HMIE Management Board
Monday 17 March 2010 at 10 am
Boardroom, Denholm House, Livingston
Present: Bill Maxwell (WSM)
Alistair Delaney (AGD)
Chris McIlroy (CM1)
Gill Robinson(GNR)
Frank Crawford (FC1)
Kenneth Muir (KBM)
Stuart Robinson (SAR)
Ian Ronald (JIWR)
Sir Andrew Cubie (AC)
Shirley Young (SY)
Gary Kildare (GK)
Apologies:
Neil McKechnie
Gary Kildare
Minutes:
Linsey Wilson
WSM welcomed everyone to his first meeting as chair of Management Board.
1. Minutes of the meeting held on 1 February 2010
Noted: Three changes to the minutes were proposed. Within the fifth line of the ‘good
practice’ strategy section, ‘simply’ is to be replaced with ‘simplify’ and ‘as’ is to be added
before the statement ‘raise the bar’. SY confirmed that she would also be able to attend
the awayday on 24 March.
2. Matters arising
Noted: AC noted that there was no reference on the Boards agenda to the audit and risk
committee. ‘Report from the Audit & Risk Committee’ should be a standard agenda item
for all Board meetings, normally for noting. AC noted that at this time there was no
information to bring to the Board from Audit and Risk.
Action 1: Audit and Risk to provide a report to the Board in advance of the next meeting.
Action 2: GNR to bring to the next Board meeting an update report on school
consultations and mergers, also for noting.
3. IRSG Policy
Noted: KBM updated the Board on the changes made to the IRSG policy. The policy
provides direction to the work of the quality groups to ensure that they operate in a more
strategic manner and follow our broad inspection principles. FC1 commented that the
language could be reconsidered in relation to the governance of the quality groups.
WSM noted that IRSG needs to be confident that the sectors are conforming with our
corporate principles for inspection, and, agreed core procedures for quality assurance,
whilst having freedom to customise their specific approaches appropriately. MB agreed
the policy subject to minor wording changes
Action: FMMC to provide IRSG Strategy paper at the next Management Board meeting.
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4. New Scrutiny Bodies
Noted: JIWR updated the Board on the progress of the new scrutiny bodies. It is
expected that by August the Chairs of SCSWIS and HIS will have been appointed, with
shadow senior staff appointed late in 2010. The functions of the child protection cycle
will transfer to the new body from April 2011. Key challenges are continuing to support
staff potentially affected by the transfer, the timeframe involved and the pressures of
work to continue to deliver the second year of the child protection programme. It is
important that HMIE ensures the quality and consistency of the programme is maintained
over the three year period (tied in to NPF reporting) and that drafting of the new
regulations do not undermine the current provisions for joint inspection.
5. Finance
Noted: SAR updated the Board on the forecast budget outturn for 2009-10, there is
currently a projected under spend of £100k. The actions taken this year e.g. the
reduction in publications, changes to the management planning principles and reduction
in the use of AIs all help to bridge the £550k reduction in 2010-11 funding.
6. Cabinet Secretary and HMSCI’s seminar on next steps in developing the school
inspection framework
Noted: WSM updated the Board on the preparation for the Cabinet Secretary and
HMSCI’s seminar. The seminar will be a listening event with a range of stakeholders.
Now is an appropriate time for HMIE to take stock of and to consider its direction of
travel.
Action: KBM to share the list of delegates with the Board.
7. Progress on Curriculum for Excellence
Noted: CM1 updated the Board on a report prepared by HMIE for the CfE MB.
8. Update on DWP inspections
Noted: KBM provided the Board with an update on the progress of the DWP inspections.
HMIE is now coming to a critical point of year 1 activity. The first report on Triage has
now been completed and will publish on 1 April 2010. DWP are content with the Triage
report, and a more extensive programme has been agreed with them for 2010-11.
9. HMIE Performs
Noted: SAR updated colleagues on the revised version of HMIE Performs. This report is
a considerably slimmed down version, and provides the organisation with an opportunity
to flag up key points of our performance against our targets. SAR noted that it would be
helpful in identifying and addressing gaps on gauging the impact of HMIE’s work.
Action: SAR to provide AC with the information provided to the Cabinet Secretary on the
outcome of specific complaints.
Action: SAR to issue a paper on reviewing the complaints procedures to Management
Board for comment.
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10. HMIE Publications
Noted: This item was covered under HMIE Performs.
11. Any other business
Noted: WSM noted that there were still plans for changes to the membership of both
Management Board and Audit and Risk Committee, but that these remained contingent
on the Scottish Government’s review of the agency model.
Action 1: Lesley Evans to be invited to the next Management Board meeting.
Action 2: Review of the HMIE framework document to form part of the HMIE OD
considerations.
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