Minutes of the meeting held on Monday 13th June 2016 at Caledonia House, South Gyle, Edinburgh EH12 9DQ at 1700 hours.

Attendees:

Janice Eaglesham MBE, Chair
Catherine Goodfellow, Vice Chair
Gavin Macleod, CEO
Dave Rhoney, Director
Oliver Barsby, Director
Iain Smith, Director
Ailien Pallot, Finance Manager
Heather Lowden, Education & Development Manager
Jennifer Griffin, sportscotland Partnership Manager
Caroline Lyon, Company Secretary

Apologies:

Claire Morrison, Director
Anna Tizzard, Director
Sandra Proudfoot, Director
Gerry Milne, Director

Welcome, Apologies, Conflicts of Interest and Legal Register

No conflicts of interest were reported and there were no pending items for the legal register.

Agreement of Minutes

The minutes of the previous meeting on 25th May 2016 were agreed.

Matters Arising

• Iain Smith had reviewed the papers to confirm that all were appropriate.
• The Burt Greener media plan is ongoing with Scottish media concerning case studies and selection for the Paralympic Games. Samantha Kinghorn and Joanne Butterfield had been profiled in the Herald. An interview had been conducted by Able magazine regarding pathways.
• A meeting would take place with the Celtic FC Foundation in late June following the charity match this weekend.
• There was no progress to date on the database software. The paperwork has still to be signed off.
• Approaches from the media inviting comments on Erraid Davies had been declined. A statement has been posted on the Scottish Swimming website.
• The Chair and CEO had discussed possible live testing of policies to indicate which were suitable and frequency of testing. It was possible to re-visit this at a quieter time and the impact on staff workload should be considered. As an example the transgender policy was currently being enacted. The Board were invited to contribute examples from their own experience. The two points to be considered were accuracy and staff knowledge of how to implement. Action: All
• The sportscotland target tracker had been received from Jennifer Griffin and the CEO would circulate on Wednesday. Action: CEO
• The sportscotland Partnership Manager agreed to circulate the governance framework to the CEO to forward. Action: JG
• A selection of dates for presentation of the SDS strategy had been submitted to sportscotland.
• The Board agreed that SDS should be represented at the CPISRA General Assembly and the GB Disability Football Association General Assembly.

Sub Groups

Governance

• The Finance sub committee had met to review the accounts which had been circulated and comments were invited from the Board. Two adjustments had been made:
  • Salary costs: under new legislation the value of holidays carried over into the new financial year had been estimated at £5,162.
  • The post-audit re-allocation of creditors covered £31,000 of salary payment from sportscotland which had been received later than usual and this was changed to a bank issue.

• There were no major issues in processes or organisation and the auditors had been complimentary regarding well-presented accounts. The Finance Manager was thanked for the work done and credit was given to Kate Shaw for her support. The accounts were signed off.
• The Articles of Association had been reviewed for accuracy. Iain Smith had reported back on the detail of becoming a SCIO and did not recommend this course for SDS. Iain Smith would forward information relating to the responsibilities of directors. Action: IS
• The operational plan had been circulated and the following points were noted:
  • Summer sports camp will take place from 27-29 July and all Board members were invited to attend.
  • A national engagement event had taken place with para cycling and para water sports at Castle Semple.
  • The wheelchair sports extravaganza had been very successful with 60 wheelchair users attending and the Young Persons Sports Panel members assisting.
  • 11 Scots had been announced for the Rio Paralympic Games to date and it is anticipated this will rise to 25. A target was set for 25% of the Boccia team to be Scots.
  • 36 athletes were part of the Academy including three pilots. These included 17 new athletes across seven sports for which credit was given to the Regional Manager network. Five workshops had been arranged.
  • Two athletes had attended the Czech Open Boccia Competition – Reegan Stevenson and Peter McGuire – and both had medalled. The team was currently being selected for the Boccia home nations.
  • The Performance Manager was finishing with SDS tomorrow. The post had been advertised internally and Gary Fraser appointed. The post would revert to full time.
  • The Tayside Regional Manager position had been advertised and nine applications had been received, of which three candidates had been invited for interview on 22 June.
  • Meetings had been held with all three GOGA sites to update and local plans were being developed. National partners had been connected to the local sites. Kat Southwell had been appointed as the UK national GOGA manager.  A meeting of the UK steering group would take place on 23 June. An internal advert for the programme co-ordinator would be published on Wednesday.
  • A communications group meeting had been held on 30 May with the Senior Media Officer from sportscotland, Karen McCall.
  • Website planning was still under way.

• Policy Review Cycle: the policies had been circulated in advance of the meeting. The social media policy had been updated by the Opportunities & Equality Manager and minor changes had been made to the other policies. Iain Smith had checked the recruitment and anti-corruption policies. The recruitment policy would be amended to cover where posts should be advertised and internal recruitment. The CEO would source documents from other governing bodies and bring to the next meeting. The anti-corruption and sports betting policy should be clarified to link to the disciplinary process and standardised. All policies should be referenced to the disciplinary process as they come up for review. The policies were accepted with the amendments discussed. It was agreed the social media policy should be retained as a guideline as the policy was built in to the HR handbook and codes of conduct. Action: CEO
• The Boccia sub-group terms of reference were updated and circulated for information. They had been reviewed at the group and references to GB Boccia will have to be changed in time to Boccia UK. The terms of reference were accepted.
• There would be one more Board meeting before the AGM. Three board members would be required to stand down. Sandra Proudfoot had elected to stand down from the Board entirely. Anna Tizzard and Oliver Barsby had offered to stand down and stand for re-election. It was agreed that all prospective nominees should meet requirements.
• The CEO gave an update on the strategic planning including key feedback from consultations and shape from the working group and staff. Commendation was given on the extensive consultation exercise and thanks given to the working group of the Chair, Vice Chair and Claire Morrison. It was considered that the profile of SDS had been raised by meeting so many people and continuity ensured by having the same people delivering.
• It was agreed that the Articles of Association should be amended to allow the CEO to revert to being an executive director rather than a Board member. The Articles would be presented at the next Board meeting by Iain Smith. Action: IS

Presentation

A presentation was given by the Education & Development Manager with papers circulated in advance.  The following points were raised:

• There was still a need for inclusion to be made explicit in working with governing bodies.
• The participants in education and training opportunities were a mixture of coaches, teachers, etc. including those with a disability.
• The SDS case study in Arbroath had been uploaded to YouTube with the key message that inclusion is possible. Two more videos are to be completed by Autumn in Fife and one in Dumfries & Galloway.
• It was agreed that SDS should remain registered with the SQA at a cost of £1,000 for five years in order to retain the SCQF award. Consideration would be given to changing some terms in the assessment, e.g. “autism spectrum” rather than “autistic”.
• The Board was invited to consider training requirements. A skills audit would be conducted.
• The Education & Development Manager will circulate a link to the sportscotland app.
• Heather Lowden, Gavin Macleod and Jennifer Griffin will agree a date to meet regarding disability figures in Active Schools.
• Talent identification was being undertaken by RDMs working with the sports.
• Course distribution is usually based on the population split across Scotland. It was confirmed that SDS does have the capacity to deliver training nationally.
• Success indicators for Coaching Futures would include participants coming through and the time and energy involved should be taken into consideration. There was a need to investigate other areas of support including the Access to Work scheme.
• Scottish Student Sport could influence the inclusion of disability with other governing bodies, and the next 10-point plan between SDS and SSS is in planning. Communication with students is also needed.
• The sharing of information on disabled coaches is under discussion with regard to the investment agreement with sportscotland. Ruari Davidson is currently auditing the number of governing bodies complete with disability and will share the information. It was noted that not all governing bodies record statistics and there is a need for a consistent definition of disability.
• The Chair spoke on behalf of the Board to express their appreciation of the amount of work undertaken and the research backing this up. The Education & Development Manager was thanked for her presentation and hard work.

Board Members’ Updates

• Dave Rhoney had attended the Scottish Rowing regatta and discussions had indicated they were very happy with the relationship with disability sport.
• The Vice Chair had attended the paratriathlon event.
• The Chair had attended a number of national events, the strategic group meeting and the opening of the Home Nations bowls tournament.

Sports/Events

Domestic

• A busy programme is ongoing.

National/International

• Events had taken place including the European Athletics Championships and Home Nations bowls.

Partners Update

• At the BPA meeting Tim Reddish had stood down. The Rio team size was expected to be around 250 and there was optimism about the number of medals.
• A very positive British Boccia meeting had been held and had included discussion about Inverclyde although this may not be the national centre because of lack of hydro facilities. Also under consideration was Heriot Watt University but the accommodation was not so favourable. The GB Performance Development meeting had aligned the strategic plans.
• Rio selections were made today by the GB Disability Football Association and included three Scots – David Porcher, Martin Hickman and Jonathan Paterson. Contact details to be passed to the Vice Chair for Commonwealth Games Scotland. The Performance Manager report had indicated major concerns regarding the Denmark qualifier for the World Championships and had recommended the players not attend the competition.
• The UKSA had submitted a bid for funding and will find out the result in July. The lease of the office base will terminate shortly so home working will be in place until the outcome of the funding bid is known.

AOB

• The development audit had been out for tender and KPMG were successful. Training for the revised audit process will take place on 16 August. KPMG will contact the Chair to agree dates.
• The Vice Chair noted a potential conflict of interest in mentioning the Commonwealth Games Scotland Scottish Sports Awards 2016. SDS was encouraged to nominate. Paralympians were to be invited and a table could be booked before 30 June for £950 for SGBs.
• Scott Meenagh had medalled at the Invictus Games and three Scots had been part of the GB team for the Warrior Games.

Date of Next Meeting

• 22 August 2016. Three policies to be reviewed as well as the strategic plan.