Department for the Economy Board minutes 2024 - 16 December 2024
Minutes from the meeting of the DfE board held on 16 December 2024.
Present:
- Ian Snowden (Chair)
- Moira Doherty
- Shane Murphy
- Richard Rodgers
- Paul Grocott
- Sharon Hetherington
- Laura McPolin
- (name redacted)
- Fiona Keenan (non-executive board member)
- Michael McKavanagh (non-executive board member)
- Mark Lowry (non-executive board member)
In attendance:
- (name redacted) (Corporate Governance Secretariat)
- (name redacted) (Permanent Secretary’s Office)
- (name redacted) (for postgraduate awards item)
Apologies:
None.
Agenda items
Agenda Item | Actions Arising from Discussion | Action Owner and Current Position (to be completed prior to the next Board Meeting) |
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Agenda Item 1: Board Register of Interests/ Conflicts | No new interests declared. | |
Agenda Item 2: Future of Post Graduate Awards Scheme | (name redacted) presented: - This relates to DfE-funded PhD places. Current funding is for the equivalent of 729 full time PhD students in NI costing £19m pa. Current funding arrangements in N.I. strongly prioritise support for PhDs.
- Consultants carried out a review of the scheme to determine its effectiveness and value for money (VFM). Mainly due to a lack of data the review was unable to provide sufficient evidence to support a robust economic appraisal of the scheme in its current format and existing funding.
- There is not strong evidence of VFM to support the scheme.
- The pros and cons of PhD vs Masters were discussed including cost and employability.
- Workshops were held with key stakeholders and a survey issued to businesses. From this, 6 options were developed and a public consultation undertaken.
- The proposed alternative approach involves higher education institutions (HEIs) submitting proposals for cohorts of funded PhD places on an annual basis. These should be supported by a business case outlining how the studentships align with the Minister’s Economic Vision and wider PfG priorities, as well as outlining specific objectives for the cohorts of students over the 3-year period. Money would not be taken out of the scheme and this would give greater flexibility but added administration.
- The Board endorsed the proposed approach.
- This will now be discussed with HEI stakeholders and presented to the Economy Committee at a briefing scheduled for 22 January 2025.
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Agenda Item 3: Minutes of Previous Meetings | Minutes of the November meeting were agreed without amendment. | |
Agenda Item 4: Papers to note | Alternative Funding Policy - The purpose of this new policy is to embed consideration of alternative (non-baseline) sources of funding into policy formulation, delivery and review.
- Availability of alternative funding should not distort what our priorities are.
- The Board endorsed this subject to feedback from others.
Tourism Action Plan - A Tourism Partnership Board has been developed and there has been progress on the development of the Tourism Action Plan.
- This was one of Minister’s priorities.
- Updates will be given to the Board twice-yearly.
Contracts register - The format of this report has changed and is now broken down by type of contract.
- There are 3 research projects with end dates in 2023 which we have asked to be closed down.
- Digital information will be commissioned in January.
Major projects - A downward trend in compliance particularly around the low engagement with the Gateway Assurance process was discussed.
- Risk potential assessments require completion, and this is a risk. The importance of this and the role of the SRO need stressed at training.
- Clear definitions would be useful.
Commercial capability - Compliance with training is still less than 100% but has increased.
- To note that the 748 commercial related rows are not individual.
ARAC minutes - The minutes of the meeting of 3 September 2024 were noted.
Health and Safety Mid-Year Report - A list of available training courses were listed in the report. Only 4 are mandatory including Fire Safety Awareness, H&S Awareness and Display Screen Equipment Risk Assessment.
Resource & People Committee - A paper was proved on the meeting of 4 December 2024.
- Some of the most significant staffing pressures are at SO and DP.
- We are not expecting the staffing position or funding to improve substantially.
- We need to continue to look at staffing priorities within business areas and move people as necessary.
Energy Strategy - The content of this update was noted.
HR update - (name redacted) outlined her priorities going forward including, Health and Wellbeing Strategy and DfE Action Plan, strategic workforce planning and a skills audit.
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Agenda Item 5: Any Other Business | There was no other business. | |
Next meeting
Wednesday 29 January 2025 in Adelaide House, Belfast.