MEETING OF THE FULL CORPORATION
OF FAREHAM COLLEGE
24th June 2015
M I N U T E S
Present: Mr K Briscoe
Miss E Champion
Mr N Duncan
Mr P Fielon
Mr P Grimwood
Mr R Kew (Chair)
Mr M Mansergh
Mrs N Nageon de Lestang
Miss L Quelch
Miss K Smith
Dr C Thomas
Mrs P Tilt
Ms K Woods
In attendance: Mr S Dingsdale (AP/MD CEMAST)
Mrs J Eayrs (Clerk)
Mrs A Hinton (Executive Director HR)
Mr A Kaye (Deputy Principal)
Mr P Marsh (Director Capital Projects)
Mrs J Robinson (Head of Finance)
36/15 Presentation – Update on Safeguarding
(Mr Briscoe and Miss Champion arrived during this item 4.40pm and 4.50pm respectively)
Members of the Board received a presentation from Mrs Barbara Piddington, Local Authority Designation Officer (LADO) at Hampshire County Council (HCC) on Safeguarding.
Mrs Piddington outlined the role of LADO which she undertook at HCC. She went on to say that Mrs Sommers, Director of Students and Recruitment, had provided her with an overview of the College’s safeguarding framework during a recent visit in April 2015. She confirmed that she was satisfied that the College’s safeguarding arrangements complied with DFE guidance and assured Governors that, from her experience of working with Mrs Sommers, she was confident that the College’s procedures for dealing with allegations against staff were robust and that the College had followed all necessary procedures when concerns had been brought to its attention.
Mrs Piddington advised the Board that new guidance had been published in 2015, Keeping Children Safe in Education (DfE 2015). She outlined the responsibility of Governing Bodies as follows:
· Although Governors were not expected to get involved in the day-to-day running of child protection or safeguarding issues, members were expected to ensure that there was a designated safeguard lead appointed and that the College had a sufficient framework in place to ensure that everyone at the College was safe;
· Governors were asked to consider how they would know that the College had a robust safeguarding framework in place. Mrs Piddington advised members of an annual safeguarding audit the College was required to complete and electronically submit to the Safeguarding Board;
· Governors should ensure that the designated Safeguarding Lead had an explicit job description in place;
· Governors should ensure that Child Protection Policies and Procedures were up-to-date and reviewed annually;
· Governors should ensure that there were procedures in place for dealing with allegations against staff. In addition, a nominated Governor would be required to deal with any allegations against the Principal;
· There was a new DfE and OFSTED requirement for colleges to ensure that there was a procedure in place for dealing with allegations against other children;
· The College should be able to provide evidence of opportunities for teaching safeguarding to students to raise their awareness of how to keep themselves safe;
· The College was required to have in place a Staff Behaviour Policy (or Code of Conduct) to inform staff how to avoid allegations being made against them;
· Mrs Piddington asked Governors to consider how the College ensured safe recruitment and selection, reporting and barring. Governors were reminded that the Vice-Chair, who was also the nominated Governor for safeguarding, currently undertook a termly check of the single central register.
Governors’ questions/points of clarification were invited:
· Mrs Piddington confirmed that a ‘child’ was deemed to be 0-18 years old. She advised members that a different set of procedures and policies existed for individuals aged 18+ who were deemed to be ‘vulnerable adults’;
· Governors sought assurance from Mrs Piddington regarding the safeguarding arrangements which had been put in place during the campus development works. Mrs Piddington confirmed that, as there was no unsupervised contact between the contractors and the College students the arrangements currently in place were appropriate;
· There was a discussion about the annual audit and whether this was necessary. Mrs Piddington stated that Governors needed to be assured that the College had an appropriate framework/mechanisms in place and the audit was a useful self-assessment tool to provide this assurance;
· The Clerk sought clarification as to whether the new DfE guidance now required the College to report all allegations to the full Board. Mrs Piddington responded by saying that there was only a requirement for the Principal and the Chair to be notified of any allegations made.
The Chair thanked Mrs Piddington for her presentation and she left the meeting.
37/15 Declaration of Interests
Members were reminded of the need to declare any personal or financial interest in any items of business to be considered during the meeting. There were no interests declared.
38/15 Apologies for absence
Apologies for absence were received and accepted from Mr Carter, Mr Hart, Mr Magee, Mr Ramsay, Mrs Lancaster. The Chair welcomed Mr Andrew Kaye, Deputy Principal, to his first meeting of the full Board.
39/15 Minutes of the meeting held on the 23rd March 2015
The minutes of the meeting held on the 23rd March 2015 were agreed as a true and accurate record and were signed by the Chair. There were no matters arising from them which were not covered elsewhere on the agenda.
40/15 Confidential minutes of the meeting held on the 23rd March 2015
The Confidential minutes of the meeting held on the 23rd March 2015 were agreed as a true and accurate record and were signed by the Chair. Members agreed one amendment, the inclusion of Dr C Thomas in the list of attendees on page 1. There were no matters arising from them which were not covered elsewhere on the agenda.
41/15 Strictly Confidential minutes of the special meeting held on the 29th April 2015
The strictly confidential minutes of the special meeting held on the 29th April 2015 (for Governors who are not Staff or Students only) were agreed as a true and accurate record and were signed by the Chair. There were no matters arising from them which were not covered elsewhere on the agenda.
42/15 Correspondence:
(i) Anonymous Correspondence – Members of the Board received a paper which outlined a series of events following notification of an anonymous letter which had been sent to Nicky Morgan, Secretary of State for Education, HCC, OFSTED and the SFA. In addition, the Complaints Policy and Procedure of the Corporation had been updated to include formal arrangements for dealing with anonymous complaints and was attached as an Appendix to the paper for members’ consideration and approval. The Chair spoke to the report and advised members that, on the 11th May 2015, he had reviewed all of the associated documentation/correspondence in order to make a judgement regarding the allegations made in the anonymous letter which had been received. He explained that, in considering the documentation, he had acknowledged that:
· The correspondence in question had not actually been sent to the College but to a number of other external agencies/Government Department;
· The correspondence provided insufficient information or detail to undertake an investigation;
· Due to the fact it was anonymous, the letter provided no opportunity to obtain further details, information or evidence regarding the allegations made;
· The Chair considered the allegations made in the letter to be unfounded.
As a result, the Chair advised members that he had taken the decision, on behalf of the Board, to disregard the anonymous letter on this occasion.
Members of the Board formally endorsed the judgement of the Chair to disregard the anonymous correspondence previously reported to Governors on the 23rd April 2015 and formally approved the inclusion of the arrangements for dealing with anonymous complaints as outlined in the paper.
Mr Marsh, Director Capital Projects, joined the meeting during this item.
(ii) Letter dated 11th June 2015 from Dr David Collins CBE, FE Commissioner, DBIS to all Chairs and Principals of Corporations and FE Institutions – Members of the Board reviewed and discussed the letter from the FE Commissioner. Members were aware that an emergency budget was due to be announced on the 8th July 2015 as part of an in-year budget review with £450 million in savings to be made from the BIS revenue budget. Members agreed that, as it was impossible to predict where these cuts would fall, the Board would review the position again at the next Corporation meeting scheduled for September 2015.
43/15 Principal’s Summer Term Report 2015
Members of the Board received the Principal’s Summer Term Report 2015 which was confidential to members of the Board and which summarised key issues and developments in the work of the College during the summer term and outlined the progress which had been made in taking forward the College’s Strategic priorities and the College Quality Improvement Plan for 2014/2015.
The Principal spoke to the paper and drew members’ attention to the following:
· FE Sector Funding Landscape – The Principal provided members with an overview of an in-year budget review, which had been announced by the Chancellor the previous week, which was set to reduce 2015-2016 budgets by a total of £3billion. This included £450 million from ‘non-schools DFE’ and £450million from the BIS revenue budget. Members of the Board discussed the potential implications for the College should changes to the 2015-2016 allocations be made. It was acknowledged that, to do so, would be a breach of trust by Government and would force many colleges, including Fareham, into deficit. The Principal added that there were currently 40 colleges in financial difficulties and this figure was set to double in the next 12 months. Members of the Board agreed that the College was entering yet another year of uncertainty which would require very close and careful monitoring. Members reiterated the need to review the position again in September when the outcomes of the funding cuts and emergency Budget were known;
· Government’s Plans – The Principal provided a brief overview on three key themes being reinforced by the Government:
- Devolution: More control over what happens in a local area to LEPs,
- Apprenticeships – the College continued to strive to grow this area,
- Careers Advice – the proposal that support from a Jobcentre Plus adviser would be available in schools to supplement careers advice and provide routes in work experience and apprenticeships;
· Institution for Further Education – Members were advised that the Privy Council had recently announced that the Queen had approved the grant of a Royal Charter to the Institution for Further Education to develop the potential, reputation and standing of the further education sector;
· College Progress – Members reviewed and noted College progress and forecast outcomes for 2014/2015. Members were pleased to note that, overall, an improvement of 7% to 88% success rate was forecast for 2014/2015;
· English and Maths – The Principal confirmed that English and Maths continued to be a challenge;
· Organisational and Management Structure – The Principal confirmed that the recent changes to the management and organisational structure had now been implemented as outlined on page 3 of the report;
· Divisional progress – Members reviewed and noted a number of 4x4 divisional progress reports which outlined four aspects that had made good progress and four that had been more challenging during the last term;
· Recruitment 2015/2016 – The Principal reported that new applications were up by 25% compared to the previous year;
· International Recruitment – The Principal provided an update on the progress of the international programme. He advised members that the Border Agency had not approved the Tier 4 Licence and, as a result, the international curriculum launch would be postponed until the next academic year (September 2016);
· Report on waste incident involving emergency services – The Principal outlined a series of events which had occurred on Saturday 14th March 2015 which had involved the emergency services receiving a call from a member of the public to report potentially hazardous waste which had been disposed of in a general waste skip. The Principal assured members that the items identified had not constituted a hazard to health and he outlined the action plan which had been put in place to dispose of the items concerned. He confirmed that the College had complied with all relevant regulations and the waste had been appropriately disposed of. In addition, the College systems had been reviewed and updated to ensure this did not happen again in the future.
Members of the Board reviewed and noted the contents of the Principal’s Summer Term Report 2015.
44/15 Final Progress Review of Strategic Objectives and Quality Improvement 2014/2015
Members of the Board received a paper which provided a progress review of the strategic priorities and quality improvement for 2014/2015. The Principal spoke to the report and drew members’ attention to the following:
· Retention and Achievement that support improved success rate – The Principal highlighted the fact that consistent monitoring of retention and students at risk had resulted in a current retention rate of 92.5%. Members noted that BRC was on target to achieve at least the 88% success rate target (dependent on English and Maths exam results);
· QAA actions – The Principal confirmed that all actions arising from the QAA review had now been added to the Quality Improvement plan which was why 50% of the actions had only achieved substantive progress;
· Equality of Achievement – The Principal highlighted the fact that some inconsistencies in retention rates had emerged in a few SSAs. He went on to say that the areas of concern had been monitored through TSC&Q and SMT and would be analysed in Course and Departmental SARs with relevant actions to improve being implemented for the beginning of the 2015/2016 year.
Members reviewed and noted the progress achieved against the strategic objectives and quality improvement for 2014/2015.
45/15 The Strategic Plan 2015-2017 & Annual Objectives 2015/2016
Members of the Board received the Strategic Plan 2015-2017 (including annual objectives 2015/2016) for consideration and approval. Members were aware that they had had the opportunity to contribute to the development of the Strategic Plan at a number of dedicated sessions and the Principal drew members’ attention to the areas of the Strategy which had been updated following feedback from Board members and staff.