Effectiveness Review of Council 2013 - Cardiff University

12/710
year so that there is not a long gap after July. He has also asked the
members to consider changing the time of meetings - to move them from
5pm to an afternoon slot as this would be fairer for staff to work within
normal working hours. Feedback received so far indicates that there are
relatively few objections to Council meetings commencing at 2pm.
Recommendation 2 - to review dates for Council meetings to fit within
the cycle of committee meetings and annual requirements such as
annual accounts.
.5 Generally there is not a problem with timeliness of papers; they are
distributed about a week before the meetings, but occasionally some arrive
just two days ahead of the meeting. This should be avoided or regarded as
exceptional and sent only with the Chair’s approval.
.6 Members felt that they received reasonable assurance on financial health,
on student experience, on research quality and ambition, that risk
management is in place, and that there is clear accountability for delivery
of the University strategy.
.7 The Way Forward strategic document has been widely welcomed and
supported by nearly everyone as an understandable and succinct
document that clearly encapsulates the ambition of the University for the
next five years. Members also approved of the clear KPIs that have been
outlined in that document.
Recommendation 3 - that the performance achieved against KPIs
identified in the Way Forward document should be presented to Council
at least annually, with perhaps each meeting of Council focusing on a
particular area rather than having KPIs reported at a single meeting.
6.4 The following areas were identified as ones where improvement would
increase Council effectiveness
.1 Cover sheets: The respondents were pleased by the improvements to the
cover sheets for all papers to Council. They would like to see a brief
account of which Committee has previously seen it so that there is
assurance about the level of scrutiny applied and in order to highlight what
changes have been made as a consequence of committee consideration.
It is considered acceptable for Council to be offered options for approval -
given that the preceding committee has stated clearly its reasons for
preference of an option. Given that the coversheet will be mandatory there
is no clear view on whether an executive summary is also required but
there is an preference for a shorter and more focused papers to be
written especially for Council. However, it is recognised that time
constraints may mean that this is not always possible.
Recommendation 4 - clear coversheet with clarity around the document
history and the actions that are required. The link to the Risk Register
should be highlighted where appropriate and consideration should be
given as to whether it would be feasible for the final paper to Council to
be more concise and high level.
.2 Promoting the Strategic focus of Council: During the interviews with
members of Council we explored the difference between Council
members “Need to know” for the sake of good and effective governance
and “nice to know for interest/ personal reasons”. There were different
views as where the line between executive management and Council
4