A briefing to enable the committee to provide assurance on the adequacy in regards of the risk framework on the measure the council is taking as the accountable body for the new model in technology & engineering (NMiTE) and the milestone payments from the Department for Education (DfE).

The chief finance officer presented the report.

The background to the assurance report was that in 2017, DfE had decided to award a £15m grant to NMITE to build the university.   The government had felt it appropriate to appoint an accountable body.   The money came via a grant under S31 agreements.    

Just before Christmas 2017, the council had received a presentation from NMITE about how the money would be used and  the council made the decision to act as the accountable body.  Under S31 monies, there is an annual report back to the relevant government department which sets out how the money had been spent and any issues.   The council was not responsible for the money.   There had been one or 2 points raised with government and the majority of spend by NMITE had been effective in delivering the milestones in the creation of the new university.   It was confirmed that as the accountable body, the council was monitoring that the university was doing what the government had said they wanted to be done. 

A member of the committee stated that it fell on NMiTE to be innovative in the work they do with their accounts.   Councils are very transparent about finances but that universities were not.  NMiTE should be exemplar and that they could be ground breaking.    

Following a query from a member of the committee, it was confirmed that the council do receive a £40k management fee for monitoring the milestones. 

It was noted that due to the concerns raised in the SWAP letter, the committee were not assured and requested that a progress report come back to the committee meeting scheduled for September 2019.    The committee felt that it would be beneficial to have full access to the appendices mentioned in SWAP letter  and requested that the solicitor to the council ascertain whether the documents could be made available to the committee.     The chief finance officer reported that there was a meeting on Thursday (1 August) for the chair of NMITE, SWAP and Thorne Widgery and clarity will be sought about how reassurance can be gained.  

The committee also requested that the relevant scrutiny committee be asked to look at the arrangements for NMiTE to follow up on the report which had been received in 2017. 

RESOLVED

That:

(a)  Officers write and seek the views of the Department for Education about the recommendations contained within the report from SWAP and seek their guidance and direction about how they would like us to react as an accountable body and how they would like the council to report progress

(b)  General scrutiny be requested to considering adding a review of the NMiTE partnership arrangements to their work programme

(c)  The solicitor to the council request the exempt background papers for the committee to view to assist with assurance