YHN Board meeting - Tuesday 23 March 2021 at 5.00 pm

Meeting to be held via Microsoft Teams

Contact Officer: Andrew Baker-Daley

Email: andrew.baker-daley@yhn.org.uk

AGENDA

1. Welcome and Apologies for Absence

2. Declarations of Interests

3. Chair's Items

To exclude the press and public during discussion of remaining agenda items because of the likely disclosure of confidential information. The definitions of what is considered confidential are contained within Section 16 of the Company’s Standing Orders.

4. Leazes Homes

    Abri Trading Ltd.

5. Minutes of 26 January 2021

6. Commercial Business Update

7. Draft Budget 2021-2022 – to be considered at item 9



Main Business Items

8. Q-Bot



9. Draft Budget 2021-22



10. Q3 Finance and Performance Update on Repairs & Construction Services



11. Safeguarding Annual Report



12. Housing Investment Update



13. Managing Director's Report



14. Minutes of 26 January 2021



15. Confidential Minutes of 26 January 2021



16. Action Log (Public)



17. Forward Plan 2021



18. Assurances from Committees

• Health and Safety Committee 2nd February
• Finance and Performance Committee 9th February
• Group Audit and Risk Committee 18th February
• Finance and Performance Committee 4th March
• Customer Service Committee 10th March

19. Any Other Business

20. Date and Time of Next Meeting: 18th May 2021 5pm (Microsoft Teams)

YHN Board 26 January 2021 (5pm – 7:15pm)

Present:

L Blakey, S Copley, L Docherty, T Gates (Chair), D Hall, L Hobson, G Kane, K Lowry

(up to item 781), J McCarty (Vice-Chair), M Page, A Parker, B Tebay

In attendance:

A Baker-Daley Governance Officer

J Davison Company Secretary/Assistant Director Business Support

T Drury Managing Director

G van Enk-Bones Finance Director

D Langhorne Assets and Development Director

J Vinton Customer Services Director

P Ritchie Chief Executive, Newcastle City Council (up to item 780)

A Senior Head of Fairer Housing, Newcastle City Council

R Lingwood Associate Partner, EY (item 783)

WELCOME AND APOLOGIES FROM ABSENCE (779)

Apologies were received from P Scope. The Chair noted that K Lowry would need to

leave the meeting early due to work commitments.

DECLARATION OF INTERESTS (780)

None

 

CHAIRS ITEMS (781)

The Chair welcomed T Drury back to YHN, thanking the team for their support in testing times.

Agenda

The agenda has been redesigned to highlight strategic, learning and transactional items, the latter of which it is asked that questions are put to Executive Team in advance and outside of the meeting, however members wouldn’t be precluded from asking a question during a meeting.

K Lowry

K Lowry will be retiring from the Board, having secured a longer-term role in Manchester. The Chair thanked K Lowry for their contribution; the Board has benefitted from their wide experience and many years in senior roles in the sector. K Lowry thanked the Board for the experience, adding that the discussion with P Ritchie previously is very indicative of the growth of YHN since they joined the Board in 2017, endorsing the point about the quality of the Executive Team and of governance. The organisation has good solid principles and core instincts, which it will build upon with NCC, Leazes Homes and the combined authority.

Awards

The Chair reminded members of the recent awards won; World Habitat Award and Homelessness Project of the Year at the UK Housing Awards.

Away Day

Yonder has provided a report following away day discussions on the customer voice. This will be considered in due course.

Skills audit

Some forms remain outstanding. The results of the audit will help inform planning by Remuneration and Nominations Committee on Board member recruitment, to ensure we understand any skills gaps, as well as looking at how Leazes Homes governance will blend with YHN if the group structure is approved.

E-learning

The Chair asked members to complete the GDPR and safeguarding modules at their earliest convenience. The health and safety and equality, diversity and inclusion modules will follow.

Group Audit and Risk Committee

With the departure of K Lowry, A Parker has accepted the Chair’s request to become the interim Chair of Group Audit and Risk Committee, asking the Board to acknowledge this change. In due course the Remuneration and Nominations Committee will consider a permanent Chair of the committee.

K Lowry left the meeting.

D22 BUSINESS STRATEGY UPDATE (782)

T Drury presented the report, which gave an update on the delivery of the Destination 2022 business strategy. The focus of the last year has shifted given the pandemic; staff are stretched, there is pressure in the system, they are feeling  fatigued, and home schooling has recently been added to the complications. It is not suggested that the strategy is cancelled, but it is felt necessary to do further work to understand how the strategy will look against a landscape that is still uncertain.

RESOLVED – that the Board:

• Received the report and considered the information presented;
• Agreed to pause and review future plans

ANNUAL ACCOUNTS AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 2019-20 (783)

G van Enk-Bones presented the report, which sought approval of the annual

accounts and financial statements for the Group and Abri Trading Ltd.

G van Enk-Bones highlighted the following key points:

• Some usual steps in the process had not taken place or were delayed due to later than expected sign-off of NCC accounts and pension fund audits
• The accounts haven’t changed significantly since endorsement by Group Audit and Risk Committee on 23rd July, except an update on the expected financial impact of COVID-19 was amended from £1.8m to £1.3m
• Income is up, whilst costs are down, resulting in an improvement of £2.6m compared to last year
• The balance sheet is negative due to pension liability but is underwritten by NCC

R Lingwood attended to provide more detail relating to audits of NCC accounts and pension funds that required further work in order to finalise the YHN audit. YHN is a group member of Tyne and Wear Pension Fund under a multi-employer scheme. EY were unable to conclude work relating to allocation of assets and liabilities onto the YHN balance sheet until further audit work on the pension fund’s assets was completed. EY performed a calculation of percentage of assets allocated to YHN and the corresponding difference, seeking further reliance via a comfort letter from the Fund.

The second area related to going concern, linked to loan balances due to NCC and support from NCC in the form of pension scheme liabilities. Ultimately, YHN is dependent on NCC should it need to draw down on further funding to meet its liabilities. EY looked at 12 months of cashflows from NCC to ascertain they were

able to meet liabilities as they fall due. NCC accounts were approved on 30th November, EY obtained a copy of a letter of support from NCC to YHN which confirms their support for a minimum of 12 months from approval of the financial statements, however EY then also required cashflows from NCC covering up to January 2022 to bridge a two-month gap between the approval of NCC’s accounts and YHN’s. This information has since been received, allowing EY to conclude that NCC remains in a solvent position to continue supporting YHN with sufficient funding and cash flow should it be required.

An unqualified ‘clean’ audit opinion has been issued by EY, with no material uncertainty of going concern.

It was agreed that A Cuthbertson would be referenced as A Parker in future documents and correspondence, as per the Director entry at Companies House.

RESOLVED – that the Board:

• Received the report and considered the information presented;
• Approved the:

1. Directors’ Report
2. Strategic Report
3. Financial statements and notes
4. Going concern assessment
5. Letter of representation
   
    

• Agreed A Cuthbertson would hereafter be referred to as A Parker in future documents and correspondence

COMPLAINTS HANDLING CODE SELF-ASSESSMENT (784)

J Vinton presented the report, which gave an update on changing regulations for complaint handling and work undertaken to become compliant with the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code.

YHN completed the self-assessment by December, meeting all policy and procedure requirements. There are areas for improvement identified which include applying policies and procedures consistently and learning from complaints. Work has already started in this area; in December a new complaints toolkit and learning log for staff was launched which will help capture information to drive improvements. The team are exploring and discussing with NCC whether the complaints process could be simplified from three to two stages which would remove the escalation to NCC.

Finance and Performance Committee’s quarterly reports will continue to feature complaints, and an annual complaints update will be presented in August, which will include the learning log and case studies, the latter of which follows feedback from members at the away day.

RESOLVED – that the Board received the report and considered the information

presented.

MINUTES OF 24 NOVEMBER 2020 (785)

The minutes of the Board meeting held on 24 November were agreed as a true

record and would be signed by the Chair in due course.

FORWARD PLAN 2021 (786)

RESOLVED – that the 2021 forward plan was received for information

ANY OTHER BUSINESS (787)

Chair noted that P Scope, as Chair of Health and Safety Committee, asked members

to get in touch by email should there be any areas under the Committee remit

members would like to hear further details on.

DATE AND TIME OF NEXT MEETING (788)

23rd March 2021 5pm.

YHN Board 23 March 2021

Action Log (Public)

YHN Board Forward Plan 2021

Meeting 23 March 2021

 

Abri Trading

Meeting 18 May 2021

Meeting 27 July 2021

Abri Trading

Meeting 21 September 2021

Abri Trading