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SLALE Sub-group on the Professional Development of Staff
Minutes of Meeting held at 10am on 04 July 2006 at Europa Building, Glasgow
Attendees:
Marian Healy, EIS (Joint Chair)
Col Baird, ETLLD-FAED (Review of Scotland's Colleges Team)
Peter Beaumont, ETLLD-FAED (Skills and Staffing Team)
Susan Bird, Stevenson College Edinburgh
Douglas Black, UNISON
John Bowditch, HMIE
Tom Craig, ETLLD-FAED (Skills and Staffing Team) (substitute for Victoria Beattie)
Bill Harvey, Scottish Funding Council (arrived during item 6)
Stewart McKillop, South Lanarkshire College
Apologies:
James Alexander, NUS Scotland (Joint Chair)
Victoria Beattie, ETLLD-FAED (Review of Scotland's Colleges Team) (Secretariat)
1. Chair's Introduction, Apologies etc.
- Apologies were recorded as noted above.
2. Note of Meeting of 11 May 2006, incl. update on Action Points
- The minutes were agreed to be a fair and accurate record. It was also agreed that they should be circulated to the main group.
- An update on outstanding action points was provided as shown below:
Description of Action | Person(s) to provide update |
Heather Dunk to confirm whether or not West Lothian College have submitted their response to Paper 04. | Peter Beaumont advised that Victoria had been in touch with Heather, who had confirmed that West Lothian College had not yet submitted their response. A late response had since been provided by the college and the information inserted into Paper 04. |
Discuss with Reid Kerr College their concerns about Paper 04 and amend if necessary. | Peter Beaumont advised that, following discussions with the Funding Council and Reid Kerr College, the error in the statistics had been rectified and the paper amended accordingly. This revised paper would now be placed on the website. |
Executive to provide a comparison between the colleges who responded with the data contained in Paper 04. | This had been issued to members in June via e-mail. |
The Executive to ensure that any recommendations/proposals will be approved by the Executive's solicitors to ensure that there has been no breach in employment legislation. | Peter Beaumont confirmed that this would be done when the proposals were being drafted. |
Heather Dunk to provide members with copy of West Lothian College's Code of Practice. | John Bowditch confirmed that he had this in his possession. |
John Bowditch and John McCann to draft an initial generic code of practice for the next sub-group meeting. | This had been scheduled for the September meeting. |
Scottish Funding Council to provide an update on CPD for the September meeting. | This would be discussed in September. |
3. Teacher Training - Numbers Trained - Costings
- Peter Beaumont spoke to Paper 07, circulated in advance. He said it should be viewed merely as a starting point and noted that some of the figures were based on an analysis which had been undertaken by his own team last year. He said it would be useful to know if members were in agreement with the general line of thinking.
- It was observed that some of the cost estimates were quite high. However, it was felt that it was appropriate for assumptions to be cautious until any further more accurate information became available.
- Peter Beaumont said he felt that the method of distributing any additional monies would be critical. It was important not to be 'rewarding' colleges which had been less rigorous than others in their approach to staff development.
- In terms of obtaining any additional funding, the fact Ministers had already agreed to the recommendations was likely to be significant, although as Group members are well aware, there can be no guarantee of additional funding.
- It was agreed that the paper should be shared with, first of all, the SFEU's HR Community of Practice, and then the Funding Council, to ensure that the figures it contained were as sound and realistic as possible.
- It was further agreed that a revised version of the paper should be discussed at the September meeting, hopefully for endorsement at that stage.
ACTION
- Paper 07 to be shared with, first of all, the SFEU's HR Community of Practice, and then the Funding Council, to ensure that the figures it contains are as sound and realistic as possible
- Revised version of Paper 07 to be circulated to members in advance of the September meeting
4. Delegation of Work Undertaken by the Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning Department (ETLLD)
- Peter Beaumont spoke to Paper 08, circulated in advance. Having taken advice from SE Solicitors, the Department did not intend to pursue this matter further. This was partly because amending the regulations was likely to be a complex and lengthy procedure. Moreover, the FE Professional Development Forum (PDF) had previously expressed discomfort with the idea of the Secretariat function being transferred. Taken together, these two factors conspired against either strand of work being delegated. Nevertheless the Department would be willing to revisit the issue in the light of future developments, should that be appropriate.
- Members noted that the status quo would be retained for the time being, and agreed that this was appropriate.
- It was confirmed that the contents of the paper would be subsumed by the Sub-group's final paper on TQ(FE).
5. Update on CPD Pilot
- Bill Harvey reported that the letter to colleges had been sent out on 02 June. A deadline of 31 July had been set for replies, meaning that it should indeed be possible to bring preliminary findings to the meeting in September. However, it would probably be November before any firm recommendations could be made.
6. Any Other Business
- Col Baird gave an update on the progress of the other working groups in the Review.
ü The Difference Colleges Make group had held a facilitated workshop the previous day as part of its new remit to consider the difference colleges could make. A series of papers would now be commissioned by the group for completion over the summer.
ü The research tenders for the Accountability and Governance group had now come in and would be considered later that day. The group was looking at student representation on Boards of Management and would consider the work of SLALE in relation to that.
ü The Strategic Futures group had held its last meeting the previous week. The Reviews Team, along with Laurence Howells from the Funding Council, would be meeting later that week with the SE Strategy Unit to discuss how their work on futures could feed into the work of the working group.
List of Action Points
- Paper 07 to be shared with, first of all, the SFEU's HR Community of Practice, and then the Funding Council, to ensure that the figures it contains are as sound and realistic as possible
- Revised version of Paper 07 to be circulated to members in advance of the September meeting
Tom Craig
ETLLD -FAED
13 July 2006