East Durham College Finance and General Purposes Meeting Thursday 13th November 2025

S Robson (Chair)  

S Bullock 

A Jefferson

J Mitchelson (Vice-Principal Finance and Business Planning) 

H McCoy (Assistant Principal Performance) 

A Barnard (Director of Estates) 

S Pritchard (Clerk to the Corporation)  

V Parkin (Committee Secretary) 

J Smith, G Dullage, G Edmunds  

The Chair invited committee members to declare any conflicts of interest relevant to the agenda items for the meeting.  None were declared. 

The minutes of the meeting held on 10th April 2025 were approved.  

There were no matters arising.  

The Chair of Committee thanked colleagues for the presentation and the work that this had entailed and welcomed how useful it was for the oversight of the committee.  A committee member fed back the view of a local employer with apprentices at the Technical Academy. 

 Action: The committee requested assurance to be included in future estates paper around planned maintenance spend, confirming that it is incorporated into the budget and that there is a programme of annual works. 

Action: CLG to produce prioritisation list for projects. 

The Chair of the Committee queried whether it was possible to predict whether growth arising from demographic changes would increase students at a particular campus and this was discussed.  The Chair of the Committee recommended that, if possible, to prioritise solar installations as her insight was that prices would likely increase significantly in coming years.  The Committee noted the need to consider external dependencies over which the college has no control.  The CLG would consider how best to disseminate it to the full board. 

The Assistant Principal Performance presented the report which was considered to be confidential.  

The committee noted the report.  

The Vice Principal presented the report to the committee, and the committee was pleased to see the outcome of the successful Copyright Licensing Agency external audit. 

It was noted that the tender for the replacement of CCTV would be progressing.  The committee queried if cyber risk had increased and it was noted that this is considered by Audit and Risk Committee. 

 The committee noted the report. 

The Vice Principal presented the report to the committee. 

The Chair of the Committee feedback that the new form of reporting was helpful and clear. 

Action: It was agreed that the report would include full FE benchmark measures and how the college is performing against them, as well as the direction of travel, and for these to be RAG rated. 

 The committee noted the report. 

The Clerk highlighted that the next deep dive was intended to focus on HR in March and asked the committee to consider if there was something in particular, they wished this to cover.