SCIE minutes of the meeting of the Board of Trustees
Held on Thursday 8 May 2002, 13.30 - 16.30
Goldings House, 2 Hay's Lane, London, SE1
1) Attendance
Board: Jane Campbell (chair), Gail Tucker, Terry Philpot, Roy Taylor, Geraldine Macdonald, Paul Martin, Diana McNeish, Shokat Babul, Ratna Dutt, Susannah Walker.
Staff: Bill Kilgallon (Chief Executive), Victoria McNeill (Head of Corporate Services & Company Secretary), Amanda Edwards (Head of Knowledge Services), Enid Levin (Staff Representative), Maria Doyle (minutes).
Apologies: None.
2) Identification of any other business
- Northern Ireland/Paul Martin
- Community Care Live
- Board recruitment
- Business cards
- The All Wales Care Sector Conference June 12th
3) Minutes
Minutes of the board meeting held on 20 March 2003 were approved by the board and signed by Jane Campbell. Board members confirmed their satisfaction with the level of detail in the minutes.
Matters Arising:
Minute 2:
The SCIE Awayday is confirmed as 4 December 2003 and a board dinner held the evening before. The Audit Committee meeting that was due to take place that day will be rescheduled.
Action:
Victoria McNeill to reschedule the Audit Committee meeting and clarify in writing to board members details of the Awayday.
Minute 5:
Victoria McNeill reported that following the last board meeting, board members' requested amendments had been made to the corporate and business plan and presented to the Department of Health (DH) at SCIE's half yearly review meeting on 4 April. Victoria and Amanda are now in the process of incorporating the comments/feedback into the corporate and business plans and hope to distribute a final draft to all board members within a few weeks. Once final approval is received from the board, the documents will be edited and published in late June.
4) Chair's Activity Report
The chair announced that Lisa Bostock, senior research analyst, is the new SCIE staff representative-elect. Enid Levin will continue in her role as staff representative at the board until April 2004 at which point Lisa Bostock will take over.
The chair explained that since the last board meeting she has been concentrating her efforts on promoting SCIE and raising the profile of the organisation.
The chair advised board members who felt that SCIE should be present at a particular conference, or needed SCIE material for a conference, to contact Roisin Joel, communications manager.
Chief Executive's Activity Report (paper):
The chief executive expanded on all points in his report:
Point 1:
The chief executive reported that the Department of Health has been surprised by the amount of feedback from social care stakeholders with regard to their proposed new structure and the positioning of social care within it. The Department are considering the feedback received. The chief executive will keep the board updated as and when information is received.
Point 2:
The chief executive thanked Paul Martin for organising the meeting on 10 April 2003 in Belfast with himself, Amanda Edwards and representatives of the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety in Northern Ireland. A draft service level agreement will be drawn up shortly and SCIE hopes to recruit a representative in Northern Ireland in the next few months.
Point 3:
SCIE staff have been invited to an equal opportunities and diversity workshop on 27 May 2003 the outcomes from which will be prioritised and shaped into a strategy supported by an action plan.
Point 4:
Since distributing the chief executive's report, two appeals have now been lodged.
5) Communications strategy
The board were asked to consider the draft communications strategy prepared by Victoria McNeill. Board members approved the strategy and asked the following matters to be considered in implementing it:
- In relation to SCIE's working methods, transparency may not be guaranteed just because stakeholders are involved in the development of a product. It is as important to be seen as transparent as it is important to ensure the right people are involved and consulted.
- The word constantly should be taken out of the sentence on page 7 that refers to 'the Partners' Council "constantly"; reviewing and advising on SCIE's working methods and products'.
- When listing organisations that SCIE will work with (page 7, para 6), it was requested that the list be generic. It may be dangerous to list individual stakeholders in case an organisation is unintentionally omitted.
- Research papers and practice guides need to be kept 'live' and relevant and should always contain within them the dates upon which they will next be reviewed.
- It might be useful for SCIE to develop a statement which explains what it means by 'stakeholders' or 'users' (for example). This could be made available upon request or posted on the website.
Action:
Victoria McNeill would make the necessary changes to the communications strategy taking these matters into consideration when implementing it.
6) Participation
The board were asked to comment on and agree the proposed framework on participation. The following suggestions were made;
- The use of the word 'fellow' as in 'participation fellow' needs to be clarified in relation to other titles currently used by SCIE staff.
- SCIE may want to consider secondment arrangements.
- Enid Levin reported that there was strong support for a strategy on participation amongst staff but that there were concerns about how the new participation roles would fit into the organisation. Staff were also concerned to ensure that issues of participation remained central in all SCIE's work, notwithstanding the setting up of a specific function.
Action:
Amanda Edwards to proceed in putting the commitments contained within the framework into action.
7) Partnership - terms of engagement:
Amanda Edwards explained that this paper was a starting point for a discussion about the way SCIE manages its external relationships. It was agreed that a separate meeting would be convened to specifically consider whether, and with whom, SCIE might enter into arrangements with third parties and how SCIE might distinguish its own "badged"; material from other material on eLSC.
Action:
The chief executive and Victoria McNeill to organise a specific meeting with some members of staff present to discuss the above.
8) Systematic reviews of knowledge in social care
The board was asked to comment on SCIE's work on systematic reviews and confirm its support for the general principles underpinning it. The board supported the paper and agreed to return to it as its principles develop.
Action:
Amanda Edwards to organise some training sessions on systematic reviews.
9) Quality assurance procedures
The board accepted the report and referred further work back to the quality assurance sub committee. The board proposed receiving regular reports from the sub committee and asked the group to be particularly mindful of being totally inclusive as the criteria for membership of the groups is quite broad.
Action:
The sub committee to go forward in establishing standing advisory groups as part of SCIE's formal quality assurance system.
The principal advisor, participation, once appointed, will become involved in this work.
10) Financial report
The paper gave the first draft results for the financial year ending March 31 2003 and the board were asked to note the first draft results for the year.
11) Any other business
Northern Ireland:
Paul Martin was asked to leave the room while the chair asked the board if they agreed to him being nominated as board member for Northern Ireland for a period of 18 months (as opposed to 12). The proposal was approved unanimously and Paul Martin accepted.
Community Care Live:
The chair encouraged board members to attend the forthcoming Community Care Live event being held at The Business Design Centre, London on 21 and 22 May. Anyone wishing to attend should contact Roisin Joel, Communications Manager.
Action:
Maria Doyle to send board members a copy of the Community Care Live programme.
Board recruitment:
The chair asked for volunteers for the interview panel.
Business cards:
Gail Tucker reminded the chair that board members were yet to receive business cards as was agreed at a previous board meeting.
Action:
Victoria McNeill to organise generic business cards for all board members.
The All Wales Care Sector Conference June 12th:
Shokat Babul asked if SCIE might like to have a stand/presence at the above conference.
Action:
Bill Kilgallon to see who from SCIE is free to attend the conference and speak with Roisin Joel about the possibility of having a stand. The chair and chief executive will be in Belfast at the time so are unable to attend themselves.
Maria Doyle to send board members a copy of the flyer promoting the conference.
May 8 Board Meeting action points
- Business cards to be ordered for all board members.
- Bill Kilgallon to identify a member of the SCIE team to attend the All Wales Care Sector Conference on 12 June.
- Victoria McNeill to reschedule the Audit Committee meeting.
- Details of the SCIE Awayday to be forwarded to board members.
- Amanda Edwards to proceed in putting the commitments contained within the participation framework in to action.
- A meeting to be organised to discuss terms of engagement.
- Amanda Edwards to organise some training sessions in systematic reviews.
- The quality assurance sub committee to go forward in establishing standing advisory groups as part of SCIE's formal quality assurance system.
- The chair to recruit a volunteer from the board for the new board members interview panel.
