YHGSA
YHGSA Board Meeting Minutes

22nd February 2007

10.30 At Hull DEC

Notes of the meeting and action points

1. Present:

Sylvia Usher (Chair)
Charlotte Hunt (Board Member)
Ray Kirtley (Co-ordinator)
Rob Unwin (DECSY)
Yvette Fox (East Riding School Support) – invited to represent Local Authority views

Apologies:

Bob Huey (Vice Chair)
John Errington (Board Member)
Margot Brown (Board Member
Anne Barker (Secretary)

2. Minutes of the meeting of 5th February

The minutes of the meeting of 5th February 2007 were approved as a correct record and will be published on the YHGSA website and circulated to Strategy Group leaders.

3. Matters arising

Ray had attended the Strategy Group leaders meeting on 19th February where the following items were discussed and requests made:

i. Future representation of the Strategy Groups at Board meetings: The SG leaders agreed to ensure that 1or 2 representatives would attend Board meetings but in order to ensure representation they requested that dates of meetings be arranged well in advance. Rob agreed to be the representative for the Strategy Groups for this meeting although he is a SG member, not a leader.

ii. The Strategy Group leaders had also discussed any conflict of interest arising from Margot being on the Board. Board members confirmed that this issue had been addressed in a letter to Margot upon appointment to the Board. Margot would withdraw from the discussion if any decisions directly related to her own remuneration via the CGE.

iii. Is it always practical for the meetings to be held during the day? Ray added that extra funding has been factored into the new bid to allow for recompense for time and teacher replacement costs. This will enable the Board to be wider and a more representative group for members to be compensated whatever time of day the meetings are held.

iv. Finally a request was made by the SG leaders for the Board to check the term of office for the Board members. Sylvia confirmed that she currently has the constitution and other papers associated with the setting up of the organisation in order to check upon these details.

4. Finalising the details of the DFID 2007- 2012 bid

The Board expressed thanks for the work put into the DFID bid by Ray and Bob Hirst.

Ray gave a summary of the background of the bid to date, including the initial consultation carried out in December and January, the consultation session held in February and the subsequent recommendations from Bob Hirst. He explained that these events had been followed by him working directly on the bid following the DFID specification. This version was forwarded to Bob Hirst who made further recommendations then met with Ray for a day on February 14th. Ray then completed the bid in time for this meeting.

Ray then summarised the substance of the bid. The format provided by DFID focussed on the outcomes of any activities for the YHGSA and what these lead to (their outcomes) across the region. It was important to keep these facts in mind when writing the bid. Some existing activities continue in the short term. The current Strategy Group activity goes on until July and the ‘extra’ funded activities also continue until July. However the bid proposes that the current five Strategy Groups are to be streamlined into three ‘Focus Groups’ (the terminology is not final). These will be larger in terms of their membership and will include new organisations that currently do not get involved in YHGSA activities. Funding has been set aside to enable the groups to form and to plan submissions for two year contractual periods. These submissions will be subject to an independent adjudication process. If DFID are able to give their approval of the bid by April it is anticipated that activities could start by the end of September.

The Local Authority support will continue to be organised through DECs and every effort will be made for this strand to continue without a break. The main proposal is for each DEC to work with a specific LA to enable the YHGSA to support an Advanced Skills Teacher (or their LA equivalent such as a ‘lead professional’)

Rob and Yvette were asked to find out how easily matched funding from the DfES could be obtained.

Sylvia suggested that ‘Resources and Communication’ would be more preferable than ‘Information and Communication’ as the name for one of the Focus Groups. It reflected more adequately what the group would do. The Board went on to discuss how, if the bid is approved, the existing Strategy Group member organisations will need to get together with other organisations and draw up a strategy and delivery plan for the three Focus Groups over the next 2 years based on the funding available.

Sylvia mentioned the issue of BME representation and suggested the idea of contacting the black sections of the teacher unions as a means of including representation from this group. Charlotte thought that these groups could be mentioned specifically in the bid but the general view was that it was not felt to be necessary at this stage.

The Board discussed in some detail how the existing work with Local Authorities would move into this new phase and especially how organisations would choose which LA to work with. It was understood that the stakeholder organisation would have knowledge of which LA would be most appropriate for further development work. It will be important for the Board to produce some guidance for this strand of activity.

The draft bid was then checked by the board and some amendments were noted. Ray confirmed that the bid would be amended as appropriate and sent by post and email later that day.

In an item of AoB Ray mentioned that he had been invited to the QCA on 1 March to form part of a stakeholders group for the Global Dimension. Travel costs were being met by the QCA but could time YHGSA time be used for this purpose. This was felt to be appropriate by the Board.

5. Date, time and place of the next two Board meetings

17th April 2007 1.30 PM at York St John University*
* Later felt to be inappropriate (first day of term) and due to be re-arranged

18th June 2007 10.00 AM at DECSY Sheffield