Transparency data

SLC Board meeting minutes: 29 October 2020

Published 11 June 2021

1. Attendees

1.1 Present

• Peter Lauener (PL) - Chair (by videoconference)
• Paula Sussex (PS) - Chief Executive Officer
• Mary Curnock Cook (MCC)- Non-Executive Director (by videoconference)
• Simon Devonshire (SD) - Non-Executive Director (by videoconference)
• Charlotte Moar (CM) - Non-Executive Director (by videoconference)
• Gary Page (GP) - Non-Executive Director (by videoconference)
• Rona Ruthen (RR )- Non-Executive Director (by videoconference)
• Stephen Tetlow (ST) - Non-Executive Director (by videoconference)
• Andrew Wathey (AW) - Non-Executive Director (by videoconference)
• David Wallace (DW) - Deputy Chief Executive Officer
• Jacqui Smillie (JS) - Chief Financial Officer (by videoconference)
• Gary Womersley (GW) - Company Secretary

1.2 Also in attendance

• Sinead O’Sullivan (SOS) - DfE (by videoconference)
• Ailsa Harris (AH) - DfE (by videoconference)
• Gareth Allen (GA) - Scottish Government (by videoconference)
• Sinead Gallagher (SG) - Welsh Government (by videoconference)
• Richard Leeman (RL) - NI Government (by videoconference)
• Stephen Campbell (SC) - CIO
• Derek Ross (DR) - Executive Director of Operations (by videoconference but left the meeting at 11:25 a.m.)
• Bernice McNaught (BMC) - Executive Director of Repayments and Customer Compliance
• Morven Spalding (MS) - Executive Director, People (by videoconference)
• Stuart Brydson (SB) - Board Secretary (Secretariat)
• Mark Cassidy (MC) - Head of Estates and Sourcing (for Item 6.1 only)
• Nathan Glancy (NG) - Business Manager to the Office of the CEO (for Item 6.1 only)
• Adam Treslove (AT)- Head of Corporate Affairs (for Items 6.1 and 6.3 only) (by videoconference)
• Angela Donaldson (AD) - Head of Finance (for Item 6.2 only) (by videoconference)
• Ash Marston (AM) - Interim Head of Platform Delivery (for Item 6.4 only) (by videoconference)

1.3 Apologies

• Paul Kett (PK) - DfE
• Chris Williams (CW) - Welsh Government

2. FOI Notice

Where asterisks (*) appear, these sections have been excluded from the minutes before placing on the website as the subject under discussion falls within one or more of the exemptions contained in Part II of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and can be reasonably withheld.

3. Chairman’s Opening Remarks / Directors’ Matters / Declarations of Interest

PL welcomed everyone to the meeting, and especially GP and RR who were attending their first Board meeting today after having been appointed as Non-Executive Directors. PL noted that he had appointed GP as a member of ARC and that CM would act as his Non-Executive Director onboarding buddy. RR would work with DW on the customer strategy and MCC would act as her buddy. In addition, he had invited AW to take over as Chair of the RPODC.

PL noted that the meeting was being conducted by videoconference today and usual arrangements would apply in terms of use of the chat function and electronic hand raising.

Apologies had been received from PK and CW and were noted.

There were no declarations of interest.

4. Chair Update

4.1 Update from the Chair on relevant matters

PL noted that on 29 September the Prime Minister had announced the Lifetime Skills Guarantee initiative and that an FE white paper was expected in November. SOS noted that this would likely be delayed beyond the end of November as there were dependencies with the Treasury’s spending review. PL suggested that a Board workshop on this be arranged for late January to discuss the implication for the SLC. This suggestion was welcomed by the Board.

ACTION: HE Policy Strategy Landscape workshop to be arranged for the end of January.

5. Board Effectiveness Review

PL updated the Board on plans for a formal Board effectiveness review (BER) and noted that he had asked AW and CM to review the tender proposals that were expected imminently.

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6. Strategic items

6.1 CEO Report

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PS introduced the CEO Report, noting the areas of focus.

COVID-19 Response

MC noted that SLC continued to manage the impact of COVID-19 on staff. Current procedures and monitoring will ensure that the office remains COVID-secure, as far as possible.

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MC explained that some staff had raised concerns over the cost they were incurring as a consequence of working from home. As a result, further provision of office equipment had been made available.

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PS noted that MC and MS were leading on a piece of consultancy work with EY on the future working arrangements of SLC.

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ST noted the recent business continuity exercise and asked for further detail. MC explained that there had been thirteen recommendations resulting from the exercise and that he would share the report with ST. It was then agreed that this should be shared widely with the Board via Boardpacks.

ACTION: MC to share the BC exercise report with ST and to publish on Boardpacks.

Finance

MCC asked for a reminder of what was meant by ring-fencing the Evolve budget. PL noted that this would be covered in the CFO Report item.

Chief Customer Officer and Product, Customer and External Relations

DW noted that SLC had been working closely with DfE on their longer-term strategic policy development and thanked DfE for giving SLC colleagues the opportunity to be engaged earlier in policy commissioning. The work would inform the FE white paper which was due to be published later this year.

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DW noted that a great deal of additional customer communications activity had been undertaken over the last quarter to help address customer issues which arose from the impact of COVID-19.

ST noted the focus on targeted emails and questioned what the associated savings were. DW explained that the activity had most certainly contributed to a reduction in avoidable contact but the monetary impact of that had not yet been quantified.

Operations

DR noted that this year’s student funding cycle had been successful despite the significant challenges faced this year. In addition to the first term’s £2.7 billion maintenance payments and £2.3 billion tuition fee payments that had already been made, early second instalments of tuition fee payments were made on 28 October. Payments have continued without interruption throughout the COVID-19 pandemic period.

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Technology Group

SC noted a positive period for the Technology Group Directorate.

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Interim Performance Pack

PL noted that the IPP had developed well and that he had invited the Devolved Administrations’ representatives to lead with any comment or questions on this occasion since the pack included additional information on Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

GA noted that the IPP was well presented but that due to the SAAS process there may be a delay in applications figures. In addition, some of SAAS complaints go direct to the Scottish Government minister and in that context, they would review the SLA figures to provide further detail.

SG noted that the lower SFW performance rate may have been caused by increased call volumes.

RL noted that the IPP was positive and it would be useful to see the NI data in the same format as SFE.

ST noted the progress in the IPP content and questioned the high call wait time depicted in lens 2. DW noted that these were in fact portal wait /queue times and that the high figures on a Monday reflected the number of people queuing to access the SLC portal following the preceding weekend.

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ST noted that it would be useful to have previous year trend comparisons for lens 3 ACTION: IPP to show previous year trend comparisons for lens 3.

ST noted that it would be beneficial to have a better understanding of efficiency. PS noted that we are in a transitional year in terms of performance improvement and that the move to a new set of metrics which reflected this exceptional year, meant that comparatives were not always available. Although operational efficiency from CEM would include preparedness for less call handling, trend performance for this year would be difficult to produce as a result of COVID-19.

PL thanked the ELT for their work on the IPP over the past several months

Board noted the CEO Report.

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6.2 CFO Report

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JS introduced the CFO Report and noted that central adjustments (previously referred to as high level adjustments) were decreasing as we were able to see more certainty in actuals and remaining forecasts.

JS noted that on 21 October HMT announced that the CSR was being abandoned and that the fiscal settlement would now be for one year. SLC will work with DfE to ensure that the bid that was included in the CSR submission for 2021-22 is protected and approved.

JS noted MCC’s previous question on the ring-fenced funding for Evolve and explained that this was a requirement by DfE to provide oversight of spending which was a result of changes in HMT delegations for DfE.

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PL noted the delegations framework and asked SOS what advice she would give on the recycling of underspend. SOS noted that DfE would have confirmation of the Q2 exercise next week and that everyone had recommended that SLC should be allowed to recycle any underspends.

Board noted the CFO Report.

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6.3 Corporate Plan FY 2020-21 to 2022-23

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PS introduced the Corporate Plan FY 2020-21 to 2022-23 and noted that SLC are required to have a Corporate Plan that covers the following three-year period which is approved by the Board. JS noted that following Board approval the final document will be submitted to DfE for ministerial approval before then being published and made public.

The Board were generally supportive of the document and provided comments on some changes to be made. JS agreed that the final version would be distributed to Board members. ACTION: Final version of the Corporate Plan FY 2020-21 to 2022-23 to be distributed to Board members.

Board approved the Corporate Plan FY 2020-21 to 2022-23 subject to the agreed changes.

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6.4 Disaster Recovery Update

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SC introduced the Disaster Recovery update and explained that this item had previously been presented to the Board in October 2019. This year there had been a focus on operational resilience.

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Board noted the Disaster Recovery Update.

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7. Deep Dive

7.1 Change Function

BMC introduced the Change Function Deep Dive and noted that the SLC Change function had been moved to report directly to the Office of the CEO. Direct management of the function would come under BMC and would now bring together Evolve and all of SLC’s other change activity in one place. SLC would work alongside DfE in reviewing improvement opportunities where inefficiencies are related to the current funding and approvals process in respect of the SLC change activity.

PL stated that the overall portfolio value recorded in the paper was significant and illustrated the importance of taking a consistent approach across all change programmes.

MCC asked for clarification on the SRO roles and whether this meant that BMcN was an uber SRO for all change activity. BMC noted that the current directorate SRO responsibilities would remain the same but that the Change Function would provide direction over how the change portfolios were delivered.

CM questioned the difference between a programme and business as usual. PL noted that bringing Evolve and the Change portfolio closer together would mean that BMC and her colleagues would be in a better position to differentiate between change and maintenance and, as a result, provide better value for money. SOS noted that DfE were keen to advise on how improvements could be taken further.

ST asked if the People portfolio was included in this work, and AW supported this point. BMC explained that MS has a dedicated People Manager with resource dedicated to the Change Function. MS noted that the pay and grading work was entirely under Evolve.

PL noted that it would be beneficial for BMC to report back the Board on the impact and benefits that had been delivered as a result of the changes that had been highlighted.

ACTION: BMC to report on the impact and benefits that had been delivered by the SLC Change Function as a result of the changes that had been discussed.

Board noted the Change Function Deep Dive.

8. Papers for Noting / Reports from Committees

8.1 Evolve Oversight Committee Chair Report

MCC introduced the Evolve Oversight Committee Chair Report.

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SD noted that he was keen to see statistics on mass technology adoption. BMC noted that she would share ORS adoption statistics with SD. ACTION: BMC to share ORS adoption statistics with SD.

Board noted the Evolve Oversight Committee Chair Report.

8.2 September PFR Minutes

AH noted that she had met with the shareholders to discuss the future of the PFR meetings and as a result there would be changes to the structure.

9. Minutes of previous meeting and matters arising

9.1 Minutes of the meeting held on 30 September 2020

The minutes of the SLC Board meeting held on 30 September 2020 were approved as a true and accurate record subject to agreed changes.

9.2 Matters arising from previous meetings

The matters arising document was approved as accurate and no further questions were asked.

10. Any Other Business

There was no other business.

10.1 Date of Next Meeting

10:00 am, Thursday 26 November 2020, The Boardroom, 100 Bothwell Street, Glasgow G2 7JD or remotely.

There being no other business, the Chair thanked everyone for attending and the meeting closed at 1:00 pm.