News from the Board: a summary of our March meeting

The Board met on 6 March to discuss the following agenda items:

Executive Management Team (EMT) update

This was a detailed report summarising EMT’s work over the last month. Key areas to note are:

• Update on Motions:
  • The Professional Standards Framework review is now underway. A meeting with academics has taken place and meetings with CIEH Advisory Panels are being planned. There will then be wider membership and other stakeholder engagement.
  • The procurement policy is being followed for all new tenders. All tenders over £5k are being published on our website. A supplier database has been built. Further progress is planned over the next few months for the outstanding matters.
  • EHO title - a sub-group is now looking at the options for progressing this and a further paper is due to come to the next Board meeting.
• Developing close links with Operation Jigsaw for 25/26.
• The Value of Environmental Health work is progressing and views of members are being sought on the concept of the narrative and how this can best achieve the outcomes we are looking for.
• We have recruited two key interim roles. Ian Andrews has joined as Interim Head of Environmental Health and Richard Fernandez has joined as Interim Head of Policy and External Affairs. We extend a very warm welcome to Ian and Richard.
• Update on the Policy and Campaigns Team’s work on influencing governments, politicians and national bodies.

Strategic delivery

We approved the Strategic Delivery Update which included a delivery plan and tracker. In a previous blog I explained that the Board had set out its strategic priorities, our strategy is now complete and has been published.

Independent Review of Advisory Panels

We considered a report which set out the key actions agreed by the Board working group to ensure full implementation of the recommendations from the Advisory Panel review. We approved the following:

• Trustees will not be appointed as Chairs of Advisory Panels.
• As an interim measure the Membership, Learning and the Profession Advisory Group (MLPAG) terms could be enhanced to include a policy remit, with a future paper coming to the Board. The long-term intention is to have a dedicated Policy Committee.
• The action plan.
• Delegation of the approval of policies and procedures to the Board Working Group.

Openness and Transparency Policy

We agreed a further review of this area of work, there is some further work we can do and trustees agreed that a sub-group would be set up to progress this. Thank you to Mark Elliott who is leading on this work.

Going Concern

Trustees and directors have a responsibility to ensure that the charity operates as a going concern. A paper was presented assessing the relevant factors for the trustees to make this decision and the Board approved CIEH to be a going concern.

Annual General Meeting (AGM)

The Board considered a report which set out the options for delivering future AGMs beyond 2025. The plans for the 2025 AGM remain unchanged. The Board felt very strongly that the priority is to ensure that AGMs are delivered maximising full engagement with members. However, it would also be useful to have the flexibility to be able to deliver the AGM in different ways, with members' approval.

We also approved a form for motions which is designed to help members when drafting their motions. If you are considering putting a motion to the AGM please do email me at [email protected] or Fran McCloskey, [email protected], and we can help with the process and work though any concerns with you.

Welfare Fund Committee

Steve Cooper of the Welfare Fund Committee attended the meeting to give an overview of the functioning of the committee and examples of funding provided to members. The Welfare fund is available to all members who may require financial support and meet the application criteria. The Board would like to thank Steve for attending the meeting.

Legacy donation from Anthony Babbage OBE

The Board had previously agreed that the Finance Committee would review options for managing and utilising the very kind legacy donation from Tony Babbage and to make recommendations to the Board. The Board approved an investment approach for the legacy with a formal process for approving spend to be made through the Finance Committee to the Board.

We are very keen to recognise Tony Babbage and his generous donation. There has been an EHN article and there will be further recognition at the AGM. The trustees would like a long-term recognition and we are considering the best way to do this. If you have any thoughts on how we could do this please email me: [email protected]

Ongoing activity

In addition to the items discussed at the Board meeting, you will know that we are currently going through elections for three trustee posts on the Board. The voting closes on 14 April and I encourage you please to vote.

We are continuing to work through the Property Review and over the next few weeks we will be selecting the Property Agent who will carry out this review.

I attended the Association of Chief Environmental Health Officers meeting this week, in my capacity as Head of Service for Middlesbrough Council, but I was also able to provide an update on CIEH on behalf of the Board. It was an excellent meeting with some really useful discussions and presenters. Thank you to Annie, Liz, Fiona and others for bringing this meeting together.

For your information, MLPAG (Membership, Learning and the Profession Advisory Group) will be simplifying its name to The Professional Advisory Group, which is slightly easier to remember.

The Board will be having an additional meeting in April to manage the large number of agenda items for future meetings. Thank you to trustees for giving their time.

Thank you to all our members for their support and for reading this update. Please do contact me at [email protected].