Hampshire Governors' Representative Group
Notes of meeting
Date Tuesday 19 February 2002
Time 6.00 pm
Venue The Professional Centre,
Winchester
Present Robin Gray Fleet
Terry Tillman Fleet
John Mason Winchester
Jim Duckham Fleet
Sylvia Vine Havant
Glyn Wadey Havant
Jane Pratt Fleet
Cynthia Hicks Winchester
John Brailsford Havant
Janet Sheriton HCC - Clerk
Apologies David Chiswell
John Seymour
Graham Ellicott
Mike French
Martina Humber
Carol Barfoot
David Goodman
Action
1 Notes of Meeting of 16 October 2001 were
agreed as a correct record.
Notes of meeting of 18 December 2001 were
agreed as a correct record
2 Matters Arising
16-10-2001 Item 6 - A response to the request
for clarification of the criteria for
acceptance to the county supply list and who SK/CEO
is responsible for training teachers on it
was requested at County Governor Forum on 5
March 2002
18-12-2001 - No matters arising
3 County Governor Forum - Draft Agenda JS to
Item 4 - Resource Issues - members welcomed feedback
the opportunity to discuss SAP related issues to SK
at CGF and shared their concerns at the
difficulties being encountered at school
level.
Item 5 - No discussion
Item 6 - HGRG endorsed the approach being
suggested if heads were accepting of the role
being proposed for them.
Item 7 - HGRG welcomed the proposal to offer
guidance to schools on the employment of
clerks. They would hope draft guidance would
be available for comment at CGF in the summer
term and issued to schools soon afterwards.
Item 8 - Governor Services SLA. A question
was raised concerning the Managed Clerking
Service and whether in providing for 6 full
governing body meetings each year it was
establishing this number of meetings as the
expectation for all governing bodies. Janet
Sheriton explained that this was not the
intention and where governing bodies were
able to organise their business and fulfil RW
their role in fewer meetings then this was
entirely a matter for them. However, it was
currently considered uneconomic to sell the
managed service to those minority of schools
whose meeting frequency fell below six. More
thought would be given to this when the terms
of trading were reviewed for the financial
year 2003/4 as details of the service were
already published for this April.
Attention was drawn to a typing error on page
9 - 2, 4th bullet where "Newsletters" had
been omitted.
HGRG would support the SLA and did not
consider that it required formal consultation
with all governing bodies. It was suggested
that the published document should be in the
same format as other SLAs and would be a
useful document to provide to new chairs of
governors.
Items 9, 10, 11 - There was no comment on the
information items.
Janet Sheriton shared with HGRG on a
confidential basis proposals to adjust the
internal management of part of the service.
This would not impact on the delivery of
services to governors.
HGRG wished to acknowledge the positive
action taken by Sarah Kingston in respect of
separating the "Action" and "Information"
items and the availability of relevant papers
with the draft Agenda which enabled them to
take a considered view at CGF.
4. Local Forum Items
Winchester - The Forum had not met yet this
term. An individual concern was raised about
pupil records and the privacy issues
associated with the levels of information now
being required by the DfES. Following JS/SK
discussion it was agreed to ask for an item
on a future CGF agenda which would update
governors on unique pupil reference numbers,
data requirements and individual privacy
issues.
Fleet - SAP had caused much discussion but
this was already on CGF Agenda.
Admission Appeal Panels - there had been
concerns about the consistency with which
these independent panels worked and whether
there were opportunities for panel members to JS/SK
be trained and also to review their practice.
It was agreed that HGRG would request an item
on a future CGF Agenda explaining the
training and practice review arrangements in
place and how appeals panels were working
across the county.
V0853443 RFTD A1 3
Havant - Discussed ways in which to raise the
profile, impact, communication and attendance
at the local forum where currently about a
third of schools attend. The following steps
were agreed:
-
Each school to include a briefing of
Patch meeting outcomes at Governor
meetings
-
Implement some form of two way
communication to share information
-
Provide more opportunities for
exchanging good practice
-
Improve the image of meeting notices
-
Inclusion of topics based on your
needs
-
Information about chains of
communication and support available to
governors
Fareham & Gosport - SAP was discussed.
CRB checks and who pays - Governors = no
charge; - employees = the school.
National website for advertising teacher
posts occasioned some discussion with some
support from governors locally if it
served to reduce the cost of advertising
for staff but proved as effective as
traditional methods.
5 National Governors Council Matters
V0853443 RFTD A1 4
David Chiswell had attended the meeting in
Birmingham on 26/1/02. Given his absence at
this meeting he had sent a report of the
proceedings. Actions required as an outcome
from the meeting are:
-
Specific suggestions and
recommendations from the Associations
about the Strategic Plan are to be
forwarded to David Naylor. The
intention is to develop a first draft
of the plan by the end of March and for
this to be refined and built on to
present a working plan to the AGM in
November. As David said the Plan
should be seen as a 'living document'
not as 'tablets of stone'.
The NGC now has groups working on
Finance, Communications, Operations and
Membership issues.
David Chiswell believes that as a
member association we could make a
contribution by taking a hard look at
the communication mechanisms currently
available and in use and ensuring that
the devices are used to the benefit of
our members.
-
The NGC Statement should be in our
hands early this coming week. Chris
Gale asked everybody to do everything
possible to broadcast it to the 'good
and the great' and make sure it gets
distributed to governors.
-
A response to the New Education Bill
is essential. There was considerable
feeling expressed about: restrictions
to Teachers as Governors, removal of
Governors' responsibilities for the
appointment of staff (as somebody said
how do you get the experience needed to
appoint a headteacher if you have no
involvement in the appointment of
teachers whatsoever).
-
If anybody has any experience or JS/AD
feedback on PFI then NGC would like to SK/AS/DA
hear about it; the organisation wants
to build a portfolio to help those
involved in initiatives (and there are
both good and bad experiences).
-
New funding arrangements which come
into force in 2003 will involve
governors in the process of agreeing
the formulae. At local level
headteachers and governors are to be
equally represented on the body that
determines the final allocation; other
key players may be represented.
HGRG had commented on the plan and changes
had been incorporated with target dates
expanded and lengthened. When received any
new draft would be circulated.
NGC Briefing Paper on Education Funding -
members had found the paper useful and would
like an opportunity to discuss future
arrangements for funding education and its
impact on budget consultation and other
matters. The Clerk was requested to copy the
paper to the CEO and Executive member and to
request a CGF Agenda item as soon as
possible.
Newsletters - It was agreed to distribute the
NGC newsletter to all GBs in Hampshire and to
order fresh copies of the Trigger Pack
V0853443 RFTD A1 5
6 HGRG Representatives Feedback
NGC - reported under 5 above.
Education Policy Review Committee - In
Martina Humber's absence no report was
available
Numeracy Strategy - No meeting
Asset Management Plans - meeting next week
HCC Budget consultation - John Brailsford
reported that there had been significant
unanimity of view that recruitment and
retention of staff was the main issue facing
schools. There was about £1.1 million to
allocate to priorities and slightly more
recruitment and retention money from DfES.
In general HGRG took the view that any
increases in funding available to schools
should be allocated through the formula.
HGRG needs to review the timing of its
current budget consultation meetings. It
needs to be in a position to input its view
to the first of the two meetings which JS/RM/AD
consult on budget. If the current
arrangements for consultation are maintained
for the 2003/4 financial year HGRG need to
meet with heads approximately 2 weeks before
the first meeting.
The Clerk was asked to discuss expectations
for next year and possible meeting dates with
Roger Mead and to propose future HGRG dates
accordingly.
DfES/Ofsted Conference - In the absence of
the delegate (Martina Humber) there was no
report.
V0853443 RFTD A1 6
7 Correspondence
The Chairman had received:-
Letter of thanks from Primary Headteachers'
Conference for the on-going support of HGRG
A letter from Andrew Seber concerning Area
School Improvement Mangers and the need to
discuss with partners ways in which workloads
may be managed.
A Compact which HGRG was invited to sign
detailing the nature of the relationship
between HCC and the variety of voluntary
organisations which supported services to
Hampshire citizens. HGRG agreed to sign the
Compact.
A memo from Hazel Round concerning membership
of the Working Practice Group which oversees
this section of the website had been
circulated with the papers. When and if it
was necessary to refresh the membership of
the group HGRG agreed that Governor Services
should select from headteacher and governor
volunteers seeking to
*
Maintain the broadest spread of
representation possible of school type
and geographical area
*
Use alphabetical order where more than JS/AD
one person would be suitable for a
vacancy
*
Keep the membership at a maximum of 12
Vacancies would be advertised on the website
and via forum meetings and members would
serve for up to 2 years.
The Clerk was asked to add the above to the
correspondence log and bring the Compact to
the next meeting so that members could
examine it if they wished.
V0853443 RFTD A1 7
8 Chairman's Items
The meeting with Robin Thomas had been set
for 27/3/02 at 3.00 pm in Room 8, The Castle,
Winchester. Graham Ellicott, John
Brailsford, Cynthia Hicks would attend for
HGRG.
Jim Watt, who had represented New Forest
Forum at HGRG for many years had decided to
stand down. Members wished to acknowledge
the value of the contribution that Jim had JB
made both at HGRG and CGF throughout his
period of office. He would be sorely missed.
The Chairman would write to him with the
thanks and best wishes of HGRG
Glyn Wadey had also passed a letter of
resignation to the Chairman at the beginning
of the meeting as he was standing down as a
governor. Members thanked him for the
contributions he had made to HGRG and CGF.
9 Treasurer's Items
Budget Report for 01/02 showed expenditure of
£6875 from a budget allocation of £8000.
About £1000 of this was for a reprint of
Representing Hampshire Governors.
Proposed Budget 2002/2003 was agreed
(Appendix 1)
10. Future meeting dates were noted -
Thursday 30 May 2002
Thursday 24 October 2002
The meeting closed at 9.00 pm
V0853443 RFTD A1 8
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