LSS Board Meeting today

Today's LSS Board meeting was a three hour marathon. The first section of the agenda included others from the Student Union and Estates to consider various options for decanting and moving staff to enable the major refurbishments that are planned to the Communal and JBP buildings where some of us live. It really sounds like things are starting to happen after an important meeting of the University Council on Friday that authorised the overall capital investment plan. It will be a difficult time for current student facing services as they adapt for an interim period before moving into the new space and that will be a challenge. It's looking increasingly likely that the IT Service will remain in JBP BUilding on the current floor (but refurbished) along with student facing services - comfortable seating, PC provision, some flexible learning and group study spaces etc. It's a very exciting project for those who have waited a very long time - the starting pistol is due to be fired around April next year for the decanting and then end May for the contractors on site. Probably will take about a year and a half before its all ready. The second section was on staffing and there were some submissions for the professional education and training fund and also an update on a new sickness absence policy that is being introduced from early next year. Third section was on budget - it was interesting that well over £1 Million comes into LSS from each of the fours divisions from external grants and bids. That is a big change over previous years I suspect. We also looked at the management accounts for November (on track) and the spend against a carry forward from last year. There is some money for new furniture and that is why the furniture suppliers have been around with tape measures in the last week.