Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room 5 - Tŷ Hywel. View directions

Contact: Liz Jardine 

Items
No. Item

1.

Introductions, apologies and declarations of interest

Minutes:

Manon Antoniazzi opened the meeting by acknowledging the professional way Commission staff had carried out their duties during the past difficult week.

Apologies were received from Craig Stephenson (Director of Commission Services), Mark Neilson (Head of ICT), Matthew Richards (Head of Legal Services) and Kathryn Potter (Head of Research).

 

2.

Communication note to staff - Nia Morgan

Minutes:

Nia Morgan would draft a note of the Management Board discussion for the staff news page.

 

3.

Minutes of the Previous Meeting

Minutes:

The minutes of the 23 October Management Board meeting were agreed as a correct record. 

 

4.

Corporate Performance Report April-September 2017

Minutes:

Dave Tosh presented the KPI report for the period April to September. The report conveyed a picture of good performance against the strategic goals across the board as well as a high level of activity.  The performance indicators needed a regular review to ensure they remained relevant and meaningful in light of changes to focus or technology. A review would take place over the coming months to revise and replace the current KPIs.

Management Board reviewed the ‘amber’ areas and also noted that comparison with the same period in 2016 could be greatly affected by specific activities at the time, such as the election.

ACTIONS:

·                Non Gwylim and Mark Neilson to review the indicators on the YouTube and Senedd.tv views to better reflect the change to the way plenary coverage was presented.

·                Governance team to review KPIs with Heads of Service and bring back to Management Board in early 2018, before presenting to the Commission.

 

5.

Staff Survey 2017

Minutes:

Rhodri Wyn Jones presented the results of the staff survey conducted in May and the action plan to address the main issues and recurring themes. 82% of staff had responded, which enabled the Assembly to benchmark against other organisations and compare feedback from previous years.

All themes remained largely positive, with an increase in all but one service area since the last survey in 2015, comparing favourably with external organisations across Wales. The greatest area of improvement was in leadership and managing change. There were three areas for focus overall and since the survey was published, Heads have also analysed their Service area results and prepared service-specific action plans.

The Board discussed the findings, agreeing the need to convey that the Board were listening, that could be shaped around a ‘you said – we did’ approach, and outlining a set of commitments to accomplish before the next survey, whilst being realistic in what was achievable.

 

6.

Capacity Review

Oral item

Minutes:

Gareth Watts and Phil Turner provided an update on the Capacity review.  The Board were asked to reflect on the emerging themes and topics, and to provide comment and challenge. It was anticipated that the recommendations of the review would be framed around these four themes.

The review was facilitating a good exercise in bringing together a lot of evidence that already existed, looking at data, discussing with stakeholders and benchmarking against other parliaments. Management Board discussed how the objectives of the report were being met, particularly around the setting of priorities and allocation of resources.

Initial findings would be reported to ACARAC on 27 November and to the Commission on 4 December.

 

7.

All staff meeting

Oral item

Minutes:

Manon outlined the intention for the all-staff meeting on 15 December. This would be the first opportunity for staff to respond to the capacity review and for the senior team to collectively recognise the specific difficulties of the past week, the pressures of the autumn term, and leave staff with a positive message as to the way forward. The Board discussed the format of the meeting.

 

8.

Data Protection (GDPR) update

Oral item

Minutes:

Dave Tosh gave an overview of the current preparations for GDPR, which was due to come into force in May 2018. Service areas were working on their personal data registers, the deadline for which was end January. Heads were advised to speak with Sue Morgan and Alison Bond if there were issues around retention, permission or consent.

Work was progressing to adapt guidance for Members and the likely requirements would be issued to them in the first instance.

ACTIONS:

·                Heads to assist their teams where decisions were needed on their personal data registers. Alison Bond to clarify the areas where there were still gaps in data or reasoning.

·                Matthew Richards to circulate the guidance prepared for Legal Services.

 

9.

Financial Management Report October 2017

Minutes:

Nia Morgan gave a brief outline of the FMR for October, reiterating that the financial position remained highly challenging, both for the rest of the financial year and the following one.

 

10.

IRB update

Oral item

Minutes:

A brief update was given on the recent meeting of the Investment and Resources Board.

 

11.

Media Grid

Presentation

Minutes:

Non Gwilym gave an overview of current grid that captured corporate and business related communications activity to facilitate planning. A lot of planned activity had been cancelled this week, including Senedd@Delyn, which would be moved to the new year and the launch of the Expert Panel’s report, to be rescheduled before the end of term.

Assembly business would commence tomorrow with a lot of media interest expected. The Commission’s budget would be debated on Wednesday. There were twelve committee reports due to be published before the end of term and the integrated teams were considering arrangements.

There would be very close scrutiny this week and Non asked Heads to check if anything was missing from the grid.

 

12.

Forward Work Programme

12.

Any other business

Minutes:

The next meeting would be held on 7 December.