News from the Board: an update from our Annual General Meeting in June

We held our Annual General Meeting (AGM) on 28 June, online and in-person at 15Hatfields, London.

Thank you to the members who attended and participated in the voting. There was a great level of engagement throughout the meeting, and we took several questions away for further consideration. We’ll be able to provide responses to these and any decisions made by the Board in due course

Below you will find a transcript of the update I gave at the meeting:

Update from the Chair

Firstly, I'd like to start with thanking members for joining the AGM today.

As you will know there has been some significant changes in the Board and EMT in the last year and also since the last AGM which was held in September 2023, just nine months ago.

The motion for the 9:3 balance of elected and appointed trustees has almost been achieved. Following the recent elections we welcomed four new trustees onto the board - Kevin, James, Safia and Sterling, who is second time around. Lindsay and Nick were re-elected.

We now have 11 trustees, including our President who commenced his appointment in January, and we are in the process of recruiting to our appointed trustee roles. We are looking for particular skills and expertise to complement the elected trustees who come from a variety of backgrounds, public sector, military, academia, private sector, devolved nations. In September the Board should be complete.

We appointed Fran McCluskey, who was our Financial Director as Acting Chief Executive Officer. As you will know from my blog Fran has agreed to a further 18-month secondment. I'd like to thank Fran for agreeing to take on this role which has provided well needed stability in CIEH. The contribution she has made so far has been invaluable and has enabled us to maintain momentum and progress within the organisation.

I’d like to thank Dan Oerther and Kirpal Tahim for their time as trustees and also to thank Phil James.

Kathryn Preece resigned from the Board prior to the elections. and I'd like to thank Kathryn for her contribution to the Board in the last year. She has been invaluable with her wise and balanced counsel.

As a Board, we have been meeting on a monthly basis, this has just progressed to quarterly. There are also additional subgroup meetings such as those looking at the motions and the property review, which trustees volunteer to attend. So, this role is time consuming and requires being kept up to date and understanding a wide range of topics. It’s done on top of the day jobs for most of us. I thank the trustees for volunteering their time and their commitment to the role. In addition, I also thank other members who are involved in committees, subgroups, advisory panels and in other ways. It is your commitment and passion which helps to keep CIEH functioning.

The Board has set their short/medium term strategic priorities to ensure that our organisational efforts are being directed on the right areas. The Board agreed that financial sustainability, the sustainability of the profession, membership engagement, delivery of the motions were amongst our top priorities. EMT have been directed to deliver on these priorities. At every Board meeting EMT provide an update on the progress of the priorities, and the Board are directly involved in overseeing this progress. Running through these priorities are the overarching principles of members being at the heart of all we do and openness and transparency in everything we do.

This is all work in progress.

Whilst financial matters may not “float the boat” of all our members, ensuring they are robust and sustainable is essential for the ongoing survival of CIEH. The Board approved a finance strategy which provides a framework for the management of all finance related matters. We're in the process of setting up a Finance Committee which will provide oversight of the delivery of the strategy and will report to the Board. We are making progress in some areas however maintaining the momentum to progress the action has not always been possible with emerging completing demands.

We have had to make some hard decisions about prioritising the finance work over other work areas, which might not always be favoured by members. It is no secret that CIEH has been operating beyond its means for many years. It is due to good decision making by this Board in relation to the finance strategy and the priorities that has resulted in CIEH achieving an operating surplus for the first time in 15 years. It is a small but a very significant step, we are not out the woods, but this Board has made progress in the right direction. Please allow us the time and space to prioritise this work – which might be at the expense of other important priorities.

Business development is a crucial element of our finance strategy - it is not only about reducing costs but a major focus is maximising our opportunities to increase CIEH income. We have now recruited to an interim Finance Director to cover Fran’s secondment which should also start to help with making progress and enable her to focus entirely on the CEO role.

Following the special meetings earlier last year, the Board made the decision to submit a serious incident report to the Charity Commission. The response from the Charity Commission concluded that they did not intend any further action to be taken. They supported our planned actions which included progressing motions and ensuring greater members’ engagement which are amongst the Board’s priorities.

A significant area of work for the Board has been in relation to the property review, specifically in relation to the lease which we hold for Chadwick Court. We have been looking at the challenges and options for the future. A small subgroup was set up with trustees and with significant help and advice from business and property experts, as well as a member volunteer expert Dr Tim Everett. We have established a current position, and we’ll hopefully see the outputs of the review later in the year.

We have started to look at CIEH infrastructure and there are a number of factors which will determine what CIEH of the future will look like. The Board approved changes to operations which aim to make internal structures work better for the organisation and provide the right foundations for the future. It is encouraging to start to see these plans come to fruition and the POSITIVE impact this will have on the organisation.

Focussing on the sustainability of the profession, our priority has been to increase numbers of students entering the profession and maintaining the university course available to them. This is the essential pipeline to our profession, and we have had successes with the courses at Liverpool and Leeds Universities. However, there is still instability and work to be done to ensure that other courses remain open, and this continues to be the focus of our efforts.

As members we all have a part to play in helping to promote the profession locally to schools and colleges and encouraging our workplaces to offer training opportunities. If you think you can help out, please contact Jon Buttolph. We have also focused on developing the routes to qualification and it is a significant achievement to see the apprenticeship is now up and running.

We have been continuing to develop our relationship with REHIS and welcome the decision by their management board for enabling these first steps to happen. We are absolutely committed to working together with them for the benefit of our profession. Thank you to Jackie, Martin and Louise for the productive meetings we have, and I look forward to our next one.

We are continuing to work on the recognition of the EHO title, this was my motion, and we are still fully committed to progressing this. This is part of our discussions with REHIS, and it will take time.

Engaging with our members and making sure CIEH is fulfilling their needs as a professional body is an overriding priority and should be reflected in everything we do. CIEH have launched their member survey. The findings of this will be considered alongside the ACEHO survey which was conducted last year and provides insight from non-members as well as members. I would like to thank Aaron Lawson for his work on the ACEHO survey. I was involved in its early development working together with Aaron and Gary Macfarlane for CIEH. More recently Elaine Rudman has taken on this lead role. Annie Albon, Chair of ACEHO has also worked with Fran on this. This is an example of great work by members volunteering their time to progress important work.

The AGM agenda will provide updates on the motions from last year’s AGM. Considerable work has gone into progressing them to achieve their purpose and I thank the proposers and seconders for their help in progressing.

I know that we will provide an update on the Day/Gray motion further on the agenda however I would like to say a few things from the Board’s perspective. Ian Gray and Chris Day are very respected and honourable members of our profession, and we thank them, and me personally, for their passion and commitment to the profession. We hold their views in hard regard in relation to their motion and as Jon Buttolph will explain later what we have achieved.

There is still further work to be done, particularly around the professional standards framework and routes to qualification. We know Ian and Chris have expressed their concern about the proposed timescale for the delivery of some of their motion and are seeking immediate delivery of the review of the routes to qualification in their motion presented to the AGM. As the Board stated at the last AGM, we fully support the motions. We have sought guidance from our Membership, Learning and Profession Advisory Group which consists of a wide range of representatives from universities, employers and others. They have considered the motion and the options for delivering and they have presented proposed timescales based on their collective knowledge and expertise. Their immediate priority is ensuring university courses stay open and balancing the timescale for delivery against other education and learning priorities.

We have engaged with Chris and Ian, I have met with them and other trustees, EMT members and Fran. There are some things we could have done better, and the Board would like to have more discussion with them both to developing the action plan for delivery. The Board haven’t made their decision yet. We are proposing that proposals and the action plan will be brought to the next Board meeting for approval, which is currently scheduled for 1st August.

Looking towards the future for CIEH and the Board:

• We aim to review our priorities as part of our strategic planning for 2025. Some of our existing priorities such as financial sustainability, sustainability of the profession and member engagement will remain.
• We want to progress with the development of a member volunteer register which we hope will enable us to tap into the wide ranging skills and expertise of our members to help with resourcing and progressing work on our priorities.
• The property review and the options for delivery will continue to be a significant piece of work.
• Recruitment to the CEO post, we will review this in 12 months’ time.
• Continuing to build EH expertise within CIEH.
• Development of CIEH business model and maximising income.
• Continuing to maintain and develop an open and transparent approach.
• Independent review of our Advisory Panels to ensure they operate effectively and in the best interests of CIEH.
• Maintaining the profile and leadership of CIEH in all things environment health. Maximising our influence and advocacy particularly after July 4th and a possible new government. We have a manifesto and election strategy, and we need to continue to build on this, and raising our profile.
• Finally, we changed the voting process for this year’s AGM and we will be reviewing this for next year’s meeting and welcome views on this.

Thank you to a range of people and organisations:

• All CIEH staff, every role is important.
• Those involved in the preparation and delivery of the AGM.
• Committees and Advisory Group members – we welcomed new members this year.
• Advisory Panel members.
• ACEHO, EHW, EHNI. Annie, Ceri and Seamus.
• The CIEH EMT and CEO.
• Fellow trustees and our President.
• All members.

Judith Hedgley
CIEH Chair
28 June 2024

As always, you can get in touch with myself by emailing [email protected].