Minute /18. Exemptions. FOI Exemptions: Section Page 4, FOI Exemption Section 43. Section Page 4-5, FOI Exemption Section 22

Transcription

1 Minute /18 Exemptions FOI Exemptions: Section Page 4, FOI Exemption Section 43 Section Page 4-5, FOI Exemption Section 22 Section 5.2 Page 7, FOI Exemption Section 22 Section 5.3 Page 7, FOI Exemption Section 43 Section 6.1 Page 8, FOI Exemption Section 43 Section 8.3 Page 11, FOI Exemption Section 36 Section 9.0 Page 11, FOI Exemption Section 35

2 CONFIRMED Minutes of the meeting of the Board of the Arts Council Held at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, Dublin on Wednesday 24 May 2017 at 3.00pm 1. ATTENDANCE PRESENT John Edmund (Chair), Siun Hanrahan, Roisin Erskine, David Alderdice, Anna Carragher, Katherine McCloskey, Leon Litvack IN ATTENDANCE Roisin McDonough (Chief Executive) Nick Livingston (Director of Strategic Development) Lorraine McDowell (Director of Operations) Noirin McKinney (Director of Arts Development) Geoffrey Troughton (Director of Finance and Corporate Services) Joanne Wright (Assistant to the Board and Directors) Molly Goyer (CPANI Mentee) APOLOGIES Cian Smyth, Katy Radford, Jarlath Kearney, Noelle McAlinden, Paul Mullan. The Chair welcomed members to the meeting and advised that Milly Goyer was in attendance as a CPANI Mentee from QUB. 2. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST To be noted as they arose during the meeting. 3. PREVIOUS MEETING 3.1 Minutes of the previous meeting 26 April 2017 The Chair advised the Board that the Audit and Risk Committee Chair had asked for the minutes to be deferred until the next meeting in June 2017 and he was in agreement. 1

3 3.2 Matters Arising None 4. CHAIR S MATTERS FOR CONSIDERATION 4.1 Board Effectiveness Action Points The Board acknowledged receipt of the document. 4.2 Board Skills Matrix The Chair advised this was now complete and it would be circulated to members in due course. 4.3 Board view on best approach to hearing from the arts sector The Board agreed they would only have strategic presentations during the Board Meeting session. With this decision made, the requirement remained that the Board find a means of hearing the sectors views. In that regard it was agreed that Board members would attend art sector platform events including the next planned session on 15 June 2017 at the Heaney HomePlace as a trial. The Board agreed if this approach was not successful they would consider other options including geographical meetings and away days. The Director of Arts Development agreed to circulate a list of dates of the planned art sector platform meetings for 2017/ Board experience of taking up invitations to events The Chair asked the Board to consider what they got collectively from their experience of attending client events and how they should feedback to the clients. The Board discussed the risks involved in feeding back individually and directly to clients. The Director of Arts Development reminded the Board that they receive quarterly art form reports from the Officers and advised that ACNI employs artistic assessors to independently assess events. She suggested that the Board should feedback directly via the Assistant to the Board and Director, who will then pass on the information to the appropriate officer. The Director of Operations advised the Board that a template was available that had been used by all staff, not just art form officers, attending events in the past. She suggested she could circulate this for their consideration as a method for reporting. This was agreed by the Board. 2

4 4.5 Board comments on lottery communications report The Board acknowledged receipt of the document but had no comments. 4.6 Process questions The Chair advised the Board that he had a number of process questions that he wanted the Executive to respond to Reporting Q1 performance against 2017/18 Business Plan & Targets for Q2 and how ACNI sets quarterly targets The Chair advised he was concerned the Board would not be meeting during July and August and the Board would need updated on Q1. The Director of Strategic Development advised the Chair that this information is reported to the Board quarterly and the Board would receive a report in September. The Director of Strategic Development reminded the Board that the Business Plan for 2017/18 had not yet been approved by DfC and DfC had not agreed the KPIs. The Chair suggested ACNI should set its own targets. The Chief Executive advised that there are two levels of target setting in the context of the business plan. The Department normally sets 5-6 core high level targets, which include financial KPIs and the executive draft internal operational targets. The latter are cascaded down into individual staff members PPAs. Both levels are reported to the Board. The Chief Executive also advised that as work is increasingly delivered through the mechanism of partnerships and trying to set quarterly targets conjoined to another organisation can be extremely difficult. She also reminded the Board that most of the Council s resources are delivered in the form of grants to third parties and it is through the work of the organisations that we fund, whose progress is reported to the Arts office biannually, that we achieve our objectives in the round. The Chair advised he had difficulty with the current narrative relating to the targets and found them difficult to measure. When reviewing the 2017/18 Business Plan he noted that there was a lack of quantitative information and that he has issues understanding if ACNI have met a target or had not as they are not shown numerically. The Director of Strategic Development advised the Board that as with some of the previous milestones achieved, certain targets do not lend themselves to numerical reporting. 3

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7 PHA in relation to the Programme, a baseline survey is currently being rolled out through a dedicated team of contractors; The Equality Action Plan and the Disability Action Plan are to be reviewed; the Annual Progress Report is currently in development. The Director of Strategic Development also advised of a mapping exercise which was being carried out by way of follow-up to the report Socially Investing in the Arts (previously circulated); this work has been commissioned by Arts & Business with financial support from Building Change Trust and DfC. The Chief Executive advised that the preparation for the next strategic plan would also be carried out and the evidence which would underpin the plan significantly falls under the remit of the Director of Strategic Development and his small team Strategic Plan The Chair advised there was an error in the agenda and the dates should have reflected The Chair advised the Board that they would need six months to develop the plan starting in September 2017 and asked the Executive what costs would be involved. The Director of Strategic Development advised the main costs would be staff resources as historically this work has not been contracted out. The Chief Executive advised that due to the rules surrounding procurement ACNI would not be in a position to tender for the work. The Director of Strategic Development asked the Board to consider setting aside a dedicated away day to engage in the strategic planning process. This was agreed by the Board Budget, Process, Staff Support No Discussion Preparing a foundation document to start moving the process forward. No Discussion Cultural Value based argument as a platform for the strategy The Chair reminded the Board of the recent Cultural Industries, Work and Values research report carried out by Mark Banks, of the University of Leicester and suggested members should take review report and feedback at the June Meeting. 6

8 5. CHIEF EXECUTIVE S REPORT 5.1 A&B NI response to the consultation on Economy 2030 an Industrial Strategy for NI 7

9 6. FINANCIAL UPDATE 6.1 Exchequer Report 2016/17 The Board noted the report. The Director of Finance and Corporate Services reported on the management accounts for the period ending 31 March The Director of Finance and Corporate Services reported that there was a total underspend of 5K which was the best result seen over the past few years. Capital 2016/17 The Director of Finance and Corporate Services reminded the Board that there had been a zero opening balance and confirmed that ACNI had spent 100% of the in-year allocation. Lottery Report 2016/17 The Board noted the report. 6.2 Lottery Recharge 17/18 / Lottery Recharge draft The Director of Finance and Corporate Services advised the final report would be presented to the Finance and Capital Committee at their June 2017 Meeting. The Director of Finance and Corporate Services advised the recharges were currently at 56%. The Board approved the document which was signed by the Chief Executive and the Director of Operations. 8

10 6.3 Lottery Variance Report The Director of Finance and Corporate Services advised that the NIAO recommended in the Lottery management Letter 2014/15 that the management accounts analysis should include a sufficiently detailed variance analysis. The Lottery Variance analysis report is produced for that purpose. 6.4 Lottery Profile Budget 2017/18 The Director of Finance and Corporate Services reminded the Board that Lottery Budget for 2017/18 was agreed at a Board Meeting on 7 December The budget circulated apportioned income and expenditure into two six month profiles. This is required to produce future variance analysis. The requirement to produce a variance analysis arose from a Report To Those Charged with Governance recommendation (the 2013/14 Lottery Report To Those Charged With Governance refers). The Board approved the profiled budget. 6.5 NLDF Policy The Director of Finance and Corporate Services advised the Board that ACNI is required to develop an NLDF Policy based on National Lottery Guidance Note 1/03. This was an NIAO Recommendation (RTTCWG 12/13) and an original policy was approved by the Board in June 2014, however the policy included figures that were dynamic and therefore the policy became out of date over time. He added that there was a requirement to append the policy to the Annual Lottery Accounts each year. The amended version generally excluded dynamic fields e.g. income projections and the only remaining one dynamic field remained. These were the NLDF targets (on page 2) and would be updated annually following agreement of the targets by the Board. The Board approved the amended NLDF Policy. The Director of Finance and Corporate Services advised the Board that item 6.6 NLDF Targets 2017/ /20 would be deferred and to the Finance and Capital Committee. This was due to ongoing uncertainty over Lottery income projections. 9

11 7. BUSINESS REPORTING 7.1 Risk Register The Director of Finance and Corporate Services advised the Board that this was the register presented to the Audit and Risk Committee in April 2017 and the updated register would be presented to the Board following the Committee s June 2017 Meeting. 7.2 Communications Report The Director of Arts Development advised the report had been deferred until June 2017 and the Head of Communications would come to the next meeting and present to the Board. 7.3 HR Report The Director of Finance and Corporate Services took the Board through the document. He advised the average number of days lost to sickness per employee in ACNI for the period May 16 April 17 was days. This included 4 people on long-term sick absence (i.e. greater than 20 days). 7.4 FOI s and Complaints The Director of Operations advised the Board of the background information regarding the 3 rd party complaints. 7.5 Art Form Reports 7.6 The Board Work Plan The Board noted the work plan. 8. MATTERS TO NOTE 8.1 Delegated Decisions 8.2 Art Collection Management Handbook 10

12 The Director of Arts Development advised the board that it had been updated as a direct action of the internal audit. The Board asked for the Acquisition Panel to be able to commission artwork to be added to the handbook. The Director of Arts Development advised she would arrange a meeting of the Acquisitions Panel to take place in the coming months. The Director of Arts Development advised the Board of the Contemporary Photography Works featuring items from the ACNI collection which would be on display in The Higher Bridges Gallery from 2 17 June Committees The Board confirmed they had received the Grants Committee Papers from October 2017 and had no queries. The Board confirmed they had received the Audit and Risk Committee Papers from April 2017 and had no queries. 9. AOB The Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee informed the Board she had met with the new Internal Auditors from Grant Thornton. The Director of Finance and Corporate Services advised the audit plan will go to the Committee in June The Board discussed the North South Plenary Meeting which had taken place earlier in the day. The Chief Executive stated it had been a very useful meeting and there had been a lot of merit in that type of an exchange. She advised that it might be useful for the Board to discuss the North South Touring Programme at the June meeting to decided whether or not and to what extent it could be supported given the current restraints. This was agreed by the Board 11

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