MEETING OF THE SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT STRATEGIC BOARD: HELD ON THURSDAY, 20 MARCH 2008 IN MERIDIAN COURT, GLASGOW.
Present
Sir John Elvidge, KCB (chair)
Robert Gordon CB
Andrew Goudie
Philip Rycroft
Richard Wakeford
Kevin Woods
Bill Bound
Apologies received from David Fisher, Alyson Stafford and Andrew Baird.
In Attendance
Paul Gray
David Hamilton (for Andrew Baird)Angiolina Foster
Andrew Watson
Lesley Sheppard
David Reid (For Agenda Item 2 only)
Ros Cockerell (For Agenda Item 2 only)
Craig Russell (For Agenda Item 3 only)
Rob Wishart (For Agenda Item 7 only)
Introductory Comments
1. The Strategic Board were observed by 7 colleagues who were welcomed to the meeting, which was being held in Meridian Court following the Board's decision to meet from time to time outside Edinburgh.
Agenda Item 1: Minutes and Matters Arising
2. The Board noted the minutes of the meeting held on 21 February 2008 (SB(08)3rd Conclusions). There were no matters arising.Agenda Item 2: Finance Director's Report (SB(08)11)3. David Reid and Ros Cockerell attended for this item. Ros Cockerell introduced paper SB(08)11, which provided a high level overview of forecast end of year out-turn expenditure informed by the first 11 months of 2007-8. 4. The Strategic Board:
(a) Noted the forecast underspend on DEL budgets;
(b) Agreed that reporting arrangements for the coming year should continue to replicate the practice of previous years, with regular reports from the Finance Director. (Action: Finance Directorate).
Agenda Item 3: Efficient Government Update (SB(08)12)5. Craig Russell introduced paper SB(08)12 which advised the Strategic Board on the current position in relation to the efficient government programme for 2005-08 and looked forward to the programme for 2008 - 11. 6. The Strategic Board:
(a) Noted that, based on current forecasts, efficiency targets for 2005-08 would be met or exceeded;
(b) Noted that all the 2008-11 Efficiency Delivery Plans were in the process of being finalised for the Cabinet Secretary's consideration; (Action: Craig Russell);
(c) Noted that the delivery plans were living documents and should be continuously updated to reflect the expected continuous improvement in efficiency;
(d) Agreed that the organisation should aim through individual delivery plans to exceed the aggregate target for the organisation as a whole. (Action: Craig Russell);
(e) Agreed that effective communications with Agencies, NDPBs and their sponsors within the Scottish Government would be critical to the successful delivery of the 2008-11 programme;
(f) Agreed that work on this should be taken forward in the context of existing work on the development of relationships between the core Scottish Government and NDPBs on HR and business planning (Action: Angiolina Foster, Paul Gray and Craig Russell);
(g) Agreed that it would not be appropriate to treat any notional savings from pay awards to national performing companies as efficiency savings;
(h) Considered the part staff could play in identifying innovative approaches to efficiency and agreed consideration should be given to a staff suggestion scheme and related proposals made in the paper (Action: Paul Gray and Craig Russell);
(i) Agreed that it would be helpful to give strategic consideration to the possibility of identifying further efficiencies in relation to use of assets (Action: Paul Gray); and
(j) Recorded its thanks to Craig Russell for the high level of commitment he and his team had given to driving the successful delivery of the Efficiency programme.
Agenda Item 4: Corporate Strategy (SB(08)13)7. Paul Gray introduced paper SB(08)13, which invited the Board to discuss a draft Corporate Strategy. 8. The Strategic Board:
(a) Agreed that good progress had been made on the draft strategy, which appeared to be fit for purpose and an excellent starting point for further discussion with colleagues, and offered a number of drafting and stylistic comments which they asked to be taken into consideration as part of the further development of the strategy (Action: Paul Gray);
(b) Agreed that the effectiveness of proposed key messages should be tested by sharing the draft with a wider audience in the next phase of its development (Action: Paul Gray);
(c) Agreed that the Director of Communications should be invited to consider whether the strategy should include more links to key messages around delivering the Government's Purpose and Strategic Objectives (Action: Paul Gray and Sarah Davidson); and
(d) Agreed that proposals for the development of the People, Finance, Information Systems, Knowledge and Learning and Communication Plans which support the Corporate Strategy should be brought to PBIG (Action: Paul Gray and PBIG).
Agenda Item 5 and 6: Transition Team Report (SB(08)14) and Internal Audit Review of Corporate Governance and Transition (SB(08)15)9. Items 5 and 6 were taken together. Paul Gray introduced paper SB(08)14 and SB(08)15, which represented the culmination of work to review the previous year's organisational changes. 10. The Strategic Board:
(a) Recorded it's thanks to the Transition Team for the contribution it had made to guiding the organisation through the structural changes that had been implemented over the previous year;
(b) Agreed that the internal audit report and the corresponding actions were a broadly accurate snapshot of the position at the time the report was written;
(c) Noted that much work had already been completed in the areas covered by the Internal Audit Report since then;
(d) Agreed that there was a need to bring some of the strands of work to a conclusion and to communicate this to the organisation; (Action: Paul Gray); and
(e) Agreed that PBIG should take forward the programme of work identified in the paper (Action: Paul Gray and PBIG).
Agenda Item 7: Framework for Scottish Official Statistics (SB(08)16)11. Rob Wishart introduced paper SB(08)16, which sought the Strategic Board's views on a number of aspects of a draft Framework for Scottish Official Statistics, which it was planned should form part of the launch of the Scottish Statistics Authority later in the year. 12. The Strategic Board:
(a) Noted the context provided by the passage of the Statistics & Registration Service Act the previous year;
Part of the record of discussion under this agenda item is considered exempt from publication at this time and has been redacted.
Agenda Item 8: Any Other Business13. The Strategic Board:
(a) Noted that Ministers had indicated they were supportive of the Board's commitment to ensuring greater diversity in public appointments;
(b) The Strategic Board noted that the SSI tracking system, which had been in operation for 6 months, was working very successfully; and
(c) Recorded it's thanks to the teams in the Education Secretariat, Employee Engagement and Cabinet Secretariat for the organisation of the meeting and the rest of the Board's Glasgow programme.
Date of Next Meeting
14. Thursday, 24 April at 9.00am in St Andrew's House.
Cabinet and Corporate Business Secretariat
April 2008