Guidance

Minutes of the Dounreay Socio Economic Board - Monday 11 May 2020

Updated 27 September 2023

Present

Name	Organisation represented and job title
Steve Young	Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd (DSRL) Organisational Excellence Director (Chair)
John McNamara	Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) Head of Stakeholder Relations
David Wallace	NDA Stakeholder Relations Manager
Simon Middlemas	Parent Body Organisation Socio Economic support
June Love	DSRL Socio Economic and Stakeholders Relations Manager
Niall Watson	DSRL Trade Unions
Paul Hetherington	DSRL Head of Communications

Welcome and introduction

Steve Young, Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and noted he would be chairing the meeting in the absence of the managing director. Before proceeding, there was a safety share around the need for clear guidance and messaging about how to stay safe within the context of Covid-19.

Potential conflicts of interest were tabled, noting that no-one declaring an interest receives any personal benefit from these projects:

Name	Conflict of interest
June Love	Space Hub Sutherland
Simon Middlemas	Space Hub Sutherland, Sustainability project, Nuclear services hub
Steve Young	Nuclear services hub

On opening the meeting, Steve Young noted the following:

• Steve Young would continue to chair the meeting in the short term. Mark Rouse, Managing Director would aim to attend the next meeting with the potential to take over the chair following that meeting.

Action: DSEB(2020)M02/A001 - June Love to include Mark Rouse on diary invitations for future Dounreay Socio Economic Board (DSEB) meetings.

• It is important that Dounreay Socio Economic Board (DSEB) meetings focus on the bigger opportunities
• From a strategic point of view there was an expectation that the socio economic impact plan would need to be re-considered to take on board the potential impact of Covid-19 such as the need for socio economic recovery activities and how it might affect socio economic funding.
• With the current Covid-19 arrangements in place with regards remote working it was a time to be bold and provide leadership by commencing with projects to provide some form of confidence to the community. If this is done correctly it can re-enforce partnership working and the actions taken to bring some projects through will emphasis this. Coupled with this are the plans for a phased return to on-site working (in a measured and controlled manner) for some of the workforce while considering a strategy to continue remote working for others in the medium/longer term.

Members endorsed the chair’s comments.

Apologies

Name	Organisation represented and job title
Lesley Sewell	DSRL Business Services Director

John McNamara noted that David Wallace would be joining the meeting later.

Minutes of the last meeting

Steve Young noted that the minutes of the last meeting – DSEB(2020)M01 refers – had been circulated in advance to members. The minutes were accepted as a true reflection of the meeting.

Action: DSEB(2020)M02/A002 - June Love to publish DSEB(2020)M01 on website.

Status of actions

The status of actions is recorded at the end of these minutes.

Caithness and North Sutherland Regeneration Partnership (CNSRP) internal process

Simon Middlemas provided a short update on the internal process undertaken by CNSRP to consider projects for the priority programme.

Niall Watson asked whether the process was documented. Simon Middlemas responded that it was and therefore any potential projects went through a level of due diligence and scrutiny prior to an application being sent out to one of the funding partners. Hence, when the DSEB is applying its own due diligence to funding applications it needs to take on board the prior due diligence by CNSRP in order to avoid duplication.

NDA strategy and process

As David Wallace had not yet joined the meeting this agenda item was discussed later in the meeting.

Dounreay socio economic impact plan

Steve Young noted the new format of the plan that had been submitted, as per the contract, to the NDA at the end of March 2020. This reflected the change in emphasis in starting to consider work mobility, future of the nuclear site beyond the end state and various other larger projects that could be led, on behalf of CNSRP, by the Dounreay Socio Economic Alliance (DSEA).

While recognising an outstanding action on the pipeline projects Steve Young noted there was a need for a resource to be identified to review the pipeline and to take forward those that have the greatest potential to create employment post-Dounreay. He felt it would be advantageous to provide some resilience to the CNSRP in developing business cases.

All members present agreed with this approach recognising that whilst there would be different approaches for different projects each would require a clear project owner and scope of work defined. This topic was further discussed under agenda item 8 (DSRL funding for socio economic activity).

NDA strategy and process outline

At this stage Dave Wallace joined the meeting and discussion returned to agenda item 6 (NDA strategy and process). Dave Wallace provided a brief update on the NDA’s new socio economic strategy and process that was currently being tested to ensure consistency across the NDA estate with more robust governance built in.

There was a brief discussion around the details of how the process would work in terms of NDA and DSRL funding. Dave Wallace noted that he was still getting up to speed with the new process and suggested the best way forward was to have a discussion with Andrew Van Der Lem and Karen Hallsworth to ensure the process was well understood prior to it going live on 1 June.

Action: DSEB(2020)M02/A003 - David Wallace to set up a discussion with Andrew Van Der Lem, Karen Hallsworth, June Love and Steve Young to discuss how the NDA socio economic process will be implemented.

Steve Young noted that the NDA socio economic strategy had been finalised prior to the Covid-19 crisis and asked whether NDA were considering a different approach when lockdown restrictions were lifted recognising the potential to support Covid-19 recovery activities. John McNamara confirmed that NDA would be considering this and believed there was an element of flexibility within the strategy to be able to support Covid recovery. He agreed to keep the group updated on current thinking on this as it evolved.

Action: DSEB(2020)M02/A004 - June Love, David Wallace, John McNamara and Steve Young to discuss the potential changes in socio economic strategy to take on board Covid recovery prior to the next meeting.

DSRL funding for socio economic activity

June Love provided an update on the 2019/20 year end spend and confirmed that there was an underspend for various reasons. A response on whether the site’s budget could accommodate the carry over funding into this financial year was currently awaited. She noted that Period 1 financial information was currently not available.

Local business support for Covid-19 recovery: Steve Young noted earlier discussions around support to local business for Covid-19 recovery activities. This had been discussed with the Caithness Chamber of Commerce (CCoC) who run the Caithness Business Fund (CBF) and with agreement it was recommended that rather than setting up a separate fund DSRL’s funding be provided to that fund. June Love noted that Lesley Sewell was on the Board of the CCoC and also a Director of the CBF and therefore governance of any funding provided by DSRL would be undertaken. Updates to the DSEB would be provided to ensure board members are satisfied funding is being used in accordance with any conditions that are attached.

CNSRP sustainability project: Steve Young noted the note for the record for the sustainability project that had been received via CNSRP. The funding request was for £150k for this financial year to allow this project to commence and felt this was something that DSRL could support. He believed it would be useful to submit this application using the new NDA socio economic funding process for the first year of funding with a gate review factored in to consider future funding for the following 2 years. Simon Middlemas, while providing an outline to the thinking behind this project, took no part in the discussion or decision on whether this was a suitable project to support.

Nuclear services/engineering hub: Steve Young noted that resource was required to ensure this project was given sufficient attention and if this included the review of the pipeline projects it would warrant the recruitment (on a fixed term contract) of a business development person to undertake this work.

To summarise, Steve Young asked whether DSEB members were supportive of the following:

• Providing £100k to the CBF to support local business in Covid-19 recovery activities.

Members agreed the provision of £100k into the CBFto provide support to businesses for Covid-19 recovery activities.

• Agreeing in principle to provide funding of £150k for the sustainability project.

Members agreed in principle to support the sustainability project with the caveat that this should go through the new NDA process to ensure the appropriate level of scrutiny prior to making a recommendation.

• Agreeing in principle to provide funding of £100k to recruit a dedicated resource to take forward the Nuclear Services/Engineering hub project and other pipeline projects.

Members agreed this in principle with further work to be done to take this forward.

Action: DSEB(2020)M02/A005 - June Love to progress all three proposals for funding support to provide more detail on conditions of funding and how these could be taken forward.

Communications

Paul Hetherington noted:

• The Dounreay Socio Economic annual review 2019/20 was currently with him to finalise and this would be completed shortly.
• The focus of communications during Covid-19 has been on ways that DSRL is helping the local community manage the challenges presented by the pandemic. Different (including new) media platforms were being used for these communications.

Any other business

Before opening to other members, Steve Young noted the following:

• A short term accommodation strategy was being developed, recognising that with social distancing still required not everyone will be able to return to the workplace, at least not in the immediate future. This could also provide support to the town centres of Thurso and/or Wick, if more people were working in those towns. It was recognised that a longer term strategy on accommodation may provide socio-economic benefits to the area. An update on the short term accommodation strategy was requested in time for the next meeting.

Action: DSEB(2020)M02/A006 - Lesley Sewell to provide an update on short term accommodation strategy at the next DSEB.

• The DSEB Terms of Reference had been circulated in draft for comment. Comments had been received and these would be circulated to members for final comment.

Action: DSEB(2020)M02/A007 - June Love to circulate final (draft) version of the ToRs for comment prior to the next meeting.

• The partnering charter was also discussed with members considering whether it was worthwhile updating the charter. It was suggested that a review of the partnering performance of the DSEA should be undertaken, using an established partner maturity model, to understand the current thinking of DSEB members, prior to any potential update to the charter. It was agreed this would be taken forward at a future meeting.

Action: DSEB(2020)M02/A008 - June Love to put Partnering Charter and performance of partnership working with DSEA on next agenda for further consideration.

• June Love noted that Alistair Dodds (ex CEO of The Highland Council) had recently been appointed as the HIE Chairman

There being no further business, Steve Young thanked everyone for their input and formally closed the meeting.

Steve Young, Organisational Excellence Director, DSEB (Chair)

Actions arising from this meeting

Action number	Action description
DSEB(2020)M02/A001	June Love to include Mark Rouse on diary invitations for future DSEB meetings
DSEB(2020)M02/A002	June Love to publish DSEB(2020)M01 on website
DSEB(2020)M02/A003	David Wallace to set up a discussion with Andrew Van Der Lem , Karen Hallsworth, June Love and Steve Young to discuss how the socio economic process will be implemented
DSEB(2020)M02/A004	June Love, David Wallace, John McNamara and Steve Young to discuss the potential changes in socio economic strategy to take on board Covid recovery prior to the next meeting
DSEB(2020)M02/A005	June Love to progress all three proposals for funding support to provide more detail on conditions of funding and how these could be taken forward
DSEB(2020)M02/A006	Lesley Sewell to provide an update on short term accommodation strategy at the next DSEB
DSEB(2020)M02/A007	June Love to circulate final (draft) version of the ToRs for comment prior to the next meeting
DSEB(2020)M02/A008	June Love to put Partnering charter and performance of partnership working with DSEA on next agenda for further consideration

Actions ongoing from previous meetings

Action number	Action description	Action status	Action update
DSEB(2020)M01/A002	June Love to organise meeting of DSEB members to explore potential for pipeline projects and to explore partnership working by 4 March 2020	Action ongoing	This meeting had been set up but was cancelled due to Covid-19
DSEB(2020)M01/A003	All DSEB members to consider the DSEB Terms of Reference including objectives and goals and provide comments by Friday 28 February	Action ongoing	all comments received and ToRs will be updated to reflect comments and final version to DSEB for endorsement
DSEB(2020)M01/A004	All DSEB members to provide comment on the Dounreay Socio Economic Alliance Impact Plan 2020-2023 by Friday 28 February 2020	Action ongoing	Comments received and currently with Paul Hetherington for final comments prior to finalising
DSEB(2020)M01/A005	June Love and Paul Hetherington to work together to develop the annual review and explore ways of providing this in a short, easy to read document by 20 March 2020	Action ongoing	Comments on draft received and currently with Paul Hetherington for final comments prior to finalising

Actions completed since last meeting

Action number	Action description	Action status	Action update
DSEB(2020)M01/A001	June Love to amend DSEB(2019)M003 to reflect minor change and publish on website by 4 March 2020	Action complete	sent for publishing on website on 2 March 2020