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 Gareth Watts (Head of Governance and Audit). The Board welcomed Catharine Bray, the new temporary Head of Finance, who observed the meeting. 

Chris Warner declared an interest for the diversity and inclusion item as a trustee/Non Executive Director of Chwarae Teg.

 

2.

Communication note to staff - Craig Stephenson

Minutes:

Craig Stephenson would draft a note of the Management Board discussion for the news page.

 

3.

Minutes of the Previous Meeting

Minutes:

The minutes of the 25 May Management Board meeting were agreed as a correct record.

 

4.

Draft Annual Diversity and Inclusion Report 2016-17

Minutes:

Holly Pembridge was welcomed to the meeting and presented the narrative Report, which would go alongside the workforce, recruitment and pay analysis data when presented to the Commission for approval in the autumn. The Report crossed the reporting period between the outgoing Equality Scheme and the new Diversity and Inclusion (DI) Strategy of the Fifth Assembly.

The DI Team would provide the Board with the data and Action plan for the Strategy during July and were working closely with service heads to define and embed objectives from the action plan into service plans.

The draft Annual Report reflected the breadth and quality of work undertaken across the organisation to ensure an inclusive parliamentary body for staff and those who used the services. Highlights included the campaign to increase awareness of mental health and wellbeing in the workplace, the retention of external awards and recognition (such as IiP, Stonewall, National Autistic Society and Action on Hearing Loss Service Excellence) and high profile work around Equality Impact Assessments (EQIAs).

The Report also recognised areas for continued focus, including the continuing development of the workplace networks, high profile EQIAs and refocus on subsuming BME Action plan into wider work.

Management Board made recommendations on the draft Report including:

·                combine the engagement narrative of outreach and committee work to show the link in service provision;

·                ensure that the Report is aligned with the Commission’s Annual Report and Accounts, and that there is a read across with the recruitment policy and BME Action plan. Craig Stephenson and Holly to discuss a seat on the reference group to further the work of the BME Action plan.

·                Non Gwilym and Holly to strengthen focus on the contribution of DI; and

·                include information on what the organisation already contributes to the White Ribbon campaign, and Diversity and Inclusion week in July.

The Board asked that, when the workforce statistics were available, they might inform some of the actions for the future.

 

5.

Draft Annual Environmental report 2016-17

Minutes:

Management Board welcomed Nerys Evans to the meeting to present a draft of the tenth Annual Environmental Report. It demonstrated a continuing trend of reducing the Assembly’s environmental impacts with good progress on the current five-year sustainability plan towards the 2021 targets.

The focus in the period had been on better monitoring and analysis to identify opportunities to make efficiency savings. Benchmarking was an essential part of the process and work would continue in 2017-18 to benchmark with the other devolved parliaments. It was likely that the Assembly would move to ISO 14001 environmental certification.

The Board recognised that it was necessary to balance the cost of reaching reduction targets with making improvements in sustainability and, currently, the Estates and Facilities Management work programme was focussed on improvements through updating or replacing older equipment to more efficient appliances as they reach end of life; benchmarking; controls and effective housekeeping.  

Management Board commented on the draft and made recommendations including:

·                reviewing how the Assembly equates with other comparable organisations, for example Welsh Government, in relation to the use of vehicles; and

·                clarifying the increase in water usage for the period as being related to an increase in staff and visitors.

The Board thanked Matthew Jones for his work on preparing the Report, which would be presented to the Commission on 17 July

6.

Use of Volunteers as Poppy Partners

Paper to follow

Minutes:

Manon Antoniazzi provided an outline of discussions held at the Investment and Resourcing Board about the Weeping Window poppy installation and approaching organisations to work with the Assembly to provide volunteers as a customer interface. Giles Ballisat (Venue Projects Manager) was currently finalising the legal issues around working with volunteers.

 

7.

Budget Strategy update

Oral item

Minutes:

An update was provided on the Budget Strategy that had been to the Commission meeting on 12 June.  Due to the considerable financial pressures on the budget and unexpected developments, officials had considered, with the Llywydd and Suzy Davies AM as lead Commissioner on the budget strategy, proposals to manage projected costs, taking into account practicality and risks, and which would allow for more clarity on capacity and direction.

The Board provided input on the in-year pressures, how they could be managed and the impact on the strategy for future funding.

 

8.

Digital Task Force Recommendations

Oral item

Minutes:

Non Gwilym gave an outline of the report launched on 21 June by the Digital Task Force, which contained several recommendations about how the Assembly presented the large amount of information and content generated for our audiences.  The focus reflected the way that people now take their news and information in different ways and largely on digital platforms.

Non thanked all those who had contributed to the report. Together with her team, they were considering how information was packaged effectively to reflect the needs of the Assembly’s audiences and how to plan and implement the recommendations. A communications grid would be brought to the Management Board at all future meetings.

 

8.

Any other business

Minutes:

The Audit and Risk Assurance Board had discussed the relationship between the Investment and Resources Board and Management Board following an internal audit report on effectiveness.

The Chief Executive and Directors would consider further and bring the discussion to the Management Board thereafter.