West College Scotland Board of Management Monday 5 October 2020 at 4.00p.m. via the Teams link circulated by the Secretary Agenda • Presentation by Iain Forster Smith (Assistant Principal Student Life and Skills) – 4pm till 4.15pm - Student Support including the College provision of support for care experienced, carers and estranged students. General Business 1. Welcome 2. Apologies 3. Declaration of Interests 4. Minutes of the meetings held on 15 June 2020 and 20 July 2020 Enclosed WH .1 Actions from the minutes Enclosed WH 5. Matters Arising from the minute (not otherwise on the agenda) Main Items for Discussion and/or Approval 6. Student Association Report Paper 6 VT 7. Chief Executive’s Report Paper 7 LC 8. Chair’s Report Paper 8 WH 9. Strategic Risk Register Paper 9 DA Committee Reports 10. Asset and Infrastructure Committee .1 Minutes of the meeting held on Wednesday 16 September 2020 Paper 10.1 NA .2 College Estate Condition Survey – Estates Committee Paper 10.2 DA paper from 3 March 2020 meeting attached 11. Finance and General Purposes Committee .1 Minutes of the meeting held on Tuesday 2 June 2020 Paper 11.1 JHa .2 Minutes of the meeting held on Thursday 9 July 2020 Paper 11.2 JHa .3 Minutes of the meeting held on Tuesday 8 September 2020 Paper 11.3 JHa .4 College Financial Regulations Paper 11.4 DA 12. Audit Committee Minutes of the meeting held on Thursday 3 September 2020 Paper 12 JMc 13. HRCDC Committee Minutes of the meeting held on Tuesday 15 September 2020 Paper 13 MN 14. Nominations Committee Minutes of the meeting held on Tuesday 23 June 2020 Paper 14 WH Items for Information 15. Board of Management: .1 Membership, Dates of Meetings and proposed Paper 15.1 ShG Schedule of Business 2020/21 .2 Review of Standing Orders, Articles and Scheme of Delegation Paper 15.2 ShG 16. Any Other Business 17. Date of Next Meeting: Monday 14 December 2020 at 4.00 p.m. – Venue TBC Shirley Gordon Secretary to the Board BOARD OF MANAGEMENT Minutes: Monday 15 June 2020. Present: Waiyin Hatton (Chair), Sabira Akram, Nick Allan, Steven Cairney, Liz Connolly, Jim Hannigan, Jacqueline Henry, Linda Johnston, Priya Kaur, John Leburn, Fiona McKerrell, John McMillan, Vanessa Thompson, David Watson, Andrew Hetherington, Mark Newlands. Attending: David Alexander (Vice Principal Operations), Shirley Gordon (Secretary to the Board), Stephanie Graham (Vice Principal Educational Leadership), Alan Ritchie (Director of Finance and Estates). Observing: Janet Campbell. Apologies: Angela Wilson, Jenifer Johnston. BM625 WELCOME The Chair welcomed everyone to the virtual Board meeting and thanked all in attendance for their participation noting that Janet Campbell, HM Inspector from Education Scotland, was observing proceedings. BM626 DECLARATIONS OF INTERESTS The following declarations of interest were recorded and noted: • Waiyin Hatton: Wai Beyond, People and organisational development consultancy; Harvey McMillan, People and organisational development consultancy; Action Against Stalking; Ayrshire Sportsability; Scottish Chamber of Commerce. • John McMillan and Liz Connolly: Trustees of the West College Scotland Foundation. • Jim Hannigan: NMIS Project Manager, Skills Development Scotland. • David Alexander: Scottish Funding Council Board member and Chair of the SFC Audit and Compliance Committee. • Angela Wilson: West Dunbartonshire Council. • Sabira Akram: Business Analyst, Scottish Qualifications Authority. • Fiona McKerrell: Partner employed by Skills Development Scotland. BM627 MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING The minutes of the meeting held on Monday 23 March 2020 were approved. BM628 ACTIONS FROM THE MINUTES The Board noted the actions taken since the last meeting and the Chair confirmed that the three presentations scheduled to be delivered to Board members (Education Scotland Progress Visit Report, College Estate, Corporate Parent / Student Support) would be deferred until a later date. BM629 MATTERS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES There were no matters arising not otherwise on the agenda. Board of Management – Monday 15 June 2020 BM630 STUDENTS ASSOCIATION REPORT The Board noted the report submitted by Vanessa Thompson (President, WCS Students’ Association) summarising the activities of the Students’ Association (SA) since the last Board meeting. Ms Thompson reported that the Students’ Association was working in partnership with the College Senior Management Team to support students through the Covid 19 pandemic where possible. This had included: • Promoting online resources for students as well as sharing any relevant information on the SA’s social media platforms which she confirmed were being well utilised. • Liaison with the finance department regarding student hardship funds and having regular meetings to discuss these and ensure students were supported in the best way possible. • Working to prepare for the next academic year including planning for new students to the College and exploring how to ensure they still got a “freshers experience”. Ms Thompson outlined the WCS Students’ Association motion that was passed at the recent NUS Scotland conference which centred around ensuring a consistent approach to the delivery of mental health support services for students across all of Scotland’s colleges. That, alongside the other motions passed, would be worked on over the next 2 years by the new NUS Scotland President. The Chair thanked Ms Thompson for the update, congratulated her on her re-election for another year as WCS Student President and thanked Vice President Priya Kaur whose term of office came to an end soon. BM631 CHIEF EXECUTIVE’S REPORT The Board received a written report from the Principal and Chief Executive, and she provided an update on the following: Covid 19: • Moving to Remote Working – In the two weeks prior to lockdown on Friday 20 March 2020, the focus was to ensure that as many College functions as possible could be delivered remotely allowing staff and students to work, teach and learn from home. In addressing the challenges faced, the College implemented its Business Continuity Planning arrangements and formed a Covid-19 Response Team. The work of the Team had been wide ranging and had formed the basis of initial planning. • Working in Lockdown – Including the arrangements for ongoing Learning and Teaching, support for students, assessment and qualifications and IT Support. • Mobilisation for Academic Year 2020-21 - In order to manage the considerable work required to plan for the safe opening of the College buildings and delivery of curriculum in a new way, the College had set up a Mobilisation Team and three key principles would guide its work: To have the fewest possible number of people on campus at any one time. To ensure the safest possible environment for those on campus. To ensure the best possible learning and working experience for students and staff. 2 Board of Management – Monday 15 June 2020 Significant planning work had already been undertaken by individual teams within the College and the role of the Mobilisation Team was to bring this together in a coherent and timely way. • Curriculum Planning and student recruitment - Student recruitment had been ongoing throughout the lockdown period with online and telephone interviews taking place. In agreement with the EIS, full time course start dates had been delayed by four weeks until 21 September 2020 in order to increase time for preparation for curriculum delivery to meet social distancing requirements. The period before courses started would be used to complete the 2019-20 courses where student results had been deferred due to the practical nature of the course and for individual students to complete that session. It would also be used for staff CPD, particularly to support blended learning. Curriculum teams were currently finalising Deferral Activity Plans as assessment and Internal Quality Approval Panels were concluded. • Digital Poverty - The sector was in discussion with the SFC and the Scottish Government to determine if additional resource was available to support this. However, the College believed that this was a priority and was looking at options to repurpose resource if possible, in order to invest in additional kit to provide support. • Furlough - Guidance had been received from the SFC which advised that colleges could furlough staff. This was on the basis that not all the College’s income was from the public sector. The College had been in ongoing discussion with the SFC around some of the details of this and, in discussion with Trade Unions, an application had been made last week. For any staff furloughed, the College would pay the balance of their salary and pension contributions ensuring that no staff suffered any detriment. • Supporting Our Communities - The College had continued to play a key role in its local communities and had donated a significant quantity of hand sanitiser to a local health and social care partnership. During April, 27,000 pieces of PPE were donated to NHS Scotland. The College had also provided West Dunbartonshire Council with equipment to support the training of new care staff in Moving and Handling and had supported the call for volunteers from Local Authority partners with many staff volunteering to support essential services. • Staff and Student Communications - The College website and social media platforms had been crucial in ensuring that contact had been maintained with staff and students. The College had created a newsletter ‘Homeworking Times’ which had enabled staff participation and engagement and the College intranet was also used extensively. The College continued to meet with the Students’ Association to ensure contact on key issues such as student funding was maintained. • Graduation - Due to social distancing requirements, the College would be unable to hold traditional Graduation Ceremonies this year. The marketing team was planning to hold virtual graduations and this year’s graduates would also be given the option to attend a physical graduation next year if they wished. • Cross Sector working to Plan for Academic Year 2020-21 - A cross sector group had been established to support the planning for reopening in the Academic Year 2020- 21.