Minutes of a meeting of the board of Leicester College corporation

Held on 3 July 2024

Present: Danielle Gillett (Chair), Chloe Bakewell, Verity Hancock, Zubair Limbada*, Harmesh Manghra*, Neil McDougall, Robert Radford, Jackie Rossa*, Sophie Strevens-Robinson*, Lee Soden*, Sallyann Turner*, Tom Wilson.

In Attendance: Louise Hazel - Director of Governance and Policy, Shabir Ismail - Deputy Principal, Debi Donnarumma - Vice Principal, Kully Sandhu - Vice Principal, Della Sewell - Director of HR.

*Joined meeting online via Teams

1. Declaration of Interests

   • 1.1 The following declarations of interest were made:

     • 1.1.1 Verity Hancock in item 6 as a Trustee of the National Space Centre.

     • 1.1.2 Members of staff in item 9.1.

     • 1.1.3 Members of the ELT in item 9.2.

2. Apologies for absence

   • 2.1 Apologies for absence were received from Lesley Giles, Carol Goode, Chan Kataria, Louisa Poole and Heather Powell.

3. SMB Group Update

   • 3.1 The Principal gave an update on the SMB merger proposal. The following points were highlighted.

     • 3.1.1 The College’s proposal and Loughborough College’s had been taken through to the final stage which involved a presentation to the steering group on 15 July.

     • 3.1.2 Positive feedback on the proposal had been given by the FEC team; the proposal had been particularly successful in winning hearts and minds, and on the financial section and staffing and culture.

     • 3.1.3 Positive feedback on the proposal had been given by the FEC team; the proposal had been particularly successful in winning hearts and minds, and on the financial section and staffing and culture.

     • 3.1.4 The Board would be kept up to date with progress and the outcome of the presentation as soon as it was known.

   • 3.2 Governors made a number of comments and asked the following questions:

     • 3.2.1 What was the timeline after 15 July? This was not clear.

     • 3.2.2 Was SMB’s standalone proposal being taken forward? This was the backstop.

     • 3.2.3 The completion and funding of the £20m scheme needed to be non-negotiable. Agreed.

     • 3.2.4 Had the turnaround plan been audited by a specialist firm as indicated in the FEC intervention report? This was not known; the FEC and DfE teams were looking at the financial plan. However, the College’s view was that it was not robust. Due diligence would be key and specialists would be needed at that point.

     • 3.2.5 It was concerning that the additional funding would be in the form of a loan and this would land Leicester College with more debt.

   • 3.3 Members of the Corporation noted the update and noted the concerns of some governors about the potential adverse impact on Leicester College.

4. Pay Award - Confidential

   Members agreed that there was no need for staff or students to leave the meeting since no pay award was being proposed at this time.

   • 4.1 The Principal gave an update on the staff pay award. The following points were highlighted.

     • 4.1.1 No recommendation was being made at the moment. The General Election had delayed the School Teachers Pay Review Body recommendation and so the Association of Colleges (AoC) was not making any recommendation yet. Consideration of a pay award would need to be revisited in the autumn taking into account any national recommendation and College’s recruitment; any award would be backdated to 1 August.

     • 4.1.2 Discussion and agreement on workload might help in any future negotiations with unions. There were additional costs associated with the contract changes which had already been factored into the budget.

   • 4.2 In response to a question it was confirmed that the pay award would be considered by F&GP and then Corporation in December.

   • 4.3 The Vice Chair of F&GP presented the senior post holders’ salary review framework. The following points were highlighted.

     • 4.3.1 The framework was reviewed annually with a benchmarking exercise to take place every three years; this would next happen in 2025. No changes to the framework were proposed for 2024/25.

     • 4.3.2 F&GP had considered the framework and recommended approval by the Corporation.

   • 4.4 In response to a question as to whether approval was needed for senior pay, it was confirmed that this was only required for new appointments over £150k or pay increases exceeding 9% where remuneration already exceeded £150k, or where remuneration took an individual above the threshold. This would be referenced in the framework.

   • 4.5 Members approved the Senior Post Holders Salary Review Framework to subject to the amendment agreed.

     Lee Soden left the meeting