SOUTH EASTERN REGIONAL COLLEGE
Governing Body – Education Committee
Minutes of the meeting held on Tuesday 11th November 2014 at 7 pm in the Bangor Campus.
Item Item
No
1.
Attendance and Apologies
Present: Mrs H Reid (Chair), Mr K Webb (Principal & Chief Executive), Mrs K.
Fraser, Dr R Davison
Apologies: Mr S Gallaher.
In Attendance: Mr D. Smith (Director of Learning and Customer Support), Dr M.
Malone (Director of Curriculum and Information Services), Mrs H Millar (Head of
Quality, Excellence and Development), Ms D. Smyth (Secretary to the Governing
Body), Mr Roy French (Assistant Head of School, Business, Hospitality & Tourism) –
for part of the meeting.
2.
Declarations of conflicts of interest
The Committee members were asked for declarations of conflicts of interest and
none were noted.
3.
Minutes of the meeting held on 9th September 2014
The minutes of the previous meeting were agreed as a true record on the proposal
the Chair, seconded by the Principal.
4.
Matters arising
Steps to Success contract
The Director of Learning and Customer Support said that there had been a special
meeting of some Governors to review and approve the contract; he continued that
the contract went live on 20th October. He explained that SERC was a subcontractor (Reed is the main contractor) and said that Steps to Success was aimed
at those in receipt of Job Seekers’ Allowance and the College’s aim was to get those
individuals into work and to support and help them to remain in the job.
The Director of Learning and Customer Support continued that, although the initial
forecasts from the Department regarding referrals had been accurate, the College
had made prudent forecasts in terms of the projected income. He continued that
there were weekly conferences with the main contractor, Reed, who would examine
the quality and accuracy of data provided by SERC. He said it would be the New
Year before there was clear information on how the contract was progressing. Dr
Davison asked about the scale of the programme and the Director of Learning and
Customer Support replied that the College could potentially see 50 individuals a
week. He added that some clients needed very little support and others a great
deal, so there was no set pattern of support required. Dr Davison said he presumed
that the relationship with the relevant Job Centres would continue and the Director
of Learning and Customer Support said that this was the case. Mrs Fraser asked if
the College met with employers and the Director of Learning and Customer Support
said that these meetings had not yet taken place, but added that the relationship
with employers would be key to the success of the programme. The Chair asked if
there was any payment to employers, and the Director of Learning and Customer
Support replied that there was no payment, but the benefit for an employer was
that they recruited someone who had been prepared for work and would be
supported.
The Director of Learning and Customer Support said he would update on progress
at the next meeting.
5.
Correspondence :
There were no items to be taken.
6.
Chairman’s Business:
The Chair said that there were no items to be taken that were not elsewhere on the
agenda.
7.
Cause for Concern referrals
The Director of Learning and Customer Support gave an update on the following:
Total Referrals
Social
Services/PSNI
Mental
Health/Depression
Self-Harm
Thoughts of SelfHarm
Suicide
Homelessness
Bullying
2012/13
2013/14
286
33
266
46
2014/15 (10
Nov)
59
7
51
86
28
36
18
25
39
4
5
0
Not recorded
Not recorded
2
29
Not recorded
0
6
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The Director of Learning and Customer Support said that the College used an online referral system and the response, which would be within an hour or two, would
offer support within the College or would give advice on external support. He
continued that homelessness was becoming an increasingly common issue, as was
bullying and, in particular, cyber-bullying. The Chair asked if external agency
support for homelessness was primarily for over 18s. The Director of Learning and
Customer Support said that this was the case; he said over 18s could go to the
Northern Ireland Housing Executive or Simon and the College’s advice to under 18s
was to try to reconcile with some family member, if at all possible. to prevent them
going down the road of homelessness.
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The Director of Learning and Support continued to describe the work of the Youth
Health Clinics supported by the Trust, and said it was hoped to organise some
additional training for staff through the Trust. This would be delivered by Jim
Gamble.
8.
Presentation:
School of Business, Hospitality and Tourism
The Chair welcomed the Assistant Head of School and thanked him for standing in
for the Head of School at short notice.
The Assistant Head of School outlined the structure of the School and said that the
main areas covered were Business Administration, Business Management, Training
and Development, Hospitality and Catering and Travel and Tourism. He commented
that there was a general upward trend for enrolments in the School and the School
performed well in comparison with the College’s averages. The Assistant Head of
School described the curriculum content for each of the areas within the School. He
listed the achievements and awards gained by the students and staff and described
student visits to Japan, Germany, France and Dublin. Visits within Northern Ireland
included, Crumlin Road Gaol, the Tayto Castle in Derry and the Giant’s Causeway.
He concluded by stating that one of the challenges for the coming year was that
local schools were now delivering a similar curriculum. The Assistant Head of
School informed members that there would be a restructuring of catering outlets in
the current year.
The Chair thanked the Assistant Head of School for an interesting and informative
presentation and said she was struck by the diversity of provision within the School.
The Assistant Head of School then left the meeting.
9.
Whole College Self-Evaluation Report and Quality Improvement Plan
(WCSER and WCQIP)
The Chair informed members that the production of the WCSER and WCQIP was a
requirement from the Department and the College would be inspected on the
WCSER and WCQIP. The Director of Curriculum and Information Services said that
the number format had been changed since the document was printed. He
continued that this year the WCSER and QIP also contained the Training
Organisation, whereas in previous years it had solely been HE and FE. He said that
the first section of the WCSER gave a high level picture of performance which the
section at the end allowed members to see how each individual course had
performed. He continued that the College recorded retention, achievement, success
and progression, although ETI no longer used ‘success’ as a measure.
Dr Davison asked what measures were in place if a course was consistently underperforming. The Director of Curriculum and Information Services said that the
Course Assist programme would support the lecturer and put an action plan in
place. On occasion, he said, the students who had been recruited on to the course
were unable to cope with the level of the programme. He continued that
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information of Moodle would also be reviewed and this was quality assured by the
Heads and Assistant Heads of School.
The Chair commented that the glossary of terms was helpful and she said she
recognised the amount of work that had gone into the production of the document
which had to be submitted to the Department by 28th November. Mrs Fraser asked
if there was a standard template for the WCSER & QIP and the Principal said that
there was no guidance on this from DEL; this meant that it was difficult to draw
comparisons from across the sector. The Chair said that, in the previous year, the
Inspectors had commented favourably on the quality of information.
The Principal added that the WCSER & QIP would be submitted to the Quality
Improvement Branch in DEL. This Branch would then liaise with the Inspectorate
and would arrange an inspection in due course.
The Chair thanked the Director of Curriculum and Information Services and all the
team involved for the amount of work that had gone into to producing such a
readable document.
10.
Integrated Quality and Enhancement Review, Northern Ireland (IQER)
QAA Report
The Head of Quality, Excellence and Development said that this was the final report
by QAA and was a summary of the findings of all the NI reviews and
recommendations for future reviews. She commented that DEL would be
evaluation the quality assurance review methods used for higher education in NI
with the aim of finding a single model for both Universities and FE Colleges.
Members noted the Report.
11.
Inspection Updates:
The Principal provided members with a copy of the Chief Inspector’s Report for
2012-14. He added that the College had anticipated that it would have a Whole
College Inspection in 13/14, but this would not now happen and two themed
inspections would now take place. Dr Davison commented on the progression of
systems and quality assurance processes within the College over the past couple of
years. He said that information from classroom observations would be help with an
analysis of the College’s systems. The Principal agreed that classroom observations
helped identify and share best practice.
12.
Update on enrolments (verbal)
The Principal said that FE numbers were down by approximately 40, HE were also
under. He added that there were 23 additional MaSN places in Downpatrick and 30
enrolments were in place. He said that the numbers enrolling in Essential Skills
were an issue across the sector.
13.
Any other notified business
The Chair said there were no items to be taken and thanked all present for their
contribution to the meeting.
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14.
Date and time of next meeting
The next meeting was scheduled for Tuesday 3rd February 2015 at 5pm in the
Bangor Campus.
There being no further business, the meeting ended at 8.50 p.m.
_______________________________
Chair
__________________
Date
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