Minutes
Meeting of the Board of Directors
A meeting of the Board of Directors was held on Wednesday 16 December 2009 at 10.30am in the
Board Room, Learning and Teaching Scotland, The Optima, 58 Robertson Street,
Glasgow G2 8DU.
Present:
Jim Conroy, Board Member
Carole Ford, Board Member
Louise Hayward, Board Member
Bernard McLeary, Chief Executive
John Mulgrew OBE, Chair
Iain Nisbet, Board Member
Christine Pollock, Cosla Observer
Gavin Whitefield, Special Adviser
In attendance:
Alan Armstrong, Director – Curriculum and Assessment
Eileen Gill, Chief Professional Adviser, Strategic Organisational Development
Alistair Gordon, Interim Director - Corporate Services
Kay Livingston, Director – International, Research and Innovation
Catherine MacIntyre, Professional Adviser, Policy & Governance
Murray McVicar, Scottish Government
David Montgomery, CEO Solutions Ltd (Item 14 only)
Stuart Ritchie, Director – Learning and Community
Apologies:
Alison Coull, Scottish Government
Marie Dougan, Interim Director – Learning & Technology
Jacqui Hepburn, Board Member
Graeme Ogilvy, Board Member
Action
1.
Welcome and Apologies
1.1
Welcome
1.1.1
1.2
John advised that since the last Board meeting,
Christine had been nominated by Cosla as Observer on
the LTS Board and welcomed Christine to the meeting
in this capacity.
Apologies
1.2.1
Apologies were received as noted above.
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2.
Alistair
Dec 09
Catherine
Dec 09
There were no significant matters arising that did not feature on the
Agenda.
Declarations of Interest
4.1
5.
The Minute of the previous meeting and Action Grid were
accepted as a true record, subject to the following minor
amendment: Iain’s name is to be deleted from the record of
those Present and added to the record of Apologies. The
Minute and Action Grid will now be published on the website,
subject to any FOI exemptions.
Matters Arising from the Previous Minutes
3.1
4.
Due Date
Minute of the Previous Meeting + Action Grid held on 30 October 2009
2.1
3.
Action
None.
Chair’s Report
5.1
5.2
John summarised his report, highlighting the following points:
5.1.1
A very good meeting took place with the Minister,
Keith Brown, on 19 November.
5.1.2
John had a very useful meeting with Colin MacLean
on 12 November during which all of the points raised
by Board colleagues at the Residential were
discussed. An important point made by Colin is that
LTS is to drive forward with implementing the
recommendations from the Review and inform Colin
as appropriate.
5.1.3
Interviews for Board vacancies took place on
13 December and recommendations for two
appointments will be going forward to the Minister in
January 2010. It is, therefore, unlikely that the
process will be completed by the next Board Meeting
in February.
5.1.4
John has written to the new Cabinet Secretary inviting
him to come to LTS.
The letter received from Eric Booth is to be circulated to Board
Members.
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6.
Cosla Representative on the LTS Board
6.1
John recently met with Rory Mair, Chief Executive of Cosla.
The key points from that meeting were as follows:
6.1.1
Rory will be inviting LTS colleagues to a joint meeting in
the New Year to give Cosla Members an overview of
LTS and, in particular, brief Members about LTS’s new
core responsibilities. Rory expects that CfE will be a
key area for discussion.
6.1.2
Rory confirmed that any serious issues that might arise
would be discussed with Christine, but it is more likely
that Rory would correspond directly with Bernard.
6.1.3
Cosla’s contribution to LTS’s Business Plan was
discussed. Rory was not keen to put detailed plans to
Elected Members and suggested that Cosla’s
contribution could be achieved by developing an
effective partnership and communication process. The
relationship would further develop and strengthen over
time.
6.1.4
Rory seemed to be pleased with the approach and felt
that it would be a very useful partnership for both
organisations.
6.2
Bernard referred to the Briefing Note circulated to the Board and
confirmed that John’s meeting mirrored the discussion that took
place between Bernard, Christine, Robert Nicol (Cosla),
Catherine and Murray on 10 December.
6.3
LTS, along with ADES, would present to the Education Children
and Young People Committee in February. LTS would receive
further feedback and endorsement of the LTS Business Plan
from the Cosla Conveners’ meeting which is scheduled to take
place in May. Both Cosla and LTS are keen to ensure that
Christine’s role does not become bureaucratic.
6.4
The Board noted that LTS already has an MoU with ADES and
Cosla, and this will now need to be reviewed.
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7.
6.5
Christine advised that there had already been communication
between Robert Nicol and Don Ledingham (ADES CfE
Implementation Partnership). Don has confirmed that he would
attend the ECYP Committee in February and give a joint
presentation with LTS to bring the Cosla Members up to speed
on both CfE and LTS’s broader role.
6.6
Gavin commented that what had been outlined seemed sensible
and that the dialogue will be of key importance. SOLACE is
also represented on the Cosla ECYP Committee, therefore,
what has been set up should work very well.
6.7
John noted that establishing this process with Cosla had been
one of the a key actions within the recommendations from the
Review.
Implementing the Recommendations from the LTS Review
7.1
7.2
Actions from the Board Residential – 29.10.09
7.1.1
John commented that the Board had a very useful
session at the Residential; it had been well minuted and
action taken on all of the points raised.
7.1.2
The move to a three year funding model will take time in
terms of practicalities, but the Scottish Government is
committed to working towards this.
Update and Minute of the OD Committee Meeting – 20.11.09
7.2.1
The first meeting of the Committee had been extremely
useful, with a range of issues discussed and action
agreed. John is, however, anxious to ensure that all
Board Members are kept up-to-date and involved in all
matters relating to Organisational Development.
7.2.2
Bernard and John have given the Minister, Keith Brown,
a commitment that LTS will have made significant
progress in implementing the outcomes from the Review
by Easter.
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7.2.3
John has now met with the Chair of SQA,
Graham Houston, along with Colin MacLean. John has
extended an invitation to Graham to come to LTS and
has also suggested that a joint meeting of the Boards
takes place in early 2010.
7.2.4
Jim raised concern at the seemingly slow pace of
progress towards a 3 year funding arrangement and the
pressing need to develop our longer term strategy.
Bernard explained the practicalities involved and said
that this would be achieved in stages. The first would
involve pulling together the various sources of funding
within the Scottish Government and developing a 3 year
Ministerial Guidance letter.
7.2.5
Alistair added that Colin MacLean physically does not
have 3 year funding to give LTS and is currently working
towards an intermediate position which is to give
indicative funding in years 2 and 3.
7.2.6
The Board discussed the current financial position
across the public sector. Gavin commented that the key
point is that 2010 / 11 is the last year of the current
Spending Review and said that it would be critical for
any organisation to have clear direction for the next 3
years (funding and priorities) to develop strategy. In
local authorities, levels of funding and savings have
already been agreed for 2010/11. The focus now is for
local authorities to work out cost savings for the next 3
years - from 2011 /14. Gavin suggested that LTS would
need to make some assumptions and develop plans on
that basis.
7.2.7
John commented that Jim’s point was well made and
that the Board would need to follow this action through
to conclusion.
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7.3
Organisational Development Programme Update
7.3.1
7.4
Eileen reported that a scoping exercise had been
carried out to identify and agree priorities. This was
signed off by CMT and then endorsed by the
Organisational Development Committee at its meeting
on 20 November.
Learning Connections – Transition Update (verbal)
7.4.1
7.4.2
The update to the Board included the following key
points:
i)
A review of Learning Connections (currently part
of the Scottish Government) was carried out
earlier this year and concluded that certain
aspects – practice development and policy
implementation – be transferred to LTS.
Discussions with Scottish Government are now at
an advanced stage, with the effective date for
transfer of staff 1 April 2010.
ii)
Approximately 20 staff are likely to transfer to LTS
under TUPE. A paper outlining some of the
technical issues will be put to the Organisational
Development Committee with more of the detail
for consideration.
iii)
The aim is to have a near final Business Model
ready to go to the Scottish Government in the
New Year which will outline how LTS plans to
handle the transfer of staff and proposals for the
programme of work.
Bernard advised that there are potential implications for
the Board and consideration might be given to
broadening the Board membership / skills base into
CLD. LTS has already made significant progress into
CLD and will be looking for Learning Connections to be
integrated within some of the current programmes of
work.
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7.4.3
8.
Christine commented on ‘CfE for All’ and the significant
partnership work that exists with CLD, the voluntary
sector, etc., in delivering the Senior Phase, 16+
Learning Choices. It, therefore, makes sense that LTS
is to be part of that.
Chief Executive’s Report
8.1
Curriculum, Assessment and Glow Update
CfE and Assessment
8.1.1
8.1.2
The Board received a detailed report, the main points of
which included:
i)
Communication is a priority for the new Cabinet
Secretary, Mike Russell.
ii)
A key issue currently is Assessment. All partners
have signed off BtC5 and exemplification,
following launch of BtC5, will be instrumental
along with other tools to support CfE.
iii)
There has been a very quick response from
schools and LTS will have examples at various
levels (3, 4 and 5) within a matter of weeks, while
continuing with work to populate NAR.
iv)
ADES has offered to enhance the commitment
from schools so that more exemplification would
be available by March for CPD and NAR itself
available by summer with benchmarked material.
v)
Staff development, professional learning and the
process of sharing ideas is what is important.
vi)
One of the biggest issues of assessment is when
assessment is used for accountability. It is,
therefore, important that this becomes part of the
debate.
Bernard commented that CfE is a very complex model
of change with different expectations on teachers and
different expectations on local authority Chief
Executives who have overall responsibility for delivery of
National Outcome 4.
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8.1.3
Murray agreed and said that CfE is a vast, complex
programme with interdependancies – the key is to bring
the dependancies together and that work is currently
under way. SQA (Janet) and LTS (Bernard) have
agreed to take forward joint work on interdependancies
and then bring in other partners in a systematic way.
8.1.4
Gavin also added that change of this scale would
always be difficult, but no one could have foreseen the
other difficulties, eg pay; budget cuts which are adding
to the challenge and complexity.
Action
Due Date
Marie
28.4.10
Catherine
Feb/Apr 10
Gavin withdrew from the meeting.
8.2
Glow
Glow 1 / 1.05
8.2.1 Iain commented on the number of log-ins, how this relates
to uptake of use or impact and how the Board can get
access to this information.
8.2.2 Bernard explained that with the development of Glow
1.05, these metrics are now becoming available. There
have been some early adopters in local authorities and,
therefore, one of the issues is that all local authorities are
at different stages.
8.2.3 Bernard undertook to provide Board Members with
metrics for the April Board meeting.
8.2.4 The Board noted that one of the benefits of Glow is that,
at a time of recession, Glow has the potential to make
savings. However, LTS can only provide the
infrastructure and resources; the local authorities then
need to develop the usage. However, LTS needs to find
a means of encouraging use.
8.2.5 John confirmed that the Board would focus on CfE /
Assessment at the February meeting and then Glow in
April. Catherine to note for the Agenda.
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8.3
Developing Global Citizens
Kay commented on her report as follows:
8.3.1 Sustainable Development
Sustainable Development is a good example of
connecting and co-ordinating, and taking the opportunity
to maximise learning from key events. Through the use
of Glow meet, a live event page, blog, a whole package of
learning can be developed from the summit in
Copenhagen so that it is not just a one off event.
8.3.2 Confucius Classrooms
8.4
i)
On 11 December, Kay, on behalf of the Chief
Executive and LTS, signed an MoU with Tianjin
Education Community (Tianjin is a city of 11 million
people) – this includes kindergarten, primary,
secondary, colleges and universities. Tianjin has
chosen its top 7 schools to link with Scotland’s
Confucius Classrooms and they are preparing
teachers to send to Scotland to teach Mandarin
and Chinese culture.
ii)
LTS has also been recognised as a Confucius
Institute in its own right. Edinburgh University is
the only other establishment in Scotland with this
designation.
Interconnect 2
8.4.1 Alistair reported that the work to roll out the Interconnect 2
is now virtually complete. There had been a particular
issue with Glasgow, but this has now been resolved
successfully. The Interconnect 2 provides a good
bedrock for Glow 2 and it is a much better product for the
same cost.
8.5
Digital Company – Commercial In Confidence
8.5.1 Bernard advised that he had been required to sign a
Confidentiality Agreement at the start up of this project.
However, it was important that the Board is briefed about
LTS’s role.
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8.5.2 LTS has been working with the Scottish Government and
Scottish Enterprise to secure jobs for Scotland. The aim
of the project is to provide high quality digital media and
LTS has the licence to provide this through Glow.
8.5.3 For the meantime, the project remains ‘off the record’ until
March when it is expected that there will be a high profile
launch.
8.5.4 The Board noted that the current name of the
organisation is likely to change at some stage in the
future.
9.
10.
Glow 2
9.1
Bernard reminded Board Members that LTS had received a
Mandate from the Scottish Government to develop the specification
for Glow 2. It is expected that this will be broader than current Glow
and include other partners, eg FE, CLD.
9.2
The Board will receive further papers in the New Year for
information / endorsement or approval, as appropriate.
9.3
Christine stated that with the Senior Phase being partly school and
CLD, it would be good to include other partners involved in the
Senior Phase as Glow 2 develops.
9.4
John referred to the event with Ministers the previous day. Ministers
had been very supportive of Glow and this brings a major
responsibility for LTS to deliver.
Annual Planning and Budgeting
10.1 Draft Annual Business Plan 2010 / 11
10.1.1 Alistair provided the Board with an update on progress
towards development of the 2010/11 Annual Business Plan.
10.1.2 One of the key steps is to undertake an analysis of the new
remit and then integrate existing / continuing programmes of
work within the Plan.
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10.1.3 The aim is to come to the Board in February with a draft
Plan and then the final Plan will come to the Board for
approval in April.
Action
Due Date
Alistair
17.2.10
Alistair
17.2.10
Alistair
17.2.09
10.1.4 The Board noted that the programme of work coming to LTS
from Learning Connections has not been included at this
stage.
10.2
Draft Outline Budget 2010 / 11
10.2.1 As discussed earlier in the meeting, Alistair confirmed that
LTS is moving towards a single budget allocation.
10.2.2 Presentationally, Alistair suggested to the Board that the
budget should move away from programmes to a more
tailored structure. Alistair included a draft of the structure
within his report.
10.2.3 The draft Budget will come to the Board in February and,
following comment, will then be reviewed by the Audit
Committee in March before coming back to the Board for
approval in April.
11.
Corporate Performance and Control
11.1 Alistair reminded the Board that the October report provided
details on performance for the first 6 months of the financial year
and commented on highlights since then as follows:
11.1.1 In December it was agreed that LTS would give back
£240k to the Scottish Government on the understanding
that it will not impact the baseline next year.
11.1.2 The November Management Accounts demonstrate that
LTS is in a robust / sound financial position.
11.1.3 Work is continuing to shift from internal to external
performance measures.
11.2 The February report will provide an update on further progress
towards development of more meaningful outcomes.
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12.
Revisions to Financial Authority Levels
12.1 Alistair confirmed that this was a routine update and noted that
the Levels were last reviewed in 2007.
12.2 The proposed revisions were put to the Audit Committee in
November and are now recommended to the Board.
12.3 The principal changes are more flexibility and updating of
nomenclature.
12.4 The Board unanimously approved the revisions to financial
authority levels.
13.
Advisory Council
13.1
And
13.2
Processes of Change: Reference Paper
Change Processes: From Ideas to Actions
13.2.1 Louise commented firstly that she hoped the papers
were of interest to Board Members because of the focus
on the process of change.
13.2.2 The first paper synthesises evidence so there is clarity
that what the Advisory Council has developed is sound
in relation to what the system needs to change.
However, the statements need to be lived and practiced
for change to happen. The second paper identifies 4
major communities that need to be involved for
successful change to occur.
13.2.3 Louise asked the Board to lend support to the papers to
move forward to the next stage. Board Members were
unanimous in their endorsement of both papers.
13.2.4 Louise explained that, based on evidence, the Advisory
Council had devised a strategy of engagement. This
includes:
i)
LTS staff seminar about how LTS engages in its
business. LTS will engage with different
communities and, therefore, mediate the document
into every local authority.
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ii)
LTS also has a range of networks and, therefore,
LTS will introduce the document to its networks,
including Glow groups.
iii)
Advisory Council Members will mediate to their own
communities.
iv)
Board Members were also asked to take the
document and, in their natural networks, share with
colleagues.
v)
Murray will also mediate with the Scottish
Government.
13.2.5 Louise advised that the Advisory Council is also
developing 2 sets of workshop resources and also
working with Young Scot to develop a similar
engagement tool for engagement with young people.
13.2.6 Christine suggested putting the workshops into Glow for
use by, for example, rural schools. Bernard said that
this tied into LTS’s aims for Glow and linked into other
discussions taking place with Young Scot about liaising
with young people. It would also be a key resource for
successful CfE implementation.
13.2.7 Carole cautioned that there are still a lot of practitioners
who do not have access to Glow and there is, therefore,
the potential for people to be left out.
13.2.8 Louise confirmed that a range of approaches would be
used. However, Bernard said that access to Glow was
something to be raised with Cosla because local
authorities have signed up to Glow and there is a need
to identify the problem. Alistair added that LTS will be
increasing the number of resources only accessible in
Glow.
13.2.9 Louise will take all the comments back to the Advisory
Council for discussion at its next meeting.
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13.3 Future Priorities
13.3.1 Louise advised that the next paper coming to the Board
is about engaging young people and asked for the
Board’s views on what other issues the Advisory
Council should be looking at.
13.3.2 Louise suggested:
i)
Future focused look at the inter relationship
between learning and technology - what are the
implications about the ways of working with young
people.
ii)
Creativity and innovation - what does creativity
mean in relation to new ways to tackle old
problems, for example, literacy and numeracy.
13.3.3 The Board agreed that it would be useful to merge these
two areas. Louise confirmed that the Advisory Council
would take a broad sweep and then consider subissues.
13.3.4 Kay commented on the work taking place in Developing
Global Citizens programme and engaging with young
people, and suggested it would be good to make that
link with the Advisory Council.
13.4 Recruitment of New Advisory Council Members
13.4.1 Louise advised that LTS would be advertising for new
Advisory Council members in January 2010. The Board
noted that these are not Ministerial appointments.
14.
Review of Local Authority Pilots
14.1 Bernard introduced this paper. During the period of the Scottish
Government’s Review, LTS had been looking at ways of
modernising its relationship with local authorities and had
established a number of pilots. These pilots also related to the
earlier work that David Montgomery had undertaken which
summarised the views of local authority Chief Executives about
LTS’s possible role and relationship with local authorities.
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14.2 David then took the Board through his report, drawing attention
to a number of key points, including:
14.2.1 The report is part of a series of steps and some of the
steps taken proactively will, in due course, have been
seen to influence the very positive outcome of the
Review.
14.2.2 Another very important element was recognition that
education is not free standing and is part of a spectrum
of services delivered by local authorities. It is the role of
local authority Chief Executives to make connections
between services to achieve common purpose. LTS
identified this role and pulled in the perspective of the
Chief Executives.
14.2.3 LTS engaged four local authorities with fairly short
timescale: list authorities. The local authority itself took
a view on what it wanted to do. All four responded
promptly and willingly. Each was different in nature and
considered leader in the field of choice.
14.3 The purpose of the evaluation was to look at the process and
ways of working. The results were not uniform as each pilot is
at a different stage of development and in some cases the
original expectations were exceeded.
14.4 The key question is were they worthwhile. The unanimous view
was that value was seen in the development. LTS staff working
in local authorities had very positive experience. Local authority
staff felt that LTS, by engaging in this sort of front line shift, were
enhancing the profile / reputation of the organisation.
14.5 The findings in the report concluded that LTS should be
continuing with devolved development. However, there were
clearly some lessons to be learned:
14.5.1 Timescales – need to give regard to planning and time
available when involving establishments.
14.5.2 The technology needs to be in place.
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14.5.3 There needs to be a degree of established fertility –
broad levels of understanding; good channels of
communication.
14.5.4 There is a prior stage to be gone through before joint
development activity.
14.5.5 There were communication issues on both sides, eg
levels of resource available post start.
14.5.6 Personal contact is very important.
14.6 For a limited pilot, the structure was acceptable, but for future
pilots this would need to be reviewed, for example, the Area
Adviser role. However, local authorities are keen not to lose the
current role of the Area Adviser, therefore, perhaps a
combination of both would be appropriate.
14.7 Overall the pilots have been proven as a concept and LTS
should do more, but have regard to the views and
recommendations in the paper.
14.8 John said that post review LTS is not complacent or standing
still and now has an expanded remit. John raised the question
of whether this model of working should be adopted in the future
and said that the Organisational Development Committee would
be taking all of this into account in its deliberations.
14.9 The Board continued discussion during which a number of other
important points emerged, including:
14.9.1 North Lanarkshire Council was keen to be involved, and
for a relatively small financial investment, the pilot had
delivered significant impact and change. It had
improved the quality of CPD for 0-3 stage practitioners
by putting research into practice. This pilot also
involved multi-agency training and ultimately is driving
up standards for learners’ needs. It had a huge impact
and North Lanarkshire now has stronger partnership
working with LTS and Strathclyde University.
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Bernard
28.4.10
14.9.2 Christine would be interested in bidding for joint work on
creativity and CPD, or 16+ Learning Choices with the
aim of sharing development of that across 32 local
authorities. This sort of approach drives improvement
forward very fast for very little money.
14.9.3 Referring to the recent Arbuthnott Report, Bernard
suggested working with clusters within the 8 local
authorities, specifically around CfE and CPD. The
Board noted that the original timescale meant that it had
not been possible to establish the pilots with groups of
local authorities.
14.10 John thanked David for his thorough report. The CMT will
consider the report further, consult with colleagues and come
back to the Board with comments and recommendations.
15.
Items for Noting
15.1 Board Self-Evaluation Action Note – 30.10.09
The Board noted the report.
15.2 Finance Reports – October and November 2009
The Board noted the reports.
15.3 Media Update – October and November 2009
The Board noted the reports.
15.4 Minute of the Audit Committee Meeting – 24.11.09
The Board noted the Minute.
16.
AOB
16.1
17.
None.
Date of Next Meeting
17.1
The next meeting will take place on Wednesday 17 February 2010
in The Optima.
17.2
Board Members agreed that the lunch with staff should take place
immediately following this meeting.
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17.3
Due Date
Board Members noted the Schedule of Meetings for the Board and
Board Committees for 2010.
In conclusion, John said that LTS had come a long way in the last 12 months and
was now in an exciting phase post Review. John thanked everyone for their
contribution during the year and expressed his best wishes for Christmas and
New Year.
Approved by:
______________________________________
John Mulgrew OBE, Chair
Date: _________________
Approved by:
______________________________________
Alistair Gordon, Company Secretary
Date: _________________
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