Transparency data

SLC Board meeting minutes November 2023

Updated 24 April 2024

1. Attendees

1.1 Present

• Peter Lauener (PL) - Chair

• Chris Larmer (CL) - Chief Executive Officer

• Mary Curnock Cook (MCC) - Non-Executive Director

• Andrew Wathey (AW) - Non-Executive Director

• Natasha Toothill (NT) - Non-Executive Director

• Gary Page (GP) - Non-Executive Director

• Charlotte Moar (CM)- Non-Executive Director

• Stephen Tetlow (ST) - Non-Executive Director

• David Wallace (DW) - Deputy Chief Executive Officer

• Audrey McColl (AMC) - CFO

• Gary Womersley (GW) - Company Secretary

1.2 Also in attendance

• Patrick Curry (PC) – DfE (by videoconference)

• Anne Rimmer (AR) - DfE (by videoconference)

• Evelyn Aitken (EA) – Scottish Government (by videoconference)

• Chris Williams (CW) - Welsh Government (by videoconference)

• Jason Dunham (JD) – CIO

• Jackie Currie (JC) – Executive Director, Business Operations

• David Beattie (DB) – Executive Director, Change, Data and Repayments

• Derek Ross (DR) - Executive Director, HE and FE Reform

• Gillian Brydie (GB) - Executive Director, People

• Helen Bogan (HB) – Head of Governance and Planning

• Stuart Brydson (SB) - Board Secretary (Secretariat)

• Adam Treslove (AT) - Head of Corporate Affairs (for Item 6.1 only) (by videoconference)

• Nicholas McDermott (NMC) – Chief of Staff (for item 6.1 only)

• Margaret McMullen (MMC) – Director of Finance (for item 6.2 only) (by videoconference)

• Steven Darling (SD) - Director of Customer Experience (by videoconference for Items 8.1 only)

• Susan Lapworth (SL) - CEO of Office for Students (by videoconference for Items 7.1 and 8.1 only)

2. Apologies

• Julia Kinniburgh (DfE)

• Sinead Gallagher (Welsh Government)

• Catherine Topley (Scottish Government)

• Jonny O’Callaghan (NI Government)

• Laura Irvine (NI Government)

3. 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.        

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

PL welcomed everyone to the meeting, noting that it was an ‘in person’ meeting in Glasgow but with facilities for Teams connection as well.

There were no declarations of interest.

5. Chair Update

5.1 Update from the Chair on relevant matters

PL welcomed everyone to the meeting.

Apologies were noted from JK, CT, SG, JOC, and LI.

PL noted the Board’s appreciation of the work that had been carried out to facilitate the move to 10 Clyde Place and the related data centre exit from Bothwell Street.

Declarations of Interest

There were no declarations of interest.

PL noted that the current Non-Executive Director recruitment scheme to replace AW, MCC and Rona Ruthen was well under way.  From the initial 154 applications, 14 candidates had been forwarded to ministers for review, and interviews were expected to take place in January. 

PL highlighted that he had attended the twice-yearly ALB Chairs meeting, where Susan Acland-Hood had delivered a report which had highlighted progress on Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete. 

Early Strategy Session observations

PL congratulated the ELT on the quality of work that had gone into the preparation and execution of the Strategy Session which had been held in Glasgow the previous day.  It had been useful to have a wide-ranging session that had confirmed that the current strategy was still appropriate.  There had been important discussions on customer, colleague and shareholder issues.

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PL noted the discussion around following the ‘spirit and letter’ of the Financial Conduct Authority regulations.  PL reflected that DW had taken away an action from the Strategy session to consider how best SLC can work in the spirit of FCA regulation.

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6. Strategic items

6.1 CEO Report

NMC and AT joined the meeting.

CL noted that they would focus on the customer, colleague and shareholder lenses. 

Customer

Repayments Operations

CL noted the strong performance of both JC and DB’s teams in managing the academic cycle, despite the unprecedented increase in refund activity following media coverage by Money Saving Expert (MSE) and social media influencers. 

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It was expected that the Martin Lewis programme would cover customers who were on the wrong plan type and highlight that those customers would be required to contact their employer in the first instance.  The current system was designed in such a way that the timing of information between employers and HMRC resulted in customers over-repaying unless they opted to set up a direct debit.  Whilst not solving the problem, more frequent data sharing between SLC and HMRC had reduced the amount by which customers over-repay. 

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LLE

CL highlighted that there would be an extra meeting of the Board in January to discuss the Accounting Officer (AO) assessment and next steps.  CL explained that the AO Assessment was intended to help DfE make informed decisions by setting out the position and the various risks.

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Colleague

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Shareholder

Data Centre Exit

CL noted that the data centre exit from Bothwell Street had been successfully completed.  The effort and technical expertise to execute this complex migration should not be understated. 

Alternative Student Finance

AR clarified DfE’s ASF ambitions: that it would be important to undertake discovery and inception, but implementation would have to follow the delivery of LLE.

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In summary, PL noted that SLC was managing very substantial issues and that the Board took assurance that they were being dealt with appropriately.  There was evidence of strong performance in a number of areas, including Apply to Pay, and the response to the overpayment refund requests.  Although there were numerous pressures in the organisation the ELT were meeting these head on.

NMC and AT left the meeting.

6.2 CFO Report

MMC joined the meeting.

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PL summed up the discussion noting the assurance the Board took that with work being led by finance was effectively managing the current and future budget positions.  PL underlined that it was essential to meet budget control totals PL formally noted the Board’s endorsement of SLC’s approach to DfE to use maximum allowable APRA budget tolerances.

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MMC left the meeting.

7. External Partners

7.1 Office for Students Update

SL joined the meeting.

PL welcomed SL to the meeting.

SL introduced the Office for Students (OfS) Update noting that OfS was the independent regulator of Higher Education Providers in England.  The tools that OfS had were similar to other market regulators like Ofgem, with OfS having more in common with these bodies than other DfE ALBs.  Two key areas of OfS’ strategy were quality and standards and, equality of opportunity, with a focus on positive outcomes for students from all backgrounds. 

SL explained that OfS’ strategy also covered financial sustainability, market exit and protecting public funding.  OfS’ most recent report on financial sustainability reflected the sector’s own forecast that, in aggregate, income will continue to grow.

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OfS had an interest in making sure that SLC funding was flowing to eligible students genuinely undertaking study and was extending regulatory work in this area. 

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The Board discussed OfS evolution as an organisation and use of current regulatory tools as opposed to anything which would require legislation and therefore take time.

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CM asked if there was anything more SLC could do now to support OfS.  SL noted that SLC could meaningfully support the development of definitions on, for example, attendance and engagement. 

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PL summed up the discussion by noting that SLC could provide a practical perspective to work on defining key terms and this underlined the need for joint working.  PL offered that he and CL could attend an OfS Board, if SL would find that helpful.

8. Directors’ Reports

8.1 Customer Experience and Channel Strategy update

SD joined the meeting.

DW introduced the Customer Experience and Channel Strategy Update noting that improving customer experience was a strategic imperative for SLC – a frictionless, digital journey was good for customers and good for taxpayers.  Reflecting on the Strategy Session, DW noted the discussion on Consumer Duty and how SLC should seek to position itself, especially in respect of unfair customer outcomes.

SD provided a verbal update, covering the areas drawn out in the paper – the Customer Charter, reducing the evidence burden, channel strategy and optimisation and customer satisfaction.  SD drew the Board’s attention to the key milestone achieved in early November with the launch of the new digital journey for sponsors, channel optimisation savings generated through an initiative within Catalyst and increasing satisfaction, particularly in repayments.

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GP noted that live chat was becoming more popular and asked what more could be done to move customers from telephony to chat.  SD noted that live chat was the customer channel of choice, with high satisfaction and, once at scale, was also expected to be the most economic channel from SLC’s perspective.  SLC was not, however, currently able to run a fully concurrent live chat service but that steps were being taken to move towards this and to make the channel more efficient, including looking at AI augmentation.  Once the channel was optimised, SLC would increase activity to push this channel. 

PL concluded the item by thanking SD for a very positive update, noting that it was great to see that SLC was improving customer experience while driving down cost to the taxpayer.

SD left the meeting.

9. Governance

9.1 Minutes of meeting held on 31 October 2023

The minutes of the SLC Board meeting held on 31 October 2023 were approved as a true and accurate record.

9.2 Matters arising from previous meetings

It was noted that MB 404 had been completed since the papers had been published.

The matters arising document was approved as accurate.

10. Any other business

PL formally thanked AW and MCC on behalf of the Board for their valuable contribution during their tenure with SLC.

10.1 Date of Next Meeting

The next formal meeting was confirmed as being at 10.00 am on Thursday 29 February 2024 by Teams with Executive hosting from the Glasgow Boardroom.

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There being no other business the meeting ended at 1.00 pm.