MINUTES OF THE CORPORATION MEETING, CORPORATION 108, HELD ON 27 SEPTEMBER 2012 Present: Andrew Carrick, Jim Darmody, Mary-Rose Hardy, Richard Heseltine, Ray Hutty, Martin Longbottom, Phil Taylor, Jay Trivedy, Jackie Goodman, John Shipley, Sarah Smythe, John Wilson (Chair of Corporation), Adam Winter, Philip Wright In attendance: Fiona Bagchi (Clerk to the Corporation), Julie Peaks (Assistant Principal), Steve Rogers (Finance Manager), Mike Rogerson (Vice-Principal, Staff & Students), Mark Rothery (Assistant Principal), Ian Taylor (Vice-Principal, Performance Improvement), Alan Woodcock (Director of Resources) 108.1(i) Apologies for absence: Corporation members: George Coyle, Lydia Edwards, Grace Richardson, Mike Noddings (Vice-Chair of Corporation) The meeting with begin with a briefing on Ofsted’s new inspection regime from Ian Taylor, Vice- Principal (Performance Improvement) and the Clerk to the Corporation. 108.1(ii) Declarations of interest Standing interests: Local authority membership: Mary-Rose Hardy (East Riding of Yorkshire Council), Richard Heseltine (University of Hull), Jackie Goodman (Hull College), Martin Longbottom (Hull College), John Shipley (Kingston upon Hull City Council), Sarah Smythe (Kelvin Hull School). 108.2 Committee reports, presentations & recommendations I (a) Search Committee: Report and recommendations on Corporation & Committee (Martin Longbottom left the meeting). John Wilson, as Chair of the Search & Governance Committee, reported that: There were 2 vacancies in the Corporation member category. Martin Longbottom had retired as a Parent member of Corporation on 31.8.12 as 2011/12 had been his child’s final year at College. He had originally been appointed to Corporation on 16.2.11 and had therefore been a member of Corporation for just over 18 months. He brought particular skills to Corporation in health & safety, risk management, safeguarding, equality & diversity and education. Having considered the requirements of the Articles of Government, the Corporation’s skills audit and Martin Longbottom’s skills and expertise, the Committee were recommending his appointment to one of the vacancies for a Corporation member. It had been agreed that a nomination from the University of Hull should be sought for the other vacancy. Following the ending of Martin Longbottom’s term of office on 31 August 2012 and in line with Corporation’s past practice, nominations would be sought from parents and, if more than one nomination was received, an election would be held during the autumn term. 1 Page 1 Corporation approved the re-appointment of Martin Longbottom in the Corporation member category for a period of 4 years, on the recommendation of the Search & Governance Committee. Action: Clerk 108.3 Minutes of Meeting 107 held on 10 July 2012, incl. confidential Appendix A The minutes of the Corporation meeting held on 10 July 2012, including the confidential appendix, were approved. 108.4 Matters arising and actions (Actions shown below are numbered according to their position in the action points table appended to the end of the previous minutes. The reference to the item where the action can be found in the previous minutes is given in brackets at the end of each item). 1 Student Corporation members, Adam Winter and Lydia Edwards, had been appointed subject to eligibility and CRB checks. Note Eversheds’ advice was that CRB checks were no longer required for sixth form college corporation members from September 2012 under the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, which would be considered later on the agenda (107.3). 2 The May 2012 minutes had been amended, as agreed (107.4). 3 Mike Rogerson reported, with reference to the provision to secondary schools of details of students who received free school meals progressing to higher education (HE), that the College now had this data for first year students but would not have data for both first and second year students until the following year (107.5). 4 It was agreed that a general delegation on the use of the College seal should be added to the Corporation’s Standing Orders rather than the College’s Financial Regulations (107.5) . Action: Clerk 5 The College’s course costing model would be presented to Corporation in December 2012 (107.5) . Action: SR 6 The Clerk had contacted the NorVIc Co-ordinator and would meet to discuss further the possibility of establishing governance performance indicators across the NorVIc colleges, to enable the Corporation to benchmark itself against other colleges (107.5). Action: Clerk 7 Corporation briefings on the new funding formula and on communication with parents would be given in 2012/13 (107.5). 8 Corporation would use the College’s equal opportunities form for Corporation members as part of annual updating of Corporation forms from September 2012. The form was first used in February 2012(107.5) . 9 The first annual full-year updating of emergency contact details for Corporation 2 Page 2 members would take place as part of annual updating of Corporation forms from September 2012 (107.5) . 10 The College’s draft strategic map was on the agenda for review (107.5). 11 The Personnel Officer would liaise with the Student Association Equalities Officer concerning equality and non-academic activities and report to the Personnel Committee (107.5) . Action: Clerk/JC . 12 The annual updating of Corporation members’ audit of skills form was on the agenda. Future development would include the inclusion of further guidance on how to complete the form and the option of completion electronically (107.5). Action: Clerk 13 John Shipley had been appointed to the Audit Committee from 1.9.12 (107.5). 14 Implications of the legislative changes, especially for Corporation’s search and governance arrangements had been considered by Corporation’s Search & Governance Committee (SGC) at a special meeting in September 2012, following the receipt of guidance from Eversheds. Recommendations arising from the review would be made later on the agenda (107.5). Further consideration of the issue of appropriate risk management identification in papers had been deferred to the next meeting of the SGC. 15 A statement would be included on the Corporation section of the College website concerning the processes by which the views of students and staff are obtained on the determination and periodic review of the educational character and mission of the institution and the oversight of its activities (107.5). Action: Clerk 16 A Corporation photo session had taken place before the current meeting (1067.6). 17 Signing of the tri-partite letter of engagement between the College, the Education Funding Agency (EFA) and Baker Tilly, had been undertaken by the Chair of the Audit Committee on behalf of Corporation, as agreed (107.7). 18 The discussion of the student application report had been kept in a confidential minute, as agreed (107.7). 19 Corporation agreed at its July 2012 meeting to delegate to the Chair of Corporation, the Vice-Chair of Corp. and the Finance Manager collectively the power to fix a further £250,000 of the loan before the September 2012 meeting of the F&GP Committee should interest rates fall significantly during this period. No action had, however, been required (107.7).. 20 A briefing session on the new Ofsted inspection regime to had been given to Corporation before the current meeting (107.7). 21 The College’s 2012 equality and diversity report on the staff profile would be presented to the December 2012 meeting of Corporation following review by the Personnel Committee (107.7). 3 Page 3 22 An additional summer term Corporation meeting was not requested by Corporation members (107.7). 23 The budget for 2012/13, the 3-year plan and financial performance indicators and objectives approved by Corporation at its July 2012 meeting had been submitted to the Education Funding Agency (EFA) (107.8). 24 A report on Corporation’s 2012/13 training and briefing schedule was on the agenda (107.9). 25 A section on framework agreements had been added to tendering procedures section in the Financial Regulations by the Director of Finance, as agreed (107.11). 108.5 Annual review of confidential Corporation minutes The Clerk reported that: Under its standing agenda item list, Corporation reviewed annually at the first autumn term meeting of the year any confidential minutes produced during the previous academic year, with a view to releasing such minutes from confidentiality where possible. In considering a classification of confidentiality, regard should be given to the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, which provides public access to information held by public authorities, including sixth form colleges, either by requiring public authorities to make information about their activities routinely available in their Publication Scheme or by responding to Freedom of Information requests from members of the public. Corporation considered and agreed that the following Corporation minutes produced during 2011/12 should remain classed as confidential: confidential appendices attached to Corporation minutes 106 and 107. It was noted that confidential Reserved Business minutes arising from Corporation meetings 104 to 107, would be reviewed separately later on the agenda at item 108.17. 108.6 Principal’s Report The Principal, Jay Trivedy spoke to the Principal’s report, which was considered. Members noted that there had been significant academic success in 2012, in particular: At A2 level, out of an entry of 1,082 there had been a 99.9% pass rate, with 42% achieving A*-B, despite the national trend of fewer top grades. At AS level, out of an entry of 2538 there had been a 94.7% pass rate with 38% of the entries at A-B grades, an increase from 28% in 2011-2012. At BTEC, out of an entry of 284, there had been 152 distinctions or distinction*, following a review in 2011/12 of how other institutions helped their students achieve at BTEC.