Present:
D Butler (Chair)
S Robson
G Dullage
J Smith (via Teams)
S Duncan (Principal)
In Attendance:
D Everitt (interim Vice-Principal Finance and Business Planning)
H McCoy (Assistant Principal Performance)
C Tomlinson (Vice Principal Curriculum & Performance)
J Davidson (acting Clerk to the Corporation)
E McKenna (HR) as an observer
Apologises for Absence:
Apologies received from M Curry and A Chandra.
It was agreed that D Butler would Chair as this was S Robson’s first Finance and General Purposes Committee. S Robson will chair future meetings.
J Davidson (acting Clerk), D Everitt (interim Vice Principal Finance and Business Planning), and E McKenna (HR) were welcomed to the meeting. Introductions were made.
139 Conflicts of Interest
No conflicts of interest were declared.
140 Minutes of meeting held May 2023
AGREED
That the minutes of the meeting held in May 2023 were approved.
141 Matters Arising
No matters arising.
142 Estates Update: Capital Project Monitoring Report
The Vice Principal Curriculum and Performance presented the update on the Capital Projects. The report is confidential.
The report was noted
143 Human Resources Update
The Assistant Principal Performance presented the report. The report is confidential.
The report was noted
144 IT/Cyber Security Update
The Assistant Principal Performance presented the report which included an update on capital spend over the summer.
DDoS attached have remained low over the summer with no loss of service due to attacks. The college continues to be vigilant with the support of JISC.
Failover testing was an outstanding audit recommendation due to the difficulty in identifying a suitable time. This has been scheduled to take place during Easter 2024.
A Governor asked for clarification around data security. The Vice Principal Curriculum and Performance responded that the college has back-ups to the hour. The college has a data protection policy which includes the specific periods to store staff and student data in order to be compliant. The Director of IT to be asked to review data retention and provide an update to the next committee.
The report was noted
145 Finance: Financial Outturn
The Interim Vice Principal Finance and Business Planning presented the report outlining key aspects. The report was confidential.
The report was noted
Enrolment Numbers vs Target
The Vice Principal Curriculum and Performance provided a verbal update. A full report will be submitted to October Board meeting.
College’s largest income stream in terms of students are 16-18 year olds. The ESFA target is 1919 and current numbers today are 1916 with more enrolments to go on. The college is confident it will meet the 1919 target by 13th October, which is the cut-off point. There are departments which recruit 16-18 year olds in-year, but they will not count towards this figure.
The growth target is 1950 which the college will not reach, however, there has been continued growth for the last 4 years.
In terms of the other income streams Apprenticeships and Adult have complicated funding systems making it difficult to tell where we are in terms of finances. Numbers dictate that apprenticeships are above expectations in terms of starts, however adult is low with 100 less students compared to this time last year.
The update was noted
146 Any Other Business
None