Agenda and minutes

Venue: Conference Room 4B - Tŷ Hywel. View directions

Contact: Liz Jardine 

Items
No. Item

1.

Introductions, apologies and declarations of interest

Minutes:

Apologies were received from Nicola Callow (Head of Finance), Craig Stephenson (Interim Director of Commission Services) and Dave Tosh (Interim Director of Assembly Business and Director of ICT).

There were no declarations of interest.

2.

Communication note to staff - Siân Wilkins

Minutes:

Siân Wilkins would draft a note of the Management Board discussion for the news page.

3.

Minutes from last meeting (20 October 2014) - Paper 1

Supporting documents:

Minutes:

A correction was made to the minutes of 20 October meeting to change ‘icloud’ to ‘the cloud’.

7.

Internal Audit report - Recruitment

Minutes:

Management Board had an initial discussion on the findings and recommendations of the completed audit report. They welcomed the report and agreed to return to consider it more fully in the new year, once it had been presented to the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee and they had expressed their views.

4.

Constitutional change - Paper 2, annexes A-C and appendix

Minutes:

The Board received a paper that was due to be presented to the Commission on 17 November as an update on key constitutional issues, their implications and how staff were preparing for those changes.  Commissioners would be asked to endorse the approach being taken to ensure the right capacity was in place to support whatever constitutional change may take place and to provide a steer for any further work or advice needed.

The paper gave a good indication of the scale of change necessary, particularly around the potential increase in the number of Members, although some information was still speculative, meaning advice was tentative in some areas.  The Assembly has provided extremely high levels of support but an increase in Members would, in some areas, require decisions about whether to reduce support, increase costs or look at alternative ways of doing things. The Board agreed it would be helpful to seek Commissioners’ views on what Members would expect in terms of the levels of support.

 

Actions:

·           Anna Daniel to revisit costs annex to ensure it included all service areas and consider adding a timeline to the paper; and

·           Non Gwilym to prepare draft media lines if required.

 

5.

Review of support for Committees - Paper 3

Minutes:

Siân Wilkins presented an update for Commissioners, outlining enhancements made to the support for committees since their consideration of the issue last December.  The Commission’s role was one of support to committees rather than directing committees to work in particular ways. The paper sought the Commission’s view on the direction of further work and presented options for more detailed analysis and evaluation to inform improvements and measurement of outcomes.

 

The Board agreed that it showed a very positive story and felt the approach was now embedded. They asked that the progress on the review of the Record and the work on communication with hard to reach groups was also included.  The reference to CPD for Members and Chairs should be updated to reflect discussions between the Remuneration Board and Commissioners on 3 November.

The paper would be presented to Commissioners on 17 November.

6.

Corporate risk update - Paper 4 and annexes A-D

Minutes:

The Board carried out their periodic review of the corporate risk register including a horizon scan for potential risks. They agreed to remove the risks around safeguarding children, ICT and the Official Languages scheme, since the mitigating actions had reduced those risks to manageable levels allowing the risks to sit at Service level.

 

The risk around the matter of security was discussed, but it was agreed that Management Board would consider whether to escalate the risk to corporate level following the current review. The Board also agreed: to extend the corporate capacity risk to summer 2015 to allow time for recruitment; to leave the risk around the use of social media on the register until training on the policy had been completed; and that Anna Daniel would prepare a risk analysis and consider all the consequences of the risks around the decisions made by the Remuneration Board.

 

The Board considered whether, in future, an assessment of risk should be taken into account on every decision paper and agreed it might be pertinent to include a heading in paper templates to ensure it was covered and to provide an audit trail. Virginia Hawkins would look at appropriate wording.

7.

Financial Management report October 2014 and Investment and Resourcing Board update - 3 November - Oral

Minutes:

Claire Clancy provided an update on the Investment and Resourcing Board (IRB) meeting of 3 November. The October finance report had been available and confirmed the investment funds as had been estimated in September. The IRB had considered the funds available for investment and agreed several business cases for essential EFM work that could be brought forward into the current year. In addition, IRB agreed in principle to the costs estimate for the Siambr refresh project, a proportion of which would be invested in ICT equipment in the current year. The costs would be presented to Commissioners on 4 December for their approval.

IRB also approved temporary recruitment cases in EFM, to cover maternity and secondments.

7.

Winding up the meeting

Minutes:

Any other business

Chris Warner and Mike Snook updated Management Board on the Wales Audit Office event ‘Same Picture, Different Lens’ on 5 November, which brought together public sector leaders to discuss challenges on how to deliver best value and how agencies could better work together. Notably, the event involved innovative means of conveying the messages given by the various Commissioners, including a whisper service (summary in plain language and on screen) and picture board.

Mair Parry-Jones announced that Anna Gruffydd had been appointed as the new Welsh Language Tutor for internal staff, which would be in addition to the current service provider. This would enable the organisation to provide teaching more flexibly. Heads were encouraged to invite Anna to their team meetings.

The next Management Board meeting on 24 November would be used for the annual Review and Planning Board, to consider service plans, staff performance management and development, and projections for future budgets and demands.