MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE FINANCE AND GENERAL PURPOSES COMMITTEE OF THE NORTH EAST SURREY COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY FURTHER EDUCATION CORPORATION HELD ON FRIDAY 29 TH NOVEMBER 2013 PRESENT Mrs F Rutter - Chair Mrs S Mann Principal Mr G Parsons Mr P Stamps Mr C Shortt IN ATTENDANCE Mr C Ball - Deputy Chief Accounting Officer Mr D Stevens Assistant Principal, Information Services and Planning Mr B Wastnidge Clerk to the Corporation 11.14 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE Apologies for absence were received from Professor Luke. 12.14 DECLARATION OF INTERESTS The Chair reminded Members to declare any interest they may have in any items on the Agenda. Frances Rutter declared an interest in property planning matters. Guy Parsons and Sunaina Mann declared their Directorships of the Saudi LLC. 13.14 MINUTES The Minutes (Appendix A) of the meeting held on 20 th September 2013 were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair. 14.14 MATTERS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES The Matters Arising Report (Appendix B) was received and noted. 15.14 FINANCE 15.14.1 Management Accounts The Committee received the Management Accounts for the period (Appendix C) ending 31 st October 2013. Points discussed KPIs are currently distorted by the front loading of Skills Funding Agency funding profile. Income and Expenditure Account adjustments have been made to the forecast to reflect lower than expected full cost income. The Principal reported that she was confident that the College would come in on budget. The lower full cost income had been offset by a 420,000 reduction in pay costs and 232,000 cut in non pay costs. It was noted that the cash flow need to be re-worked due to the Saudi Arabia project. It was AGREED: that the revised cash flow scenarios should be produced as quickly as possible and emailed to the members of the Committee Managers were requested to review debt provision. The Deputy Chief Accounting Officer was requested to 1
check the depreciation of land and buildings figures which were at present above the budget to date figure. 15.14.2 Financial Statements 2012/13 (Appendix D) The Committee received the audited Financial Statements for 2012/13. The Committee was pleased to note that the Statements showed a surplus of 716,000 compared with a budgeted surplus of 17,000. It was noted, however, that the underlying operating surplus was 103,000. The remainder of the surplus was due to release of grants from previous years and effective management of the staff resource. An increase in net assets of 4,881,000 from 13,381,000 to 18,262,000 mainly due to a decrease in FRS17 pension liability and an increase in deferred capital grants. Cash at the bank was 6,900,000 compared with 5,692,000 in 2012 mainly due to the net positive inflow from operating activities. The Committee APPROVED The Financial Statements for 2012/13 for recommendation to the Corporation. 16.14 KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS Appendix E The Committee received an update with progress on agreed performance indicators. Key points discussed were FE Student Numbers 2013/14 FE 16-18 Student numbers were 1817 against a target of 1832. It was anticipated that numbers would now stabilise. The Principal reported that Quality Resource and Review days had identified about 20 students who were at risk. It was reported that in 2015/16 the College would benefit from its early introduction of study programmes. The Principal reported that the College was looking at AS level course which might complement existing programmes. Staff Turnover It was noted that the target had been set at the outturn from the previous year. It was noted that turnover figures looked high but there had been a number of staff retirements and some staff had moved to the Saudi College. In addition there had been robust performance management of teaching staff. The Principal reported that staff pay was being reviewed and proposals would be brought to the next meeting. 2
17.14 PROPERTY MATTERS Appendix F The Committee received a report on property matters. Care Home site It was noted that the Goodman Group were requesting a contract which gave them the right to pursue an appeal should the initial planning application be refused. The Committee was of the view that if the College were to progress the planning application using its own resources it would need to pursue an appeal in order to secure best value from the site. The Committee AGREED That the College should progress the contractual arrangements for the sale of the care home site to the Goodman Group. Sale of the Animal Care Project Area The Committee noted that the College had received a proposal from the contractor Willmott Dixon involving a land swap in return for carrying out the College s building development works. It was noted that such an arrangement was possible using the Scape framework which was a pre-tendered framework for public body procurement. The Committee agreed that further discussions should take place with Scape framework directors to explore the appropriateness of such an arrangement. The Committee discussed at length what options were open to the College to progress the works on the main campus should there be a delay in the sale of the site. Given the sensitive nature of the site there was a risk that planning permission may not be granted first time resulting in the requirement to submit an appeal. Planning advice had been received that the College s proposals for the site were largely planning policy compliant and any refusal had a high chance of being reversed on appeal. As the appeal process could take up to a year to resolve the Committee considered how it would meet the funding gap in the meantime as to meet Skills Funding Agency grant requirements the works on the main campus had to be complete by 1 st September 2015. Chris Ball reported that he had met with represetatives of the College s bankers, HSBC, who had indicated their willingness to provide the College with bridging loan facilities until sale funds became available. He reported that he had modelled the bridging loan repayments into the cash flow forecasts and assured the Committee that these were affordable. 18.14 EMPLOYMENT MATTERS Appendix G The Principal reported that the lecturers union UCU planned to take strike action on 3 rd December and that contingency plans were in place to cover classes. 19.14 COMMITTEE SELF ASSESSMENT Appendix G The Committee received and APPROVED The Committee Self Assessment and Annual Report for 2012/13. 3
20.14 HEALTH AND SAFETY Appendix H The Committee received and noted the minutes of the Health and Safety Committee held on 20 th October 2013. 21.14 HE TUITION FEES Appendix H The report on higher education fees for 2014/15 presented at the F&GP committee meeting on 20 th September was referred to the Curriculum & Quality Committee for their approval. It was requested by the F&GP committee that some additional background information was required for the report and that SMT should further review their initial proposal. The C&Q committee was in favour of the proposal for a fee rate of 5,800 approved for HNC/Ds (with a 1,000 cash bursary for internal progressing students). For other courses the C&Q Committee recommended the fees set out below Course Current Fee New Fee Biomedical Science FT: BSc (Hons) 6,000 7,000 Computing (Top-up) FT: BSc (Hons) 6,000 6,500 Certificate in Education / Professional Graduate Certificate in Education PT Educational Teaching Support Assistants PT: Foundation Degree 2,250 3,500 1,800 3,000 Osteopathic Medicine FT: MOst 6,000 8,000 Perfusion Science: PT 3,000 3,500 Psychodynamic Counselling FT: Diploma 6,000 7,000 Sports Therapy FT: Foundation Degree 5,500 6,000 The Committee APPROVED the tuition fees recommended by the Curriculum and Quality Committee. The Chair of the Corporation asked that it be recorded that he was 4
sceptical about the rise in fees proposed as the Committee received insufficient input data from potential students about whether increased fee levels might influence their decision to attend Nescot. 22.14 DATE AND TIME OF NEXT MEETING 14 th March 2014 at 8.30am. There being no other business the meeting closed at 10.55 am. 5