Minutes of the Long Road Sixth Form College Corporation
13.3 held on Wednesday 5th February 2014
Present: Ian Wilson (Chair); Charlie Brown (CB); Edward Dodson (ED); Mehrdad Ekbatani (ME); Steven Esdale, Peter Fenwick (PF); Wendy Godfrey (WG); John Godwood (JG); Keren Mallinson (KM); Claire Richards (CR); Chris Sherwin (ECS); Huw Williams (HW);
Observer: Rianna D’Souza, Callum Fairhurst
Clerk: Elisabeth Silver (ES)
The Chair welcomed governors to the Corporation meeting and Governor Training Day. He advised the Corporation that due to the Ofsted inspection that was taking place that week only the Principal would be attending the Corporation meeting since other SMT members were involved in inspection activities and that the Principal would need to leave for parts of the training day agenda. He noted that the Student Governors were attending as observers until their appointment during the meeting,
Ref / Action13.3.1 /
Apologies for Absence
Apologies were received from David Hartland and Sam Wolfe.13.3.2 /
Declaration of Interests
There were no declarations of interest.13.3.3 /
Request for Any Other Business
There were no requests for other business.13.3.4 / Appointment of Governors
The Chair advised the Corporation that the Student Governors are appointed by the student body but that the Corporation are required to ratify the appointment.
The Corporation unanimously ratified the appointment of Rianna D’Souza and Callum Fairhurst as Student governors for the calendar year from the 1st January 2014 to 31st December 2014.
The Chair advised the Corporation that the Search Committee had recently interviewed a new potential independent governor to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Catherine Rice in December. For a long time the College had been looking to strengthen their links with the local county council and were very pleased when in response to enquiries Adrian Loades, Executive Director, Children, Families and Adults Services had expressed an interest in joining the Corporation. Adrian’s biography was circulated with the papers for the meeting and the Chair noted that in addition to holding a senior position with the local County Council Adrian was a qualified accountant who had worked for the Audit Commission for 11 years and that he had a personal interest in post 16 education.
The Corporation unanimously approved the appointment of Adrian Loades as an independent governor for a four year term of office ending on 4th February 2018
Committee appointments
At their recent meeting the Search Committee had also considered the two Committee vacancies created by the resignation of the governor; on the Audit Committee and the Standards Committee. The Chair advised that at his interview they had discussed with Adrian whether he would be willing to sit on the Audit Committee and it had been agreed with him that this would be an excellent fit. In addition the Committee had noted that John Godwood was already attending the Standards Committee as an observer because of his interest in this area and the decision was made to recommend him for appointment to this Committee.
The Corporation unanimously approved the appointment of Adrian Loades to the Audit Committee for a 4 year term of office to 4th February 2018
The Corporation unanimously approved the appointment of John Godwood to the Standards Committee for the remainder of his 4 year term of office to the 31st October 2017
Gary Woolley joined the meeting for Agenda item 13.3.6
Richard Hefford Hobbs joined the meeting`
13.3.6 / Accommodation
ECS notified the Corporation that the deadline for the final round of BCIF funding is in the middle of February and that the College are in the process of finalising their application. BCIF is given specifically for Colleges to carry out work on poor quality accommodation which is unsuitable for teaching, learning or support operations and therefore our bid has been targeted on the remaining accommodation in the lowest rated category. These areas are the caretaker’s house, rooms in the tower and the small media/music block near the sports hall. It is anticipated that a programme of capital funding will be introduced the following year but the College awaits further detailed information.
ECS reminded governors that at the end of last term there had been a fire in the caretaker’s house, as a result of a faulty fan heater and this had rendered the property unusable. Since the College is bidding for money to demolish this building it is currently in negotiation with the insurers as to how the claim should be settled since it would be of no value to make the space usable again. It is hoped that agreement can be reached with the insurers to provide a cash settlement which can be added to the BCIF money and GW is currently talking to specialists about this arrangement. The site staff have been relocated into the office formerly used by the CCIS team which is considered to be category D accommodation (derelict) and in need of refurbishment.
GW advised governors that since September 2013 the College has been operating at a 100% utilisation rate and it has been necessary for some lessons to be delivered in less than ideal accommodation, including a meeting room. BCIF money is targeted at Cat C (in need of refurbishment) or Cat D (derelict) accommodation or to resolve over- crowding. The EFA define overcrowding as less than 7m2/student and the current ratio at Long Road is 6.15m2 per funded student. This is equivalent to a deficit of approx. 1700-1800 m2 – a building the size of G Block.
The maximum bid (except in exceptional circumstances) is £1.5m and for the first time there is also an opportunity to bid for an additional £100k to improve IT infrastructure and the College is intending to apply for close to the maximum sum available. The proposed work includes:
· Addressing issues identified through an EFA national condition survey (Spring 2013) including installation of safety glass windows
· Replacement accommodation for the caretaker’s house
· Refurbishment of all Cat D accommodation (old CCIS office and 2 floors of the Tower)
· Refurbishment of Cat C accommodation that is likely to deteriorate into Cat D (chemistry lab and LRC roof)
· Building an extension to A block
· Purchase of 5 prefabricated classrooms to reduce over-crowding
The funding cannot be used to resolve the problem with classrooms in G block since, although too small to be fit for purpose, they are considered to be cat B. It also does not address the identified shortfall in toilets across the site or the need for additional space in the canteen/attached kitchen.
GW advised that the RH partnership had sourced the high quality prefabricated classrooms and they were already in use in another sixth form college. They have a guaranteed 20 year life and whilst not a long term solution are quick and simple to install and provide a cost effective, immediate solution to the overcrowding problem. It is hoped that during their life time the College can obtain capital funding for a more permanent solution. The student governors confirmed that shortage of space was a significant issue for students. The Principal advised that the College had been very successful in recruiting recently. There had been a period a couple of years before when numbers had fallen as a result of additional local provision and the College had responded with a very successful marketing campaign to advertise the strengths of the College. If no further accommodation is added during this year then it will be necessary to cap the number of students and it was not felt that this would be in the best long term interests of the College. The IT element will be spent on better networking of the buildings as part of the bid to improve access for students bringing their own devices into College. Growth of students with personal devices (and provision for those without) will reduce the number of rooms that are needed as permanent IT suites and make these work spaces more flexible. The final bid needs to be submitted by half term.
In response to questions from governors GW confirmed:
· that the proposed modular classrooms will only address the current demand for space and will not provide additional space for growth.
· that it is not possible to rejig the timetable to allow better use of the current space. This would require lengthening the College day and since many of our students have long journeys this is not considered desirable.
· some of the inadequacies are not immediately apparent since there has been cosmetic work to improve the appearance e.g. the roof of the LRC room (where the meeting was held) looks fine but is a false ceiling that hides the lack of insulation and means the room is expensive to heat and does not retain heat (as experienced by governors at a previous Corporation meeting in December).
· That even if funding for a new permanent building were available (which it is not) a temporary solution would still be needed for September because the timescales for a new build would be much longer. The only other option would be to rent space and whilst this may be possible in the UTC building this will not be known until much too late in the academic year.
· Similar Portacabins are being installed at the other sixth form College in Cambridge
The Principal advised that it is hoped that there will be capital funding available for the College to bid for in the following year. Our local MP, Julian Huppert is also looking to see if there are any suitable funding sources that the College could access.
The Corporation unanimously approved submission of the current bid as outlined in the Corporation documents. The Corporation also unanimously agreed that if, for any reason, the bid needed any alterations before submission that they were happy for the Chair to review these changes and give approval on behalf of the Corporation for minor changes.
Gary Woolley left the meeting at 1.55pm
13.3.7 / UTC Update
Appointment of UTC Governor
ECS advised the Corporation that after the last Corporation meeting a request had been made for nominations to represent the College on the UTC Board of Governors. A majority of governors had confirmed in writing that they were happy for the Principal to be the nominated governor although there had been some questions regarding conflicts of interest. ECS noted that there will be several people on the UTC Board who will represent other organisations including CRC and local employers and will have similar conflicts of interest and this is an area where the new Corporation will have to find appropriate ways of operating within their Instruments & Articles.
The Corporation unanimously confirmed their approval of the decision that the Principal should represent Long Road Sixth Form College on the Board of the UTC.
ECS advised that there was a healthy culture in Cambridge of sharing news regarding recruitment numbers so it was unlikely that governors from other institutions would be excluded from items of this nature. Everyone was aware that there was already an over provision of places locally and the UTC was another competitor. ECS anticipated that the UTC Principal, who was speaking later at the Training Day, would update the Board regarding applications to the UTC.
UTC Funding for the All Weather Pitch (AWP) and Bus bays
ECS advised that there had been some recent good news regarding the UTC funding for the AWP. The budget for the AWP, approved by the Long Road Corporation had not taken into account the fact that the College would need to pay VAT on the £250k contribution form the UTC. This would result in a short fall of approximately £50k which the College could not afford to fund.
The College had met with Chris Lang, Vice Principal at CRC and Chair of the UTC Design User group to explain the problems and he had contacted the Education Funding Agency (EFA) and arranged for the £250k to be paid directly to Long Road, thus removing the VAT liability. In addition, to resolve VAT issues resulting from the proposed income sharing arrangements for the AWP, he had proposed to the UTC project steering group that the profit sharing scheme should be dropped in return for Long Road agreeing to maintain the pitch without further contributions from the UTC. The College now has a letter from the EFA to confirm that the funding for both the AWP (£250k) and the bus bays (£50k) is available for release in the usual way.
However there had been some very recent changes regarding signing of the final lease which ECS needed to bring to the attention of the Board. Both the College and their solicitors had thought all changes to the lease had been completed and the documents had been passed to the College when the lawyers heard that the other party (Department of Education had requested via their solicitor for further changes to be made to the non- standard clause 3.9.3 regarding restricting use of the property to being a UTC and requiring approval from Long Road for changes of use.
ECS noted that this was a clause that the Corporation had requested was inserted right at the start of the negotiations. ED confirmed that he was not happy with the suggested alternative that any concerns regarding future use of the property so be dealt with by assignment and agreed with the Principal that the Corporation should not be willing to change their requirements at this late stage. The Corporation had taken this position because of the proximity of the new building to the College and whilst happy that the UTC used the building could envisage scenarios for use of the buildings by other providers of sixth form education which could be very detrimental to the College.