Agenda item

Report of the Headmistress.

Governors considered a report of the Headmistress providing a compliance update and the following points were noted:

·         The City of London School for Girls had appointed a Compliance Manager, shared with the City of London School, to provide additional capacity to deal with the increasingly complex compliance requirements in schools.  The Compliance Manager was now in post and was working to coordinate levels of compliance across key areas of the School’s functions including meeting the requirements of the Independent Schools Standards Regulations, health and safety, fire safety, human resources and risk management.

·         The Chairman identified two areas within the School’s detailed risk register where the RAG risk rating had increased which comprised CLSG-06: Breakdown in Health and Safety Policies Results in Harm and Reputational Damage for which a range audits had been undertaken, and CLSG-07: Maintenance of Buildings and Site which had arisen as a result of the Summer Works 2019 programme being incomplete.  The Compliance Manager confirmed that comprehensive action plans were in place to mitigate these risks and that progress would be reported to future meetings of the Finance and Estates Sub-Committee.  The Chairman requested that the detailed risk register be updated to include the action being taken to address each risk by the target date. 

·         Work was underway to review recommendations arising from recent audits on health and safety and fire safety by the City of London Corporation and an external fire safety assessment which were expected to include a number of ‘quick wins’ as well as indicate areas where additional resource was required.  In response to a question from a Governor, the Bursar advised that robust evacuation plans were in place in case of fire.  The School was held to different standards of fire safety than residential properties but there were no outstanding actions on fire safety with implications for the Barbican residential estate.  A Governor requested that the Fire Risk Assessment be provided to Committee Members following the meeting.

·         The Audit and Risk Management Committee of the City of London Corporation had met on 28 January 2020 to consider outstanding audit recommendations of the City of London School for Girls at which it had been confirmed that action had been taken on all 23 outstanding recommendations, and that six items had been closed.  Work was underway to close the remaining outstanding recommendations and progress updates would be reported to members of the Finance and Estates Sub-Committee via e-mail.

·         The Headmistress observed that the School’s detailed risk register did not currently include a risk relating to the COVID-19 (Corona) virus; however, the School was taking all steps necessary to inform and protect staff, pupils and their families.   Robust measures were in place to respond to a case of the virus within the School community, including proposals to deliver a virtual school.

RESOLVED, that the current Compliance position be noted.