The Board
Chief Executives Office, Kilwinning
Tuesday 16 December 2014 @ 10:30
Present:Rosemary Winter-Scott / The Accountant in Bankruptcy and
Agency Chief Executive (Chair)
John Cook / Executive Director Case Operations
Graeme Watson / Executive Director Corporate Services
Kate Dunlop / Non-Executive Board Member (NEBM)
Donna McKenzie Skene / Non-Executive Board Member (NEBM)
Yvonne MacDermid / Non-Executive Board Member (NEBM)
Alex Reid / Executive Director Policy and Compliance (TRS)
In attendance:
Steve McGhee / Head of Efficiencies and Technology
Rebecca Crook / Head of Finance
Gavin Cameron / Observer
Cobus Louw / Acting Secretary
Welcome, introduction, apologies, acceptance of previous minutes and matters arising from previous minutes
1. The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting. Apologies were noted from Jeremy Brettell and Claire Orr. The Chair also welcomed the observer, Gavin Cameron, and Alex Reid to the meeting. Alex is covering for Claire Orr as the Executive Director Policy and Compliance in her absence.
2. The minutes of the previous meeting were accepted as a true record apart from one minor amendment. The words “Part 2” should be added to the words fees waived on page 4 paragraph 21.
3. There were no outstanding action points.
Declaration of any Conflict of Interest
4. There were no reported conflicts with the agenda.
Chief Executive/IAIR Update
5. RWS indicated that the Scottish Financial Health Service (SFHS) website has been launched. A supporting advertising campaign named “lighten the load” will also be launched on 2nd Januaury 2015. YMcD indicated that the SFHS support line will also go live on the 2nd January 2015.
6. RWS stated that she has applied for voluntary exit and that this has been approved. Claire Orr will take over as Chief Executive of AiB and John Cook will take over as The Accountant in Bankruptcy. The Board congratulated John and Claire on the appointment of their respective roles.
7. RWS informed the Board that Claire Orr will be taking a leave of absence due to ill health.
8. RWS also informed the Board that Graeme Watson has been recalled to the Business Directorate.
9. RWS updated the Board on the progress of bringing the IAIR secretariat in-house. Training on the use of the IAIR website was delivered on 5th December and RWS indicated that there is scope to use the website for a lot more than it is currently being used for.
Contracted Out Insolvency Services (COIS) system options Paper TB(14-15)35
10. The Board noted that the current COIS solution requires significant and costly redevelopment to make the system fit for purpose and to support the new legislation being introduced in April 2015. Taking into account the limitations of the technology and outdated infrastructure, a report was drawn up by an independent IT architect that a more effective solution would be to further develop BASYS as a direct replacement of the functionality currently provided by COIS. If this approach was taken it would ensure access to a comprehensive maintenance and support contract will allow enhancements to be developed as and when required and in addition it would automate the updating of data which is currently being done manually.
11. There was a general discussion about timescales and in particular the migration of cases from MIDAS to BASYS. SM indicated that the earliest opportunity to switch off legacy cases on MIDAS would be March 2016 and that there would require to be a period of parallel running. SM also indicated that the first six months of the switch from COIS to BASYS will be phase 1 and this will be the development of BASYS to process these cases. The second 6 month period, phase 2, will be the migration of case information from COIS to BASYS.
12. Both SM and JC indicated that consultation with stakeholders will start once the Board have agreed to support this proposal. JC indicated that as with the development of all new systems there is an inherent degree of risk, however, he reassured the Board that the risk can be controlled and that this was the most cost effective solution. The Board supported the proposal.
Employee Engagement Results Paper TB(14-15)36
13. The Chair stated that she was very pleased with the results and in particular mentioned the 14% increase in the overall score of the Corporate Services team. She thanked everyone for their continued efforts which has resulted in the being only marginally behind the score of the SG which is the organisation AiB uses as a benchmark.
14. The NEBMs praised the results and stated that considering the volume of change that the organisation is going through it was very positive to see such positive results in particular under the heading of Leadership and Managing Change.
HR 6 monthly Review Paper TB(14-15)37
15. RWS pointed out that AiB is well within its headcount. A number of key roles in the agency are being covered by TRS and RWS indicated that the B1 recruitment process, to fill these posts, was progressing well. Approximately 500 applications have been received.
16. RWS informed the Board that AiB have selected 3 candidates to undertake student placements within AiB. These will initially be for a 6 month period. Two of the candidates will be assisting colleagues in Policy and Compliance looking at factors that influence bankruptcy and a cap on pay day loans respectively. The third candidate will be working with the Business Support Manager on the review of KPI’s.
17. It was noted that sickness absence has increased since the last report. The Board discussed this and noted that this was mainly due to an increase in long term absence. RWS stressed that she was keen the agency continued to work towards the reduction of short term absence.
Financial Monitoring Report Paper TB(14-15)38
18. The Board were advised that AiB continues to show surplus. It is anticipated that there will still be a surplus even with unexpected expenditure such as the voluntary redundancy scheme. SG Finance has been informed that in addition to returning the Retained Consignations of circa £1.5m to the SG a figure of £1m has also been returned in relation to our Resource Budget which is no longer required. AiB had a 100% payment performance over the last month. The Board were also advised that as a result of an ongoing Aged Debt recovery exercise the amount of outstanding Aged Debts has reduced significantly.
19. RC asked the Board if they would prefer receiving the annexes on a quarterly- rather than monthly basis. The Board consider this proposal and agreed that monthly reports are more beneficial. The current arrangement will remain in place.
Key Messages
20. Key messages from the meeting were:
· The Board congratulated RWS and AiB on the good survey results.
· The Board welcomed the proposal to replace the COIS system with BASYS.
· The Board congratulated both John and Claire on the news of their pending appointments.
The Board also wished Claire Orr a speedy recovery.
AoB, Next Meeting and Thanks
Cobus Louw
Acting Secretary
December 2014
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