Agenda and minutes
Venue: Conference Room 4B - Tŷ Hywel. View directions
Contact: Liz Jardine
No. | Item |
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Introductions, apologies and declarations of interest Minutes: Apologies
were received from Adrian
Crompton (Director of Assembly Business), Anna Daniel (Head of Strategic
Transformation) and Elisabeth Jones
(Chief Legal Adviser). There
were no declarations of interest. Manon
Antoniazzi thanked all who had been involved
with the approval of the Mandate Motion - Consultation on Assembly Reform in
Plenary on 7 February. The
consultation on Assembly Reform would be launched on 12 February and run for 8 weeks. It was
also noted that, at the meeting of the Welsh
Grand Committee held at Westminster, members from the Assembly’s Interpretation
team enabled MPs to hold a bilingual meeting for the first time. |
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Communication note to staff - Mair Parry-Jones Minutes: Mair
Parry-Jones would draft a note of the Management Board discussion for the
staff news page. |
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Minutes of the Previous Meeting Minutes: The minutes of the 11 January Management Board meeting were
agreed as a correct record. Progress on actions arising from the previous meeting were
given: ·
the next steps in the Staff Survey were outlined; ·
progress on the Assembly Commission’s policy on dignity and
respect, the help line and distribution of posters. It was noted that
Westminster had just launched its strategy on the Dignity and Respect issue; ·
a new approach to setting the 2018-19 Service budgets had
been implemented within Services and had been well received. This had provided
increased budget flexibility that had meant
planned ICT and EFM work could be undertaken before year-end, clearing the way
for other priorities next financial year. The service budgets would be reviewed
at the Investment and Resources Board (IRB) and return to a Management Board
meeting during March; and ·
the implications of holding a Plenary meeting off the
Assembly Estate was being explored. |
|
Terms of Reference - Executive Board and Leadership Group Minutes: Manon
Antoniazzi outlined a new model for the leadership of the Assembly Commission
and presented the Terms of Reference for a new Executive Board (EB) and Leadership Group (LG). The
membership of EB would consist of the current IRB with the addition of the Head of Communications and the Chair of the new Leadership Group (the Chair role
rotating between members on a termly basis). It
would continue to execute its duties in governance and oversight. Membership of
the
LG would include the Chief Executive, the Directors and Chief
Legal Adviser, all Heads of Service and the Llywydd’s Policy Advisor. The LG
would meet on a monthly basis, to facilitate ‘blue sky’ thinking and provide challenge to strategic decisions made by
the EB, but it would not be a
decision making body itself. Minutes of the EB meetings would be shared with
the LG. Management Board members had already met with Manon
individually to discuss their views. A more formal consultation over the
following two weeks would invite Heads and other stakeholders, including the
secretariats, to make any representations to her before implementing the new
structure. The Board discussed in more detail how the agendas for the
Leadership Group might be set and a mode of communication between the two
groups and with staff. Manon invited a volunteer for the first Chair. |
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Capacity Review - communication and Phase II Terms of reference Minutes: Dave Tosh
outlined progress on the Capacity review. Following the formal Survey
undertaken in December - including discussions with Assembly Members, AMSS and
Commission staff - ideas and suggestions for improvement were identified,
together with a number of actions, to change the Commission’s organisational
capacity and capability to improve the effective use of resources. Dave
presented the terms of reference for Phase II, and the plan for a steering
group of senior representatives from service areas to facilitate delivery of an
action plan, considering in detail the themes identified and feedback, and
based on the priorities and what can be reasonably achieved. Both the
Assembly Commission and Chairs’ forum had been appraised of the Capacity Plan
and were engaged with its aims and objectives. The Capacity Review report would
also be provided to the Finance and Public Accounts Committees as part of the
Commission’s response to their scrutiny of the accounts. Gareth Watts and Phil
Turner were preparing a digest of individual’s feedback from the survey and
some further qualitative information to add to the final report. The Board
discussed communication to staff and the importance of instilling confidence
that their views and concerns were being listened to and how they could feed
into the next stage of the review. All-staff meetings would be
arranged for early March with more detailed discussions within services
thereafter. ACTIONS: ·
Non Gwilym and Lowri Williams to finalise a communication plan
to be shared with Commissioners on 26 February and feed into an extended senior
management meeting on 16 April on engagement strategy. ·
Two or three meetings for staff to be arranged for early
March and Heads to ensure staff are enabled to attend. ·
Management Board to feedback to Dave Tosh on Phase II Terms
of Reference. ·
An update on Phase II progress to be provided at the next
meeting on 5 March. |
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Engagement Strategy Oral
item Minutes: Lowri
Williams then briefly outlined the basis for discussion at the Management Board
meeting in April, when engagement and values would considered in detail. The latest
staff survey indicated a high engagement score but it was also recognised that internal communications
was an issue identified in consecutive surveys and a snap survey was underway
to gain better understanding of the nature of the concerns. A lot of progress
had been made, however, to increase visibility and transparency, such as
publishing internally the recruitment authorisations documents. The capacity
review was a useful vehicle to help increase engagement through active
participation and instil it as a corporate priority. The Board
discussed how to use the forthcoming staff meetings and the format that would
meet this objective. ACTION: Heads
to flag the snap survey to staff; the deadline to be extended to Friday 12
January 3pm. |
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Financial Management Report January 2018 Minutes: Nia
Morgan gave a brief summary of the FMR for January. The Investment Fund surplus
released from reductions and savings by services, meant that IRB had been able
to approve the completion of essential repairs on the estates and ICT work in
this financial year, that had previously been delayed to the following year. This meant that the next financial year’s investment fund was
sufficient to enable expenditure on projects to begin. The
forecast underspend for 2017-18 was back on target and within the KPI. February was the last opportunity to adjust forecasts and Nia
asked the Board to inform her of any changes or emergency spend, emphasising
the need for accurate forecasting. |
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IRB Update Oral
item Minutes: As well
as confirming the Estates and ICT work could begin, the IRB approved several
RADs presented and reviewed the outcomes of the tender for the maintenance
contract, which was a significant size of contract when all combined. It
currently does not encompass the cleaning contract. ICT were
investigating the feasibility and appetite for Members’ constituency offices to
be on the same system of non-geographical numbers as Tŷ Hywel. |
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Media Grid Presentation Minutes: Non
Gwilym gave an overview of current grid that captured corporate and
business related communications activity to facilitate planning. Brexit had
dominated the week, with a press release from the Assembly of the EAAL report
launch receiving many hits. A lot of work had gone into releases put out,
including on suffrage, the Alun and Deeside by-election, the Mandate Motion on
electoral reform and ELGC report on maternity discrimination. Monday 12
February would see the launch of the consultation on electoral reform, with a
series of meetings and a microsite with videos and social media prepared. Non
noted the achievement of the Communications teams in responding to the Digital
report in how this work had been undertaken. ACTIONS: ·
add the Capacity Review communication timeline and LGBT Month
to the media grid; ·
investigate whether the grid can be linked to the timeline |
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HR Dashboard Oct-Dec 18 Paper
to note Minutes: The Board
reviewed the dashboard for the period October to December 2017, which showed
absence rates up over the winter period and, although an increase was expected,
the basis for the increase was being interrogated. |
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Any other business Minutes: Any other
business The next meeting would be
held on 5 March. |