the DfE to support their Better Reporting project and had a long discussion with staff from the DfE ESFA about new templates for reporting.

59.5 In response to questions on financial issues, Irfan Khan reported that the finance system upgrade was progressing with the new system now in use, however, transfer balances from the old system had not yet been finalised. The new version of Easyrunner was now being used in the sports centre and would be rolled out into the rest of commercial activities in due course. Irfan Khan confirmed that both new systems would work well if the commercial activities were put into a subsidiary company.

60.1 ANY OTHER BUSINESS  Ali Foss reported that she and other staff, Trustees and Local Governors had attended the annual interfaith Ramadan Iftar dinner organised by the Fellowship Education Society and held at QMC.  Ali Foss reminded Trustees of the dates of the annual Art exhibitions.  Jon Soar reported that the Trust would be moving to an online governance system ‘GovernorHub’ to distribute papers and also provide a communication tool for Trustees and Governors.

61.1 DATES OF FUTURE BOARD MEETINGS The Board noted dates for future meetings. Tuesday 9th July 2019 at 6pm

The Chair thanked attendees and the meeting closed at 8.10.

Signed in the presence of the Board on 9th July 2019 by Jon Soar (Chair of Trustees):

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SUMMARY OF ACTIONS Timescale Responsibility

180327 Minute 8.3: Review of NHEA Policies. ongoing AFS/ JMH/ CWN/ TBN

180710 Minute 10.3: logo and website for NHEA ongoing TBN/AFS

Minute 21.3: Chair’s meetings with Trustees Spring Term 2019 JSR/TBN

Minute 45.2: update on Adult Education Budget In due course AFS

Minute 58.2: update on regional issues July 2019 AFS

Toni Baldwin Company Secretary, North Hampshire Education Alliance