November 2009

last updated:March 2010

Meeting of Executive Committee, 24 November 2009

Observers to the GTCE
The Director of Corporate Services updated the Committee on the section in the paper relating to a protocol with the DCSF following a recent meeting with Sarah Conboy from the Department with further clarification to the role of DCSF observers namely:

• To help promote a constructive partnership between DCSF and the GTCE
• To give feedback to the departmental colleagues.

The Committee in endorsing the proposals set out in the Chief Executive’s paper believed that any observer relationship must be productive with value for the observation and that reciprocity was not necessarily a given.

Committee:

• agreed the proposals to develop the observer protocol with the DCSF and that the Chief Executive be given delegated authority to finalise the protocol in consultation with the Chair of the Committee.
• approved the protocols at section 4.2, of the paper which will form the basis of guidance to observers from other organisations.
• approved the principles at section 4.3 as guidance for which organisations’ boards the GTC should supply observers to.
• agreed the principles for selecting organisations who will be invited to submit observers to Council as detailed at section 4.4.

Management accounts for the 6 months to 30 September 2009  
The Head of Finance and Workforce Development summarised the key areas of the paper reporting that the key performance indicators were representing work in progress.

The Committee focused on the projected under spend to date in the Policy and Communications service areas.  In response the Director of Communications referred to the impact of the delayed Remit Review and capacity problems within the organisation to deliver the whole range of communications activity.  The Committee discussed the risk involved with the level of under spends that will need to be considered when preparing the budget for 2010/11.  The Chair of the Finance and General Purposes Committee stated that there would be a more thorough examination of the accounts at that Committee’s meeting in early December.

Committee:

• reviewed, discussed and noted the information within the management accounts and this paper.
• considered the financial information in conjunction with mid year review budget proposals.

Mid year review 2009-10
The Head of Finance and Workforce Development introduced the paper and the context of the assumptions regarding the fee level for the 2010/11 financial year in the light of the Council decision in March 2009. Staff were working towards the indicative fee previously agreed by Council and were also sensitive to the view point of DCSF officials. The Executive Committee were asked to give a steer for a tactical decision to be taken prior to a formal report to the January Committee and then onto January 2010 Council.

The Chair of the Finance and General Purposes Committee in supporting the recommendations believed the Committee needed to consider how the outcomes of the mid year review inform the organisation about the budgeting assumptions for next year.  The Committee had a brief discussion on the impact on the License to Practise and the level of reserves, upon which the Head of Finance and Workforce Development provided clarification.

The Committee agreed the proposed recommendations regarding budget adjustments and discussion then centred on tactics/considerations for the next financial year.  The Committee had a confidential discussion regarding fee options for 2010/11 having regard to further work being commissioned by the DCSF regarding License to Practise, a prudent level of reserves and some of the key risks involved in setting the fee level.  The Committee briefly discussed various scenarios options against a range of possibilities which they asked staff to fully work up.  These included additional revenue streams, a review of the budgets for core functions, the need to take a three year view, the projected financial position at the end of the current financial year, increased activities within the regulatory role, maintaining a proper level of reserves as summarised in the decision below.

Committee:

• approved the budget adjustments in table 2, under the delegated powers of the Executive Committee;
• noted the impact on the annual budget for the current year and the three year budget strategy
• gave a steer to the Chief Executive and Leadership Team on the formulation and presentation of the 2010/11 and future years’ budgets for report to the January 2010 meeting  and various options to be explored including additional revenue streams; and to work on different scenario planning with regard to the various issues discussed at Committee

ICT 2015 Procurement and Implementation of ICT Managed Services for
GTC
The Director of Corporate Services introduced the paper and the rationale for the recommendations and explained the difficulty with the current provision of ICT services to the GTC and the planned way forward with current contractor.

Committee delegated to the Chair of the Committee (or in her absence the Vice Chair), on the recommendation of the Director of Corporate Services, approval of the provisions for a short term contract for IT services to provide an ICT services extension until 31 December 2010, when these have been finalised


Risk management policy and practice     
The Director of Corporate Services introduced the paper and the background to this piece of work.  A Member drew Committee’s attention to the division of responsibilities between the Council and the various Committees and the Senior Managers which would perhaps need some clarification before the policy was finalised.  The Director of Corporate Services undertook to look at these amendments prior to submission to the Audit Committee in December.

Committee:

• approved the revised Risk Management Policy, including the specific responsibilities and roles assigned to the Executive Committee; subject to some textual review and clarification as a result of issues raised at the meeting.
• approved the recommended level of risk appetite specified in the revised Risk Management Policy.

Governance update
The Council Secretary introduced his paper and drew Committee’s specific attention to the recommendation around the Lead Member roles and the governance arrangements in respect of the Teacher Learning Academy.

The Chair of Council had discussed the allocation of Lead Member roles with the Vice Chair in the light of interest received by Members and she proposed the allocation set out in the decision below.  The Committee in endorsing Andrew Baxter’s reappointment for the Who Adjudicates project stated that the rationale should be explained to Council Members in view of his position as Chair of a Service Committee.  

The Committee discussed how the Lead Member role would function and it was noted that there needed to be contact between the Lead Member and the Lead Director to commence the process which would lead to a wider involvement of Council Members in these programmes.

In respect of the recommendation from the TLA Special Governance Group regarding future Governance arrangements the Committee agreed this recommendation subject to an amendment set out below.

Committee:

• noted the various governance updates set out in the paper
• agreed that the following Lead Member roles be allocated by the Committee as recommended by the Chair and Vice Chair for two years as detailed in section 4.1 of the paper, namely:
  • Corporate Governance 2012 (suggested that the Chair of Council is, de facto, the Lead Member for this programme,)
  • John Adams as co lead Member Corporate Governance 2012
  • Communications, Barbara Hibbert
  • Equality and Diversity, Max Hyde
  • Who Adjudicates, Andrew Baxter
  • Licence to Practise Chris Cook; and
  • Networks Transformation Sarah Bowie.
    
• endorsed the TLA’s Special Governance Group’s recommendation regarding future governance arrangements as detailed in Section 4.1 of the paper subject to the following amendments.
• to defer the question of an additional Council Member on the TLA SGG pending the consideration of the Gateway review
• noted that an additional Council meeting is being scheduled for 24 March 2010.