Staff Governor Notes of the Full Governing Board-Tuesday 29th March 2011 at 8.30am-Malcolm House.

  1. Apologies:

Sue Murphy (Chair), Peter Tavernor, Courage Aiguobasinmwin, Eddy Sheehy, Nick Collins, Julie Armstrong and Andrew Harrison (Senior Vice Principal-Finance).

  1. David Cain (Vice Chair) took the Chair. He referred to Peter Tavernor’s absence through illness and wished him a speedy recovery and the Board endorsed these sentiments. Barbara Forshaw (Acting Principal) said that Peter is regularly in touch over the phone and continues to take an active interest in the day to day operations of the college.
  1. Minutes of Last Meeting 8/2/11:

Agreed correct. It was noted that the Governor Strategic Weekend planned for March, had been postponed due to the Principals absence. The Chair hoped that it would be possible to re-arrange this in late June when the Principal hopes to be back in work and able to participate. A Governor thought that the decision to postpone was correct and that the important matters around Federation, Studio Schools and Super Sponsor should be discussed at the re-arranged session. The Acting Principal suggested and the Board agreed, that a briefing on 17 May 2011 at which Governors could receive reports on the major issues from senior staff, would also be beneficial.

The Chair and Full Board, congratulated Jack Carney on his appointment to the post of Deputy Principal.

  1. Governing Body Membership:

The College Clerk reported that Mark Eden had submitted his resignation to the Board due to work and home commitments. It was agreed that the Search Committee should meet to seek a suitable replacement.

  1. Finance Issues:

The college is still on target to have a £6m surplus which will help when severe cuts start to hit next year. Non Pay expenditure for example is under spent against budget as at Feb 2011.

A mid-year financial health submission to the SFA had been made, identifying in the 3 year forecast that the college is Satisfactory in 2010, but will be Good in 2011, 2012 and 2013. A letter from the SFA had also been received in response to the submission of the college accounts for 2009-10, confirming that they agreed with the Satisfactory assessment for 2009-10.

  1. Audit Issues:

The 10 year+ on- going campaign by a journalist to discredit the college (and its predecessor) was again discussed. It was noted that the journalist had left the Times Ed and moved to the Guardian, but continued to make allegations which had been proved on several occasions to have no substance and had cost the college and the public sector a great deal in time and fees paid to auditors. The latest investigation regarding allegations made in December 2010 of the Offender Learning Service delivery, had been refuted by the college in a lengthy response and subsequently investigated by the SFA’s Audit team. Unfortunately the report has still not been released and is sat on the Minister’s desk having been promised in January 2011. The Board expressed their concern that the report had not yet been released, nor had the college been offered an opportunity to comment on the contents.

  1. Alison Wolf Report:

The Wolf Report Reviewing Vocational Education in England had been released on 8/3/11 and contained 27 Recommendations. Jack Carney presented the report to the Board and highlighted the key principles about the need for a young person’s study to have progression, the importance of careers advice and the need to make learning simplified and responsive to the needs of the learner. The report estimated that 350,000 learners are pursuing qualifications of little or negative economic value to the country.

  1. Headline Performance:

The Board were presented with the Headline Performance Targets for 2010-11 that are reviewed regularly by SMT and Jack Carney explained how they are used to monitor progress against Plan throughout the year.

  1. College Code of Governance 2011-12:

The new code for 2011-12 was noted by the Board.

  1. Offender Learning Segment Delivery Update:

The report was presented so that Governors could be assured that delivery in the OLASS sector is going to plan.

  1. Intelligence Briefings:

Copies of reports compiled by the Research and Planning team and circulated to senior staff, to keep them up to date with matters in the FE sector, were presented to the Board.

It was agreed that future briefings would also be emailed to members of the Board.

Peter Wharton (Staff Governor-Non Teaching),Eddy Sheehy (Staff Governor-Academic)

Openshaw Campus,Moston Campus,

Tel: 0161 455 2415 (Direct dial).0161 953 4136 (Direct Dial)