11. Committee Agendas: Planning, Timescales, Format and Structure

The purpose of the agenda is to facilitate the business of the meeting by providing a clear and concise list of the items to be dealt with and assisting with the organisation of any papers. It should make clear what the committee is expected to do with each item, for example, To CONSIDER, To APPROVE. 

The below is not prescriptive and may vary depending on the Committee, however, it should be taken as a helpful guide to the forwarding planning of agendas to allow sufficient time for discussion with the Chair and confirming relevant items.  

6 weeks before meeting

• Seek items from the Chair, members, regular contributors and bodies/business areas that feed into your committee 
• Check actions from previous meeting(s)
• Hold an agenda setting meeting with the Chair and key senior officers
• Inform paper writers of what they need to submit and when

14 days before meeting

• Committee Paper Deadline – you should ensure you receive all Committee papers by this time, in order to have sufficient time to construct the complete papers for a meeting

7 days before meeting

• Agree final agenda with chair
• Circulate papers

No more than 7 days after meeting

• Minutes to chair for approval

Once the minutes have been signed off by the chair:

• Publish minutes via Board Intelligence or circulate to committee members and others on the circulation list. All committees should have a copy of the minutes saved in their committee Team.
• Send extracts of minutes to relevant people for information or action. This is especially important for people who were not at the meeting and were assigned an action. 

1. Responsibility for drafting the initial agenda lies with the Secretary. This should then be shared with the Chair for consultation/confirmation.
2. Section 9. outlines standard items which should be on the agenda for all committee meetings at the first and last meetings of each academic year.
3. In order to establish other items that should be routinely placed on the agenda at any particular meeting, reference should be made to the minutes of the equivalent meeting in the previous two years. If there is a pattern of regular business, standard agendas or an annual business cycle should be developed.
4. A good starting point for a new agenda is the previous year’s agenda for the equivalent meeting of the year. The Secretary should also consult the committee’s annual cycle of business to see what items are expected.
5. Another key point of reference for the agenda will be the minutes of the last meeting and previous meetings. The minutes themselves will be for approval, but there may also be items that are being carried forward to the next meeting. You should follow up any outstanding actions from the previous meetings in a timely way which in some cases may mean before the minutes are finalised.
6. Typically the Secretary should send an email to committee members and key attendees/officers seeking items for the next meeting and setting an appropriate deadline for papers to be received (ideally 10 working days before the meeting).
7. The purpose of requesting papers 10 working days before a committee is so that  committee papers are submitted well in advance of the meeting and so that any late papers can be provided in sufficient time.
8. It can sometimes be difficult to determine whether an item is a matter arising from the minutes or a new agenda item. One rule of thumb might be: if there is only a verbal update on the item then it is a matter arising from the minutes, but if there is a substantial paper for discussion and decision then it is a new agenda item. Ultimately it is for the Chair to decide where on the agenda an item should be placed if there is any doubt. However, the Secretary should draft the agenda in full with a proposal for where items should be positioned.
9. The Secretary should check in good time for items being reported up by sub-committees and for reports being passed down by the parent committee. 

Information about the style, layout and numbering of the agenda can be found in Section 7 and an example agenda in section 10. This section focuses on the structure of committee agendas.

1. The agenda for a formal committee should be divided into sections (this structure will not be necessary for smaller sub-committees and working group where essentially all items may be for discussion):
   • Business of the Agenda - matters carried over from the previous meeting, including procedure for unstarring (if applicable – see paragraph (e) below), confirmation of the minutes and matters arising
   • Section A - items for discussion, the main business of the agenda
   • Section B - starred items for approval, these will not be discussed unless unstarred (for example, a parent committee may have final authority for approving a policy which had been fully discussed at a sub-committee. The parent committee will still need to formally approve the policy but would not normally need to discuss it). This is a necessary formal process.
   • Section C - starred items for information, these will not be discussed unless unstarred. This is a mechanism for providing committee members with information which is relevant and informative but for which no action is required (for example, parent committees might receive regular reports from sub-committees).
2. Items should be starred where they are non-controversial and are to be approved or noted without discussion. The final decision on whether an item should be starred lies with the Chair. Members of the committee may unstar an item by notifying the secretary, usually in advance of the meeting so that other members can be alerted. The timetable for unstarring items to allow discussion will vary depending on the committee, but it should be included as the first item on the agenda, under the heading ‘Business of the Agenda’.
3. Do remember:
   • The numbering of agenda items should begin at 1 for each new agenda. Sub-items should be numbered in accordance with the conventions set out.
   • The agenda should make clear exactly what the committee is asked to do in respect of an item (to consider, to note/receive, to approve, to make a recommendation to another committee etc).
   • All papers should be numbered as outlined in section 7.
   • Items that are oral reports only, with no supporting papers, should be indicated as such.
   • Items relating to changes to ordinances, regulations or procedures should be clearly indicated on the agenda, include a ‘with effect from…’ date and, if appropriate, the agenda should state to which cohort of students they will apply. (Also see section 21 – Creation, Amendment and Repeal of Ordinances and Regulations.)

The Freedom of Information Act means that most committee papers would in principle need to be released if requested, unless a specific exemption applies. It is desirable therefore that all Committee papers are in a form that all members of the University and the public can access.

Where material is sensitive and its release may either need careful handling or it may be covered by an exemption the paper should be marked CONFIDENTIAL, with access restricted to those connected with the committee and discretion used over how the item appears on any public web version of the agenda.

The nature of the business of some committees means that it is not always possible to anticipate in advance whether discussion of an item will include personal or e.g. commercially sensitive information or agendas may include a mixture of such items. In these cases, all agendas and papers should be set up on the web with access appropriately restricted.