Management Board summary
18 September 2015
Items to note
Management Board was being asked to note a number of reports:
July Finance report
The Chief Operating Officer took the Board through the report.
The Board discussed the financial position.
The Chief Executive and Keeper noted that while the corporate management of headcount was
challenging it was a necessary process that was ongoing.
Quarter 1 Dashboard
The Deputy Chief Operating Officer presented the quarter 1 dashboard and advised that a new
summary was in development that would provide a clearer headline review.
A Non-Executive Board member advised that there should be an awareness of potential reputational
risk around London living wage and our service providers.
Quarter 1 Business Priorities Report
The Deputy Chief Operating Officer took the Board through the report.
Management Board noted the reports.
Future agenda planning
Management Board was asked to comment on and suggest potential Board agenda items featured in
the future agenda ‘skeleton’.
After review of the future agenda ‘skeleton’ and discussion the following was suggested.
Non-Executive Board members requested updates on machinery of government changes and CSR
issues.
Terms of reference - review
The Board was asked to comment on the revised terms of reference.
In 2014 The National Archives’ internal auditors recommended that the incoming Chief Executive and
Keeper should review the terms of reference for the Management Board and its committees. This
action was postponed, pending the completion and implementation of the governance review.
Page 1 of 3
A review of The National Archives’ governance was completed earlier this year. Following this review,
The National Archives’ Management Board endorsed the proposals of the review, which included
changes to the composition and name of the Management Board and its committees.
Recruitment for the new Board is now underway. Accordingly, the terms of reference were being
presented to the current Management Board for comment, ahead of ratification and adoption by the
newly-constituted Board following the appointment of The National Archives Lead Non-executive
Board Member, Non-executive Board Members and the Independent Member of the Audit and Risk
Committee.
The Board discussed.
Risk Discussion
Management Board was asked to review the new Strategic Risk Register. This was developed by the
Executive Team out of discussions around new strategic risks at the May Management Board.
The Board reviewed and discussed the Strategic Risk Register.
It was agreed that there would be further review to take place once machinery of government
changes and Comprehensive Spending Review outcomes were known.
CSR update
The Head of Finance provided the Board with an update on the CSR submission process. The
Management Board had previously been sent a copy of our submission.
Website – Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction of The National Archives is monitored by a survey of website users.
In the March 2015 survey, the customer satisfaction score for The National Archives’ website
dropped significantly. Analysis of survey data was inconclusive: there was no clear cause that
accounted for such a large drop.
The Commercial and Digital Director noted that here had been some improvement in satisfaction
levels since the significant drop in the in March 2015 survey and a number of ideas for further
improvement were discussed.
The Management Board discussed.
A Non-Executive Board member suggested it may be appropriate to have visitors to land on a screen
where they were asked to choose from options relating to what they wanted / who they were. They
could then be provided with the services most relevant to them.
The Board requested a follow up session in early 2016.
Unknown Treasures
Page 2 of 3
The National Archives have a number of medieval and early modern records that are not listed in the
catalogue and are not available to order. The Unknown Treasures project is tasked with making this
complex and unstructured material from the various historic functions of England and the UK
available.
A project editor, the Head of Cataloguing and the Head of the Medieval Team provided an update.
The Board noted that potential for the use of volunteers was somewhat limited due to the specific
archival and latin skills required however the use of students could be explored.
The Board was assured that the scope of the project had always been to target documents that were
in reasonable condition and therefore no production / handling issues should surface.
The Board noted progress.
Any Other Business
There being no further business, the meeting was closed.
Page 3 of 3