Meeting of the Management Board
A meeting of the Management Board was held on Wednesday 18 December 2013 at
2:00 pm in the Boardroom, Denholm House, Livingston.
1.
Apologies/welcome*
Present:
Alan Armstrong
Stephen Coulter
Alastair Delaney
Kate Dunlop
Leslie Evans
Mike Ewart
Bill Maxwell (Chair)
Craig Munro
Graeme Ogilvy
Linn Phipps
Linda Rae
Gayle Reilly
Stuart Robinson
Apologies:
No apologies.
Bill opened the meeting by welcoming new non-executive director Linn Phipps;
Linda Rae, Executive Assistant to Chief Executive and Stephen Coulter, Strategic
Director for Strategy, Performance and Corporate Resources to their first
Management Board meeting.
Leslie Evans, DG Learning and Justice was also welcomed to the meeting. Leslie will
attend Management Board annually.
Bill informed the Board that this was Craig Munro’s last meeting as his secondment
had ended and he would be returning to Fife Council. Bill thanked Craig for his work
and noted his input to the organisation and the Board. Craig thanked the Board and
said that he had enjoyed his 16 months with the organisation; he appreciated the
opportunity to serve the organisation and was sorry to be leaving.
2.
Minute of previous meeting and action log*: 29 May 2013
Noted 1:
The minute of the previous meeting was approved.
Noted 2:
All actions on the log are complete.
Noted 3:
Linn asked about the Gaelic Language Plan, and the slippage on the
translation of course materials. This was now resolved and nearing
completion.
Management Board: Minutes
Wednesday 18 December 2013
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3.
Matters arising*
Noted 1:
There were no matters arising.
4.
Declarations of interest*
Noted 1:
Mike informed the Board that his declaration of interest could now be
removed from the register.
Action:
Gayle to update the Declaration of Interest register.
Items for discussion
5.
Update on implementation of new governance structure
Noted 1:
All the strategic boards are now up and running.
5.1
Strategic Impact Board
Noted 1:
Alistair provided the Board with an overview of the Strategic Impact Board
(SIB) and presented the Terms of Reference. The following was
noted:
 Two meetings have been held which have considered methodology of
the group and reporting to CMG.
 The group have asked that all ADs provide, by mid-February, a report
on the extent to which their programmes are having an impact on the
system. This will give a baseline which will identify outputs and gaps.
Strategies can then be identified to fill these gaps.
 Feedback will be gathered centrally and then discussed at the SIB.
 A summary report will go from the SIB to CMG and onwards.
 There will be a Strategic Objective Strategy Group set-up for each
objective (1-5) which will feed into the SIB.
 The aspiration is for a review in the first quarter.
5.2
People Board
Noted 1:
Alan provided the Board with an overview of the People Board and
presented the Terms of Reference. The following was noted:
 The role of the board is to build the capacity of our people with a
focus on our values.
 The remit of the board is organisational development, HR
development and Action Planning following the results of the People
Survey.
 The results of the 2013 People Survey will inform the tool for
planning priorities. They may be augmented with other short surveys
as appropriate. A range of activities are planned.
 The membership of the Board was discussed and it was noted that
professional associations will engage with the Board.
Management Board: Minutes
Wednesday 18 December 2013
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5.3
Resources Board
Noted 1:
Stephen provided the Board with an overview of the Resources Board and
presented the Terms of Reference. This board covers the overall planning
and deployment of the organisation and will focus on key areas which
need to be taken forward.
Noted 2:
There was discussion regarding the connectivity of all 3 Boards and the
need for interaction. Kate felt there had been excellent progress in the
development of the Boards.
Actions:
Management Board would like a rotational calendar which considers
an in-depth look at the work of each Board in turn. Linda to arrange.
6.
Update on strategic objective 3
Noted 1:
Alastair introduced the Board to the near final Strategy Paper for strategic
objective 3: ‘Building Capacity for Continuous Improvement’. The
following was noted in the discussion:
 This paper will be used as the template for the other strategy papers
and is an internal document.
 An action plan will accompany this and all other strategy papers.
Noted 2:
There was considerable discussion regarding the paper, and the strategy
it covers.
Action:
A workshop to be considered for Management Board on the new
Senior Phase Benchmarking Tool. Linda to arrange.
7.
Implementation of corporate plan
Noted 1:
The Board watched an animation which illustrates the corporate plan. The
comments received were mainly positive although it was felt that some of
the content may be quite dense for a varied range of stakeholders.
7.1
Establishing a framework for measuring progress
Noted 1:
Stephen provided a brief update on this work-in-progress and assured the
Board that a complete structure would be provided for the next meeting.
Action:
Stephen will present a complete paper on performance monitoring
for the next meeting in March.
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Wednesday 18 December 2013
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Items for noting
8.
Corporate risk
Noted 1:
The Audit and Risk Committee, at their meeting the previous week, had
discussed the approach to the risk register. Linn has offered her support
in looking at the register in more detail and there are plans for a full
review.
Noted 2:
The Resources Board will have a sub-group that will look at the risk
registers and framework.
Noted 3:
Some risk levels had changed following the Audit &Risk Committee
meeting.
Noted 4:
Leslie explained that there are an increasing number of Freedom of
Information requests asking for information contained on risk registers and
for this reason we should be careful in the language which is used to
describe the risk.
Action:
Risk workshop to be arranged by Stephen.
9.
Report from Audit and Risk Committee
Noted 1:
Kate provided the Board with a verbal update on what had been discussed
at the Audit and Risk Committee meeting on Wednesday 11 December.
The following was noted:
 Brief paper from Internal Audit was very positive with no issues of
concern and good progress on recommendations reported.
 External Audit gave a quick update on changes to the team.
 Corporate Risk – trends, analysis and in-depth discussion about
accountability had taken place.
 Self-Evaluation of Audit Committee to take place.
 Performance report – resource stretch, budget considerations and
secondee management were discussed.
 A paper on Polmont was presented by Alan and discussion had
followed.
 Finances – currently reporting a £1.8m overspend but this is being
actively managed with no overspend being expected at year end.
 Corporate Plan/Annual Review – very positive on the tone and
content on these documents but some slight amendments for next
year were discussed.
 Bill gave a verbal update on the encouraging PISA results.
Overall Kate felt that the Audit and Risk meeting was very positive with
nothing for the Board to be concerned about.
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Wednesday 18 December 2013
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10.
Annual Review
Noted 1:
Bill introduced the Annual Review and informed the Board that the annual
accounts were now formatted and published separately from this report.
The Board thought the report was very clear and straightforward but for
next year felt that there should be more information on outcomes rather
than outputs.
11.
Any other business*
Noted 1:
No other business was raised.
12.
Date of next meeting*
Noted 1:
The next meeting is scheduled to take place on Wednesday 5 March 2014
at 10:30 am, Denholm House, Livingston.
Management Board: Minutes
Wednesday 18 December 2013
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