Transparency data

SLC Board Meeting Minutes 31 October 2021

Updated 23 February 2022

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
• Stephen Tetlow (ST) - Non-Executive Director (by videoconference)
• Andrew Wathey (AW) - Non-Executive Director (by videoconference)
• David Wallace (DW) - Deputy Chief Executive Officer
• Audrey McColl (AMC) – Chief Financial Officer
• Gary Womersley (GW) - Company Secretary (by videoconference)

1.2 Also in attendance

• Ailsa Harris (AH) - DfE (by videoconference)
• Lauren McNamara (LMC) - Scottish Government (by videoconference)
• Sinead Gallagher (SG) - Welsh Government (by videoconference)
• Laura Irvine (LI) - Department for the Economy, NI (by videoconference)
• Stephen Campbell (SC) - CIO (by videoconference)
• Chris Larmer (CL) - Executive Director, Business Operations, Darlington Office (by videoconference)
• Derek Ross (DR) - Executive Director of Operations (by videoconference)
• Bernice McNaught (BMC) - Executive Director of Repayments and Customer Compliance (by videoconference)
• Morven Spalding (MS) - Executive Director, People
• Helen Bogan (HB) - Head of Governance and Planning (by videoconference)
• Stuart Brydson (SB) - Board Secretary (Secretariat)
• Adam Treslove (AT) - Head of Corporate Affairs (for Item 5.1 only) (by videoconference)
• Nathan Glancy (NG) - Business Manager to the Office of the CEO (for Item 5.1 and 5.3 only) (by videoconference)
• David Derrick (DD) - Interim Head of Finance (for item 5.2 only) (by videoconference)
• Mark Cassidy (MC) - Head of Estates and Sourcing (for item 5.3 only) (by videoconference)
• Madeleine Frith (MF) - Senior Manager External Affairs and Strategic Relations (for item 5.3 only) (by videoconference)
• Steven Darling (SDA) - Director of Customer Experience (for item 7.1 only) (by videoconference)

1.3 Apologies

• Paul Kett (DfE)
• Anne Spinali (DFE)
• Chris Williams (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 noted that RR was attending the meeting in person in the Glasgow Boardroom

Apologies were noted from PK, AS and CW.

PL outlined the agenda for the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest.

4. Chair Update

4.1 Update from the Chair on relevant matters

PL noted that he and PS had attended a ministerial reception for the new Secretary of State for Education, Nadhim Zahawi MP.

5. Strategic items

5.1 CEO Report

AT and NG joined the meeting.

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

Evolve Delivery Update

BMC explained that there had been great progress made on the Evolve projects that are underway, including CEM, which was due to have its public beta go live launched in January which would complete the roll out of the new platform. BMC noted that a cross functional team including Programme and Change, Technology Group, Commercial and Finance resources were supporting successes within Evolve.

BMC explained that, except for a few cases, all the projects in Evolve had now started and the expectation was that most deliveries would be completed next year, capacity allowing. BMC noted that Evolve benefits delivery was ahead of the business case, although there had been additional costs from Salesforce integration. BM noted that the underpinning technology was now in place for the programmes SLC wanted to run.

MCC noted that it would be helpful to hear more about the risk of spending below the Evolve APRA target. PS explained that this would be covered in the CFO Report item.

* * * * * *

Operation Performance

CL explained that the early adoption of some of the Ops 2.0 principles such as multi skilling, the flexible deployment of resource, enhanced scheduling, collaboration and getting the right data to frontline managers to understand performance and provide coaching had seen a 20% improvement in productivity.

CL noted that volatile levels of demand within telephony had been tackled with enhanced IVR messaging and a more efficient process to manage identity and verification. CL explained that, additionally, there had been proactive communications from the Corporate Affairs and Customer Communications teams. CL had been impressed by the collaboration between directorates.

ST noted the reduction in customer waiting times and explained that it would be helpful to understand how they were being reduced. CL noted that recently 98% of calls had been handled within 180 seconds with the aim to drive further improvement by reducing the reasons for customers to call and driving adoption of self-service. SC explained that the customer portal queue function had been in place through two application cycles and had contributed to the improved figures by increasing stability.

PL noted that there would be an Annual Application Cycle Review item on the November Board agenda.

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Attrition and Retention

PS noted that detailed leavers statistics were included in the CEO Report. MS explained that although recruitment had been challenging, good progress had been recently.

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MCC noted the drop in overall headcount in the past three years, and that SLC now dealt with more customers with fewer staff.

Repayments and Customer Compliance

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GP noted the data around the Repayments customer satisfaction figures and suggested that further insight would be useful. PS encouraged Board members to think about this in the light of the Repayment Strategy and advised that the topic of repayments customer satisfaction would come to a future Board meeting with DW and BM to specify the timing.
ACTION: Repayments customer satisfaction to come to a future Board

* *

* *

Leadership Development

PL noted the progress that had been made in the G6 cohort leadership development. It was encouraging to see that three alumni of the programme had been promoted to G7 level and this reinforced the value of career pathways.

PL summed up the CEO Report discussion, noting the importance of getting more regular updates on repayments and the value in exploring the scope to go further in terms of sanctions for any customers who may be evading their repayment obligations. The Board took assurance from the CEO Report.

AT and NG left the meeting.

5.2 CFO Report

DD joined the meeting.

AMC introduced the CFO Report, noting that during September SLC Finance had completed an in-depth review and challenge of the business forecasts provided in August to create the Q2 reforecast. The outcome of this process was that the raw underlying SLC forecast indicated a potential overspend on admin of £0.5m and a potential overspend of £5.4 on programme. Details of the process used to create the Q2 forecast were detailed in Appendix 3 to the report.

AMC noted that it was likely that SLC would underspend to some extent as the budget was extremely difficult to manage and given the imperative of not overspending. AMC noted that there were levers the ELT could deploy to increase or reduce spending and that the next two reforecast cycles would be key in determining remedial actions needed. AMC also explained that her team would also look at how data was presented to the Board to try and ensure that the decision-making process and the impacts of those decisions were clearer.

AMC referred back to the question from MCC on the Evolve ring-fenced budget and noted that SLC was close to the minimum spend control. This was the result of there being limited subject matter expertise and the number of priorities that were calling on this pool of resource.

PL noted that he and CM had reviewed the mid-year forecast with PS, DD and AMC. They had taken assurance on the programme spend and the process of identifying levers to increase or reduce spending. They had, however, asked for more data on the admin forecast.

CM noted that the APRA tolerances did allow for a degree of overspend. PS noted that this was an important point. AMC explained that there would be a meeting next week with DfE and this point was on the agenda.

AMC noted that there would be a further meeting at the end of November with PL, PS, CM and DD.

The Board took assurance from the Head of Finance Update with PL noting that there was further work to do.

DD left the meeting.

5.3 Post-COVID 19 Blended Working

NG, MF and MC joined the meeting.

PL explained that this paper should be read in the context of the Corporate Risk Report which rated this risk item as high.

PS introduced the post-COVID 19 Blended Working paper, noting that the ELT position on blended working had been developed very carefully following several discussions and taking account of evidence and risks in the employment market. PS and MS had met with PCS representatives, and they were happy with the position. Ultimately, the position taken focused on delivering for SLC’s customers.

PS noted that blended working was a huge ask for SLC managers and explained that meaningful training and support would be provided for them. The dedicated “Blend” section of the Intranet would give colleagues the tools and skills to effectively manage blended working. AW endorsed the point about management workload and underlined the criticality of maintaining flexibility.

* * *

GP noted that it would be important to position communication on technology remote working when recruiting.

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RR noted that it was a flexible and changing situation and noted concern that attrition might increase. She suggested SLC set indicators in order to inform any change in position. CM commended the paper and noted that it would be helpful to know if the ELT were confident that they had an appropriate set of metrics in place to measure success. PS explained while headlines can be monitored, it was more difficult to measure things like cohesion. The situation would require careful monitoring and would be an on-going agenda item.

Board took assurance from post-COVID 19 Blended Working with PL welcoming the well based plans, agreeing with the judgements SLC had made and encouraging the prioritisation of support for managers and the development of non-digital reg flags.

NG, MF and MC left the meeting.

6. Reports from Committees

September ARC minutes

CM introduced the September ARC minutes noting that the Annual Report and Accounts FY 2020-21 had yet to be approved by the Minister.

HB noted that the ARC had taken assurance on the Annual Health and Safety Report which had now been published on ibabs.

Board took assurance from the September ARC minutes and the Annual Health & Safety Report.

September RemCo minutes

AW introduced the September RemCo noting that he had covered the details of this meeting at the September Board meeting.

Board took assurance from the September RemCo minutes.

Evolve Oversight Committee Chair Report

SD introduced the Evolve Oversight Committee Chair Report noting the meeting had only taken place on Wednesday and the minutes were not yet available. The meeting presentation had been published on ibabs.

SD noted that the Evolve programme had moved to an amber rating and that SC had reported that all foundational technology that was key to transformation was now in place. SD noted that the financial benefits were beyond initial expectations.

In terms of the Evolve programme underspend that had been discussed earlier, SD saw this as a potential opportunity.

SD explained that he was now into the final six months of his term with SLC and that the Evolve programme still had several months to run. In his opinion, when Evolve came to full term it should stop and be reinvented with a new scope.

PL noted SD’s challenge around future planning and that a future programme may benefit from being broader in coverage.

In the chat bar AH noted that she very much agreed with PL. Relating to MCC’s point about showing the full picture of the benefits, she noted that the track record of delivery on Evolve should give confidence across Government on delivery of other future priorities.

The Board took assurance from the Evolve Oversight Committee Chair Report.

7. Directors’ Reports

7.1 Customer Experience Update

SDA joined the meeting.

DW introduced the Customer Experience Update noting that it had previously come to the April Board meeting. SDA had been appointed to the Director role, consolidating internal teams into the function and bringing in external expertise, and had already delivered a series of tactical wins.

DW noted the work carried out on unfair outcomes, explaining the potential for increased accounting officer discretion. DW advised that he would share a paper on this subject. ACTION: DW to share a paper on accounting officer discretion in due course.

DW thanked RR for her support, challenge, and advice on customer experience. DW also called out the collaborative relationship between the respective Operations and Customer Experience teams.

SDA noted that across SLC the focus on customer experience and new ways of working had started to take effect, and in the next few weeks service owners would start in their newly created roles which would help accelerate the shift.

SDA explained that the need for interventions had been picked up by new monitoring of customer experience; teams had been streamlining customer survey activity and extending this across the 11 customer journeys that represented the end-to-end customer experience.

SDA noted that there had been a significant refresh of the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system, with simpler options and an expected wait time included. Improvements had been made to the customer portal with a 60% reduction in wait times. The customer experience tools being used had highlighted the high error rate by customers and had seen an 85% reduction in the volume of errors.

SDA noted the Board interest in parental contributions. Working with SLC’s recently introduced Customer Panel, Customer Experience now planned to undertake a more comprehensive review of advice and guidance given to customers which would contribute to their student funding decisions.

SDA noted the customer vision that had been endorsed by the Board in April to provide an intuitive and trusted service. Work had been undertaken to address unfair customer outcomes due to policy, process and systems.

SDA explained that Customer Experience was working with Money Advice Trust to revise the Vulnerable Customer policy. Customer Experience was looking at how to simplify student finance forms and soften the language used and new Head of Customer Experience Proposition would lead improved engagement with the voluntary sector to further underpin the work on vulnerable customers.

SDA concluded by noting that the Customer Experience function would develop multi-channel communications and deliver an omni-channel experience.

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AH noted that improving customer experience is one of Minister Donelan’s top priorities.

MCC noted the importance of vulnerable customers including customers with disabilities. There were a further 22 categories of vulnerable customers, and disabled students were one of these. SDA explained that the core DSA journey was currently being reworked.

ST noted that it would be helpful to declare a dedicated vulnerable customer service, and this could be used to help protect these specific groups of customers from fraud.

ST explained that SLC should tackle big challenges, such as climate change. PS noted that SLC didn’t plan to do anything customer facing but that SLC would make clear to staff what the Company commitments were ahead of COP26. PS noted that Buchanan Wharf would be a net zero building.

SD asked about the extent of user testing. He also suggested a stronger definition of SLC values and how Customer Experience brings them to life, showing examples of what other people had done.

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LMC explained that in Scotland the SAAS platform included a budgetary calculator and that feedback had been positive. DW noted this and would have a look.

SDA explained that the second Customer Panel meeting had spent half a day talking about SLC’s tone of voice. The Panel felt that the current tone of voice felt distant and missed personal touches such as wishing students luck in their studies. The Panel noted that the tone should aspire to be akin to a helpful, friendly librarian.

In the chat bar MCC requested an item on all aspects of DSA at a future Board meeting.
Post meeting note: this is already on the Board schedule, provisionally for February 2022.

PL noted that it may be helpful for a meeting of the Panel to be attended by NED colleagues. MCC, AW, ST, RR, CM and GP indicated interest.

Board took assurance from the Customer Experience Update, noting that the item was for consideration.

SDA left the meeting.

8. Governance

8.1 Minutes of meeting held on 30 September

The minutes of the SLC Board meeting held on 30 September 2021 were approved as a true and accurate record.

8.2 Matters arising from previous meeting

PL noted that all seven items were marked for closure.

The matters arising document was approved as accurate.

9. Any other business

PL noted the arrangements that had been put in place for the September pathfinder Board meeting, and that he and CM had enjoyed the opportunity to meet SLC colleagues during their visit to Glasgow. PL explained that SB would send out a report on pathfinder feedback provided by Board members. PL advised that there would be four single-site physical Board meetings a year and that SB would remind Board members of the proposed locations. ACTION: SB to send out pathfinder feedback report and note of physical Board meeting locations to NEDs.

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10. Items for noting

10.1 Board and Committee Annual Schedules FY2022-23

PL introduced the Board and Committee Annual Schedules FY2022-23.

Board noted the Board and Committee Annual Schedules FY2022-23.

11. Date of the next meeting

The next meeting was confirmed as being at 10:00 am on Tuesday 30 November 2021.

There being no other business the meeting ended at 13:30 pm.