Policy and Resources Committee Minutes 3 March 2020

Minutes of the meeting of the Cardiff University Policy and Resources Committee held on Tuesday 3 March 2020 in Council Chamber, Main Building at 9:45

Present: Mr Alastair Gibbons (Chair), Professor Colin Riordan, Dr Carol Bell, Professor Karen Holford, Ms Jan Juillerat, Dr Steven Luke, Professor Stuart Palmer, Mr John Shakeshaft and Ms Jackie Yip.

Attendees:        Professor Rudolf Allemann, Professor Gary Baxter, Mr Dev Biddlecombe, Ms Katy Dale (Minutes), Ms Alison Jarvis, Ms Julia Lofthouse, Ms Sue Midha, Professor Damian Walford Davies, Mr Richard Walters (Secretary) and Mr Rob Williams.

Apologies:        Professor Amanda Coffey, Ms Deborah Collins, Mr Tomos Evans, and Professor Kim Graham.

632 Welcome

The Chair welcomed all to the meeting.

633 Apologies for Absence

Apologies were provided by Professor Amanda Coffey, Ms Deborah Collins, Mr Tomos Evans, and Professor Kim Graham.

634 Minutes of Previous Meeting

The minutes of the meeting held on 21 January 2020 (paper 19/411) were confirmed as a true and accurate record and signed by the Chair, subject to the addition of Ms Jan Juillerat in the apologies for that meeting.

635 Matters Arising

There were no matters arising.

636  Declaration of Interests

The Chair reminded the Committee members of their duty to disclose any potential conflicts of interest and asked if there were any declarations. There were no declarations.

637 Report from the Vice-Chancellor

Received and considered paper 19/412, ‘VC Report to P&RC’. The Vice-Chancellor introduced the paper.

Noted

637.1        that admissions figures were currently positive;

637.2        that any Coronavirus impact had not been included in the report, due to the rapidly evolving situation; as the majority of international students were from China, this may present an issue for intake, given some English language schools and visa processing centres were closed; as admissions would not be confirmed until September/October, the University would continue to monitor the situation closely;

637.3        that home application figures were very positive, up 30% for undergraduate students, with the market up only up 4%;

637.4        that the University was performing especially well in regard to research awards and income and a large amount of effort had been put into improving this area.

638 Transforming Cardiff Business Update

Received and considered paper 19/423B, ‘Transforming Cardiff Progress Report’. The Vice-Chancellor introduced the paper.

Noted

638.1        that feedback from the previous iteration had been actioned and measurables added into the report;

638.2        that the ideas initially presented had been consulted on and stress tested and the results of this were contained in the report;

638.3        that managing staff costs and reducing headcount was a key element of the programme and it was critical to clearly evidence progress against the original targets split between Professional Services and Academic departments;

638.4        that income had grown but it was important to ensure this growth was sustainable;

638.5        that the university needed to ensure it was transparent in what the VSS scheme had delivered against the investment;

638.6        that although it appeared a lot of the transformational activity was taking place in Professional Services, a lot of work was being undertaken in schools and colleges to transform academic disciplines;

638.7        that students had reported back via QER positively in regard to the support and experience provided, but there was a lack of consistency in regard to teaching;

638.8        that measurable data showing the targets for Transforming Cardiff were being met needed to be clearly detailed to Council;

638.9        that savings achieved by the programme were identifiable and flowing through the University's management accounts.

639  Report from the Investment and Banking Sub-Committee

Received and considered paper 19/414B, ‘Report from Chair of I&BSC’. Dr Carol Bell introduced the paper.

Noted

639.1        that the Committee were interviewing investment managers for the public equity element of the Bond Repayment Fund;

639.2        that the initial mandate for this element would be between £15M and £20M;

639.3        that the Chief Financial Officer had discussed the recent market fluctuations due to Coronavirus with the investment managers and they were reviewing this within the longer term context of their mandates; it was noted this may result in an unrealised valuation loss for the year if markets did not recover by 31 July;

639.4        that CCLA had confirmed their University investments were now fully divested from fossil fuels and this had not impacted adversely on the performance of the investments.

640  UEB decisions made under Delegated Authority

Received and noted paper 19/415B, ‘UEB Delegated authority’.

641  Risk Register

Received and considered paper 19/416B, ‘Risk Register’. The Vice-Chancellor introduced the paper.

Noted

641.1        that Coronavirus had not been included in the risk register as the situation continues to develop, but a contingency group was meeting weekly to review the latest guidance from Public Health Wales, develop contingency planning and review other impacts;

641.2        that the risk around REF had improved, with confidence the University will be ready to submit its return.

642  KPIs: Progress against the Way Forward Targets

Received and considered paper 19/417B, ‘Progress against Way Forward KPIs’. The Vice-Chancellor introduced the paper.

Noted

642.1        that a number of lay members were very concerned regarding the recent staff survey results and that an update would come to Council on this, following development of a response with UEB;

642.2        that it was important to remember the context when reviewing the staff survey results (e.g. Transforming Cardiff, strike action, Brexit etc.);

642.3        that communication with staff around this was key.

643 HR Dashboard

Received and considered paper 19/418B, ‘HR Dashboard’. Ms Sue Midha introduced the paper.

Noted

643.1        that information within this report was from the 31 October 2019 and in future such reports would be scheduled for review to ensure more up to date information;

643.2        that headcount figures had increased, and this was partly in relation to moving some workers from casual employment to contracted work (e.g. invigilators);

643.3        that a better indicator of staff change was the FTE figures which showed minimal change;

643.4        that the majority of sickness absence related to coughs and colds, with stress accounting for 5%; absences of this nature seemed high for the College of Biomedical and Life Sciences but the figures had been interrogated and it was apparent these could be skewed by one or two long-term absences;

643.5        that the HR Business Partners received the sickness absence figures monthly to allow discussions with the College Pro Vice-Chancellors and Heads of School.

644  Pensions Update

The Chief Financial Officer provided an oral update on this item.

Noted

644.1        that the weekly tripartite meetings of USS, UUK and the Union had continued and would continue until April; these were chaired by the Chair of the Joint Expert Panel;

644.2        that these meetings had moved a number of areas forward, including proposals for the 2020 valuation;

644.3        that employers had received communication in February to enquire whether they would be prepared to increase their contributions to the scheme; the majority confirmed they would not and this was the approach UUK were taking forward;

644.4        that the University had convened its own internal panel of experts to review correspondence received and discuss any consultations;

644.5        that it was expected a discussion document on proposals for the 2020 valuation would be issued this month, with a requirement to respond by April; it was then intended for a consultation on the more finalised proposal be held over summer 2020, to allow agreement well ahead of October 2021 (when default contribution rates for employers would come into effect);

644.6        that it was difficult to anticipate the result of the 2020 valuation but that the current situation suggested little improvement in the deficit;

644.7        that the deficit of the local pension scheme had increased from £25m to £36m; the University had engaged Mercers to undertake a strategic review of the scheme.

645  Finance Report (Financial Management Accounts)

Received and considered paper 19/419B, ‘Finance Report’. Ms Alison Jarvis introduced the paper.

Noted

645.1        that current income figures were as expected;

645.2        that the team were closely monitoring pay and non-pay expenditure to ensure these matched the budget and were assisting UEB in managing unexpected costs (e.g. due to coronavirus);

645.3        that the team were now focussing on budget planning for the next academic year; the Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor would shortly be meeting with College Pro Vice-Chancellors and the Chief Operating Officer to discuss the 2020/21 budgets.

646  Capital Investment Programme and Business Case Plan

Received and noted paper 19/420B, ‘Capital Investment plan update’. Mr Rob Williams introduced the paper.

Noted

646.1        that key changes since the last report included:

.1       an increase of £40m in costs for the CIC, split between the bond and university funds;

.2       the agreement of the International Study Centre;

.3       the agreement of a joint development office on the Heath site;

646.2        that this left around £30m uncommitted from the bond funds and £55m from the university funds (assuming on plan performance continues) for future projects;

646.3        that future university funding was dependent on continuing to deliver a large operating cash surplus annually;

646.4        that there was a challenge in balancing the demand for projects with the funding available;

646.5        that as new estates projects came online, there would be opportunity to release some properties from the estate;

646.6        that the University was looking into possible partnership and sponsorship for some projects (e.g. the Llanrumney playing fields);

646.7        that the University needed to ensure there was enough financial and management resource before undertaking any large scale activities;

646.8        that the Estates and Infrastructure Sub-Committee were encouraging more planned maintenance for efficiency.

647 CIC (Update Following Council)

Received and noted paper 19/422B, ‘CIC Update’. Professor Karen Holford introduced the paper.

Noted

647.1        that the request for risk, contingency and exceptions budgets had not changed since the last request; however, the University was looking into savings on risks that could amount to £2.5m and would update the committee once final figures were confirmed;

647.2        that a more robust risk process was now in place;

647.3        that risks had been separated out from exclusions and the focus was on closing out the remaining exclusions;

647.4        that there was a tension in providing a building that was fit for purpose and providing what the users required; the University had engaged an external consultant and involved the users in finalising discussions on design and risk to ensure this tension was minimised;

647.5        that a review of the governance structures had been undertaken and decisions would now be brought to the CIC Steering Group for approval;

647.6        that a budget had been included for unknown unknowns to try and provide as accurate a budget as possible.

Resolved

647.7        to recommend to Council this budget request is approved.

648 Report from the Estates and Infrastructure Sub-Committee

Received and considered paper 19/413B, ‘Report from Chair of E&ISC’. Dr Steven Luke introduced the paper.

Noted

648.1        that further information on the background work that had informed the Residential Fire Safety paper was provided at the meeting;

648.2        that the Committee had endorsed the paper but requested a technical review is undertaken before any further progress is made to inform the programme and costs;

648.3        that the Committee had noted it could provide the most benefit when it was able to input to programmes and business cases in advance;

648.4        that the Committee had offered to contribute to development of carbon neutral projects.

649  Residences Fire Safety

Received and noted paper 19/421B, ‘Residential Fire Safety Business Case’. Mr Dev Biddlecombe introduced the paper.

Noted

649.1        that this paper provided a proposal for maintenance and upgrade of fire safety systems to avoid loss of life and assets;

649.2        that the paper focused only on residential buildings and the means of escape from sleep spaces in these buildings;

649.3        that a risk-based approach had been taken in identifying areas of work;

649.4        that a sprinkler programme had already been undertaken for high rise buildings;

649.5        that the paper had reviewed provision and maintenance of fire alarms and fire doors;

649.6        that areas where compartmentation works were required were hard to identify and upgrades to these would be carried out with the other works identified in the paper;

649.7        that this paper proposed a one-year programme initially; a further programme would be brought to the committee informed by the outcomes of the first year.

Resolved

649.8        to approve the paper, subject to a technical report being undertaken up front.

650 Disposal of Lease - Café Operator – SPARK

Received and noted paper 19/406B, ‘Café Operator in sbarc’. Professor Walford-Davies introduced the paper.

Noted

650.1        that the café provision was central to the function and culture of the building, given the building would house 800 people, of which half would be external collaborators;

650.2        that there had been a robust tender process which was detailed in the paper;

650.3        that the terms of lease had been approved by the CIC Steering Group and UEB;

650.4        that the requirements of the Charity’s Act in relation to this activity had been met;

650.5        that the income from the café had been included in the NPV for the building;

650.6        that there were provisions in the contract to terminate the lease.

Resolved

650.7        that this paper was endorsed for approval by Council.

651 Any Other Business

Noted

651.1        that the University was intending to shortly take out the Salix refit loan    from the Welsh Government, to undertake works to make buildings     greener; the final locations were yet to be confirmed but the loan had  been agreed by UEB in 2018;

651.2        that the Committee would like to receive an update on the QER process at its next meeting.

652 Agenda of next meeting

Received and noted paper 19/424, ‘Agenda of next meeting 19 May 2020’.

653 Date of next meeting

Noted that the date of the next meeting is 19 May 2020.