Meeting of the SET Management Board

Members present: Wendy Coley, Jim Crompton (Chair), Lynette Leith, Anita McGowan, Martin Reid (Director of Professionalism and Customer Experience), Sarah Simons, Barbara Van der Eecken (Vice-Chair)

In attendance: Tim Bevans (Director of Regional Engagement), Andrew Dowell (Head of Professional Status and Standards), Jane Galbraith (Head of Membership), Sandeep Hampal (Membership Co-ordinator, Minute Taker), Ellie Locke (Membership Engagement Manager), Amanda Parkes (Membership Engagement Officer), Paul Tully (Professionalism Manager)

1a. Welcome
The Chair opened the meeting and welcomed everyone present.

1b. Apologies for absence
Apologies were received from Philip Green, David Russell (Chief Executive), and Sarah Whiteside-Jones (lay member).

1c. Declarations of conflicts of interest in the items on the agenda
None.

1d. Minutes
The Board signed off the September meeting minutes and confirmed these were an accurate record.

2. Actions from last SMB and feedback from last PAG meeting.

The Board reviewed the meeting actions from the September meeting.

It was recommended the SET team consider the risks and mitigations for any proposal to introduce a CPD scheme.

The Head of Membership informed the Board that SET has endeavoured to utilise its advertising budget, to raise awareness and support acquisition. The Head of Membership agreed to update the Board at its next meeting. In addition, The Head of Membership informed the SMB that as part of the persona mapping work, the next step will be to match personas with individual member details on the CRM system. This will support work on revising the member value proposition.

The Board reviewed the meeting actions from the November PAG meeting. The Professionalism Manager informed the SMB, three Professional Standard steering group meetings have taken place to re-evaluate the Professional Standards and to develop guidance for a soft launch in early May 2022. The official launch is scheduled to take place in June 2022.

The Membership Engagement Manager provided a short update on Honorary Fellowships. Work is continuing following consultation and feedback from the PAG. SMB was also advised that we have engaged with PARN (Professional Associations Research Network) and, through its ‘Ask the Network’ service, we have surveyed PARN members on their approach to honorary fellowship. This will give us valuable feedback and insight on how other professional bodies work.

The SET team will share a further update with the SMB at a future meeting.

3. Sector Overview
A presentation by the Director of Regional Engagement was shared with Board members prior to the meeting. The Board highlighted that there is still insufficient recognition of SET and ETF’s, specifically its role and purpose. The Director of Regional Engagement advised that the level of regional engagement was being considered; the Board suggested a timeline for this would be useful. In addition the Board also suggested that ETF considers which sectors within FE we could engage more with.

4. Performance Updates
The Board received the Membership Performance Report prior to the meeting for review; the Board acknowledged the Performance Report was presented well.

The Head of Membership gave a short update on performance for the period up to 31 December 2021. It was noted that a number of small acquisition campaigns would be run to meet the annual KPI of 22,500 members. One such campaign is to contact all non-members who undertake the QTLS eligibility check and fail because they are not in membership. The Board asked SET to report on the other reasons participants are failing the QTLS eligibility check.

5. Chartered Status
The Board received a confidential paper on Chartered Status prior to the meeting, which outlined the proposal to proceed with a Chartered Application to the Privvy Council.

The Head of Membership informed the Board of the ambition to grow membership to c40,000 within three years and provided a short presentation highlighting the benefits of achieving Chartered Status and specifically how this could support the growth plans. The Director of Professionalism and Customer Experience informed the Board that as part of the process we will need to consult with existing chartered bodies, such as the Chartered College of Teachers and CIFE. The Board was invited to provide feedback.

The Board supported the proposal and agreed that Chartered Status would be a ‘unique selling point’.

In addition the Board suggested that SET also consider an offer for teaching assistants/non-teaching staff and for SET to ensure the qualifications project is prioritised alongside its chartered application.

6. Value Proposition
The Membership Engagement Manager provided a short summary of the paper previously shared and advised that members are still not sufficiently informed about the value of their SET membership. The Board was invited to provide feedback and to consider the following:

1. What is SET’s USP?
2. What does our target audience need most and why?
3. How does SET/ETF meet these needs, what are our strengths?

Following discussion the Board recommended:

• promoting inTuition as a valuable research resource to students
• for SET to have a clear ‘pitch’, which emphasises professional recognition
• to ensure the four personas are considered when the revised MVP is drafted

7. Career Framework
The Head of Professional Status and Standards invited the Board to participate in an open discussion and to provide feedback into what members would hope to see in a Further Education and Training Career Framework.

The board suggested the framework include information on qualifications, teaching in diverse settings, professional identity and clarity on requirements from different sectors. The Board was encouraged to continue to provide feedback post the meeting.

8. International strategy
The Professionalism Manager presented the consideration to potentially develop an offer for an international market The Board was invited to provide initial feedback and to consider;

• what ETF/ SET does well that could be easily exported to an international audience
• if the ETF/ SET decided to proceed with an international strategy, what information would need to be considered to ensure this was a sound decision
• what would be the next steps

The Board recommended SET consider whether moving into an international market would be a commercial step to grow membership and expand its reach or whether the approach would be for SET to be considered more as a knowledge hub. The Board noted that potential risks would need to be identified and mitigations detailed and we would also need to clearly articulate what would make SET attractive to an international audience.

9. SET Policies and Procedures
The Head of Membership summarised the paper previously shared which detailed the annual review process for the various SET policies and procedures. The Board was advised that two key policies have recently been reviewed – Terms and Conditions of Membership and Actions Against Members which will be published in February once the internal sign-off process has been completed. The key proposed changes were shared with the Board, in the document previously circulated; comment was invited.

The Board supported the key changes as outlined in the paper and requested that SET consider undertaking an Equality Impact Assessments (EIA’s) on all policies and procedures. The Head of Membership agreed to discuss this with the Head of Compliance.

At this point in the meeting the quoracy could not be met.

10. Pricing review
Membership Co-ordinator to follow up with an email to the Board to reach a full quorate for sign-off regarding the proposal to increase membership and QTLS/ATS pricing.

Post meeting note: the Board signed-off the proposed increase in membership fees and the new costs for ATS and QTLS for 2022/23, which will come into effect from 1 April 2022.

11. AOB
Membership Co-ordinator to follow up with an email to the Board to reach a full quorate for a majority vote on Anita McGowan’s second term with the SMB.

Post meeting note: The Board confirmed AM’s appointment for a second three-year term.

12. The Chair thanked everyone for their contribution and closed the meeting at 3pm.

Minutes signed off by the Board: 27 May 2022