Minutes of the Governing Body Meeting – 8 February 2024

STEAM ACADEMY CONFERENCE ROOM AND VIA GOOGLE MEET – 4:30pm

PRESENT:

Jeff Greenidge – Chair
Emma Adamson
Viv Buckley – Principal
Trish D’Souza
Lisa Dobbs – Staff Governor
Judith Evans
Marion Evans – Staff Governor – joined at 5.07pm
Teodora Grancea – Student Governor
Hayden Llewellyn
Stephne Puddy
Helen Verity

IN ATTENDANCE

Joe Baldwin – Deputy Principal (Learner Journey, Systems and Inclusive Practice)
Gemma Carr-Evans – Director of Curriculum (Cowbridge Road and Queens Road) – joined at 4.55pm
Nicola Eyre – Clerk
Andrew Gibbs – Deputy Principal (Resources)
Catrin Sullivan – Director of Curriculum (Pencoed)

The meeting opened at 4.30pm

1. CHAIR’S WELCOME AND APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and congratulated Viv Buckley on her appointment as Principal of Bridgend College. The Chair commented that Viv is a strong leader for both the SLT and College and that the next phase for the College is going to be an exciting one. The Governing Body gave a round of applause and Viv thanked everyone for the trust that they have placed in her.

Apologies for absence were noted from Dan Biddle, Lloyd Tandy (Student Governor), Claire Marshall and Joanne Oak. An apology was received from Dawn Lewis-Whelan after the meeting.

2. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

None

3. PRESENTATION – COLLEGE QUALITY IMPROVEMENT PLAN

The Deputy Principal (Learner Journey, Systems and Inclusive Practice) explained the process of how the Self Evaluation Report (SER) is written and how this feeds into the the Quality Improvement Plan (QIP):

Firstly, all managers meet with their teams to discuss what is working well and where there are areas for improvement.
A departmental SER and QIP is formulated following these discussions.
The departmental SERs and QIPs are used to draw up the College QIP and SER and this is scrutinised and ratified by the SLT before being presented to the College Operational Group and the Governing Body.

It was noted that for the first time this year, members of the Curriculum & Quality Committee attended the meetings where the departmental SERs and QIPs were presented to the SLT to understand firsthand how this process worked and to ask questions on the information presented.

The QIP is then monitored regularly throughout the year by the SLT. The Curriculum Quality Managers are responsible for monitoring the curriculum-based QIPs and the Business Support QIPs are reviewed mid-year in February.

Running alongside this process are three Quality Days and two Standards Committees where data dashboards and KPIs are used to monitor performance.

The Deputy Principal (Learner Journey, Systems and Inclusive Practice) further explained that the new Estyn Inspection Framework is moving from five to three inspection areas and a decision was made to base the SER and QIP on these three areas. Inspection Area 3 “Leading and Improving” was presented to the members as an example from the QIP to demonstrate the ways in which the College is continuously driving improvement.

A breakdown of the College’s student population for 2022/23 was presented and it was explained how the SER and QIP takes a holistic view when self-assessing performance.

It was noted that there is no longer a requirement to send these documents to the Welsh Government (WG) but it is felt that there is a benefit internally to continue this process as the QIP is a live document and the information acts as a benchmark for future years.

The Chair thanked the Deputy Principal (Learner Journey, Systems and Inclusive Practice) for the update and commented that with the QIP being reviewed regularly, this gives confidence to the Governing Body that quality is embedded in all processes. Another member echoed this sentiment and thanked everyone involved for their hard work in drawing up these documents as there is a lot of rich information contained therein. This member felt that it was disappointing that the SER and QIP are no longer sent to the WG.

A question was asked about the level of team engagement. The Deputy Principal (Learner Journey, Systems and Inclusive Practice) explained that the first Quality Day is where each College Operational Manager meets with their teams for a grass-roots discussion on what’s working well and what requires improvement in order for full ownership of the SER and QIP to take place. It was noted that for curriculum teams, courses are looked at at granular level.

Another member commented that she was very impressed with the documents and that it is good to see that the areas of priority reflect those within the sector. The member posed a question of whether any cross-sector sharing takes place and gave the example of Jisc and digital transformation. The Deputy Principal (Learner Journey, Systems and Inclusive Practice) explained that there is some cross-collaboration across FE but colleges are also focussing more attention on social partnerships now. It was noted that throughout South East Wales there are green shoots appearing in the work that colleges are doing around their civic mission.

A discussion took place about the awards that the College has won in recent years and how these impact on the curriculum and learners. It was discussed that these awards are impartial and give external validation and assurance of the College’s quality and achievements. The Principal added that the College’s focus for awards may now shift to more individual awards for staff and learners.

The Chair thanked the Deputy Principal (Learner Journey, Systems and Inclusive Practice) for the update.

4.55pm – Gemma Carr-Evans joined the meeting

4. MINUTES OF THE GOVERNING BODY MEETING HELD ON 8 DECEMBER 2023

The minutes of the Governing Body meeting held on 8 December 2023 were approved as an accurate record of the meeting.

5. MATTERS ARISING

5.1 Action Tracker

There were six actions on the Action Tracker – one amber, two blue, two green and one ongoing. The amber and blue actions were not yet due.

[REDACTED]

The members noted the other actions and the update given against each of the actions on the Action Tracker.

6. PRINCIPAL’S UPDATE

The Governing Body noted the Principal’s Update (News and Achievements only due to the proximity of the interview dates with this meeting).

The Principal also updated the Governing Body on the following:

The January retention drop-off that has been experienced in previous years hasn’t happened and this is a testament to the hard work of the two Directors of Curriculum – Catrin Sullivan and Gemma Carr-Evans and their teams.
The fire that occurred on the Industrial Estate just behind the Queens Road campus in mid-January was very alarming. A letter of thanks has been sent to South Wales Fire and Rescue Service as they managed to stop the fire from spreading to the College’s campus. It was noted that after a two week closure, the campus is now back open following a deep clean. The Principal thanked the estates and curriculum teams for ensuring that there was no missed learning for the displaced students and finished by saying that the College’s thoughts are with those people and businesses that have been affected by the fire.
The College had received the WG funding settlement for 2024/25 at 4.20pm the day before this meeting. As this was so close to this meeting, SLT has not had the opportunity to discuss this yet. It was noted that the Principal and Deputy Principal (Resources) had had an initial review and the settlement is close to where the College was expecting it to be.

A discussion took place about how committed the College is to student engagement and the effect that this is having on retention. The Director of Curriculums added that planning for engagement activities has already started for the next period.

The Chair thanked the Principal and her team for the College’s response to the fire and for keeping the Governing Body informed throughout.

7. LEARNER EXPERIENCE UPDATE

The Deputy Principal (Learner Journey, Systems and Inclusive Practice) presented the activities that had taken place throughout January and February. These included the launch of a pop-up barber shop on the Cowbridge Road campus, fundraising by the sports students, the Music and Musical Theatre students both scooping the ‘Student Choice’ award in the Skills Competition Wales, a Student Discovery (Open Day) Event where 288 prospective learners visited and 119 of these applied for a course (43% conversion rate) and lots of events for the National Apprenticeship Week.

The Safeguarding figures were presented; these are currently in line with the previous year. It was noted that the top three areas of concern continue to be mental health, anxiety and bereavement and that the number and complexity of referrals to multi-agencies is growing. It was also noted that as a result of these concerns, the College is piloting the use of a Chaplain so that students have someone impartial that they can talk to.

The Deputy Principal (Learner Journey, Systems and Inclusive Practice) informed the Governing Body that Estyn has recently published supplementary guidance for inspecting safeguarding (effective from Spring 2024). (ACTION – JB) – The Deputy Principal (Learner Journey, Systems and Inclusive Practice) is to share this link with the members via the Clerk.

5.07pm – Marion Evans joined

A member commended the report and thanked the teams for their efforts around student engagement and wellbeing/safeguarding. The member requested that it would be helpful to see at the year-end, how the professional learning days were informed by the needs of the College’s learners (ACTION – JB).

One of the Directors of Curriculum explained that there is much greater contact with social workers and external partners now due to the rise in the complexity of safeguarding needs. The Deputy Principal (Learner Journey, Systems and Inclusive Practice) added that a grading system for wellbeing concerns is used (Grades 1-4) and a Grade 3 or 4 concern is dealt with by a member of the Wellbeing team.

Another member welcomed the move to regular updates to the Governing Body on safeguarding as this provides assurance on the number and types of cases. A discussion took place on the holistic approach followed and how the College’s forensic response to each case supports the learners. The Deputy Principal (Learner Journey, Systems and Inclusive Practice) added that the three-yearly internal audit of Safeguarding is taking place soon and the results will be reported both to the Audit and Curriculum & Quality Committees.

The Governing Body noted the update.

8. GOVERNANCE MATTERS

The Governing Body NOTED the following:

The 2023 Health, Safety and Sustainability Report. The Governing Body agreed that this will now be received by the Resource Planning Committee in future years.
The change of dates for the January Search & Governance Committee meeting, the March Governing Body meeting and the June Curriculum & Quality meeting.

9. FINANCIAL UPDATE

The Deputy Principal gave the following financial update as this meeting fell between the quarterly forecasting cycle:

[REDACTED]

The Governing Body noted that a detailed financial forecast will be presented at the March Resource Planning Committee meeting and the April Governing Body meeting.

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

10. TOWN CENTRE CAMPUS

[REDACTED]

11. CORPORATE KPIs AND BALANCED SCORECARD

[REDACTED]

12. WELSH LANGUAGE REPORT

The Principal presented the report for noting and thanked Liz Evans, Senior Project Facilitator, for her work in producing this report as the Head of Welsh is on long term sickness.

The Governing Body noted the Welsh Language Report.

13. COLLEGE COMPLIMENTS AND COMPLAINTS

The Principal presented this report and informed the Governing Body that as a result of the introduction of a new complaints procedure, these are now being dealt with at the appropriate level. The report indicated that there are no trends in the complaints received.

14. ANY OTHER BUSINESS

14.1 CTER – NEW OPERATIONAL DATE

The members had received a copy of the letter that had been sent to the Principal notifying her that the new operational date is 1 August 2024 due to issues with computer systems in the WG. It was noted that this delay will have no operational impact on FE colleges.

A member questioned whether there is any advanced knowledge of CTER’s plans and it was discussed that CTER expects co-construction of their operating model and that it will be many years until this has an impact. It was agreed that the WG trusts Bridgend College and will listen to the SLT’s views on what is best for students and staff in the FE sector.

VALUES CHECKER

The Chair summarised the discussions in the meeting and thanked everyone for their contributions. It was agreed that all members and staff had had the opportunity to input into the meeting.

The meeting closed at 5.57pm.

A Reserved Business meeting was held for eligible members after this meeting.

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