LIVERPOOL GOVERNANCE FORUM

Minutes of committee meeting held at 10:00 am on Tuesday 11 December 2018
held at Notre Dame Catholic College, 180 Great Homer Street, Liverpool L5 5AF

Key note speaker: 
Terry Brown, Governor Services, School Improvement Liverpool provided an overview of ‘Governor Hub’, the secure GDPR database and storage system. A summary of the information shared is provided in Annex A. 

1.0 STANDARD ITEMS:

1.1	Welcome and Apologies

Present: Kathy Desmond (Chair), Frank McFarlane (Vice Chair), David Blythe (Honorary 
               Secretary), Dave Owens, Cliff Barton, Maureen McDaid, John Thornhill, Ann Patmore
 Michael Morris, David Cadwallader, Howard Harris, Pauline Warrington,
 Marlene Taylor, Cynthia Carmichael

Visitors: Terry Brown, Governor Services, Marlene Taylor

Apologies: Mary Donohue, Andy Chadwick, Avril O’Brian, Barbara Murray
                    
Absent without apology:  N/A
                                    
1.2	Declaration of Pecuniary Interest
There is no change since last meeting

      1.3 Minutes of the October Meeting       
     The minutes of the meeting held on 16th October 2018 had already been agreed by   
     email and posted on the LGF website. 

1.4	Matter Arising
KD has previously sent a letter to Mark Rea concerning his non-attendance at recent meetings.  She received a response from him on 16.11.18 apologising for his late response. KD is to reply to the letter to confirm he has been replaced as a LGF member. Mr Rea’s place had been taken up by Marlene Taylor of Laurence Road Primary School.

1.5 Notice of AOB
            Forthcoming Local Authority SEND consultation

2.0 LGF Matters and Events

2.1 Finance

ITEM 	£	
BANK ACCOUNT		
Statement @ 30th November 2018	4204:92	
INVOICES DUE FOR PAYMENT		
Annual Membership of NGA	585:00	
Outstanding conference invoices to be paid 	991:00	
Miscellaneous 	70:00	

After the deduction of the outstanding items detailed above the balance on the LGF bank account will stand at £2558.92. 

A discussion took place regarding the possible future subscription to Governor Hub at a cost of £200.  It was also noted that the LGF website is need of updating.  It was agreed a small group of governors, comprising of Amanda Patmore, David Blythe, Dave Cadwallader, Michael Morris and K Desmond will meet to discuss the needs of the LGF regarding these two sites. 

It was noted that Governor Hub is only available to members and not all as the website is.  Consideration must be given to how much confidential information LGF actually need to upload to the sites as well as the financial implication.

 2.2 Feedback from Events (Conference)

A total 64 governors attended the 6th conference on the 17th November; the largest number to an event to date. A summary report was sent out to all committee members on the 6th December. In addition, copies have been sent to the Chairs of the 3 Headteacher Associations for forwarding to their members and their respective governing board members, Barbara Murray, Steve Reddy, Heather Duggan, Elaine Rees and Ruth Agnew. The report is also available to access on the LGF website.

The breakdown of the costs of the conference is:

ITEM 	£	
PfL room & equipment hire 	384	
PfL catering (Lunch and refreshments)	498	
Speaker (Ruth Agnew)	300	
Miscellaneous (Printing, administration etc)	109	
TOTAL COST (Including VAT)	1291	

DB asked if LGF members had received the information from their Headteachers.  It was apparent that this information has not been circulated as requested.  Concern was expressed that although LGF members have received a copy of the information as members of LGF, their governor colleagues had not. LGF members were asked to contact the Headteachers of their individual school to ask for the summary to be sent to all of the governing body. It was noted that clear lines of communication need to be established.

            KD thanked DB for the work he carried out in setting up the conference.

Governors were asked to bring suggestions for the next conference to the January committee meeting to be held on 22.01.19. It was agreed we should continue to use Partnership for Learning as the venue.

2.3 Future Events

      The dates of the previously agreed schedule of meetings are: 

DATE (2019)	SCHOOL 	SPEAKER	
22nd January	Childwall Abbey 	Kathy Desmond	
12th March	St Julies Catholic High	FFT – to be confirmed	
30th April	Mosspits Primary	Heather Duggan	
11th May 	Saturday morning Conference 	?	
18th June	St Michaels in the Hamlet	?	
9th July	Archbishop Blanch Girls High 	?	

Suggestions were also requested for speakers for future LGF committee meetings.  DB is to approach FFT to confirm if a speaker would be available for the meeting to be held on 12.03.19.

The evening meeting scheduled for 18.06.19 will be held at St Michael in the Hamlet School.

KD is to approach Liverpool College regarding providing a venue for the meeting to be held in the next academic year. 

2.4 Website
      The website is up to date. There have been 619 ‘hits’ since June.  On average there are 124 
      ‘hits’ per month. 

2.5 Twitter Account
There is a considerable amount of traffic via the twitter account.  The contribution of Avril O’Brian in updating the LGF twitter account was noted.

2.6 Others  
Clive Jervis has submitted his resignation.  DB has responded thanking him for his past service. It was noted that he has given the LGF wise council in the past.  KD is to send card and a token present on behalf of the LGF. 

DC reported that a SEND consultation is expected to be requested by the local authority in forthcoming months, possibly January.  No details are available yet but it is expected that representation from LGF will be requested.  Marlene Taylor and Amanda Patmore indicated that they would like to represent LGF 
           
 3.0 Feedback from Representatives
						
3.1 Liverpool Schools Forum
A meeting took place 3 weeks ago. Several items were raised but decisions were deferred.  A working group meeting has been arranged for this afternoon 11.12.18 at 1:00.  Concern was expressed that information/invitations are not being shared in good time with representatives. The next scheduled meeting 23.01.19 1:00 at LACE.

3.2 LLP Executive Board
      There have been no meetings since the last LGF meeting

3.3 LLP All Learners
       There have been no meetings since the last LGF meeting

3.4 LLP LWNM.
      No information since the last LGF meeting. The next meeting is to be held on 30th January    
      2019

3.5 LLP Maths Group
      Training is continuing, including training out of the Liverpool area.  Forthcoming Dragons     
       Den and Maths Party activities are to be linked to the Year of Engineering.  It was noted 
       that Maths is improving across the city.

3.6 LLP Employment and Skills Group
      There have been no meetings since the last LGF meeting.

3.7 Liverpool Safeguarding Board
The board is to be disbanded as Government have stated that there is no need for LA to have a Safeguarding Board.  The board is to be replaced by an ‘arrangement’.  A meeting has been arranged for next Wednesday (19.12.18) to discuss details of the arrangement. Concern was expressed regarding the future level involvement of education representatives. FM is to feedback at next LGF meeting.  The last meeting of the Safeguarding Board will take place in March 2018

It was agreed that the LGF would compose a letter setting out their concerns.  FM is to take the letter to the meeting to be held on 19.12.18.  KD asked for help in mapping out the letter after today’s meeting.
 
3.8 Other
       N/A

   4.0 Other Items for Mention

      4.1 NGA 
The cost of the annual membership of the NGA is £585. The annual cost of membership for ‘The Key’ is £550.  Subscription to either or both organisations is to be discussed at the next meeting.  

   4.2 Other
          N/A

SUMMARY OF ACTIONS FROM TODAY’S MEETING	
No	TOPIC	ACTION BY	
1	Confirmation of removal from LGF to be sent to Mark Rea	KD	
2	Meeting to be arranged to discuss Governor hub and web site	KD, DB, AP,MM, DC	
3	Headteachers to be contacted regarding the circulation of the November conference summary report 	All LGF members	
4	FFT to be contacted regarding a speaker at LGF meeting	DB	
5	Liverpool College to be contacted regarding hosting a future LGF meeting	KD	
6.	Thank you card and gift to be sent to Clive Jervis	KD	
7	Letter from LGF to be taken to next Safeguarding Board meeting to be held on 19.12.18	FM	

The meeting concluded at 11.31

Annex A

Key Note / Guest Speaker: 

Terry Brown provided an over view of the Governor Hub site.  All schools can have access to the site at either a basic or a more in depth level.  A cost is incurred if the in depth level is required.
The cost till the end of this year is £70.  The annual subscription cost for LGF would be £200. 

TB explained that the site is very user friendly, following the usual format of tabs which expand to provide information on individual topics.  There is a FAQ and Help facility also available.  The site is GDPR compliant and all individual governs need to set up their own password once they have received an email containing a link to the site.

The site need to be updated with information such as committee membership, roles etc.  Only those with admin access can update the information.  Schools/organisations decide who they wish to give admin access to.
If the extended subscription is purchased then it is possible to upload documents into appropriate folders for access by other governors, use of the calendar, access to the notice board etc. 
Training on the use of the site was offered in September but it may be repeated in January depending on demand.
Concern was expressed re the compatibility of braille computers with the system as difficulty has previously been experienced with the use of passwords protected systems etc.  TB is to raise this issue with Governor Hub 
Governor Hub app can be downloaded to smart phones.  It was noted that it is sometime difficult to access the site using certain browsers such as Chrome but using a different search engine usually resolves this issue.