Agenda and minutes
Venue: Conference Room 4B - Tŷ Hywel. View directions
Contact: Liz Jardine
No. | Item |
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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. |
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Communication note to staff - Siân Wilkins Minutes: Siân
Wilkins would draft a note of the Management Board discussion for the news
page. |
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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’. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |