Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Chris Warner, Head of Policy and Legislation Committee Service.

Gareth Watts would draft a note of the Management Board discussion for the staff news page.

The minutes of 14 November Management Board meeting were agreed as a correct record.

Management Board considered the current and emerging risks at corporate level and agreed recommendations to reclassify the bilingual capacity risk so it was managed at service level along with the existing service level risk relating to compliance with the Official Languages Scheme. It was also agreed to change the status of two corporate risks to static risks, for capacity and security of the estate. The changes were due to the controls being robust, effective and regularly reviewed. It was agreed that new risks would be created to monitor two other specified areas of security. 

The Board identified a number of emerging risks relating to pressures arising from future constitutional reforms, including: the current consultation on the renaming of the Assembly, noting over 900 responses had been received so far; 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.

ACTIONS: Dave Tosh and Nia Morgan to agree a form of words for a risk relating financial constraints.

Non Gwilym, Anna Daniel and Lowri Williams to prepare a plan for when risks may emerge around the capacity of the estate and future accommodation needs, and liaise in relation to communications.

It was agreed that the risk relating to decisions of the Remuneration Board could be removed from the register and that Management Board would revisit the risks around provision of guidance on the safeguarding of children and young people at the next review of corporate risks.

The Board welcomed Sarah Dafydd, Business Enhancement and Change Manager in the Translation and Reporting Service, to discuss the new Official Languages Scheme ahead of its presentation to the Commission on 23 January. The organisation had done well since the introduction of the legislation and the new Scheme built upon those successes and set a path to being truly bilingual by 2021.

Consultation had taken place, as was required by the Act, with Members, staff, Networks and Trade Union Side, the public through the website and with interested parties, and the views of the consultees had helped shape the new draft Scheme. The views were largely supportive, acknowledging the progress made to date, although feedback from Cymdeithas had been that the Scheme did not go far enough. The main area of concern that had been expressed by some staff was the introduction of language skills for all new posts, with at least a basic linguistic courtesy requirement. In parallel with the Scheme, an Equality Impact Assessment had been prepared to ensure the proposal did not jeopardise job applications from people with diverse backgrounds. Having taken the feedback into account, the draft Scheme represented a step up in terms of service delivery and a balanced approach towards achieving our bilingual ambitions.

The aim would be to use the language plans to intelligently work out the needs of each service area and recruit accordingly, matching the level of bilingual competence to the service required. The basic linguistic requirement would be established with new posts initially and then developed with current staff. Full support and various mechanisms for training would be available to help staff achieve their required level.  Evidence of other organisation’s experience had been considered when devising the plans. It was recognised that it was still difficult to find truly bilingual technology.

Management Board asked that external assurance on the Equality Impact Assessment was sought.

Management Board welcomed Rebecca Hardwicke and Carys Rees, Members’ Business Support, to the meeting to discuss the outcomes of the review and recommendations for the next Members’ satisfaction survey.

There were no significant changes proposed compared to the previous survey, but there was a need to ensure that results could be tracked over the years. However, the survey had been adjusted to fit the current strategy and timed so that results could be incorporated into the Annual Report and Corporate Key Performance Indicator Report, published in June/July.

Management Board recommended that the survey should cover: youth engagement; broader areas where bilingual services were offered to ensure the team approach taken is clear; papers prepared for Members beyond Committee papers and their timeliness; and specifically flagging the extent to which Members and their staff are supported to work in either language.

In relation to constituency staff, the Board were advised that office visits had been planned to help them feel more engaged. A survey would be prepared specific to their needs, but sufficiently similar to enable comparisons to be drawn in reporting.

The Board thanked Rebecca and Carys for all the work done in reviewing and preparing the survey and were advised that Commission Services would now have lead responsibility for the surveys.