Agenda and minutes

Venue: Conference Room 4B - Tŷ Hywel. View directions

Contact: Liz Jardine 

Items
No. Item

1.

Introductions, apologies and declarations of interest

Minutes:

Apologies were received from Adrian Crompton (Director of Assembly Business) and Dave Tosh (Director of Assembly Resources).

There were no declarations of interest.

 

2.

Communication note to staff - Chris Warner

Minutes:

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

 

3.

Minutes from 6 July meeting - to be circulated by email

Minutes:

The minutes of 6 July meeting were agreed as a correct record.

 

4.

Equality Impact Assessment training

Minutes:

The Management Board welcomed Holly Pembridge and Anna Morgan who were attending to outline how the work already done within the Assembly to adopt the use of EQIAs would be embedded into the work of teams. This would increase our organisational capability to deliver on the public sector equality duty under the Equality Act 2010 and provide evidence in the event of legal challenge.

A bespoke approach was being adopted to fit with other planning and governance arrangements. Earlier in the year the Equality team had produced the EQIA toolkit and guidance and they would be supporting the Heads and 40 members of staff who had been nominated as EQIA leads to champion the implementation of EQIAs in their service areas. The leads' role would be to have the subject area knowledge and awareness of EQIA policy to assist colleagues to undertake EQIAs. Training for those staff would be taking place next month.

Management Board agreed to support their EQIA leads in ensuring compliance in their Service areas.

 

5.

Continuous Professional Development arrangements for Members and AMSS in the Fifth Assembly

MB 12-15 Paper 2 – CPD in the Fifth Assembly draft Commission – cover paper

MB 12-15 Paper 2 – CPD Review Findings

Minutes:

Carys Evans was welcomed to the Management Board to discuss outcomes from the in-depth review into the CPD programmed for the Fourth Assembly, carried out by the CPD team with Gareth Watts. The review sought to learn lessons and make recommendations for the future and included surveying Assembly Members to capture their views.

Overall Members were happy with the provision and uptake levels were high, but there were challenges to address in relation to effective evaluation of the impact of the CPD provided, ensuring accountability with Members for their staff's training and that training reached AMSS outside of Cardiff.

Management Board made the following recommendations:

·                more time should be given to CPD, in particular, for committee Chairs; the paper should draw from the draft Chairs' forum report;

·                more emphasis should be made of bilingualism - Carys Evans and Mair Parry-Jones to discuss;

·                the CPD report and the following item (welcome and induction) should be combined into one paper; and

·                Non Gwilym, Lowri Williams and Carys Evans to discuss external promotion of how we provide our CPD programme.

The overall direction and outline approach would be presented to Commissioners at their meeting on 21 October.

 

6.

Transition to the Fifth Assembly - welcome and Induction Arrangements

MB 12-15 Paper 3 – Welcome and Induction draft Commission Paper

Minutes:

Carys Evans presented an overview of the proposed welcome and induction arrangements for Members and their staff following the Assembly election in May 2016. This had been based on feedback from Members as part of the CPD review and experience following the recent Westminster election and Wales election in 2011.

Comprehensive information for new Members would be available on the intranet along with a re-drafted handbook and this was being made more user-friendly. Work was also being done with the Electoral Commission to provide significant information to candidates pre-election.

A tailored induction programme was being devised for Members to cover immediate needs in the first week (phase 1 – office set up, appointment of staff, Standards Commissioner), followed by important but less urgent matters in phase 2 (data protection, employment matters, Table office and Chamber, Legal Services etc), with a Phase 3 CPD programme over the following months. Webinars were being considered for staff in constituencies.

Management Board discussed how to ensure guidance was available to all parties with candidates and that information and induction was effective, for example, focussing on staff training to help get them up to speed to assist Members and signposting phase 2 services in the handbook.

Recommendations:

·                Offer information to all parties that stand; and

·                Devise ways to maintain engagement after the initial weeks.

Commissioners would discuss the approach at their next meeting on 21 October.

 

7.

Fifth Assembly Transition Dashboard

MB 12-15 Paper 4 – Fifth Assembly Dashboard – September 2015

Minutes:

Sulafa Thomas presented the latest dashboard and asked Management Board to assess the accuracy and relevance of the information they currently make available to Members by end October to enable the strands to assess how best to re-package the information to make it user friendly.

The Board also considered implications for the replacement and disposal of ICT equipment. It was agreed that Nicola Callow and Bedwyr Jones would discuss the accounting policy, following which the Investment and Resources Board would consider proposals in detail.

Management Board were happy with the way transition work was progressing. Commissioners were due to receive a draft legacy report in February.

 

8.

Assembly Member and Assembly Member Support Staff Satisfaction Survey

MB 12-15 Paper 5 – Members satisfaction survey – cover paper

MB 12-15 Paper 5 – Annex A – 2015 AM_AMSS Survey results short version

MB 12-15 Paper 5 – Annex B – Average scores during Fourth Assembly

Minutes:

Bethan Garwood and Rebecca Hardwicke were welcomed to the meeting to present the results of the Member and AMSS survey 2015 and the comparison with the results since the first year the survey was launched.

The survey was, in general, very positive, with most results increasing over the past year, with big increases since 2012. All areas were showing a rating of 7/10 or above.

Management Board commented that there had been efficient and effective collection of feedback and good use of drop in sessions and that the results were a testament to the way that we work as integrated teams.  It was agreed that it would be good to share highlights from the results with staff at the forthcoming all-staff meetings.

It was also agreed not to undertake a survey in 2016, but to consider other ways of collecting feedback on the effectiveness of the induction programme for the Fifth Assembly.

 

9.

Corporate Risk Update

MB 12-15 Paper 6 – Corporate Risk – cover paper

MB 12-15 Paper 6 – Corporate Risk Summary

Minutes:

Management Board reviewed the register of corporate risks that had been revised following a previous Board meeting where a full review of risks had been undertaken.

It was agreed that Gareth Watts would discuss again with risk owners the scope and intention of their risks and consider whether the wording effectively reflected that.

 

10.

Any Other Business

Minutes:

Management Board were reminded that the deadline for corporate performance indicator data returns was 7 October.

The next Management Board would be held on 2 November.