13 October 2022

Attendees

Those present: 

John Benger, Clerk of the House [Chair] 
Marianne Cwynarski, Director General (Operations) 
Sarah Davies, Clerk Assistant and Managing Director of the Chamber and Participation Team 
Alison Giles, Director of Security for Parliament 
Catherine Hallett, interim Managing Director of Strategic Estates 
Grant Hill-Cawthorne, Librarian and Managing Director of Research and Information 
Colin Lee, Managing Director of the Select Committee Team  
Vicky Rock, Finance Director and Managing Director of Finance, Portfolio and Performance
Saira Salimi, Speaker’s Counsel 

Apologies:

Mandy Eddolls, Managing Director of People and Culture  
David Smith, Managing Director of the Parliamentary Digital Service 

In attendance:

Emily Baldock, Director of Strategy and Business Planning [item 1a-d]
Malin Eliasson, Director of Financial Management and Performance [item 1a-c]
Sally Jackson, HR Director, Parliamentary Digital Service [item 1e]
Clare Jennings, Director of Communications       
Gosia McBride, Head of the Governance Office, Secretary to the House of Commons Commission 
Richard Shoreland, Human Resources Director (representing Mandy Eddolls)
George Starsmeare, Innovation and Improvement Manager [item 1e]
Katharine Williams, Governance Manager and Secretary to the Commons Executive Board  
Caroline Young, Head of Workforce Planning [item 1e]
 

Meeting

1. Quarterly theme: Strategy and Finance

a. Financial monitoring report - P5

The CEB reviewed and noted the paper.

The CEB recognised that there was still likely to be an underspend this year, however it must be minimised and steps should be taken to make the organisation capable of accurate forecasting.

The Finance, Portfolio and Performance team would liaise with teams’ finance leads to address any concerns about discrepancies in the report.

The CEB discussed recruitment challenges.

b. Corporate business plan 2022/23 - Q2 performance

The CEB noted the quarterly performance report, reviewed the reasons for delays to delivery and noted initial plans for developing a performance framework.

Performance measuring and monitoring would be discussed in detail at the next paperless board meeting, including what should be measured and why.
The CEB discussed the following in particular:

• Hybrid working: a policy must come to CEB for agreement by the end of the year.
• Employee Value Proposition: this must be aligned to broader work on strategic communications
• Estate Based Community: the progress in this area, particularly on spaces, should be presented more clearly.
• Research and Information: the board suggested a sense check of whether this area should be more represented in the plan.

On presentation, the CEB agreed to simplify the colour scheme so that it was easier to focus on things that were still to complete. They also agreed that a list of complete and i5ncomplete tasks was the appropriate level of detail to report to Members.

c. Medium Term Financial Plan 2023/26

The CEB noted and agreed all actions as set out in the paper. In addition, the CEB:

• Questioned whether there was enough reference to the strategy in this stage of financial planning and prioritisation, but accepted that this lens would be applied after the first round of challenge meetings attempted to reduce bids though a tailored and collaborative enquiry process.
• Agreed to explore overprogramming as a way to manage underspend.
  Asked for a template for presenting the challenge information which distinguished between discretionary and non-discretionary spend.
• Agreed that holding the projected underspend in a central contingency fund rather than spreading it between teams was the better approach.
• Agreed that the growth in staff numbers was a concern and should not increase further. However, the board also recognised that while headcount was a useful measure it should not be used for target-setting since it could run contrary to the policy on consultants and interims.

d. Corporate business plan 2023/24

The CEB agreed:

• (In principle) the structure and content for the 2023/24 corporate business plan as set out in the paper.
• That the plan was a prioritisation tool; it should identify the big issues and what was being done about them, and weed out initiatives that were not a good use of resources.
• That when it came to measuring delivery, the plan must enable the organisation to demonstrate service delivery as well as project delivery.
• That the plan was also a communications tool and everyone delivering the House Strategy must feel represented in the business plan whether their role related to a specific objective or was part of day-to-day operations.
• That the CEB should direct teams as to the organisation’s priorities and therefore what teams needed to help deliver, but not set teams’ individual objectives. The plan should be clear about the contribution each team made to the strategy and what it was doing to address the board’s areas of focus.
• That the 2023/24 corporate business plan would be published online as text with links to the House Service Strategy. A hardcopy version would also be produced.
• That it was critical that the plan be published on schedule.

e. Job families

The CEB noted reports from the four workstreams and asked the team to take forward options 1 and 2 as presented in the paper.

The CEB also confirmed its longer-term ambition to deliver option 3 but would not go ahead with that immediately due to resource limitations.

The CEB noted dependencies with the Independent Review of Financial Management, the Estate Based Community workstream and with work on apprenticeships and graduate schemes.

2. Monthly updates

a. Director General (Operations)

The CEB noted an update from the Director General (Ops) which focused on corporate resilience over the coming winter.

b. Parliamentary business

The CEB noted an update from the Managing Directors of the Chamber and Participation Team and the Select Committees Team.

c. Finance

The CEB noted an update from the Managing Director of Finance, Portfolio and Performance, including an update on internal audit.

d. Major projects

The CEB noted an update from the Interim Managing Director of Strategic Estates which included and update on the programme of work for the Estate Based Community. The CEB asked for feedback from colleagues about the spaces.

e. Security

The CEB noted an update from the Director of Security for Parliament.

f. Safety

The CEB noted an update from the Head of the Governance Office.

g. Hybrid working

The CEB noted an update from the Communications Director about communications on hybrid working arrangements that had been issued that week. The CEB asked the Communications Team to gather questions from colleagues and keep an updated set of FAQs. Mandy Eddolls would lead conversations on this subject at forthcoming Town Halls.

3. Reflections, updates and AOB

a. Culture reflection

The CEB reflected on positive lessons it could learn from the organisation’s different working style when under exceptional pressure (such as Lying-in-State or Covid) particularly in terms of enhanced trust, courage and collaboration. The CEB recognised the benefit of colleagues involved in managing such situations having good awareness of the work of different parts of the organisation.

b. Clerk’s Tea Parties

The CEB noted that the Clerk’s Tea Parties to thanks individuals for outstanding contributions would recommence in the new year.

4. Take note papers

The following papers were noted:

a. CEB decision and action log / minutes
b. Sub-board agendas and minutes
c. Structural budgetary reports

5. By correspondence

The following papers were taken by correspondence prior to the meeting:

a. Briefing note on Working Lives All-Staff Survey, Autumn 2022

The CEB noted the briefing and survey content.