Minutes of the CCDG Board October 12 2022

The Board of Careers 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 12 October 2022.

Present

• Erica Cassin (CCDG Board - Chair)
• Andrew Clark
• Dave Matthews
• Tony Smith
• Helen White
• Mary Van Den Heuvel
• Richard Thomas
• Sinead Gallagher (Welsh Government (WG)
• Sam Evans (Welsh Government (WG)
• Tony Smith
• James Harvey
• Emma Richards
• Liz Harris

In attendance

• Emma Blandon - Careers Wales
• Chris Percy - CSpres
• Sarah Winter - Careers Wales
• Julian John - Delsion

From Careers Wales

• Nikki Lawrence
• Ruth Ryder

Secretariat

Jayne Pritchard

Apologies

• Dave Hagendyk
• Neil Coughlan
• Susan Price

Absent

Ceri Noble

1. Declarations of interest

No further declarations of interest were noted

2. Minutes of the previous meeting – June 16, 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 matter was agreed as being on-going.

Action 1: Young Person’s Guarantee briefing to be scheduled on a future agenda

3.2 Parent Strategy to come to a future Board meeting an item – this item was agreed as being on-going.

Action 2: Parent Strategy to be included as part of the Chief Executive (CE) report at a future Board meeting.

3.3 Gain further clarity on the figures recorded for pupils in KS4. This item was agreed as being completed.

3.4 Board to provide contact details for leads in the Curriculum and Quality and CEO and Principles committee group. This matter was agreed as being on-going.

Action 3: Board to provide contact details for leads in the Curriculum and Quality and CEO and Principles committee group.

3.5 Circulate CPD proposals to Board members for their feedback. This action was agreed as being completed.

3.6 Create a meeting plan for all future Board/Committee meetings and review time allocation (2.5 hours). This matter was agreed as being on-going.

Action 4: Create a meeting plan for all future Board/Committee meetings and review time allocation (2.5 hours).

3.7 Circulate new dates for the next face-to-face CCDG Board meeting. This action was agreed as being completed.

3.8 Board to arrange an introduction to their team at Principality to discuss the CI plan. This action was agreed as being completed.

3.9 Further meeting between the Chair and RR to be arranged to discuss the requirements for the dashboard. This action was agreed as being completed.

3.10 Consider creating a Teams channel for the Board members. This action was requested to be cancelled.

3.11 Contact Welsh Government representatives concerning the specific review. This action was agreed as being completed.

4. Chair’s update

The following key points were noted:

Minister Meetings: Several ministerial meetings had taken place since the last Board meeting.

Final Accounts Approved: The Chair was pleased to note that the draft annual report had been completed and signed-off.

Board Update: It was anticipated that new board members would be appointed by January 2023.

Recruitment of New Board members: Interviews for new Board members were arranged for early December.

CPD training sessions: booked for November 2022.

Marketing Events: CCDG Board members were encouraged to advise company’s marketing and communication team if they were planning on attending any of the events.

Careers Wales IT Equipment: It was advised that all CCDG Board members must be using their Careers Wales equipment to access all CCDG Board related papers.

Annual Performance Reviews: Board members were advised that the annual performance reviews were due to take place October/November 2022.

5. Chief executive’s report

Replacement Director for Customer Strategy and Service Development: Shortlisting was due to take place on October 17th with interviews scheduled for November 3rd.

Welsh Language Report: A link relating to the Welsh language report had been sent to Board members via email. Members heard that a task and finish group was currently updating the company’s action plan against the Welsh language standards.

Annual Report: It was advised that the annual report was in progress and would be circulated shortly.

Q2 Report: The quarter report was due to be presented at the next performance and impact committee – October 27, 2022.

SPF: It was advised that there were a number of meetings arranged with local authorities to discuss the prospect of offering tailored work experience supported by the SPF.

Pay Claim: The company was now aware of the pay award that WG would be offering. Negotiations continued to progress with Unison and the Executive.

Meeting with the Minister: It was confirmed that one meeting between the CE and Chair had taken place and it was advised that monthly meetings had been arranged with the deputy of higher education and the Director, Social Partnership and Fair Work.

Risk Register: The highest level risks were presented to the Board.

Data Feasibility Study: It was advised that the feasibility study outcome was expected to be published imminently.

Careers Wales and Big Ideas Wales update: It was announced that Business Wales was due to receive further funding up until 2025, and because of this, Careers Wales were due to receive additional grant investment to support the promotion of entrepreneurship in primary schools and the delivery of Big Ideas Wales role models in secondary schools.

Action 5: Discussions ongoing regarding additional grant investment to support promotion of entrepreneurship - an activity currently lead by Business Wales.

Company Age Profile: The Board referred to section eight of the report and asked what the company age profile was. The company was aware of potential risks with employees likely to retire within the next five years and it was advised that there was a plan in place to respond to the risks. People Matters Committee would be receiving a range of papers relating to the various strands of succession planning that the company would be considering mitigating this risk.

6. Brief update/Welsh Government

The deputy director of higher education provided a brief formal introduction. Members heard that the main aim of this division was to increase employability in Wales, and to bring all sponsorship teams under one management area. It was noted that the division was currently in the process of reviewing and re-arranging strategic policies.

7. Careers Wales impact and return on investment (ROI)

The board received a presentation on the impact and return on investment of the work carried out by the company.

Measuring ROI: The Board members asked if there was a time dimension within the presented findings. It was advised that feedback was collected six months after the initial session. Although it was noted that the area could be explored further.

Action 6: Explore the prospect of providing further time measuring points in addition to the semi-annual reviews.

Splitting Typical Benefit from WG vs Westminster: It was noted that the data indicated that positive fiscal benefits occurred and that this could further be explored to relate specifically to people out of work. Additionally, the findings offered the opportunity to also measure the social impact of NEET prevention in Wales and that this could also be explored further.

The Board stated that this feedback would be useful to have.

Action 7: Consider further Investigative work to establish the cost of people out of work and the value of preventing unemployment.

Tracking Careers Wales Service Users: The Board asked if it was possible to track and received feedback from successful service users - from the first interviews and to the end point whereby they’ve successfully reached their goal.

Action 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.

8. Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Policy

The equity, diversity, and inclusion policy (EDI) was delivered via a presentation and the Board members were invited to provide feedback and ask questions.

Embedding the equality, diversity, and inclusion policy
The Board asked how the policy would be embedded into the behavioural framework. The Board were advised that the team were currently working with HR to embed the EDI as part of the behavioural framework. It was noted that additional work re behaviour and culture was underway, and that the this would be included as part of the evaluation work. It was also noted that the equity and diversity policy would be presented at the next People Matters committee at a future meeting.

Internal/External Policy
The Board asked if the policy was an internal or external policy, it was advised that the policy was both an internal/external policy, it was acknowledged that the policy may require further tweaking in order to illustrate this.

Measuring Outcomes
The Board asked how the company would identify desired outcomes and how the company would measure the outcomes. It was advised that the company would map the commitments and identify areas for improvement. The company would also launch employee surveys, the current response rate was 30%, it was hoped to increase the response rate to 100% as it would be made mandatory. Data following the survey would be held in the new Pobl.

Review Policy Language
The Board encouraged the company to review the language in the policy and to approach the policy with more ambition.

Welsh Government – EDI Policy
The Board noted that Welsh Government had recently updated their ED&I policy.

Publishing the EDI Policy
It was confirmed that the EDI policy would be a public document and it would be published on the internet.

9. Board members as ambassadors

An open discussion ensued re the role of Board members as ambassadors, several suggestions were proposed such as attending Careers Wales offices in person and featuring in Careers Wales videos.

Careers Wales Stakeholders Map
It was advised that the Board would receive a copy of the Careers Wales stakeholders map.

Action 9: The Board to receive a copy of the Careers Wales stakeholders map

Tailored Newsletters for Board members.
It was suggested that the Board members could receive tailored newsletters as it was advised that internal staff already received newsletters (Linc).

Managers’ Day
The company considered inviting Board members to the Managers’ day which was arranged for February 28.

10. Future Generations

An update was provided to the Board concerning their net zero ambitions/strategy.

Net Zero Strategy
The company informed the Board that their net zero strategy was due to be reviewed by the senior management team (SMT) and it was advised that a paper mapping CW commitments to wellbeing of Future Generations Act mapping paper would be presented at a future Board meeting

Action 10: Future generations mapping paper to be presented at a future Board meeting.

Collaborating with external Partners
The Board proposed linking in with external partners, such as The Principality with regards to sharing ideas and policies.

Action 11: Collaborate with the Principality on the Future Generations project

Careers Wales: Biggest Emissions
The two biggest emissions were staff travelling and two server rooms, one server room had completed its transition to the cloud and the other was due to be moved to the cloud.

Sharing Good Practices between Board and Careers Wales
The Board were encouraged to share good practices with Careers Wales and vice versa. A further update was due to be presented at the next Performance and Impact committee meeting.

11. Committee updates

11.1 Finance, Audit and Risk Committee
The Board received an update following the finance, audit and risk committee meeting. The key points highlighted were that an unqualified opinion report was received from Audit Wales. A break-even position was being predicted for the current year. The most significant financial risk to the company was noted as the pay award settlement.

11.2 Performance and Impact
Key points from this committee were noted as being that parent strategy had been considered with the operational plan, the ESTYN report and the longitudinal study was discussed.

11.3 People Matters
The Committee chair advised that the main areas discussed were retention and succession and the outcomes of stay interviews, as well as the overarching and reflection guides for the Our Future Workplace project. Members asked that the workplace guides be circulated to the whole Board.

Action 12: Board to receive a copy of the future workplace project guides.

Documents