HMIE Management Board
Wednesday 18 March 2009
Boardroom, Denholm House, Livingston
Present: Graham Donaldson (GHCD)
Kenneth Muir (KBM)
Frank Crawford (FC)
Wray Bodys (JWSB)
Annette Bruton (AB)
Neil McKechnie (NMM)
Morag Gunion(MG)
Alistair Marquis (AFM)
Stuart Robinson (SAR)
Shirley Young (SY)
Chris McIlroy (CM1)
Apologies:
Andrew Cubie (AC)
Gary Kildare (GK)
Eileen Quigley
Minutes:
1. Minutes of the meeting held on 17 September 2008
Noted: The minutes of the meeting were accepted as accurate.
2. Matters Arising
6.2
Recruitment
Noted: Pay agreement and supplements have now been approved. We are now in
the position to offer positions to recent successful candidates. The pay supplement
will apply to existing staff which will mean that this year’s starting salary is £51,713
rising to £54,549 in August. Colleagues currently earning less that this will be
brought up to this level. Retention supplements will also be applied at the maximum
of the C2 pay scale. C3 staff will retain a supplement. This will be the same amount
as the C2 supplement .
Noted: There are offers going out to 4 primary inspectors, 2 CLD inspectors, 2 college
sector inspectors, 2 additional support needs inspectors and one Gaelic speaking
secondary inspector.
4 Corporate Plan
Noted: The Corporate Plan has been agreed by the Cabinet Secretary and has been
issued to relevant stakeholders.
5 ISE2
Noted: ISE2 was launched at Hampden Park on 16 January. There has been a very
positive response from a variety of quarters. It is proving to be an influential
document. Work continues to ensure that its messages remain highly visible via
events, HMIE Briefing and ISE2 posters.
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10 International Strategy
Noted: The International Strategy is now on the website, setting out what we can do
for others, along with a pro forma that people wishing to make a visit to HMIE can use
to contact us. SG is looking to develop a similar site for itself and its agencies and
are citing the HMIE site as good practice. GHCD and the Chief executive of the GTC
have agreed a number of areas that we will work in partnership on.
Action: SY to be given the inclusion map, the Inclusion Handbook and some JTE
videos to help her in her visit to schools in Russia.
3.
Planning for new scrutiny bodies 2011
Noted: The new scrutiny bodies are to be established by April 2011. Shadow
appointments for the Boards of the new bodies may be appointed as early as Spring
2010. PSR Bill introduced to Parliament May 2009. HMIE are spending a lot of time with
policy colleagues to ensure that the rigour and integrity of the provisions of the Joint
Inspections Act 2006 is not diluted. There is also a lot of work being carried out in
relation to the financial memorandum of the Bill. No agreement has yet been made on
any budgetary transfer to the new body. Other issues include ensuring that HMIE staff
interests are represented in the transition.
Action: There will be further substantive discussions at next Management Board.
Noted: JWSB gave MB an update on the Government’s response to the post Crerar
working groups. It confirms the role of scrutiny in terms of improvement, broadly
endorses the recommendations of the User Focus Action Group, and confirms that there
should be separation of complaints handling and Governance. A full response will be
developed in the form of an HMIE action plan.
Action: Action plan to be brought to June Management Board.
Action: GHCD to discuss with non-executive Board Members the non-executive role in
advance of the next Management Board meeting.
4.
Audit and Risk update
Noted: AC noted by email that there were no issues that he needed to bring to the
attention of the Board.
5.
Second cycle of child protection inspections
Noted: HMIE has been asked by the Minister to co-ordinate and lead a proportionate
second cycle of child protection inspections. NMM explained the range of stakeholders
that HMIE will be working with before reporting back to the Minister. A major focus will
be on balancing risk with proportionality. The new inspections will include input from
other scrutiny bodies and consideration of a range of evidence bases, including a focus
group with all of the staff working with a particular child. There will be focus on the four
quality indicators from the NPF. The proportionate element of each inspection will be
bespoke to each LA. The revised framework of Child Protection QIs is to be launched at
three conferences next week. A brief discussion focused on the findings of Lord
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Laming’s report into child protection services in England and how they relate to issues in
Scotland, including inspection.
6.
Good practice and professional development
Noted: KBM gave MB an overview of his paper noting that HMIE has been working
closely with LTS over the years to help fulfil aspects of our improvement role.
Noted: KBM gave MB an overview of his paper which listed the current schedule of good
practice events that have been planned in support of Curriculum for Excellence. KBM
also shared a paper highlighting the positive feedback received from good practice
events and led discussion on gathering information on the impact of our events. KBM
explained the aim was to secure additional value by achieving greater penetration of the
teaching workforce following good practice events by reaching people who are unable to
attend events. This can be done by adding CPD to the CfE website, which is supported
by LTS. KBM showed MB the live site, highlighting the contents such as the past two
years publications, JtE materials and links to details of good practice conferences.
Noted: Following on from ISE2, we are embarking on a series of professional
development publications called Learning Together. The first publication, Opening Up
Learning will be published in April.
7.
Update on inspections
* General progress and stakeholder reactions
* Quality assurance and ILA provision
* Proposed HMIE role in inspection of DWP - funded training provision in
Scotland
Noted: JWSB gave MB an overview of the general update paper highlighting several
points, for example the response to the new inspections continues to be positive. The
pilot work to share the RIF is receiving positive feedback. There remains a training need
around building a RIF and this is to be addressed at the April training.
Action: AB advised MB that the pilot of validated self-evaluation is being concluded. The
results will be brought before MB.
Noted: AB summarised the paper on ILA provisions by saying that HMIE want to support
the quality assurance of ILAs to make them more accessible. It is hoped that this will
have a big impact on people accessing funding for adult literacy and numeracy training.
Noted: JWSB advised MB that HMIE have been asked to quality assure DWP training
on a cost recoverable basis. Both OFSTED and Estyn carry out a similar role in England
and Wales. These inspections would be due to begin in 2010 and HMIE are currently
engaged in discussions over remits. This is an important area of work and we need to
ensure that policy officials have no issues with the arrangement.
8.
SG staff employee survey: HMIE results
Noted: KBM gave MB an overview of the results of the SG annual staff survey. He
highlighted several key areas including that it was a strongly positive response,
particularly in light of the fact that almost every area of inspection has been changed
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over the last year. An action points paper has already been sent to SG in response to
the survey and we also have an ongoing internal action plan.
9.
Finance
Noted: SAR gave MB a brief overview of the finance paper and asked MB to note that at
the moment there is a £75,000 under- spend predicted. The costs of pay supplements
are included in this figure and we have already given up £250,000 to SG. MB
commended the good work by those involved in tightly monitoring expenditure to come in
so close to budget.
Action: Finance team are currently engaged in creating an options paper to identify
where savings could be made in the future. This will be brought to MB in due course.
10.
Quarterly reports
Noted: MB noted the quarterly reports. SAR highlighted that not all enquiries had been
answered within the 20 day target but that this was due to extenuating circumstances
and is unlikely to happen again.
11.
HMIE Publications
Noted: MB noted the publications.
12.
Any other business:
Fatal Accident Inquiry
Noted: A Fatal Accident Enquiry is to be held into the death of Irene Hogg. HMIE will be
represented through outsourced legal provision. The inspection team are being kept
aware of the ongoing stages and are being provided with support.
Complaints
Noted: The Ombudsman’s office have contacted HMIE to discuss a new interpretation of
their legal competence in dealing with complaints from schools. he Ombudsman is
seeking legal advice in an educational context and will let us know when the position is
clear. The wording in our reports will remain the same until then, but the outcome could
potentially lead to changes being made to our Complaints Procedure.
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