MINUTES OF A MEETING OF THE CREWE MULTI ACADEMY TRUST (“CMAT”) (CO. NO. 09379253) HELD AT THE OAKS ON THURSDAY 18th MAY 2017 – 9.30am Directors/Trustees present: Mr Jasbir Dhesi (JD) Mr Fintan Bradley (FB) Chair Mrs Emma Hooley (EH) Headteacher Mrs Gill Bremner (GB) Mr Simon Yates (SY) Mrs Andrea Herron (AHe) (arrived at 9.32) Dame Patricia Bacon (PB) Also in attendance: Mr Andrew Hubert (AH) Vice-Principal Corporate Services South Cheshire College Mrs Jenny Gough (JG) Clerk Dr David Kay (DK) Deputy Headteacher 10.35am – 10.56am Mrs Carol Jones (CJ) Assistant Head Teacher 10.35am – 11.20am Apologies from: Mr Andrew Kent (AK) PART ONE MINUTES – NON-CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS 1. Introductions and Apologies for Absence The Chair welcomed those attending the meeting. Apologies were received and accepted from AK. 2. Declarations of Interest JG advised that it was not necessary to verbally declare personal or pecuniary interests which have already been declared on the annual declaration forms. It was noted that the Page 1 of 12 minutes going forward will refer to those forms and only new interests need to be declared at this item on the agenda. Trustees were asked to declare any potential pecuniary interest or conflict of interests with the business to be discussed during the meeting. The trustees confirmed there were no new interests to declare and that they had no conflicting interests with the matters being discussed at today’s meeting. 3. Membership Appointment of Janice Leverone (“JL”) EH and FB met JL. FB and EH put forward their recommendation to the board that she is appointed. JL is an English teacher with MFL experience, who is currently working at Madeley High School in Staffordshire. She has previously worked at Sir William Stanier School. It was commented upon that her skills as a practising teacher would be valuable to the board. The board unanimously agreed FB and EH’s recommendation. FB confirmed that there is an appointment procedure to follow and he will complete the necessary paperwork required by the sponsor body South Cheshire College. It was further commented upon that the timing and frequency of the board meetings may need to be considered for the next academic year. ACTION JG to add the review of timing and frequency of meetings to the agenda for the July meeting. Q. Is it worth approaching the recruitment service again to source another trustee? A. Yes. The discussion continued. Paul Coleman has been approached to assist in finding a new trustee with a local business background. JD is following up this lead. EH confirmed that the parent election process did not produce any candidates. 4. Minutes Minutes from the Meeting on 16th March 2017 The minutes of the meeting were reviewed, confirmed as a true and accurate record of the meeting and signed by FB. Review of the Action Log The Action Log was reviewed by the trustees. See revised Action Log. Page 2 of 12 The following new actions were agreed:- ACTION FB to contact Amy at SGOSS again to find out if it would be possible to source another trustee. ACTION JG to circulate clerking fees schedule for 2017-18. ACTION JG to add the review of the complaints policy in line with the new cheshire east model on the July agenda. ACTION JG to add the seclusions matrix table as an agenda item for the July meeting. ACTION JG to add the purchase of clerking services as an agenda item for the July meeting. ACTION JG to add the review of GB’s meeting to review the safeguarding policy with Niall as a safeguarding agenda item. 5. Financial Matters A budget update summary was circulated to all trustees in advance of the meeting and the following points were noted. AH explained that there have been two main issues. The first issue was that grant income had not been received. The school has now received £160K of grant funding this year and the funds have been received in two tranches. The first tranche of £80 was from the DfE for environmental capital work and the second tranche of £80K was from the Local Authority which was an agreed payment as part of the appointment of the sponsor body. The second issue is the difficulty of unravelling the intricacies of the catering contract. It is difficult to set the budget for this provision going forward without having completed a full cycle. The school is forecast to have a surplus at the year end, however without the grants which will not be received next year the school will only just make a surplus. Due to this and a reduction in the number of learners it was agreed that it will be necessary to review costs. It was noted that the college is not re-charging for the services that the school uses however at some point in the future it will have to. Page 3 of 12 The discussion moved on to the contractual relationship between the school and the caterers. It is believed that the school is contracted to receiving these catering services until January 2018 however neither party has a signed copy of the contract. ACTION JD to discuss the issue of the catering contact with Evelyn Davies-Jones It was confirmed that there will need to be a tender process before the school enters into any contractual relations with a new supplier. Q. Can we send Helen Fox (the previous school business manager) an email to find out what her recollections of the catering contract are? A. Yes ACTION EH to email Helen Fox to find out what her recollections of the catering contract are. 6. Safeguarding This standing item for all future agendas was a direct request from the Chair’s Committee at the College. GB and Niall Meenan are carrying out a piece of work to review the school’s safeguarding policy. EH confirmed that safeguarding is now a standing agenda item for all internal school meetings. The Dean Trust produced a safeguarding action plan for the school. JG highlighted the deadline for the S.157/175 Audit as set out in the Director’s Report. 7. Governor Visits Schedule This item was discussed as part of the action log review. It was suggested that the board could set out trustee links to certain parts of the curriculum for next year. It was agreed that as soon as the dates for the board meetings for next year are agreed then a plan can be put together. Trustees can be linked to subject heads for the core subjects. The trustees will then be able to gather an oversight of self-assessment, the student focus and the staff focus. 8. IT Plan EH tabled the IT Refurbishment Plan at the meeting. An asset register has been completed. The cost of works to the switches is £9,374.16. Page 4 of 12 Three options for the purchase of new equipment are listed on the plan ranging between £16,434 and £22,089. It was commented upon that not only does the school need a plan on what equipment could be purchased now but what would happen in years 2 and 3 following such investment. JD explained that it may be a possibility that SCC could sponsor a computer suite at the school. This would be a complete re-brand of a room which would include furniture and fittings so that students would have the experience of SCC at school. ACTION EH, AH and JD to meet and discuss this possibility and bring a 4 year plan to the board. The school’s aspiration for the future would be to have an IT presence in all classrooms. Q. Could you clarify what computers the school owns now? A. There are 66 computers which are owned by the school and 71 machines leased from a company called Stone. Q. Why have some machines been leased? A. Due to cost. The school’s machines are old and need replacing. The Stone machines are adequate. Q. Has the individual who carried out an audit of the equipment linked it back to the Academy Improvement Plan (“AIP”)? A. No. The individual works in a technical computer role. It will be necessary to look at how the IT plan links back to the AIP. Q. Is there a maintenance provision in the lease from Stone? A. Unknown. Q. Does SCC have purchasing power which the school could utilise? A. Yes. Any purchases will be undertaken via the college. Q. Is the work to the switches essential? A. The server would not go down but in order to maintain the system it is necessary to do the work to the switches. It was expressed that the £9K work to the switches did not look to be negotiable. Q. Is the school comfortable with firewalls? A. Yes this has been reviewed by the SCC technical team. ACTION EH to look at the computer equipment lease from Stone. Page 5 of 12 9. Health and Safety The Health and Safey consultant from Cheshire West carried out a familiarisation visit. A report will not be produced from that visit. He will return to do a full report once the annual risk assessments have taken place. The school has been successful with its Condition Improvement Fund (“CIF”) bid for the fire alarm, but unsuccessful for the second phase of the window repair work. Three companies are in the process of tendering for the fire alarm. Criteria for the choice of contractor includes price but also the timescale for the works. EH has asked the Health and Safety consultant to do a separate visit to the science department and to produce a report.