*SDF Panel: Annual Report to the Board /
B110/08
*Agenda item 18
17 December 2008

Issue

  1. The Strategic Development Fund (SDF) Panel’s Annual Report to the Board.

Recommendations

  1. The Board is invited to receive the report; attached as Annex A.

Timing

  1. The Board has asked that the Panel report annually on its activities and this is the first report of this kind.

Further information

  1. Further information can be obtained from David Sweeney (0117 931 7304,) orAlice Frost, the SDF Project Manager (0117 931 7101 ).

Background

  1. The Board agreed substantive changes to the policies and procedures of the Strategic Development Fund in April 2007. These largely related to changes to delegated authority levels, so that the Chief Executive (advised by Directors in his Chief Executive Group) and the SDF Panel would approve projects at higher levels of funding and thereby release time for more discussion of overall strategy and outcomes of the Fund. As part of these changes, the Board agreed that the Panel should submit an Annual Report to the Board (to be published) summarising the Panel’s work and achievements each year.
  1. The Panel’s report on its work for the past yearis attached as Annex A.

Annex A

HEFCE SDF Panel Report to the Board 2007-08

  1. The Strategic Development Fund was announced in the 2003 HE White Paper to support change and innovation in the HE sector. The Fund builds on the Council’s past experience of funding large-scale structural change in the sector, previously through our Restructuring and Collaboration Fund. The SDF plays a critical role in supporting delivery of our priorities, including our aims and objectives in sustaining a high quality HE sector as set out in our Strategic Plan.
  1. In the period of this report, we have invested through the fund:
  1. to support major institutional transformations
  2. to develop large-scale research collaborations
  3. to underpin our programme of work to support Strategic and Vulnerable Subjects, particularly in STEM disciplines
  4. to initiate our policy programme to explore forms of Employer Engagement
  5. to complete our policy programme of support for Lifelong Learning Networks (LLNs).
  1. Past evaluation of the fund has identified that projects we have supported are successful, to date – achieving their objectives and targets, making a positive additional contribution to projects (enabling projects to get started which wouldn’t have happened otherwise) and attracting additional contributions from others. Our SDF funding enables HEIs to leverage funding from other sources; and we often fund efficiently through offering repayable grant that may be returned to us to re-invest in the sector. It has been too early to assess outcomes of projects to date, but this will be a major focus for the work of the fund and panel in future.
  1. The SDF Panel made up of members of the HEFCE Board, under the Chairmanship of the HEFCE Chief Executive, keeps under review the overall development and effectiveness of the Fund on behalf of the Board: its membership and terms of reference are shown in Appendix A. The Panel’s work includes considering the criteria and priorities of the fund, making decisions on SDF and ASN awards at various levels of delegated authority, overseeing that the policies and procedures of the fund are applied consistently and considering outcomes. The Panel makes an annual report to the Board on its work in fulfilling its remit.

Meetings and Approvals

  1. The Panel formally convened on four occasions – 20 September 2007, 13December2007, 6 March 2008 and 18 September 2008. In addition, formal business was discharged by correspondence in January 2008 and July 2008 and as part of an ‘Awayday’ on 10-11 June 2008.
  1. Over the course of the year the Panel:
  1. recommended four projects totaling £36.5m to the Board for approval
  2. approved under delegated authority from the Board ten projects totaling £43.5m
  3. noted the approval by the Chief Executive (under delegated authority from the Board) of 21 projects totaling £23.0m.
  1. The SDF Panel also approved Employer Engagement projects in January and March 2008, prior to the establishment of a dedicated panel for that programme. In this role it approved a further three projects to the gross value of £10.1m (£8.9m net of repayable grant).
  1. The SDF Panel considered cases for Additional Student numbers at its meeting in September 2008. The Panel approved ASNs totaling 2,960 for 2009-10 and 2,583 for 2010-11, and considered a further four proposals that fell outside its delegated authority level for onward forwarding to the Board.
  1. Projects approved by the Panel have been reported to the Board through the delegated authority paper at each Board meeting and hence are not discussed in detail in this report. SDF project and ASN information is also published on the HEFCE website for the broader information of the HE sector.
  1. Of the 13 projects considered by the Panel, nine of these were dealt with at its meeting on 20 September 2007. The lower volume of projects at subsequent meetings was mainly due to the effect of the increased limits for approval under delegated authority approved by the Board in April 2007.
  1. Strategic Discussion
  1. The reduction in the number of projects handled at panel meetings freed up time of the Panel to concentrate on more strategically significant projects and to consider institutional, regional and national strategic use of the fund.
  1. As part of closer scrutiny of strategic projects, the panel received presentations on projects from:

University of Derby–Developing the Corporate University:

Professor John Coyne, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Derby

Hari Punchihewa, Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Finance Director, University of Derby

Andrew Hartley, Business Development Director, University of Derby

Project description: The University of Derbyis increasing its contribution to workforce development by creating a radical new business modeldrawing on areas of institutional strength, and developing an offer to persuade more employers to enter co-funding partnerships. £4.3m of SDF funding is accompanied by £5m from the University, and £2.74m from the Derby and Derbyshire Economic Partnership.

University of Brighton and CanterburyChristChurchUniversity - South East Coastal Communities:

Professor Stuart Laing, Pro Vice-Chancellor, University of Brighton

Professor Janet Druker, Senior Pro-Vice Chancellor, CanterburyChristChurchUniversity

Nigel Vaughan, Chief Executive Officer, Solent Synergy

Project description: South East Coastal Communities is a regional demonstrator project taking a strategic approach to HEI-community knowledge exchange to ensure that the intellectual assets of HEIs are available to surrounding communities. It is also expected that the project will have a multiplier effect in developing new relationships and projects in the region. Partners are securing £3m to match the £3.1m of SDF funding.

Universities of Birmingham and Warwick - ScienceCity Interdisciplinary Research Alliance:

Professor Mike Cruise, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research and Knowledge Transfer),University of Birmingham

Dr Phil Extance (Director of Innovation, Advantage West Midlands)

Professor Mark Smith, Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Chair of Faculty of Science, University of Warwick

Dr Pam Waddell Deputy Director (Research and Regional Development), University of Birmingham

Project description: The Science City Interdisciplinary Research Alliance is a high profile alliance of interdisciplinary, inter-institutional research staff. Advantage West Midlands is making a capital investment of £60m - £80m, in the context of Birmingham Science City, and the research alliance will ensure that there is a critical mass of researchers, and high quality collaborative work, to accelerate and sustain the impact of this investment. SDF funding will be used to recruit fifteen to twenty jointly appointed academics to enhance collaboration between the institutions.

ThamesValleyUniversity(TVU) - FutureSkills: New Approaches to Employer Engagement and Work Based Learning:

Professor Peter John, Vice-Chancellor, ThamesValleyUniversity

Dr Alistair Stokes, Chief Executive Officer, Ipsen Ltd

Andrew Ward, Director of Corporate Affairs, ThamesValleyUniversity

Project description: Futureskills is working in collaboration with the West London LLN to develop three Learning Centres based in areas of economic activity in the sub-region. The Centres will provide an overall brokerage service to promote, stimulate and develop work-based and other learning solutions between employers and LLN members. The project will also build capacity in institutions to respond to engagement through brokerage, market research and the development of quality assurance systems that support flexible work-based learning. SDF funding of £6.5m is joined by approximately £800,000 from TVU, partners, employers and intermediaries. TVU have also provided 181 FTE student numbers from their existing HEFCE grant.

Universities of Kent, Surrey and Sussex - South East Physics Network ‘SEPNET’:

Professor Michael Farthing, Vice-Chancellor, University of Sussex

Professor Julia Goodfellow, Vice-Chancellor, University of Kent

Professor Christopher Snowden, Vice-ChancellorUniversity of Surrey

Professor John Turner, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, University of Surrey

Project description: Through collaboratively securing the financial sustainability of its members’ Physics departments, the SEPNET consortium is advancing and protecting Physics as a strategically important subject for the UK economy and its science base. The £12.5 m of SDF funding is accompanied by £12.3m from the member HEIs, and £2.9m from stakeholders including SEEDA, STFC and AimHigher. In addition, a large network of major employers will provide facilities for placements and studentship stipends.

British Library and ImperialCollegeLondon - UK Research Reserve

Dame Lynne Brindley, Chief Executive, British Library

Matt Pfleger, Head of Sales and Marketing, British Library

Deborah Shorley, Director of Library Services, ImperialCollegeLondon

Project description: The UK Research Reserve (UKRR) is a shared national initiative to secure the long-term retention, storage and availability of low-use printed research journals in the HE sector. By providing a five-year de-duplication, storage and access solution, the UKRR aims to release 100km of shelving across the sector during the funding period, with recurrent estate savings of £2.8 m and a space saving capital value of £29m. It builds on the success of an SDF-funded pilot project carried out between 2006 and 2008.

  1. Strategic discussions at Panel meetings also covered outcomes emerging from past projects, present projects awarded and those in development (as well as proposals that are turned away). As part of this the following regional consultants gave presentations:

Roger Lewis - 20 September 2007 - North West and Yorkshire and Humberside. The main issues under discussion were:

That a feature in the northern regions was the significant provision by some large further education colleges, particularly in sub-regions where students were reluctant to travel far from home. That it had been necessary to move HEIs away from the idea of SDF money as a ‘right’. That HEFCE often had to manage complex discussions between several HEIs and with other stakeholders.

David Noyce - 13 December 2007 - South East and South West.

  1. The main issues under discussion were:

The Panel noted the difficulties of investing in regions where there was already a lot of provision, but where there were cold spots and areas of deprivation; also where there were differences between other stakeholders’ prioritiesand HEFCE strategic priorities, which were sometimes politically sensitive.

Nicola Oates - 6 March 2008 - North East.

  1. The main issues under discussion were:

That HEFCE activity in the region had focussed on raising the profile of HE through stakeholder groups, facilitating joined up working with other funders, supporting institutional change, and promoting debate about the balance of regional, local and institutional focus.

Yvonne Perry - 11 June 2008 - West Midlands.

  1. The main issues under discussion were:

That with 50 per cent of the region’s population living in Birmingham, and five HEIs based in and around the city, it was especially important that each of these institutions was aware of its market position. Collaboration between the institutions can be problematic, but LLNs have played a strong role in bringing institutions together in new ways.

Chris Millward - 11 June 2008 - East Of England.

  1. The main issues under discussion were:

That in a large region without a dominant city, and with undersupply of HE, SDF investments had largely focussed on bringing HE to new areas; often these had challenging projects involving a number of diverse partners.

  1. The Panel also used the 10-11 June Awayday to reflect on investments made through the SDF, and discuss how to ensure best use of the fund in the future. Three HEI leaders (Professor Chris Carr, Vice-Chancellor, University of Cumbria; Professor Steve Smith, Vice-Chancellor, University of Exeter; and Professor Mike Cruise, former Pro-Vice-Chancellor, University of Birmingham) attended a session to discuss their experiences of applying for and receiving SDF funding. The HEI representatives commented on the support they had received from their HEFCE regional teams, and the sector’s positive view of the SDF process compared to that of other funders. The Panel also received a presentation on use of the SDF in policy work, focussed on the experience of LLNs, from the Director (Education and Participation), John Selby. Discussions on the future of the fund considered the number and scale of investments the fund could best support and whether there should be changes to SDF priorities. The Panel also discussed handling of their work in the future, and particularly the need to introduce increased information about the progress of projects once they receive funding and on outcomes.
  1. Budget and Risk Monitoring
  1. The Panel took a close interest in the SDF budget and cash flow statements, notably to ensure sufficient funds were in place to cover commitments both pending the comprehensive spending review announcementand in light of its settlement.
  1. In line with April 2007 Board decisions, the Panel kept oversight of the levels of SDF awards to ensure that these were not increasing near to new approval limits. The Panel has been satisfied so far that this is not occurring.
  1. Review of changes made in policies and procedures of the Fund
  1. The Panel was kept informed of changes being made by the Executive to the policies and procedures of the Fund in line with the decisions made by the Board in April 2007. This included changes to the ways of handling Panel business at meetings. The changes were the subject of an Internal Audit in July-August 2008, to check that new arrangements were effective.
  1. The Panel considered an interim audit report mainly related to the April 2007 changes in delegated authority levels. The interim report provided assurance that the changes to the SDF’s administration and financial arrangements had been effectively secured and that internal processes were robust. A more wide ranging internal audit report addressing issues raised at the Panel’s awayday will be considered in due course by the Panel.
  1. The Panel was informed of changes to policies and procedures of the fund following decisions at the Board meeting of 28 February 2008, incorporating allocations of Additional Student Numbers within the systems of the Fund. The Panel then considered some ASN cases at its September 2008 meeting.

Appendix A

SDF panel membership (all are members of the HEFCE Board)

Professor David Eastwood (Chair)Chief Executive, HEFCE

Alastair Balls CBChairman, Centre for Life

Rob Douglas CBEBusiness Advisor, Douglas Associates Ltd

Peter SaragaFormer managing Director, Philips Research

Laboratories UK (to 31 December 2008)

Ed Smith(Retired) Senior Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers

Terms of reference

  1. The SDF panel will keep under review the overall development and effectiveness of the SDF. In particular it will:
  2. Consider the priorities to be supported via the SDFeach year.
  3. Make decisions concerning the funding of: high risk SDF proposals under £3million in grant value; and low- and medium risk SDF proposals valued between £3million and £8 million.
  4. Make decisions on ASNs to be allocated either in conjunction with SDF projects or as ASNs only cases, of between 150 and 300 FTE ASNs per project per year (up to a total of 900 FTE).
  5. Make decisions concerning the approval of repayable grants and their repayment period.
  6. Oversee that the policies and procedures of the fund are being applied in a consistent manner across regions, risk levels and types of proposal.
  7. Consider the outcomes being achieved by SDF projects and evaluations of the fund.
  8. Make an annual report on the state of the fund to the HEFCE Board.

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