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Leisure Trust - Charity or Secret Society?
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TOPIC: Leisure Trust - Charity or Secret Society?

Re: Leisure Trust - Charity or Secret Society? 4 years, 4 months ago #49

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It would appear that the opinions of those who actually take the time to read the minutes don't really matter to the Trust's Chief Executive -


------ Original Message ------
From: "ERCLT Business Support" < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
Sent: Monday, 4 Nov, 2019 At 13:11
Subject: ERCLT Board Meetings

I refer to your e-mail dated 28 October 2019 and can confirm a review of the style and content of subsequent minutes was undertaken by the Chief Executive of East Renfrewshire Culture and Leisure Trust.

This review is now complete.

No further information is held in relation to this action.

We will ensure Professor Jarvie is made aware of the content of your email.

Iain Stewart
Support Services Manager
East Renfrewshire Culture and Leisure Limited

East Renfrewshire Culture and Leisure Limited (ERCL) is a company limited by guarantee, registered in Scotland with company number SC486489, and having its registered office at St. John’s, 18 Commercial Road, Barrhead, East Renfrewshire, G78 1AJ. ERCL is registered as a charity with the office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (No SC045726)

Anthony McReavy
Chief Executive
East Renfrewshire Culture and Leisure Limited

Re: Leisure Trust - Charity or Secret Society? 4 years, 4 months ago #50

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------ Original Message ------
To: "ERCLT Business Support" < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
Sent: Monday, 4 Nov, 2019 At 15:44
Subject: Re: ERCLT Board Meetings

Hi

Thanks for this.

I appreciate that you say - 'We will ensure Professor Jarvie is made aware of the content of your email.'

It sounds as if you keep Professor Jarvie hidden away in a dark room !

I would appreciate if the Board Chair Professor Jarvie would reply (in person or through yourself) sharing their thoughts on the Review -


- Why they felt the review was necessary


- Why East Renfrewshire residents/Council Tax Payers were not consulted?


- Why the the opinions of those who actually take the time to read the minutes don't really matter


- Why Agendas are not made available to East Renfrewshire residents/Council Tax Payers before meetings.


- Why ALL the associated reports/documents etc mentioned/referred to in the minutes are not published with the agenda/minutes.


As this is an important matter and, as Board Meetings are held in secret and Residents/ Council Tax Payers cannot attend, it is important they are well informed and I look forward to the Board Chair Professor Jarvie sharing their thoughts on the matter.


Again, Professor Jarvie's and your help is appreciated.

Thanks

------ Original Message ------
From: "ERCLT Business Support" < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
Sent: Thursday, 7 Nov, 2019 At 10:36
Subject: ERCLT Board Meetings

We have responded to your enquiry and no further information is held.

I now regard this matter closed. However, if you should wish to apply for a review of how we have dealt with your enquiry, please apply in writing within 40 working days to:

Chief Officer (Legal and Procurement)
Council Headquarters
Rouken Glen Road
Giffnock G46 6UG,

marking your letter “Freedom of Information, request for review”, and stating the exact nature of the matter you wish to be reviewed.

The review will be carried out within 20 working days of receipt of your appeal. If you are dissatisfied with the outcome of the review, you then have the right to appeal to the Scottish Information Commissioner who has extensive powers to investigate such matters. His address is:

Scottish Information Commissioner
Kinburn Castle
St. Andrews
Fife KY16 9DS

Regards
Iain Stewart
Support Services Manager
East Renfrewshire Culture and Leisure Trust Limited

Re: Leisure Trust - Charity or Secret Society? 4 years, 4 months ago #51

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Sent Via On Line
Trust minutes FOI - Via On -line 101002123220

Freedom of Information Request


This Freedom of Information request is in regard to all Documents/reports/papers/notes held and mentioned/referred to in the Minute of a Meeting of the Board of Trustees of East Renfrewshire Culture and Leisure Trust (ERCLT) in The Foundry, Barrhead on Tuesday 20th August 2019 at 3.30pm.


These meetings are held in secret and members of the public/East Renfrewshire Residents/ Council Tax Payers cannot attend.


No documents/reports/papers/notes etc referred to are attached to and/or published with the agenda/minutes -


'- 2018/2019 Annual Accounts, Financial Statements, Trustee Report, External Auditor’s Management letter and Representation Letter

- 4.JS presented the Financial Statements, Trustee Report and External Auditor’s Management letter for the year ended 31 March 2019, confirming these were discussed in full at the Finance, Audit and Risk (FAR)Meeting on 6thAugust 2019.


- Chief Executive’s Q1 Scorecard & Business Performance Update


- The FAR Chair provided a summary of the activities which took place at the FAR meeting held on 6thAugust.

- An overview of the Quarter 1 financials was provided by KS, noting that to date there was similar trends to the prior year.

- The Board approved report by the Chair of the FAR.


- The Board is asked to review and approve the spending pressures for onward submission to the Council to support an additional service fee for 2020/21.


- It was agreed that the current approach to culture and leisure in the areas was fragmented and offered a less-than ideal customer experience and both ERC and the Trust needed a shared vision for culture and sport (facilities, activities, programmes)The board approved that an invitation from the Chair to the leader of the council would be made to open dialogue.


- The Board discussed and approved the spending pressures for submission to the Council for consideration.


- 12.Press and PR - issued separately '



Please provide all documents/reports/papers/notes held by ERCLT regarding -


- 2018/2019

Annual Accounts,

Financial Statements,

Trustee Report,

External Auditor’s Management letter and

Representation Letter


- Chief Executive’s Q1 Scorecard & Business Performance Update



- The summary provided by the FAR Chair of the activities which took place at the FAR meeting held on 6thAugust.


- The overview of the Quarter 1 financials provided by KS, noting that to date there was similar trends to the prior year.

- Spending pressures for onward submission to the Council to support an additional service fee for 2020/21.


- The agreement that the current approach to culture and leisure in the areas was fragmented and offered a less-than ideal customer experience


- The invitation from the Chair to the leader of the council would be made to open dialogue.


- Spending pressures discussed and approved by the Board for submission to the Council for consideration


- Documents and reports issued separately regarding Press and PR.


Electronic copies are acceptable to me.

Re: Leisure Trust - Charity or Secret Society? 4 years, 4 months ago #52

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ERCLT Response to FOI -

------ Original Message ------
From: "Burgess, Angela" < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
Sent: Thursday, 14 Nov, 2019 At 11:12
Subject: FOI 101002123220

I am writing with regards to your Freedom of Information Request of 22nd October 2019.

1. 2018/2019

Annual Accounts,

Financial Statements,

Trustee Report,

External Auditor’s Management letter and Representation Letter


ERCLT RESPONSE -

'These are available via Companies House.'


2. Chief Executive’s Q1 Scorecard & Business Performance Update

ERCLT RESPONSE -

'This is withheld under Section 33(1)(b) (Commercial interests and the economy) of the Freedom Of Information (Scotland) Act. '


3. The summary provided by the FAR Chair of the activities which took place at the FAR meeting held on 6th August.


ERCLT RESPONSE -

'This was a verbal update, and not held as per Section 17(1) (Information is not held) of the Freedom Of Information (Scotland) Act.'


4. The overview of the Quarter 1 financials provided by KS, noting that to date there was similar trends to the prior year.


ERCLT RESPONSE -

'The overview was a verbal update, and not held as per Section 17(1) (Information is not held) of the Freedom Of Information (Scotland) Act. Any financial information referred to is withheld under Section 33(1)(b) (Commercial interests and the economy) of the Freedom Of Information (Scotland) Act.'


5. Spending pressures for onward submission to the Council to support an additional service fee for 2020/21.

ERCLT RESPONSE -

'As per Section 30(b) and (c) (Effective Conduct of Public Affairs) of the Freedom Of Information (Scotland) Act, these will be considered by Elected Members as part of budget strategy deliberations and therefore it would be inappropriate to release these into the public domain before they have had the opportunity to dispense their responsibilities, as such a release would, or would be likely to, inhibit substantially the free and frank exchange of views for the purposes of deliberation; or would otherwise prejudice substantially, or be likely to prejudice substantially, the effective conduct of public affairs. Once considered, consequent Council Budget decisions and papers will be published as part of Council Papers.'


6. The agreement that the current approach to culture and leisure in the areas was fragmented and offered a less-than ideal customer experience

ERCLT RESPONSE -

'This was a discussion, and not held as per Section 17(1) (Information is not held) of the Freedom Of Information (Scotland) Act.'


7. The invitation from the Chair to the leader of the council would be made to open dialogue.

ERCLT RESPONSE -

'This letter is attached.'


8. Documents and reports issued separately regarding Press and PR.

ERCLT RESPONSE -

'These are copies of published press and media articles and coverage and as such are already in the public domain.'


I now regard this matter closed. However, if you should wish to apply for a review of how we have dealt with your enquiry, please apply in writing within 40 working days to:

Chief Officer (Legal and Procurement)
Council Headquarters
Rouken Glen Road
Giffnock G46 6UG,

marking your letter “Freedom of Information, request for review”, and stating the exact nature of the matter you wish to be reviewed.

The review will be carried out within 20 working days of receipt of your appeal. If you are dissatisfied with the outcome of the review, you then have the right to appeal to the Scottish Information Commissioner who has extensive powers to investigate such matters. His address is:

Scottish Information Commissioner
Kinburn Castle
St. Andrews
Fife KY16 9DS

Yours sincerely
Anthony McReavy
Chief Executive
East Renfrewshire Culture and Leisure Limited
www.ercultureandleisure.org

Re: Leisure Trust - Charity or Secret Society? 4 years, 4 months ago #53

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From FOI Response in previous post -

7. The invitation from the Chair to the leader of the council would be made to open dialogue.

ERCLT RESPONSE -

'This letter is attached.'

This is a text transcript of the received letter -

Dear Cllr. Buchanan,

I hope this finds you well.

At the last Board Meeting of East Renfrewshire Culture and Leisure I was
tasked by my fellow board members with writing to you in my capacity as the new Chair of the Trust, a role which I accepted in June of this year following the resignation of Jim Wilson.

I was delighted to take on this position, as I am very proud of what we have been able to achieve together in the Trust’s first few years of operation.

We have seen increases in customers and users, a significant improvement in customer care and quality, an increase in partnerships and external support, and a growth in services, programmes and provision despite all the challenges which we have had to negotiate together.

In the meeting there was a consensus between Independent and Council Board Members regarding the vision for culture, leisure and sports in East Renfrewshire, and a discussion of the respective roles of the Council, the Trust and others in maintaining, developing and improving services in the area.

I am very mindful of the diverse challenges which continue to face the public sector, and which we will need to work together to address.

One of the foremost concerns of the Board is the extent to which we can continue to sustain, improve and develop existing services and we are committed to finding ways in which to improve the experience of the local residents, whilst managing the burden on the public purse, and growing our
profitability to reduce our reliance on subsidy from the Council.

Whilst we have seen some local authorities and their leisure trusts begin to respond to internal and external pressures by withdrawing services, reducing programmes or closing buildings, we have always been clear that managing decline was not our mission here in East Renfrewshire.

It is at odds with the ambitious vision for East Renfrewshire in the local development plans, which have successfully attracted people to live and work in the area, in large part because of the excellence of the public services.

Consequently we have understood our goal was and continues to be to improve the quality, range and type of culture and leisure services to support and sustain that success.

As a board we have often discussed this vision for the Trust, and tried to articulate it in our business plans, but we realise that we have not discussed it with our most important partner the Council, nor have we taken the time to explore what we each hope to see in the future.

Whilst it has been our experience that everyone shares the goal of a successful trust, an obvious gap is that we have not worked together to agree with the Council what that success looks like beyond the detailed
performance measures laid down at the inception of the Trust.

Indeed, it was noted that we do not currently have a forum for holding these discussions and for outlining, agreeing and understanding the future vision and objectives of partners in East Renfrewshire with regards to public culture and leisure services in general, or how they might contribute to wider goals such as health, wellbeing, economic regeneration, tackling inequality, place-making and community cohesion.

I would hope that in doing this we will identify further the ways in which we might secure greatest impact, best value and service quality for local residents.

Perhaps in the first instance we could meet informally to discuss this amongst other things, before involving our colleagues?

To that end may I suggest we arrange to meet at our earliest and mutually convenient date and time?

Yours sincerely,
Professor Grant Jarvie

Re: Leisure Trust - Charity or Secret Society? 4 years, 3 months ago #54

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++++++++
The Leisure Trust Chief Executive seems to have performed a remarkable U-Turn.
++++++++

The Trust Board minutes would now appear to be published before the next meeting.

Although the Chief Executive refused to give the venue and time of the meeting -

the minutes for the meeting held on 19 November 2019 at St Johns Conference Room, Barrhead, at 3.30pm have been published on the Trust's Website.


East Renfrewshire Culture & Leisure Ltd
(A company which is a Scottish Charity (Scottish Charity Number SC0045726) incorporated in Scotland under the Companies Act with company number SC486489)

Minute of a Meeting of the Board of Trustees of East Renfrewshire Culture and Leisure Ltd St Johns Conference Room, Barrhead, on Tuesday 19 November at 3.30pm

Present:
Professor Grant Jarvie (Chair) (GJ)
Andrew Allan (AA)
Council Leader Jim Fletcher (JF)
Councillor Barbara Grant (BG)
Steven Larkin (SL)
Dr Noreen Siddiqui (NS)
Rob Crusher (RC)

Attending:
Anthony McReavy, Chief Executive (AMc)
Karen Storie, Director of Finance and Commercial Services (KS)
Mhairi Shaw, Director of Education ERC (MS)
Margaret McCrossan, Head of Accountancy ERC (MMc)
Ian Pye, Head of Sports and Physical Activity (IP)
Liz Anderson (minute taker)

Apologies:
Councillor Colm Merrick
Councillor Paul O’Kane1.

Welcome & Introductions
The chair welcomed everyone to the meeting.

GJ thanked the Executive Team for their work in planning, arranging and managing a number of meetings and papers in a short space of time.

2.Preliminaries (including apologies and quorum)

Apologies were received from Cllr Colm Merrick & Cllr Paul O’Kane.

The Chair confirmed there are no Declarations of Interest.

3.Minutes of previous meeting

These were discussed and it was noted they had been previously approved by the Board via email.

4.Matters arising
Budget Pressures were submitted.

The style of minutes was approved.

The Board discussed the meeting held between the Chair and the Leader of the East Renfrewshire Council.

There was a discussion about the scope of possible opportunities, identified risks, and the budget scenario.

It was agreed to establish regular meetings with the Leader of the Council.

5.Head of Sports and Physical Activity Presentation

IP gave a presentation on the Health for Heroes Initiative.

IP outlined ERCLT’s support for veterans under the programme.

The presentation was warmly received.

IP agreed to forward contact details of the Renfrewshire Armed Services Co-ordinator to BG and JF.

After questions IP left the meeting after agenda item 5. 6.

Chief Executive’s Q2 Scorecard and Business Performance Update.

AMcR presented the Q2 performance results.

A discussion took place regarding the performance in the period until 30 September 2019.

There was a discussion on current vacancy levels, and steps being taken to fill vacancies.

It was noted that staff turnover rates would be reported upon once the new HR systems were in place.

7.Report by Chair (AA) of the Finance, Audit and Risk Committee (FAR)

The FAR Chair provided a summary of the activities which took place at the FAR meeting held on 5th November.

An overview of the Q2 financials was provided by KS, including the forecast surplus for 2019/20.

AA commended the quality of the budgeting process, given its accuracy, with actual income only 1.5% off budget.

KS noted a reforecast would be undertaken early in the New Year.

There was a discussion of the 2020/21 Draft Budget, including the proposed reduction to the management fee received from ERC and the level of required savings equating to £411k (8%).

It was noted the December elections have had an impact on the timing of national and local government budget setting.

ERLC will revise the draft budget for consideration at the February Board meeting, including recommended savings, by which time there should be clarity on the local government settlement.

GJ suggested an extraordinary FAR if need be early in 2020.

It was agreed to consider options for this.

(The next ordinary FAR meeting is 4 February2020.)

The 2020/21 ERC Budget would also include capital as well as revenue.

MMcC gave an update on Capital Programme Allocation (CPA) Bids.

Risk Register – KS noted the changes to the Risk Register in the period.

There was a discussion about the Redundancy Modification Order.

The Board approved the report by the Chair of the FAR.

JF asked about a Whistle Blowing Policy for ERCLT, and it was agreed to bring one to the next Board Meeting.

8.Report by Member of the Health and Safety, HR and Appeals Committee

In the absence of the Chair of the Committee, SL gave a report on the meeting of 31st October.

The Board approved the Health and Safety Policy, the Volunteer Policy and the Terms of Reference of the Committee.

9.ERCLT 2020/21 Draft Business Plan

AMc presented the draft Business Plan for the year 2020/21.

It was noted that it will be presented to Council for Agreement on 18th December.

The board discussed the plan, including the balance between commercial and charitable activities; the social enterprise model; the ongoing challenge of maintaining the facilities and Property and Technical Services teams’ performance in relation to this; potential for rationalising the property portfolio; and the role of Community Asset Transfer in relation to ERC-owned / ERCL–operated facilities.

The Board approved the 2020/21 Business Plan.

BG leaves the meeting after agenda item 9. 10.

Solace in Business (SiB) Joint Action Plan Update

KS updated the Board on progress with the SiB Action Plan.

Progress was noted.

11.Press & PR

There was a discussion about Marketing and Communications, including promotions, advertising and internal communications.

RC leaves the meeting after agenda item 11.12.

AOCB

The board approved the renewal of banking arrangements.

AMc updated the board on follow up to the Away Day.

AMc advised the board that invitations to the forthcoming panto Cinderella would soon be issued.

The Chair wished the board and attending officers best wishes for the forthcoming festive period.

Action Points
Agenda Item/Action/ By

4 Regular meeting between Chair and ERC Leader to be arranged GJ / AMcR

5 Contact Details for the Renfrewshire Armed Services Co-ordinator would be circulated IP

7 2019/20 Outturn Forecast to be refreshed in early 2020 KS
Revised Budget for Approval in February Board Meeting KS
Interim FAR Meeting to be considered in early 2020 KS
Whistle-blowing Policy to be presented to February Board AMc

12 Away Day Follow-up to be progressed AMc
Invitations to Pantomime Preview to be issued. AMc


NOTE: No Date/Venue/Time given for the next meeting

You can read the actual minutes on the Trust Website here -

www.ercultureandleisure.org/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=25640&p=0
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