Transparency data

RSH N&G committee minutes - 24 April 2023 [accessible version]

Updated 8 February 2024

Applies to England

Public minutes of the Nominations and Governance meeting

on Monday 24 April 2023 at 2pm on MS Teams

8 - Remote and virtual participation
8.1 Any member may validly participate in a meeting through the medium of conference telephone, video conferencing or similar form of communication equipment, provided that all persons participating in the meeting are able to hear and speak to each other throughout such meeting, or relevant part thereof. A member so participating shall be deemed to be present in person at the meeting, and shall accordingly be counted in a quorum and entitled to vote.
8.2 A meeting shall be deemed to take place where the largest group of those members participating is assembled or, if there is no group which is larger than any other group, where the chair of the meeting is.

Members

• Bernadette Conroy
• Deborah Gregory
• Jo Boaden

In attendance

• Fiona MacGregor - Chief Executive
• Jonathan Walters - Deputy Chief Executive
• Richard Peden - Director, Finance and Corporate Services

• Emma Tarran - Senior Assistant Director, Head of Legal and Company Secretary

• Christine Kitchen - Committee Secretary

1. Welcome and introductions

01/4/23 There were apologies from Paul Smee. In his absence, the members present, in line with section 2.2 of the Committee’s Terms of Reference and Standing Orders ^{[footnote 1]}, elected BC to chair the meeting.

2. Declaration of Interests

02/04/23 There were no declarations of interest

3. Minutes of last meeting - 23 January 2023

03/04/23 The minutes of the last meeting were approved, subject to minor typographical errors.

4. Board Effectiveness Review

04/04/23 RBP advised that Mike Weaver from GGI had observed the ARAC meeting. Board members have been invited to attend 1:1 meetings with GGI and BC expressed her preference for GGI to also meet with all members of REG, but at the very least with FM, JW, and ERT. GGI have requested copies of board papers relating to the Data Collection System procurement, the Damp and Mould survey of RPs, and the draft consumer standards which we will provide. They will attend the April and May board meetings and present their conclusions to the board meeting in June. It is their intention to produce two versions of their conclusions – one for internal consideration and one that will be sharable.

5. Governance update

05/04/23 ERT presented the paper for discussion at N&GC before it is presented to the Board for decision. The board is being asked to approve the continuation of the current arrangement of shared delegation between the CEO and DCEO until September 2023. By that time, the reorganisation will have progressed and senior appointments made, and at that time we can carry out a more substantive review of delegations. ERT confirmed that this shared delegation has been working well.

06/04/23 JB sought assurance that the sharing of delegations was understood by staff and there would be no issues with CEO and DCEO separately making different decisions on the same issue. ERT confirmed that there is no evidence of this happening and usually they are both sighted on each others’ response or will have discussed it prior to issuing a decision. JW added that when using formal powers to make a decision, there will have been a process followed and a record of who made the decision as part of good practice. FM added her assurance on the practicalities of handling this and if there ever was a situation where she and JW had a different view on a matter, they would discuss it before a decision is made.

07/04/23 BC with the support of the other members will advise the board of N&GC’s support of the proposal as set out in the paper.

6. Resourcing update

08/04/23 At the March board away-day, N&GC were asked to support the plans for the creation of the combined regulation function at the RSH. RBP presented the paper which was a wide brief, expanding on the points from the away-day with additional detail and the rationale for the decisions. The creation of the CoRE and ADCEO roles are key to the restructure. He advised that there is additional work being carried out on the structure of the directorates and on the refocussed strategy directorate. As stated, this paper is a high level view, but members can be given more detail and RBP sought clarity on the level of involvement of the committee.

09/04/23 BC said that for her there were two main priorities for the committee:

• to get assurance on how management intend to implement the changes,and
• to understand the risks to the organisation of these changes – ie. Staffing,recruitment, staff consultation, dealing with the Unions and any othermaterial issues that might impact BAU.

DG added that it would be useful to get a sense for:

• how many roles we are looking to fill,
• timescales for recruitment,
• major risks, and how we plan to manage them.

14/04/23 RBP advised that we believe staff levels will rise to c350 in due course. We will need to decide how quickly we can induct and train a cohort and plan accordingly. So currently we are finalising the role profiles and working through the size of cohorts to onboard in the autumn. We will also need to have a plan on how, if we get more appointable candidates than we need for a particular cohort, we will be able to keep the additional candidates interested in joining the RSH till we are ready to confirm their appointments. We aim to be at full capacity in 2024 (although not necessarily by April).

15/04/23 FM gave assurance that management can provide the requested assurance as work advances. The point about BAU is well made and at the forefront of REG thinking. N&GC can be given updates on trends and turnover rates (these are stable so far).

16/04/23 On the LA side are working to assess how many people we will need. JW advised that we are looking to recruit staff who can work across LA and regulation and not look to recruit candidates with just LA knowledge. JB picked up on this point and said that LA resources and budgets are also under pressure, so it will be important to get the right people with sufficient knowledge and experience. In her view, LAs may have issues with proactive consumer regulation, and she questioned how we will hold councillors to account. JW responded saying we do have staff with experience in this area already. He added that some councils have more than one councillor with housing responsibilities, however the council is the legal body who will be held to account. JW acknowledged that there may be financial challenges for the LAs, but if they cannot meet the standards, it is a problem they will need to address.

17/04/23 FM updated the committee having been advised by Unite that they have balloted their members on the 2022-23 pay award. Staff do not have to advise us they are striking, but checks will be carried out by line managers on strike days.

7. Any Other Business

Date of next meeting: 26 June 2023.

1. Which provides that In the absence of the Chair or an appointed deputy, the remaining members present at any meeting shall elect one of themselves to chair the meeting. ↩