Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Mair Parry-Jones (Head of Translation and Reporting Service).

Chris Warner would draft a note of the Management Board discussion for the staff news page.

The minutes of the 9 October Management Board meeting were agreed as a correct record. 

Manon Antoniazzi gave an outline to the Board of the challenges the recommendations presented, following the Committee scrutiny session on the Commission’s draft Budget for 2018-19. There was not such a clear remit from the Committee to adopt the budget this year as had been received in previous years, and further clarification was being sought in relation to the period covered by the first recommendation.

The Board discussed the response to each recommendation, which would be presented to Commissioners at their 6 November meeting for their approval, proposing that the recommendations be largely agreed, whilst making the case for the resources and flexibility needed to deliver the Commission’s strategy.

ACTION: Nia Morgan to circulate the draft response to the Board for input before finalising.

Gareth Watts led the Board through the regular review of existing and emerging corporate risks and the updated register. The Board noted that the high level risks identified by the working groups on Assembly reform, Brexit and the Wales Act, and the controls in place to manage them, had been reviewed and considered satisfactory by the Constitutional Change Steering Group. The Board also noted the change to the risk in relation to GDPR preparations.

Management Board agreed to add the risk around accommodation needs to the corporate register and that a ROAP on the Capacity Review be brought to a future meeting.

The Board considered whether the current corporate risks adequately reflected the combined impact of reform and constitutional change, inter-related with capacity and financial pressures. The need to ensure proper understanding on the financial situation within teams was noted.

ACTIONS:

·                Gareth’s team to collate the list of controls already in place within the organisation to manage risk; and

·                Management Board members to use the Board note to staff as a basis to discuss the process for managing risk and the need for effective identification and reporting or risks at all levels of the organisation.

Anna Daniel and Mark Neilson presented a joint paper, supported by James Griffin, to enable the Board to gain a shared understanding of how the MySenedd and ICT programmes were enabling increases in the Assembly’s efficiency and effectiveness, in light of a number of drivers, such as the Digital News and Information Taskforce Report. The Report set out the next steps and the potential of the digital transformation agenda.

Management Board were asked to consider how it might help raise awareness and create the culture, capability and capacity for digital ways of working. The Board welcomed the joined-up approach, and emphasised the importance of clearly setting out the benefits of digital to Commission staff, Members and AMSS, and providing training – including through the Learning Needs Analysis work being undertaken by HR.

Management Board agreed to become Office 365 champions themselves, as well as identifying and empowering digital champions in their teams, and use every opportunity to encourage and engage staff with the training provided.

The Information Management Strategy, covering archiving, customer information, classification and open data for the Assembly Business Directorate, would be presented to Management Board at a future meeting with a view to its adoption for the whole organisation.

Non Gwilym presented the draft response to recommendations of the Digital News and Information Task Force, which had been prepared in consultation with Anna and James in order to ensure strategic fit. The response would be presented to Commissioners at their 6 November meeting to update them on the work to date, and for them to consider the resources and financial implications of delivering the recommendations and identify the highest priorities.

The Board noted that work was already underway in relation to most of the recommendations, and commented on changes to the paper to improve clarity on how much work had been achieved already and the resources required to fulfil the ambitions and their costs.

Oral item

Manon Antoniazzi provided an oral update on recent work of the IRB emphasising the need for line managers and Heads of Service to consider carefully all recruitment business cases (“RADs”) before submission due to tight budget constraints in this financial year and the likely constraints in future years.

Presentation

Non Gwilym gave an overview of current grid that captured corporate and business related communications activity to facilitate planning. Non asked Heads to ensure their teams highlighted potential newsworthy items to the Communications team as early as possible.

Oral item

Adrian Crompton provided an update on the legislative plans for Assembly reform, including the raft of potential changes to internal organisational arrangements as well as taking forward the recommendations of the Expert Panel on Assembly Electoral Reform. The Panel was asked to advise the Commission on the size of the Assembly, the electoral system and the minimum voting age and was due to report soon.

Adrian would also be providing Commissioners with a presentation later in the week, ahead of their meeting on 6 November when they would discuss and provide a steer on how to take the work forward. The Commission were leading an Assembly reform programme to explore how these powers might be exercised.

The next meeting would be held on 13 November.