Students & Community Minutes August 2013 Page 1

ST VINCENT COLLEGE

Board of Governors (Corporation)

Minutes of the meeting of the Students & Community Committee held on

Thursday 29th August 2013 at 5.00 p.m. in the Conference Room

Present

External Members: Brian Corrall (Chair), Anne O’Reilly

Staff Governors: Vanessa Weaver

In attendance: Andy Grant (Assistant Principal, Students & Community), Andrew McVittie (Clerk).

Apologies

Student Governors: Carly Dalton, Sarah French

Staff: Lisa Rhodes

Absent

Nil

Quorate Yes

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38 / Apologies
Apologies for absence were noted and accepted.
Declaration of Members’ Interests
There were no new declarations.
Minutes of the Last Meeting (7th March 2013)
Minutes of the meeting held on 7th March 2013 were agreed and signed.
Matters Arising
  • 15. To add the Clerk to the circulation list for minutes from Student Union meetings. On-going.
  • 22. Confirmation of funding for LLD students remained outstanding but was being pursued with Hampshire County Council on a daily basis. The Assistant Principal (Students & Community) would report further in due course. On-going
OFSTED Response
Liaison & Marketing Strategy
The Liaison & Marketing Strategy had been reviewed previously. However, the Corporation had asked the Committee to review this again in light of the last OFSTED inspection report. Governors were pleased to note that the Liaison & Marketing Strategy had been updated to incorporate a new Curriculum Strategy which had been developed in response to the inspection report. This Curriculum Strategy had been composed by the Principal and was based on input from Curriculum Managers and Governors as gathered at the Corporation Away Day in June 2013. The Curriculum Strategy would be further developed over time and subject to an annual review.
A Governor asked why the KPI for 19+ learners appeared to indicate a fall in student numbers rather than growth. The Assistant Principal advised that this reflected the College’s expectation that the number of adult learners would initially decline as a result of national funding cuts. Governors agreed that this exceptional trend should be annotated by means of a footnote to explain its root cause.
In further discussion, Governors noted that the College had deferred development of 14-16 provision until such time as the impact of the new Study Programmes had been fully understood. This new methodology meant that funding was linked to student learning hours (minimum of 540 hours) rather than to specific courses.
The Assistant Principal asked Governors to note his proposal that the College should invest in a software programme (“Vector”) that would provide hard data in terms of market intelligence. An investment of up to £8k would be required to gain access to 3 years of retrospective data. Governors supported this proposal as it was apparent that the College did not currently hold sufficient information about its market. Better data would also help to inform further development of the Curriculum Strategy.
Governors asked the Assistant Principal to update the “actions” section of the Liaison & Marketing Strategy, and to re-submit this to the Corporation for ratification.
Equality and Diversity Policy
Governors agreed that the current Equality & Diversity (E&D) Policy was adequate in terms of staffing and employment issues, but did not address the way in which E&D should be embedded within the Curriculum. Governors asked the Assistant Principal to draft a further policy for this purpose, and to seek input from Committee members via email before half term. In the meantime, the Assistant Principal reported that some staff training had already taken place on Equality & Diversity within the curriculum. Governors agreed that this further aspect of E&D policy could be agreed at the Corporation’s January Away Day as part of an E&D training session for Governors. The Clerk was asked to schedule this item.
Student Union
The Assistant Principal reported his intention to liaise with the Student Support Manager with a view to broadening the scope and impact of the Student Union, which currently focused primarily on the organisation and promotion of “events” rather than wider student issues.
In discussion, a Governor asked if the use of social media by Student Union members might present a risk that any negative comments made about the College by students would be made public. Governors agreed that whilst social media accounts would need to be managed, the risk of adverse publicity was not exceptional or unique.
Safeguarding Policy & Procedures
Governors reviewed the Safeguarding Policy. Only minor revisions had been made. Of note was the fact that the Criminal Records Bureau had been replaced by the Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS), and that the results of DBS checks were now sent directly to the employee, rather than to the Personnel Department. The College would continue to ensure that new members of staff were not allowed to work unsupervised with students without completion of a DBS check, and before the outcome of this check had been made available to the College.
Annual Safeguarding Report
Governors reviewed the annual Safeguarding Report as presented by the Assistant Principal. In discussion, Governors suggested that all staff should be reminded that they should not be-friend students on Facebook, or other social media, as this could place them in a vulnerable position. Governors suggested that the Resources Committee should consider the potential for prohibiting this type of contact with students by means of a clause in staff employment contracts. The Assistant Principal was asked to take this action forward.
In a further discussion, Governors were pleased to note the College’s intention to increase the accessibility of Safeguarding training by developing an online module.
Pastoral Care & Student Support
Governors were asked to note that provision of student support had been reviewed last year and subsequently re-structured. It had been identified that student support coordinators were too “generalist” and not always sufficiently available to students due to their other teaching commitments. As such, this role had now been ceased and the College had sought instead to make more specialist provision available by recruiting an additional two Progress Tutors. This new system would be deployed from Monday 2nd September 2013 and reviewed again in January 2014. The Assistant Principal wished to acknowledge Senior Management Team support for this development and investment.
Committee Data Requirements
An initial statement of the Committee’s on-going data requirements had been drafted by the Committee Chair and the Assistant Principal. This draft had been submitted to the Audit Committee for consideration as part of its remit to develop a Board Assurance Framework. As part of this development, the Committee would need to consider further the extent to which its data was being adequately “assured”. The Clerk would schedule further agenda items for this purpose in due course.
Operational Plan
Governors reviewed progress against the Operational Plan (Strategic Priorities 2, 3 & 7). Progress remained satisfactory and in line with expectations.
Risk Register
Governors agreed that the description of Risk 6.1 should be updated to reflect the College’s current position regarding CEMAST, and also broadened to reflect a more general level of competition risk (which remained high). The Assistant Principal would expedite this update with the Deputy Principal.
Meeting Review
Governors agreed that they had added value by re-visiting policies and strategies in light of comments made in the OFSTED inspection report, and were confident that this process would produce improvement. The agenda had contained sufficient breadth and the Committee had operated in accordance with its terms of reference.
Date of Next Meeting
Governors noted that the next meeting of the Committee would take place on Thursday 16th January 2013 at 5.00 p.m.
There being no other business, the meeting closed at 7.30pm
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