Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Adrian Crompton (Director of Assembly Business) and Siân Wilkins (Head of Chamber & Committee Service)

There were no declarations of interest.

Matthew Richards would draft a note of the Management Board discussion for the news page.

The minutes of the 4 May Management Board meeting were agreed as a correct record.

Manon Antoniazzi summarised the key points of the strategy to provide context and inform the Board’s discussions on planning and risk.

The current financial position was particularly challenging with little flexibility, and meant that a 2018-19 budget needed to be sufficient to support the pace of change and ambitions of the Fifth Assembly, the increased workloads for Members and progress in securing more powers for Wales, whilst being prudent and mindful of the wider public sector context.

Work was underway to look at areas of flexibility that might bring budget savings, but there was a need to be realistic in terms of sufficiency and there were still areas where the costs could not yet be defined, or may be deferred to the following financial year.

The Board were asked to consider whether the proposed budget was sufficient to deliver the priorities and discussed the assumptions on which the budget was based, whether there were further efficiencies that could be identified within services or coming from project work to free up additional funding or staff resource.

ACTIONS:

·                Nia Morgan and Lowri Williams to consider the costs relating to staffing.

·                Service Heads to look at whether any discretionary spending can be reconsidered.

·                Clarify the strategy wording on costs for the Youth Parliament; strengthen the narrative on MySenedd; include examples of the day to day savings being made e.g. RoP/Table Office.

The Budget Strategy would be presented to the Commission at their meeting on 12 June.

Management Board considered the current and emerging risks at corporate level, their status and the inter-related nature of the risks to delivery of the strategic priorities, constitutional change and reform.

The Board identified a number of emerging risks, including the current consultation on the renaming of the Assembly; the development of a Youth Parliament; planned future accommodation projects; and the financial pressure on budgets in delivering projects and strategies in a timely way.

The Board agreed:

·                that the corporate capacity risk be changed back to an active risk; and the residual rating of the risk around the process of leaving the EU be changed to medium to reflect where it was currently impossible to put mitigation plans in place;

·                to update the risk around financial pressures and review options at a later date;

·                the risks relating to security should be kept under close review with a note to staff to assure them of such. Staff with particular concerns should speak with the Head of Security;

·                a note would be prepared for staff as guidance for the way to refer to the Assembly until any change following the consultation was formally implemented.

Oral item

Anna Daniel and Non Gwilym presented the Board with an outline of the options for a corporate communications plan for the rest of the Assembly that would support the ambitious Commission strategy to accomplish the scale of change underway.

The Board considered a timeline of the major work streams, including all the work around electoral reform, Brexit, issues of capacity, public engagement such as around youth parliament and other improvement activities, and added further flags to factor in, such as staff absence peaks. This work would help facilitate effective prioritisation, communications, budget and capacity planning of the major events, whilst continuing to deliver the day to day business to a high standard.

The delivery of the plans would need conveying effectively and in a timely way and the Board received a representation of the end achievements to give context to the additional challenges and a vision to work with.

The Board agreed that Non and Anna would lead a deeper discussion and working out of the interrelated risks at the extended Management Board meeting on 6 July.

Discussion

Lowri Williams followed by inviting the Board to contribute to a SWOT analysis of the capability needs for the future, which would help provide a focus for the coming months.

The Board received the draft Annual Report and Accounts for 2016-17 and were thanked for their contributions.

A draft Report was to go to the Wales Audit Office and to the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee, with a final draft being presented to the Commission on 17 July and published thereafter.

ACTION: Management Board to advise of any further amendments by 26 May.

The report would be presented to the Commission on 12 June. As part of the longer term planning there would be a review of the KPIs to ensure they reflected the right goals.

Nia Morgan outlined the yearend position and highlighted the need for financial managers in service areas to be mindful of trends year on year when forecasting.  She would be working with Gareth Watts to review how service areas forecast and assured the Board that the Finance team would give all support needed to assist service areas to make those judgments.

A further iteration of the Efficiency and Effectiveness report was being prepared and Service Heads were asked to consider if there was any further narrative they could add in relation to improvements.

The Board and other officials had met on 16 May to discuss business continuity arrangements for staff during the UEFA Champions League and Festival in Cardiff Bay.

A notice would be issued to staff to inform them of the funeral arrangements on 31 May for Rhodri Morgan.