MINUTES
HMIE Management Board
Wednesday 29 September 2010 at 11am
Boardroom, Denholm House, Livingston
Present:
Bill Maxwell, HMIE (WSM)
Kenneth Muir, HMIE (KBM)
Gill Robinson, HMIE (GNR)
Neil McKechnie, HMIE (NMM)
Stuart Robsinson, HMIE (SAR)
Frank Crawford (FC1)
Chris McIlroy (CM1)
Sir Andrew Cubie (AC)
Shirley Young (SY)
Eileen Quigley (EQ)
Chris Webb (CW)
Apologies for absence:
Alastair Delaney, HMIE (AGD)
Gary Kildare (GK)
Moi Ali (MA)
1.0
Minutes of meeting held on 3 June 2010
1.1
The minutes were accepted as being accurate.
2.0
Matters arising/action log
2.1
The Scrutiny Bodies Project ceases tomorrow and is replaced by the
Transitions Team. Shane Rankin has become the Transitions Director,
in effect the Shadow Chief Executive of SCSWIS. The first meeting of
the Interim Shadow Board takes place tomorrow. The draft operating
plan has been cleared by Ministers. The PSR Act will come into effect
on 01 April 2011. There is a consultation on draft guidance and
regulations on the statutory duties of inspection bodies. WSM noted
that he was grateful to AC for representing HMIE on the Interim
Shadow Board.
Action: NMM to provide a report to SMG on the response to the draft
guidance on user focus and the duty of co-operation.
2.2
KBM gave the Board a brief overview of the Schools Inspection
Framework consultation and advised that it is available to complete
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on-line until 17 December 2010. There have been an encouraging
number of hits on the website. We are currently planning to trial some
aspects of the new model in primary inspections. KBM advised that we
are taking a sustained and pro-active approach to communication of
the consultation. The consultation was launched at the Scottish
Learning Festival and laptops were made available for people to
complete the consultation. Very positive feedback was given. We are
currently pursuing ways to ensure that a wide variety of people are
responding to the consultation.
2.3
Update from Audit Committee
AC gave the Board an overview of the Audit and Risk Committee
meeting on 15 September 2010. He advised that the Committee spent
time reviewing its performance and encouraged members to take part
in training. They looked at the conclusions of the 09-10 external audit
and there was agreement to have a further Audit and Risk Committee
meeting in December 2010. There was discussion on the Committee’s
terms of reference, Risk Management, HMIE Performs, finance and
two Audit Scotland papers. WSM stated that he received effective
assurance from the Committee. AC advised that there was nothing of
concern that he had to bring to the Board’s attention.
Action: Audit Scotland should be invited to discuss their report on the role of
boards at the December Audit and Risk Committee meeting.
3.0
Cessation of DWP inspections
3.1
KBM gave the Board background to the paper, explaining that HMIE
had been inspecting DWP training provisions for just over 1 year and
had conducted two very positive inspections, when funding was
withdrawn by the Minister of Work and Pensions as a cost saving
exercise. A lot of resource was used setting up the framework for
these inspections and HMIE submitted a request for costs incurred of
£243,000. DWP have agreed to pay this amount.
4.0
Schools Consultations
4.1
It was agreed at an earlier Board meeting to further discuss potential
risks involved in HMIE’s involvement in the implementation of the
Schools Consultation Act. Chris Webb (CW) prepared a paper which
considers the actions taken to mitigate the risks. It was discussed that
there has so far been positive feedback from local authorities. The
public’s response to the consultation work can be unpredictable and
there is a need for us to have a strategy to manage this. There was
discussion around planning these consultations around inspections
using existing resources and that estimating how many there will be
could be difficult. There is soon to be a meeting with ADES when we
will discuss how school consultations should be dealt with.
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5.0
Finance
5.1 SAR gave a brief overview of the finance report and remarked that he
has no concerns at this early stage of the financial year. HMIE has
issued guidance to staff that they should consider if First Class rail
travel is appropriate for their journey. It is estimated that the VAT
increase will affect HMIE by around £20,000. There was discussion on
the cancelled DWP contract and what it would mean for the overall
budget. We are looking at ways to off-set the reduction. SAR and
AGD are discussing how to make savings with Chief Inspectors.
5.2
Action: A more detailed report will go to the next Audit and Risk
Committee meeting.
6.0
Principles of inspection and review
6.1
KBM gave an overview of his paper. The paper is intended to be a
public statement of the principles that underpin all inspection/review
frameworks and is intended to help make the process open and
transparent. Discussion focused on a few specific points of the report
such as referring more specifically to Scottish Government policy on
scrutiny improvement and Cabinet Office principles for inspection
bodies. It was agreed that it would be helpful in the future, if other
inspection bodies used a similar set of principles so that those
inspected would experience commonality of language and practice.
The Board noted that they were content with the report following a few
amendments.
Action: This report should be linked with the Schools Inspections Framework
consultation on the website.
Action: Management Board are to feedback specific points on the report to
KBM and FMMC.
7.0
’Shaping up’ update
7.1
The Board was advised that following recent SMG and Management
Board meetings on Shaping up, a presentation was given to staff on
24 September on the new organisational model and structure. There is a
need to ensure that good communication is maintained. A Shaping up
sharepoint site has been set up to help with communication.
7.2
Action: EQ to send WSM’s presentation to staff to Non-executive
Board members.
7.3
Action: SMG to send any questions that were raised at their
presentation sessions to FMMC to add to the Shaping up
website.
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7.4
Action: A set of meetings should be arranged around offices for WSM
to encourage small group discussions. Shaping up discussion
to be added to SDCORP training in December.
8.0
HMIE Performs
8.1
SAR gave an overview of the report advising that all key targets are on
course to be met. The ‘issuing reports on time’ targets are not being
met due to issues outwith our control. The published efficiency savings
are based on the volume of school inspections, these are being
impacted by the reduction in inspections due to support for Curriculum
for Excellence. However the support activity will also be scored as an
efficiency to offset any savings lost through the reduction in inspection.
HMIE were shortlisted for a Civil Service Award for Equality and
Diversity. We are currently trying to improve how we measure impact,
the Shaping up review will help with this. The Board was content with
the report.
9.0
Audit Scotland studies
9.1
Overview of the Audit Scotland studies: the papers give a synopsis of
the recently published Audit Scotland reports and a brief update on
HMIE’s activities in these areas. These studies have already been
presented to the Audit and Risk Committee. RB suggested that HMIE
could use Audit Scotland’s press releases for this purpose in future.
SAR advised that HMIE has graduated from the Carbon Trust’s Carbon
Management Programme. Significant reductions in CO2 emissions
have been made in the first year of the programme.
10.0
Any other business
10.1
No other business was discussed.
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