Minutes of the Governing Body Meeting – 10 April 2025

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STEAM Academy Conference Room and via Google Meet – 5.00pm

PRESENT:

Joanne Oak (Chair)
Viv Buckley – Principal/CEO
Joe Castle
Ceri Dixon
Lisa Dobbs – Staff Governor
Ben Fisher – Student Governor
Claire Marshall
Noah Murray – Student Governor
Lloyd Powell
Stephne Puddy
Susan Smith
Shelley Wyatt-Williams

IN ATTENDANCE

Joe Baldwin – Deputy Principal (Future Generations)
Nicola Eyre – Clerk
Andrew Gibbs – Deputy Principal (Resources)
Matthew Rees – Vice Principal (Work Based Learning and Commercial Activity)
Catrin Sullivan – Director of Curriculum
Hayley Thomas – Vice Principal (Curriculum and Quality)
Laura Williams – Planning Director, Savills – agenda item 7 only

The meeting opened at 5.00pm. A reserved business meeting had been held immediately prior to this meeting.

Generative AI (Google Gemini) was used to help draft these minutes.

1. CHAIR’S WELCOME AND APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting. Joanne Oak chaired the meeting as Emma Adamson had submitted an apology for absence.

Apologies for absence were noted from Emma Adamson, Charlize Cosker (Student Governor), Marion Evans (Staff Governor), Hayden Llewellyn, Tomos Owen, Helen Verity and Gemma Carr-Evans (Director of Curriculum). Donna Ali did not attend the meeting.

2. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Joanne Oak – item 7 ‘Land on the Pencoed Campus’ due to her employment as Group Chief Executive of Valleys to Coast.

3. MINUTES OF THE GOVERNING BODY MEETING HELD ON 20 FEBRUARY 2025

The minutes of the Governing Body meeting held on 20 February 2025 were approved as an accurate record of the meeting.

4. MATTERS ARISING

4.1 Action Tracker

There were four actions on the Action Tracker:

Action 1 – [REDACTED]
Action 2 – Consideration of social partnerships – not yet due. This was included as part of the Principal’s Update (agenda item 5).
Action 3 – Presentation on Sustainability – not yet due.
Action 4 – Presentation of Welsh Government (WG) funding allocations – completed. The Deputy Principal (Resources) gave a presentation to the Resource Planning Committee at their March meeting.

The members noted the update.

5. PRINCIPAL’S UPDATE

The Principal highlighted the following from her report:

An initial meeting has been held to discuss the creation of a formal social partnership. The SLT is waiting for a proposal on the next steps from UCU which will include Governing Body engagement.
The College has performed very strongly in the Skills Competition Wales:
- 26 medals, 20 highly commended and 1 best in region.
- 5 Bridgend College learners have been selected to train for the UK World Skills squad (86 selected in total and 20 of these are from Wales). The competition is in Shanghai in 2026.

The Chair thanked the Principal for her update and also highlighted the Values Badges that have been awarded since January.

6. SAFEGUARDING UPDATE

The Deputy Principal (Future Generations) highlighted the following from his written update:

The total number of student concerns and staff cases for the year to date and compared to the previous two years was presented.
One Prevent referral has been made since the last meeting; three in total for the year to date.
The College hosted a Channel (Prevent) training day run by BCBC and the Home Office in February. Since the Southport riots last year, local authorities have focussed their attention on safeguarding and Prevent.
The Wisdom app continues to be well used.

The Chair thanked the Deputy Principal (Future Generations) for the update.

Agenda item 7 was presented after agenda item 11

8. GOVERNANCE MATTERS

Matters for Approval

The Governing Body approved the calendar of meetings for the 2025/25 academic year.

Matters for Noting

The Governing Body noted that Medr will be consulting on the new Regulatory Framework in May.
The Governing Body noted that the pen portraits are now live on the College’s website.
The details of the ColegauCymru training on anti-racism were noted (available on the Shared drive).
The following dates were noted:
- 15 May at 3pm – site visit to the town centre campus
- 26 June at 6pm – Annual Student Awards Ceremony in the STEAM Academy.
[REDACTED]

The Chair thanked the Clerk for the update.

9. MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTS 2024/25 INCLUDING KPIs

The Deputy Principal (Resources) presented the following information:

[REDACTED]

The Chair thanked the Deputy Principal (Resources) and informed the members that the Management Accounts had been discussed in detail in the March Resource Planning Committee meeting. [REDACTED]

The Governing Body APPROVED the Management Accounts and KPIs.

10. SALE OF PROPERTY ON HOLTON ROAD, BARRY

The members had received a comprehensive report explaining the history of this property and the reasons for its sale. The Resource Planning Committee had discussed the sale in their March meeting and made the recommendation to the Governing Body that it be sold as it is surplus to the College’s requirements.

In line with the requirements of the College’s Financial Regulations, the Governing Body APPROVED the sale of the property on Holton Road, Barry.

11. RISK REGISTER

The Deputy Principal (Resources) explained the changes proposed to the Risk Register that had been recommended for approval by the Audit Committee:

The addition of Risk 15 ‘Financial Under-Performance of the College’s subsidiary companies’
The SLT is to consider the inclusion of a new risk covering a wide range of external factors affecting the College and FE sector e.g. Medr, changes in vocational qualifications, National Insurance contributions.
The SLT will consider consolidating the number of risks on the Risk Register during the next review.
Risk 3 ‘Failure to deliver the budget …’ – the residual risk has been reduced from 20 to 15 but remains High (Likelihood reduced from 4 to 3 but Impact remains at 5). This has been reduced due to the positive turnaround in the financial situation in this academic year but this may be increased again in the next review as there will be uncertainty about the 2025/26 academic year.
Risk 8 ‘Town Centre Project’ – the residual risk has been reduced from 25 to 20 but remains High (Likelihood reduced from 5 to 4 but Impact remains at 5). This has been reduced slightly as the risks on the project are diminishing.

The Governing Body APPROVED the amended Risk Register.

The Chair left the meeting for agenda item 7 due to a conflict of interest (employed as Group Chief Executive of Valleys to Coast). Lloyd Powell acted as Chair for the following agenda item.

7. LAND ON THE PENCOED CAMPUS

[REDACTED]

A short comfort break was held

Joanne Oak rejoined the meeting

12. TOWN CENTRE CAMPUS UPDATE

A short video of drone footage of the town centre campus was played.

The Deputy Principal (Resources) gave the following update on the town centre campus:

The College is trying to secure a meeting with BCBC to finalise the lease for the multi-storey car park (MSCP) site.
Completion of the demolition of the MSCP may be delayed until mid-to-late May.
There have been no changes to the costs of the project since the last meeting.
The Variation Bid presented at the last meeting will now be submitted to the WG in August/September. The WG has requested that the results of the MSCP ground condition surveys are known before this bid is submitted for consideration.
The frame of the town centre campus is going up quickly.

A discussion was held about using politicians in order to try to progress matters with the lease. It was agreed that this is something that can be considered if no response is received from BCBC soon.

A member enquired how involved learners and stakeholders have been in the project. The Director of Curriculum explained that there has been a lot of meaningful engagement for learners which has included site visits, Health & Safety sessions and interviews.

The Chair thanked the Deputy Principal (Resources) for the update.

13. CORPORATE KPIs AND BALANCED SCORECARD

The Governing Body noted the Corporate KPIs and Balanced Scorecard which were both very positive.

14. COMMITTEE MINUTES

14.1 Curriculum & Quality – 24 March 2025

The Governing Body RECEIVED the minutes of the Curriculum & Quality Committee meeting held on 24 March 2025.

Lloyd Powell (incoming Chair) gave a brief summary of this meeting.

14.2 Resource Planning – 27 March 2025

The Governing Body RECEIVED the minutes of the Resource Planning Committee meeting held on 27 March 2025.

Joanne Oak (Chair) commented that a number of agenda items from the committee meeting flowed into this Governing Body meeting.

15. ANY OTHER BUSINESS

None

16. VALUES CHECKER

It was agreed that the meeting had been conducted in line with the College’s six core values and that the papers for the meeting were comprehensive and of a high standard.

The Chair was thanked for stepping in at short notice.

The Chair thanked everyone for attending and the meeting closed at 6.28pm.

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