Minutes of a special meeting of the board of Leicester College Corporation

Held on 29 November 2023

Present: Danielle Gillett (Chair), Neil McDougall, Zoe Allman, Louisa Poole, Chloe Bakewell, Heather Powell*, Lesley Giles, Robert Radford, Carol Goode, Lee Soden, Verity Hancock, Sophie Strevens-Robinson, Chan Kataria, Sallyann Turner, Zubair Limbada*, Tom Wilson*, Harmesh Manghra.

In Attendance: Louise Hazel - Director of Governance and Policy, Shabir Ismail - Deputy Principal, Kully Sandhu - Vice Principal, Della Sewell - Director of HR Mark Dawson KPMG.

*Joined meeting online via Teams

1. Declaration of Interest

   • 1.1 The following declarations of interest were made:

   • 1.1.1 Verity Hancock, Zoe Allman, Zubair Limbada and Carol Goode declared an interest in item 4, for the discussion of HE provision.

2. Apologies for absence

   • 2.1 Apologies for absence were received from Jackie Rossa. It was noted that Jai Sharda had resigned from the Corporation.

3. Audit highlights: memorandum and management letter - year ended 31 July 2023

   • 3.1 Mark Dawson presented the external auditors’ Audit Highlights: Memorandum and Management Letter for the year ended 31 July 2023. The following points were highlighted.

     • 3.1.1 The audit was largely complete and a clear opinion was anticipated on the financial statements and on regularity.

       • 3.1.2 There had been no changes to the audit plan originally presented to the Audit Committee in June.

       • 3.1.3 Three significant risk areas had been identified at the start of the audit: revenue recognition, management override, neither of which presented any concerns, and the valuation of the local government pension scheme (LGPS) obligations. This was in surplus but the surplus had been restated to £0 on the basis that the College could not benefit from 2 the surplus. This was the approach being taken in other colleges.

       • 3.1.4 The reconciliation statement had now been received and reconciled with no material differences.

       • 3.1.5 Work around going concern was continuing. Although there were no particular concerns given the cash position, the auditors would wait to see the outcome of the reforecast before concluding the work.

       • 3.1.6 There were no other audit adjustments and no control issues.

     • 3.2 The Chair of the Audit Committee commented that the Committee had reviewed the Audit Highlights at its meeting on 22 November. Minor corrections were highlighted and had since been made. There were no deficiencies in controls and overall the report was reassuring for the Committee. There was a requirement to submit accounts by 31 December.

     • 3.3 The Chair explained that it was now a requirement of the Post-16 Audit Code of Practice that the external auditors presented their findings to the full Corporation. The final accounts would be presented to F&GP on 7 December and then to the Corporation on 14 December for sign off.

     • 3.4 Governors asked a number of questions including:

       • 3.4.1 Why was the LGPS identified as a risk? The pension pot was valued at regional level every three years and there was the potential for additional contributions to be required if it was found to be in deficit. If members left the scheme, the liability to remaining members would increase. The scheme was in surplus and so there was currently a reduced risk. The reclassification of colleges had also reduced the risk level.

       • 3.4.2 Might there be a reduction in contributions? Possibly although this did not often happen. Contributions would only reduce if they exceeded the LGPS threshold.

       • 3.4.3 Which staff were members of the scheme? Support staff were members of the scheme.

     • 3.5 Governors thanked KPMG and the finance team for their work on the audit and noted the Audit Highlights: Memorandum and Management Letter.

4. Recovery plan - confidential

5. Dates of future meeting

   • 14 December 2023

   • 25 January 2024 - tbc

   • 21 March 2024

   • 7/8 June 2024 – Away Days

   • 3 July 2024