The Strategic Board SAAS Conference Room, SAAS 1 September

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1 The Strategic Board SAAS Conference Room, SAAS 1 September In attendance Dugald Mackie Ed McGrachan Janet Matthews Kathy Patterson Derek Smeall Janet Unsworth Aileen McKechnie Fiona McQueen David Wallace Vonnie Sandlan Roz McCracken (Chair) Director of Advanced Learning and Science, SG Chief Nursing Officer, SG Chief Executive, SAAS President, National Union of Students (Scotland) Secretary, SAAS Apologies Rebekah Widdowfield Deputy Director and Head of HE and Learner Support Welcome and Matters arising 1. Apologies were received from Rebekah Widdowfield and a warm welcome extended to Vonnie Sandlan who was attending for the first time. As Aileen McKechnie needed to leave the meeting early it was agreed that the Spending Review paper would be taken after item The minutes of the last meeting were approved subject to a spelling mistake. Declaration of Interests 3. There were no declarations. SG Corporate Update 4. An update on recent corporate issues was provided and the following was highlighted: The new Programme for Government was being launched on the day of the meeting (link here: The 4 th meeting of the Widening Access Commission was due to take place on 2 September and the Interim Report was expected in the Autumn with the final report on track to be published in March

2 The HE Governance Bill had been introduced to Parliament and the SG was working hard with the sector on the detail of the Bill. Work around Developing Scotland s Young Workforce was continuing; the 7 th meeting of the Programme Board was to take place on 10 September and would involve a deep dive on equality and diversity issues. Work was continuing with SFC to strengthen the governance assurance processes in place across the college sector. The new Permanent Secretary was in place. At the recent Leading Together event for senior staff, we heard from both the Permanent Secretary and the Deputy First Minister about the need to develop a clear vision for the next 5 years; the need for relentless focus on what works; the need to confront difficult issues and make difficult choices; and the absolute requirement to work collectively and collaboratively to create the conditions for a successful Scotland. The Spending Review was now in train and would be a difficult period given that the UK as a whole was going through an extended period of austerity and public spending constraints. Recent reports from the Chancellor had indicated that there would need to be a further potential reduction of 20 billion of departmental spending reductions (in real terms) by , on top of the 17 billion reductions already announced to welfare and other spending over this period. The current financial context therefore creates challenging questions for us around how we make best use of all our public resources to deliver a better Scotland. Health and Social Care Directorate Update 5. The evolution of student nursing funding was discussed. In particular, the following was noted: Prior to entry to HE, nursing and midwifery students had been salaried employees of the Health Boards. The entry of nursing and midwifery had been good for the sector, particularly in relation to rural access to HE. The support available to nursing and midwifery students was now lower than that available to other HE students and the administration of the support more complex. Unlike other HE students, nursing and midwifery students spent over 30 hrs per week in class when at university and over 40 hours per week when on placement, thus restricting ability to work part-time to supplement the support package. 2

3 The announcement of the Review had created an expectation that support levels would be increased. The impact of having only one annual intake of students was being looked at as was the method for allocating student numbers to universities. There may be a need to better match student places to regional demand. Consideration would also be given to the need to increase student numbers. It was agreed that the impact on SAAS of such a change would need to be considered carefully. 6. There was discussion about the governance surrounding the nursing and midwifery funding arrangements. It was noted that a new SLA was in the process of being developed and that the relationship between Health and SAAS had been strengthened at a senior level. The support package for those studying for the Allied Professions was, however, unlikely to change. SAAS Spending Review 7. The paper presented to the Strategic Board related only to the Agency s running costs and not programme expenditure. The vast majority of the Agency s budget related to staff costs and so a flat cash settlement would be extremely challenging, particularly when rising staffing costs were out with the control of the Agency. The year on year increase on workload added to the pressure. 8. There was a discussion about potential efficiencies. However, it was acknowledged that all required IT investment and a lack of resource and capacity currently prevented these from being developed. The Agency s resources were already stretched just in maintaining current services. The smaller schemes were operating with little or no technology and there was no capacity to develop new systems. Any invest to save argument would, however, need to robustly set down upfront costs, when costs would reduce/stop and when additional benefits would be realised. 9. The need for scenario planning would be crucial in developing a full understanding of the Agency s must dos, the things that could potentially be stopped and the things that could be delivered differently. The need to do more with less would require the Agency to be very clear about our role and value in the learner journey while actively seeking to prevent unnecessary duplication across public bodies. The need to clarify the level of risk that would be tolerated by not just the Agency but wider stakeholders would be crucial when considering, for example, the impact of reducing checking levels across the assessment process. 10. It was agreed that the Agency s unique selling point was the ability to deliver high volume, standardised national services. However, very targeted, localised or bespoke arrangements were potentially better delivered elsewhere. At the moment, the Agency operated a hybrid service. 3

4 11. The Director of Advanced Learning and Science was currently encouraging discussions between the public bodies operating within her portfolio. As a first step, it was agreed that the Chief Executive would have a discussion with the Director about exploring the options available to the Agency, including a potential invest to save agenda. Student Support Policy Update 12. The Student Support Policy update was discussed. It was noted that parttime study was the fastest growing element of the HE sector. The unit cost to SAAS of processing such applications was expensive, however, given that this was currently a manually driven assessment process. 13. SAAS would not be in a position to deliver, in , any changes falling out of the PG Review. There was a need to ensure that any changes were introduced properly and efficiently. It was likely that the PG course list would be extended. It was noted that small, gradual increases in student applications generally had a greater impact on the Agency than large scale changes. Agency Delivery Update - Key Challenges 14. There was a discussion about the tabled paper and accompanying Balanced Scorecard. It was agreed that the Secretary would look for a date for Management Board to review the Indicators. It was agreed that the Statistician needed to be involved in the session. ACTION POINT: Secretary to seek a suitable date for Management Board to review the Balanced Scorecard. 15. An update on processing and call response times was provided. It was noted that Operations had lost 10% of its staff over the last 4 months, many to the wider SG. Normally this level of turnover would have been spread more evenly over the year. Despite this, the Agency had received and processed a record 127,000 Guarantee date applications. To achieve this had, however, required resource to be diverted from the Contact Centre to Processing. As a result, call response times were now out with the 5 minute target and might remain so for a few weeks yet. The Contact Centre would be open over the weekend and we were ing students to keep them informed of progress. s and Strategic Board Next steps 16. The plan to reduce the number of non-executive board members from 6 to 4 was discussed. Concerns were raised about the loss of FE sector experience on the Management Board. It was noted, however, that specifying specific sector experience at Board level was not in line with good governance standards and that there could be other ways of gaining sector input to strategic discussions. This would therefore be considered as part of the up work to the Independent Review. 4

5 17. Members were also content to include the role of Strategic Board within the Follow Up to the Independent Review, given the formation of the Strategic Board had been a direct response to the Independent Review. This agreement was subject to Executive Board member agreement and an acknowledgement that the issues already raised would not be lost. ACTION POINT: Secretary to ensure that Executive members of the Management Board were content with plans to consider the role of the Strategic Board up in the audit of progress since the Independent Review. Any Other Business 18. The next meeting would take place on 2 March Roz McCracken Secretary 1 September