Minutes Board of Trustees Meeting 09 January 2026

Present:

Board Members:

• Ashok Ahir (President and Chair)
• Andrew Evans
• Gronw Percy
• David Hay
• Heledd Bebb
• Jo Williams
• Andrew Prescott
• Quentin Howard
• Mohini Gupta
• Susan Davies
• Janet Wademan
• Michael Gibbon
• Hannah Lindsay
• John Allen
• Andrew Cusworth

Executive Team:

• Rhodri Llwyd Morgan, Chief Executive
• Mererid Boswell, Director of Corporate Services
• Owain Roberts, Director of Collections
• Rhian Gibson, Director of Communications and Engagement 

Also present:

• Annwen Isaac, Human Resources Manager
• Sara Weale, Partnership Council
• Nicky Guy, Welsh Government
• Helen Pridham, Welsh Government
• Llinos Williams, Executive Officer to the CEO

Minutes:

• Annwen Isaac

Section 1 

1. General Matters 

1.1 Welcome by the Chair, opening remarks and apologies

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting.

Nicky Guy and Helen Pridham from Welsh Government and Sara Weale on behalf of the Library’s trade unions were welcomed. 

1.2 Declaration of interests relevant to the agenda 

Rhodri Llwyd Morgan declared an interest on point 2.1 as a former member of Aberystwyth University staff as did Mererid Boswell as her husband is a current member of the University’s staff. All staff present declared an interest on point 2.2, the update on the Pension Consultation. 

1.3 Minutes of the meeting held 28 November 2025 and matters arising other than those on the agenda 

The minutes were approved as an accurate record of the matters discussed, with a change to the wording on point 6.1. 

Section 2 

2.1 Update on the second-site Mererid Boswell gave a presentation on the possible options for the Library’s long term storage capacity. She explained the content of the Outline Business Case, explaining the 7 initial options and detailing the 4 options considered for further investigation as business as usual, commercial renting, new building or the Llanbadarn site. 

It was noted that option 6, buying and redeveloping Llanbadarn Campus had the best cost-benefit ratio. The draft Outline Business case has been approved, ready to present to Welsh Government following the approval of the Gateway Review. 

2.2 Pension Consultation and next steps 

Rhodri Llwyd Morgan presented a paper noting the outcome of the pension consultation which closed on 9th December 2025. 32 written responses were received, included as appendices to this paper at the request of the Trade Unions. Several sessions were held with staff and various individual discussion took place. 

The paper presented reflects the changes carefully considered by the Executive Team following the consultation, for your consideration today. It shows we have been consulting meaningfully, mitigating and responding to the concerns raised whilst remembering the aim to safeguard the financial sustainability of the organisation. 

An informal meeting with the Partnership Council was held earlier in the week to advise them of the changes being offered. The Trade Unions have noted that they will respond by the end of January and a series of meetings for further discussions are in place. 

In brief, these are the changes following the consultation: 

• Accrual rate remains at 1/80th
• Statutory Retirement Age remains
• Retain the NRD60 with staff contributing, but the contribution rate reflects the cost of the benefit
• Staff contributions to be paid over 4 years. 

Maintaining the 1/80 and how it would affect the deficit was discussed in detail, and it was also noted that keeping the current scheme was a financial risk. The scheme could be closed to new staff, but this would cause problems in terms of recruitment as staff turnover is low and the deficit would continue, and it would be difficult to administer more than one scheme. The risk of losing staff when there are exciting developments on the horizon and how important it is that we can attract a skilled workforce for the future were noted. 

In terms of affordability of the scheme, the historical deficit is £7.2M, it is forecast that it will take 12 years to pay the deficit. By retaining the 1/80 the gilt rate is currently 4%, if there is a reduction in the gilt rate the employer contributions will increase. Contributions can vary rapidly. Currently we are paying 20% of the employer contribution on top of the annual £450K to reduce the deficit. As a result, the financial risk continues. 

In summary, the recommended changes are affordable in the short term but the long-term sustainability risk of the scheme continues. 

The recommendations in the paper were approved, noting the next steps. 

2.3 Engagement Strategy 

Rhian Gibson presented the Strategy noting that a section on Partners, Governance and Timetable had been added as well as some changes to the main projects which will be prioritised according to the budgets available. There are two appendices which detail the Work Plan for 2026/27 and the second notes how the Strategy will be measured. 

The Strategy units the Strategic Plan milestones with its aim to lead the work to strengthen the Library’s connections with all its audiences- visitors, users and benefactors. We are currently working with the teams to set targets to coincide with the areas of work. 

Your Library: Timetable – the red shows the year in which the project ends or culminates. 

The Strategy will be an internal document with a copy on the intranet only. 

Sue Davies and Heledd Bebb will advise us how to measure success. 

It was agreed that one word would be added to the Paragraph “The Future” 

In practice, this will mean: Thinking about the audience and co-creating at the start of each piece of work, and every project. 

It was noted that it was necessary to ensure that the red dots showed the end of the projects for “Every Town” and “Every School”. 

Within Appendix 1 “target” should be replaced with “action”. It was also suggested that a simple diagram showing the overlap between the knowing, opportunity and value, could be prepared. 

2.4 Draft Digital Principles 

Rhodri Llwyd Morgan presented the Draft Digital Principles. He noted that they form the basis for developing pioneering pieces of work, and direction to a series of pieces of work which will guide the Library towards digital developments during the coming years. The principles have been drawn up in collaboration with the staff, grounding digital priorities, with the Innovation Lab leading on the innovation aspects. 

The content was discussed in detail, noting that these principles intertwine with the Library’s Strategy, the Engagement Strategy and the Collections Strategy. 

The Trustees were thanked for their input, and it was agreed that there is more work needed on the principles. 

A final document will be presented to the Board in May. 

2.5 Fedora Update 

Following the request made in the last Board meeting, a paper with an update on the work on upgrading the Library’s digital asset management system was presented. 

It was noted that although Fedora features on the Library’s Risk Register, there was little mention of the risk in the paper presented. It was reported that work to prepare for migrating the data and testing the migration was currently taking place, safeguarding the master copy. It was also noted that external consortium support is available to advise on the work. Work on Fedora is a priority to clear the back-log and process new material. 

2.6 Healthy Boards Action Points 

It a was noted that some of the action points had already been implemented. It is important that everyone shares good practice if they come across reports or strategies that chime with the work of the Library. 

In terms of length of office of Trustees and the order of committees, the Library will look to similar bodies to see which structures and length of service are offered. A paper on the findings will be presented to the Board in the summer. 

As already noted, some of the Trustees will assist Rhian Gibson with the Engagement Strategy on measuring and evaluating success. 

The Trustees noted that they would also like to see presentations on the work of Library staff and to understand the developments behind the scenes by means of visits and presentations. 

Section 3 

3.1 Financial Reports 

3.1.1 Management Accounts November 2025 

Mererid Boswell presented the end of November 2025 Management Accounts. The main points noted are: 

• The report notes a forecast year-end deficit of £250K which at present stands at £230k, it’s a year of transformation as the re-arrangement continues
• There are no issues regards revenue income
• Better planning is needed regards capital money, and we are currently starting to plan for April 2026
• Back-pay on staff salaries was administered in November 2025
• The Windows Programme is on target to complete in February.
• The Welcoming Spaces and Kyffin Immersive Programmes – tenders have come in and they will be assessed soon. 

The accounts were approved. 

3.1.2 Draft Budget 2026-27 

Mererid Boswell presented the Draft Budget. She reported that the Private Funds stood at £19.9M at the end of December 2025 and that they had performed well. An increase of 2.1% is forecast in the budget as well as a project income allocation from Welsh Government. A pay increase above 2.1% will require additional money. Some new jobs will need to be created in order to implement the Engagement Strategy and there will need to be focus on income for new projects. The Collections Strategy will also make more targeted use of the purchase grant and capital allocation for digital projects. 

Gronw Percy noted he was satisfied with the budget, noting that the biggest cost is salaries. He noted that we needed to be more ambitious with commercial income. Although we are not in a cost-recovery position, we are fortunate in that we can draw on some of the private funds. Mererid Boswell was asked to include an additional table in the draft budget that showed the operating deficit and the use of private funds. 

It was agreed that the Draft Budget was acceptable and that it would be discussed in detail in February’s Finance and Resources Committee. 

3.1.3 Investment Policy 2026-2030The Investment Policy was discussed in the Finance and Resources Committee in November 2025. The existing policy applies to the period 2020-2025 so needed updating. The policy forms the basis of our relationship with investment managers, outlining key objectives, risk strategies and the principles of risk management.

The most significant change to the policy is introducing Portfolio 2 and the need to set its risk-level as high, medium or low. 

Gronw Percy noted that it is important that we keep an eye on the investments of Portfolios 1 and 2, and that we aim to maintain between £5M and £6M in Portfolio 2 with the option of moving between the two portfolios. It was agreed there would be a review of investment growth in 6 – 8 months’ time.

The 2026-2030 Investment Policy was approved. 

3.1.4 Use of Private Funds 

The paper was presented for information purposes only to note the current situation of the investments. 

3.2 Compliance and Risk 

3.2.1 Corporate Risk Register 

3 changes to the risk register were reported, which are an increase in the Cyber Security and financial sustainability risks and a reduction in the safeguarding collections risk. 

Some suggestions to improve the presentation of the risk register were noted: 

• Should include Job Title and responsibility rather than the Department
• Operational plans should contain exactly what will be implemented, e.g. date span and include links to the appropriate reports/ strategies.
• The Risk Register should be included as the first item on the agenda. 

Section 4 

4.1 City of Literature 

The Books Council (as administrators of the City of Literature programme) have received the sum of £158K from Welsh Government to spend before the end of the financial year. The Library will receive £15K of this money. 

4.2 Working with Ireland and UK Governments 

Rhodri Llwyd Morgan reported that a National Libraries joint application had been submitted for the Collaborative programme between the Governments of Ireland and the United Kingdom on the theme “Celebrating our unique characteristics, and our connections as organisations”. An announcement is expected in the coming weeks. 

4.3 Next Meeting 

The next meeting will be held on 5 and 6 March 2026 in Swansea. 

End.