Minutes of the CCDG Board January 19 2023

The Board of Career Choices Dewis Gyrfa (CCDG) meets quarterly. The board is responsible for the governance and compliance with the corporate governance code. Below are the minutes of the CCDG Board meeting held on 19 January 2023.

Board Members

• Joni Alexander
• Erica Cassin (CCDG Board - Chair)
• Andrew Clark
• Kate Daubney
• Dave Hagendyk
• Dave Matthews
• Tony Smith
• Richard Thomas
• Helen White

Co-opted Board Members

Sue Price

Welsh Government

• Sam Evans
• Sinead Gallagher

In Attendance

• Emma Blandon, Head of Digital and Communications
• Phil Bowden, Head of Quality and Planning

From Careers Wales

• Nerys Bourne, Director of Customer Strategy and Service Development
• Nikki Lawrence, Chief Executive
• Ruth Ryder, Director of Resources and Transformation

Secretariat

Jayne Pritchard

Apologies

• Neil Coughlan
• Aled Griffiths
• Liz Harris
• James Harvey
• Emma Richards
• Mary Van Den Heuvel

1. Declarations of Interest

No further declarations of interest were noted

2. Minutes of The Previous Meeting – October 12, 2022

The minutes of the previous meeting were approved.

3. Matters Arising from Previous Meetings

3.1 Young Person’s Guarantee briefing to be scheduled on a future agenda. This action was agreed as being complete.

3.2 Parent Strategy to be included as part of the Chief Executive report at a future Board meeting. This action was agreed as being complete.

3.3 Board to provide contact details for leads in the Curriculum and Quality and CEO and Principles committee group. This action was agreed as being complete.

3.4 Create a meeting plan for all future Board/Committee meetings and review time allocation (2.5 hours). This action was agreed as being complete.

3.5 Discussions ongoing regarding additional grant investment to support promotion of entrepreneurship - an activity currently lead by Business Wales, this action was agreed as being closed.

3.6 Explore the prospect of providing further time measuring points in addition to the semi-annual reviews. This action was agreed as being closed.

3.7 Consider further investigative work to establish the cost of people out of work and the value of preventing unemployment. This action was agreed as being closed.

3.8 Consider tracking service users to collect feedback re their journey from initial Careers Wales session/interview to the end point of achieving their goal/ambition. This action was closed

3.9 The Board to receive a copy of the Careers Wales stakeholders map, this action was agreed as being complete.

3.10 Future generations mapping paper to be presented at a future Board meeting. This action was agreed as being closed.

3.11 Collaborate with the Principality on the Future Generations project, this action was agreed as being complete.

3.12 Board to receive a copy of the future workplace project guides. This action was agreed as being complete.

4. Chair’s Update

The following key points were noted:

Careers Wales events praised: The Chair praised the events hosted by Careers Wales

Changes in Board membership: Two of the new Board members received a warm welcome to the CCDG Board. The Chair was pleased to announce the re-appointment of two current Board members and advised that two co-opted Board members were due to leave in January and March. The Chair advised there were additional Board members and one co-opted Board member also joining, and that further recruitment would be started as soon as possible in 2023 to replace Board members leaving later in the year.

Committee structure due to be reviewed: The current committee structure and membership for each committee was due to be reviewed in light of the changes to membership of the Board.

Extending duration of Board meetings: Board meetings would be extended to 5.5 hrs as opposed to its current duration length, 2.5 hrs starting from the next business year.

Face-to-Face Board meetings: It was advised that quarter one and quarter three Board meetings were to be a blended meeting - Board members could join virtually or attend face-to-face (Cardiff).

Annual workplan due to be reviewed: The annual plan had been drafted and was included in the pack for feedback from the Board.

5. Chief Executive’s Report

Board members thanked for their commitments: co-opted Board members were thanked for their contribution to Careers Wales over their membership term.

Director of Customer Strategy and Service Development: appointment had been made and was welcomed to the Board.

KPI Report: some of the KPI scores were highlighted for the Boards information.

Pay Claim: An agreement had been reached with the trade union on the pay award for 2022-2023

Additional funding from WG: indicative budget from WG for the next financial year includes an increase to the core budget of £1m.

Ambassador Roles: The importance of Board members acting as ambassadors was emphasised.

Support for Careers Wales Employees

The Board asked if Careers Wales was providing support to their employees during the cost-of-living crisis. Members heard that the company does offer support to their employees, some examples included: salary sacrificing schemes (financial loans, car leasing and cycle to work scheme), support to employees with caring responsibilities, and cashback health plans.

Pay Award Timeframe

The Board asked if considerations could be made to the pay award timeframe as the pay award was effectively paid in arrears. It was explained that the company was reliant on WG pay award announcements, Welsh Government (WG) staff pay increases were also reliant on announcements from UK government budget allocations. It was agreed that the challenges this delay causes would be fed-back to Welsh Government.

6. Brief Update/Welsh Government

Clarification on Budgets: The importance of funding Careers Wales as a fully functioning body during the current financial landscape was emphasised.

Action Plan: The Education Minister was due to publish a ‘state of the nation’ action plan in February and copies will be shared with Careers Wales once it was made available.

Action 1: Share ‘state of the nation’ action plan with Careers Wales once action plan is made available.

Commissioning Research on Work Experience: research on work experience was being undertaken to establish good international practices. It was hoped that the findings within the research would influence future development and policies.

Introduction to Careers Wales and the Services Provided: Careers Wales senior management were praised for their work and commitments to the organisation. The wide range of services provided by Careers Wales was noted as being staggering and comprehensive, with references being made to Careers Craft and engagement with parents.

Commission for Tertiary Education and Research Appointments: A Chair and deputy Chair had been appointed for the tertiary education and research commission, and the Chief Executive recruitment was ongoing. The Commission was due to be launched April 2024.

Careers Wales Position Under the Commission for Tertiary Education and Research
The commission for Tertiary Education and Research was still in the process of being set up, however further clarification would be requested.

Action 2: Board members to receive clarification re Careers Wales position under the commission for Tertiary Education and Research.

Careers Wales input in Vocational Qualification
The Board asked what input Careers Wales had in the vocational qualification. It was noted that Careers Wales should be granted the opportunity to engage with the team responsible for reviewing vocational qualifications.

Action 3: Ensure Careers Wales has the opportunity to engage with the team responsible for reviewing vocational qualifications.

7. Quarter 2 Report

A summary of findings within the quarter 2 report were presented to the Board.

Current Not in Education, Employment and Training (NEET) Figures
The Board asked what the current NEET figures were, it was believed that the current NEET figure was 2.4%. The Board discussed the varying practices across Local Authorities in their approach to working with young people identified as NEET, and also the challenges of the absence of a comprehensive measure with the 5-tier model being the most accurate available.

Quarter Reports Discussed in Further Detail Committees
It was advised that the quarterly reports were discussed in detail during the performance and impact committees

8. Wellbeing of Future Generations Act

A presentation was provided to the Board illustrating how Careers Wales were meeting their commitments to the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act.

Evidence of How Careers Wales are Trying to Impact the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act.

The Board were pleased with the presentation and cautioned against focusing too heavily on benchmarking against complex external data sets for comparison purposes. The consensus of the Board was that a narrative approach using case studies worked well.

9. Board Ambassadors’ Proposal and Feedback

The Board Ambassadors proposal received approval from the Board.

10. Estyn Recommendations

An update was provided on the ESTYN thematic inspection which had taken place in 2021. The six recommendations were highlighted to the Board with an update on the progress being made against each one.

ESTYN Future Thematic

A review meeting had not been arranged, although it was believed that an ESTYN thematic would be arranged in the next business year.

11. Board Workplan

Board members were encouraged to provide feedback via email if they had suggestions for any changes.

12. Handy Risk Assessment Tool (HART)

The draft HART was presented to the Board, noting that a full draft would be taken to Finance, Audit and Risk Committee for detailed discussion. The completed report would then be brought back to Quarter 4 Board meeting.

Action 4: Board to provide comments and feedback re HART and HART to be discussed in more detail at Finance. Audit and Risk Committee on behalf of the Board.

13. Management Accounts

The management accounts were presented and approved by the Board.

14. 2023 to 2024 Budget Implications

A verbal update concerning the future budget implications was given.

The Board were asked to delegate authority to the Finance, Audit and Risk committee to scrutinise the draft budget, the Board approved the decision to delegate authority to the Finance, Audit and Risk committee.

Committee Meetings

15. Finance, Audit and Risk Committee

• Carbon net zero paper: an update paper was expected at a future committee meeting.
• Ethical Hacking: It had been agreed that that ethical hacking would go ahead in the next financial year.
• Management Accounts: The aging workforce was highlighted as a risk, although it was noted that the item had been discussed at the People Matters committee.
• Future Generations Governance Mapping Paper: A mapping paper would be presented to the next meeting of the committee.
• Praise shared with ICT team: The committee thanked the ICT team for their extensive security work and requested feedback to be shared with the security team.

16. Performance and Impact

• Update on Working Wales: An update was provided on Working Wales. The committee will be updated on any emerging trends in relation to redundancies.
• Delivering Tailored Work Experience (TWE) commitments: the committee were due to receive regular updates concerning their TWE commitments.
• ESTYN Recommendations: ESTYN recommendations had been discussed in detail.
• Young Person’s Board: An update was expected regarding the creation of a Young Person’s Board.

17. People Matters

• Absences and Recruitment: Absences and recruitment updates are provided regularly to the committee.
• Future Workplace: the future workplace was discussed in detail with considerations being made to equity and diversity, risks within the project, employee engagement and accommodating employee needs.
• Digital skills: The findings from the digital survey skills had been received.

18. Any Other Business

17.1 Performance review
The Board was requested to provide any feedback to the Chair regarding the CEO to use as part of the performance review.

17.2 Reflections/feedback from the meeting
The Chair asked the Board to provide any feedback re the meeting via email

17.3 Teams channel
A Teams channel for the Board was proposed and training to use the channel.

Action 5: Provide a Teams channel for the Board to access papers re committees etc

17.4 Board Skills Matrix
The Board were due to receive a Board skills matrix/self-assessment in the coming weeks.

Action 6: Board to share Board Skills Template Assessment with the Chair

Documents