NHS GRAMPIAN

Minute of the Grampian Area Partnership Forum (GAPF)

held on Wednesday 21 September2011at 2.00pm

in the Conference Room, Summerfield House

Present:

Gordon Stephen(Chairperson)

Mike Adams, UCATT

Jim Clark, GMB

Joe Collier, Clinical Nurse Manager

Bill Cowling, Project ManagerMental Health

Sharon Duncan, Unite

Alistair Grant, RCN

Eileen Grant, GHP

Alan Gray, Director of Finance

Liz Laing, BAOT

Deirdre McIntyre, SOCAP (VC)

Martin Mckay, UNISON

Cameron Matthew, Locality Manager (deputising for Sandy Dustan)

John Miller, Communications Manager (deputising for Laura Gray)

Stewart Rogerson, Head of Soft Facilities Management

Anne Ross, Head of Performance & Quality Improvement

Clare Ruxton, Deputy Director of HR

Mike Scott, Staff Governance Committee

Mark Sinclair, Director of HR & Strategic Change

Clare Smith, Interim Divisional General Manager (deputising for Vincent Shields)

Pauline Strachan, Chief Operating Officer

Gail Thomson, Business Manager, Aberdeen City CHP

Joan Anderson, Partnership Support Officer

In Attendance:

Eleanor Binnie-McLeod, Nurse Manager

Jacqui Cumming, Clinical Services Support Manager

Susan Healy, Principal Pharmacist

Linda Juroszek - Area Clinical Forum

Edward Saville, Management Trainee

Lynn Marsland, Head of Strategic Change – Item 7a

Janet Fraser, Dignity at Work Officer – Item 7b

Ann Cheyne, BAOT – Item 3 and 10

Susan Coull, HR Manager – Item 10

Gwynne Cromar, HR Manager – Item 10

Gerry Lawrie, Workforce Development and Redesign Manager- Item 10

Jeff Melville, HR Projects Manager – Item 10

Item / Subject / Action
1 / Apologies
Apologies were received fromRichard Carey, Chief Executive(no deputy),
Kirsten Sawers, RCM (no deputy),Sandy Dustan, General Manager Aberdeenshire (no deputy),Ian Francis, CSP (no deputy available), Shona McDougall, BDA (no deputy available), Andrew Fowlie, General Manager Moray (and Philip Shipman),Jenny Greener, Non-executive Director(no deputy),Duncan Stephen, ACB (no deputy), Jane Starley, BIOS (no deputy), Frances Dunne, Nurse Manager, Aberdeen City CHP (Gail Thomson deputising), Sandy Dustan, General Manager, Central Aberdeenshire Local CHP (Cameron Mathew deputising), Laura Gray, Director of Corporate Communications (John Miller deputising), Gary Mortimer, General Manager Facilities and Estates (Stewart Rogerson deputised), John Brett, Head of Health and Safety (no deputy), Sandra-Dee Masson, BAOT (Liz Laing deputising), Vincent Shields, General Manager, Acute (Clare Smith deputising)
Gordon Stephen thanked Mark Sinclair for all his input to GAPF. Mark was leaving NHS Grampian to take up a post in Jersey.
2 / AberdeenCityPartnership Forum Presentation
Gail Thomson and Laura McDonaldattended the meeting for the annual presentation of the work of the Aberdeen City Partnership Forum. They explained that this group was part of the Senior Operational Management Team (SOMT) and had grown from a small group to a much too large group. They had been discussing forming a Partnership Group similar to the Woodend Partnership Group. It was planned to learn from the Woodend Partnership Group and set up one for AberdeenCity.
Projects the Partnership Forum had been involved in included:
Community Nursing Redesign – which after a stop start beginning worked out in a positive way communicating and consulting with staff.
Administration Steering Group – this partnership group was set up to link admin staff to the CHP admin team to look at changes, skill mix, work required, etc. This group had proved successful.
Children with Complex Needs – when this was part of Aberdeen CHP a partnership group was set up and work would be ongoing until a new process is put in place.
Out of Hours Rapid Improvement Event – the group looked at joint services with Local Authority.
Health Visitors Redesign – work was ongoing and Staff Side were involved in this.
European Health and Safety Week – Safe Maintenance was the two year theme. This year the campaign will be taken forward in Sectors and Aberdeen City CHP would be developing work begun last year on equipment maintenance, mainly hoists.
Communications – There were a number of local newsletters produced and widely circulated to all CHP Staff. Each building had a User Group and Staff Side were part of these groups.
Workplace Inspections were undertaken annually in all Aberdeen City CHP buildings.
The challenges had been the number of redesigns taking place in elderly, planning for the emergency care centre, community, Woodend, etc.
It was hoped to have work started on the AberdeenVillage next year.
Aberdeen CHP was responsible for prisons and there were capacity issues to be sorted out regarding this.
More Staff Side Representatives were required within Aberdeen City CHP and it was hoped that more would sign up as the local partnership groups develop.
Partnership was embedded well in Aberdeen City CHP cultures but there were capacity issues for both Staff Side and management.
3 / Moray Partnership Forum Presentation
This presentation was postponed as Andrew Fowlie was unable to attend. Moray Partnership Forum had not met since May and it was suggested that meetings should be rescheduled rather than cancelled so reduce the time between each meeting.
4 / Minute of Last Meeting held on 25 August2011
The minute of 25 August2011 was approved.
5 / Matters Arising
None.
6 / Delivering Safe, Effective & Timely Care in the Right Place
a.Annual Review 1 November 2011
The Annual Review this year would be a joint meeting with the Area Clinical Forum. Michael Mathieson, Minister for Public Health, would be attending instead of the Cabinet Secretary. The idea behind the joint meeting was to give more time to the groups. As it is a joint meeting this may not be the case but it was agreed to try it and if it doesn’t work to comment after the meeting.
A few GAPF members had met to discuss arrangements and Linda Juroszek, Chair of the Area Clinical Forum attended the last part of the Staff Side pre meeting and GAPF meeting to agree plans for the Annual Review.
There would be no formal presentation. Each Forum would give a 5 minute introduction and then each person round the group would give a short overview of a number of issues or be ready to answer particular questions which may arise. There would be time for questions at the end.
b.Continuous Service Improvement (CSI) - Performance Report
Mark Sinclair had met with John Connaghan, Director of Delivery, who asked for examples of CSI and Safe Affordable Workforce (SAW) to include into the NHS Scotland Annual Report. Mark explained to John that these two projects would not have been possible without partnership working. This was positive for NHS Grampian.
CSI projects had lost two members of staff and the Executive Team were discussing how to take this forward.
7 / Developing the Workforce and Empowering Staff
a.Health Care Support Workers (HCSW)
Lynn Marsland went through the NMAHP Health Care Support Workers Survey September 2011 which was the first national survey commissioned by NHS Education for Scotland.
Learning and Development and Professional and Practice Development Unit would consider the survey outcomes and respond appropriately to ensure continued support of HCSW needs.
NHS Education for Scotland (NES) would be producing further support and information for HCSW. Lynn would feedback as this progressed.
Non-Clinical HCSW – new staff have to study for and complete the mandatory training and this includes Bank Staff. Other Boards are not including bank staff meantime.
It is now required to roll this out to existing staff. Some volunteers have tried out the training and feedback was being received. Existing staff will not be expected to complete the training but they will have to sign the standard. The proposal is for this to be done as each individual undertakes their annual Performance Development Review (PDR) on eKSF. There will be a HCSW Steering Group held 3rd October. Lynn will prepare a paper and bring back to this group.
b.Dignity at Work Policy – interim amendment to meet legal requirements
Janet Fraserattended the meeting to explain the small amendment to be made to the policy because of a change in the Equality Act 2010. This amendment was approved.
Janet reported that there was a review of the whole policy ongoing and this would include the Dignity at Work PIN Policy and Practice once it had been received.
Gordon Stephen explained that PIN Policy and Practice were mandatory and had always been so, but up until now there was no implementation date. This was going to be clear in the new PIN Policy and Practice and they would come out as a pay circular which would put them into Terms and Conditions.
8 / Improving the Public’s Health and Reducing Inequalities
Improving Efficiency, Productivity and Sustainability
a.NHS Financial Report Update
Alan Gray updated the group on the financial situation. There was an overspend in month 5/end August but the position was much better than the same time in previous years. Thanks was given to all staff who are assisting with achieving this. Although positive, there werestill challenges. Sectors had plans to recover the overspend and CSI and SAW plus other initiatives were all contributing to the financial situation.
The Scottish Budget Review was ongoing during the meeting. Once this information was received and digested, relevant information would be communicated to staff regarding how it affects them. It was important to take appropriate action rather than knee jerk reactions.
Capital funding – there were plans to spend more this year than any other year because of the Emergency Care Centre and investments in other projects. Beyond next year the financial position for capital is expected to drop significantly. Redesign and use of buildings will have to be looked at including the use of technology/networking and integration of health and social work will all be important.
Plans for the space vacated from Acute when services move into the new Emergency Care Centre would have to be considered again as the capital funding was now expected to be much less that originally hoped. Property disposal would be considered if appropriate.
Emergency Care Centre was being build using capital funding. AberdeenVillage would be funded by a Hubco as are some other projects. As early implementers of Hubco, NHS Grampian received additional support from the Scottish Government.
Alan was thanked for his report and it was noted that GAPF always received a full and transparent report on finance. Not all Area Partnership Forums receive that level of information.
It was agreed to make the quarterly reports from Sectors quarterly rather than monthly.
9 / Improving the Public’s Health and Reducing Inequalities
a.Health and Care Framework
Graeme Smith was unable to attend the meeting and it was agreed to defer this item to the October meeting.
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* / Safe Affordable Workforce (SAW) – Workshop
Clare Ruxton outlined the paper on SAW Guidance that had been previously circulated and asked that everyone should read it over and comment back to her if there were any major issues within the paper that required further discussion.
A workshop of GAPF and other invited guests then took place.
The attendees were split into four groups and a SWOT Analysis of the SAW process was undertaken. This was looking at the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Strengths of the SAW process. Following this each group had to pick out three key issues from their lists to feedback.
All the information captured during the SWOT Analysis would be written up and used and discussed at future GAPF meetings (attached).
Everyone was asked to communicate back to their local areas and highlight the process of SAW. All staff should be involved in the SAW process for their area. Communication was the responsibility of everyone. SAW process would be embedded into workforce planning. Risk Assessments needed to be improved upon.
11 / Any Other Competent Business
None.
12 / Communication to Organisation from GAPF
The amendment to the Dignity at Work Policy would be communicated to Staff.
Following the SAW Workshop, communications would be agreed.
13 / Date and Time of Next Meeting
Tuesday 25 October 2011 from 2pm to 5pm in the Conference Room, Summerfield House

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Telephone: (01224) 556372

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