MINUTEs OF NHS FIFE AREA PARTNERSHIP FORUM MEETING HELD ON FRIDAY 22 august 2014 at 1:30 PM IN THE STAFF CLUB, VHK

Present:

Management: / Staff Side:
Wilma Brown, Co-Chair / Fiona Alexander, UNITE
John Wilson, Co-Chair / Dr Peter Curry, LNC/BMA
Bruce Anderson, Head of Partnership / Kevin Egan, UNITE
Sharon Hutchins, Assistant Director of HR / Simon Fevre, BDA
Vicky Irons, Gen Manager – GNEF CHP / David Forbes, UNISON
Rona King, Director of HR / Charles Leslie, UNISON
Jim Leiper, Director of Estates & Facilities / Pauline McQueen, Comm Midwife
Dr Brian Montgomery, Medical Director / Lynne Parsons, SoCP
Stephen Moore, Fife Council / Liz Rosie, UNISON
Prof. Scott McLean, Director of Nursing / Lorna Sherriffs, UNISON
Mary Porter, Act Gen Manager – K&L CHP / Gillian Tait, RCN
Jim Rotheram, Facilities Manager / Stephen Watt, UNISON
Dr Charles Saunders, Cons in Public Health
Rhona Waugh, Head of HR
Norma Wilson, Head of Corporate Services

In Attendance:

Ms Trisha Boyle, (D Christie) / Mr B Higgins, (J Rotheram)
Ms Heather Ford, (S Moore) / Ms Liz Reilly, National iMatter Programme Manager
Mark Doyle, (for C Bowring) / E McGregor, PA – Corporate Services, Committee Administrator
iMATTERS PRESENTATION
Mr Wilson invited Ms Reilly to make her presentation on iMatters.
Ms Reilly explained the background to this initiative advising that it had been funded by Scottish Government and validated by the University of the West of Scotland as a robust, reliable and valid measure of staff engagement. Four Boards have been engaged in the pilot; Tayside, Forth Valley, Dumfries & Galloway and the National Waiting Time Centre. Awareness sessions will commence in October with workshops being arranged for December/January 2015.
The Board recognises the importance of iMatters and this will be led by Wilma Brown and Staff Side on behalf of the Board. Ms Ford asked how and where this fits in with Social Integration. Ms Reilly replied that iMatters is used across the board and there are many conversations going on with Scottish Government but this could take some time before actually seeing the benefits. Work continues with the Workforce Division of Scottish Government and currently establishing a couple of integrated teams in Lothian.
Dr Saunders asked if this exercise was an option or are staff just told they have to do it and also what the cost might be to the Health Board. Ms Reilly said the cost would be unknown as individual Boards will take different times to implement. There is no formula set and we will have to wait until the Board has worked with this for a year before the figures can be analysed. Reports that have already been received have been significantly low and there have been no surprises so far. Ms King reiterated Dr Saunder’s comment regarding costs as this had also concerned her.
The report which Boards will receive will relate only to their own Board as every Board will score differently. Ms Boyle referred to Ms Reilly’s comment about ‘early results bringing no surprises’ and asked for clarification. Ms Reilly said that the teams currently engaged in Pilot 3, two of the pilot Boards had areas of significant resources. iMatter has now given this to the team and the team have had an opportunity to gain more empowerment. This will be reviewed in one year and will allow case studies to be prepared and ready to report on at the end of the year.
The Chair thanked Ms Reilly, on behalf of the APF, for her informative and interesting presentation
56/14 / APOLOGIES
Apologies were received from A Nicoll, C Bowring, D Christie, H Knox, C Stoddart, S Clark, Dr Coyle, L Forret, P Garnett, Marie Innes, Leigh Murray, Graham Monteith, B Nelson, Brian Nobile, A Verrecchia, C Walker and Stewart Watt.
58/14 / MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING
The minutes of the meeting held on 20 June 2014 were approved, subject to rewording required at Item 51/14. Ms Hutchins would provide an amended form of words for this item. / SH
Action List
The action list was reviewed and updated.
59/14 / MATTERS ARISING
a) / eESS
Ms King advised that discussions had been held with a team from NSS regarding the audit being more robust. The system is not
fully functional yet. However, discussions took place at the HRDs meeting last month and the view had been taken to support our efforts to getting the system up and running. It has been agreed to do this with one main board and one special board who will undertake the exercise and flush out any anomalies. It appears that a solution found in one board creates a problem in another board. It was not intended to roll out until feedback is received from those other boards.
Mileage Rates – 100% Business Lease Process/Payments
Mrs Brown asked if Leased Cars could be reinstated on the Agenda under ‘Matters Arising’.
The Chair advised that this item had been discussed at SMT and it had been agreed that managers would check locally. Ms Porter reported 8 from K&L CHP area and none from elsewhere.
Following a comment from Mr Fevre, the Chair said that individuals should be encouraged to speak to managers if they have any difficulties to allow issues to be addressed. Dr Currie welcomed this as there had been problems encountered within clinical staff on call. Issues received from staff will be fed back to Mark Doyle.
Perfect Attendance Letter –
It was agreed that this item would be placed on the Agenda for October.
60/14 / FINANCE REPORT
Mr Doyle (for Mrs Bowring) updated colleagues on the financial position covering the four month period to 31 July 2014. The paper will be presented to Fife Health Board at its meeting on 26th August 2014.
An overspend of £1.627m is being reported which compares to the estimated overspend of £1.2m which was included in the Board’s Local Delivery Plan.
77% of the Acute Services Division’s overspend relates to staffing costs, i.e. bank nursing and medical locums. A summary of the financial performance within the Acute Services Division, CHPs and Corporate Directorates is shown in the table attached to the paper. The Chair advised that efforts continue to monitor and identify where savings can be made and SMT were considering further schemes to help with this. Mrs Bowring continues to work with Scottish Government to keep them appraised of the situation.
With regard to efficiency savings, £6.7m has been identified of which £6m is cash releasing savings and £1.7m has been achieved to date.
Ms Parsons asked for clarity of the FOPs (Financial Operating Procedures) form that requires to be signed. Her understanding was that the form was to be signed by the Budget Holder of which she is not. Mr Doyle explained that the form is for all staff to sign as proof that they have understood the Procedures. It was agreed that Ms King would speak to Mrs Bowring regarding a simplified version of the requirement. / RMK
APF noted the Financial Report.
61/14 / UPDATE ON LOCALITIES CONSULTATION
Ms Wilson advised that the ‘How we plan services in Fife’ consultation had gone live.
Colleagues noted the leaflet tabled by Ms Wilson for information.
62/14 / HEALTH & SOCIAL CARE INTEGRATION
Ms Ford updated colleagues and advised that Ms Alison Rooney, Non-Executive Board Member, had taken up the appointment of Co-Chair of the Joint Shadow Board.
Sandy Riddell takes up the post of Director of Health & Social Care on 1st September 2014.
A Development session has been arranged for the Shadow Board on 4 September.
Work within the 6 workstreams is continuing at a pace with the Strategic Framework document being drafted for submission to Scottish Government by the turn of the year.
The first consultation has been sent out to the public to highlight the close working relationship between NHS Fife and Fife Council and how both will plan services for Health and Social Care across Fife.
The proposal is to have 7 localities which will mirror the existing local community planning groups.
The Consultation will run until the beginning of November.
Ms Wilson tabled paper copies at the meeting for members to view. It is also available on the Health & Social Care Integration web pages on the Internet and on the Intranet.
Mr Wilson thanked Ms Ford for the update.
63/14 / STAFF SURVEY
Mr Anderson advised that the local questions had been submitted to Scottish Government. Malcolm Summers from Scottish Government came out and spoke with Mrs Brown yesterday. Mr Anderson apologised for the timescale as it did not allow the document to come back to APF.
Concerns were raised about some of the inaccurate stories printed by the Press and the frustrations in ability to respond in a similar manner. The Chair acknowledged these concerns and urged staff to access the website to see what the Board’s actual response was.
Ms King referred to iMatters and Staff Survey and advised that she was led to believe that iMatters was to replace the Staff Survey. But the view is that until iMatters has been rolled out, the Staff Survey will continue to run. She had raised this point with Malcolm Summers on behalf of the Committee. She felt that if all efforts are put in around iMatters then the same effort cannot be put into the Staff Survey. Mr Forbes felt that iMatters is not a proven tool whereas Staff Survey already has a proven record.
Mrs Rosie asked that a commitment be made by Managers that staff will be allowed time out to do this. Mrs Brown hoped to have that discussion next week. The Chair said that staff should still be encouraged to complete the survey and a future debate will be held to consider what efforts are put in.
Staff Engagement Sessions –
Mrs Brown advised APF that she and Ms King had embarked on a series of staff engagement visits. To date, 12 specific venues have been visited. Feedback from some of their visits revealed that some staff did not understand some of the questions in the survey and there was very poor communication with managers. One area that did excel was VHK medical records and feedback was very positive.
Mrs Parsons asked how we ensure that staff know that the answers received in the survey will be addressed. She also hoped that the lessons learned from the Staff Engagement Sessions will be shared.
Mrs Brown said that staff do not come forward with those messages and she would like nothing more than to go out and give those positive messages.
Mrs Irons felt uneasy about the generalisation of this and particular attention should be paid to the observations and make it clear that this does not happen if every part of the organisation.
The Chair felt that feedback is very valuable and if there is an opportunity for people to talk then this will be made available. He thought the route for acting on this would be through the LPF. He was grateful to Ms King and Mrs Brown for all their hard work. The Chair reiterated the need to encourage staff to come along and talk to us.
Dr Currie welcomed these sessions and said they were found to be very useful.
APF noted the update.
65/14 / WORK FORCE PROJECTIONS
Ms Hutchins referred to the Projection Templates which had been submitted to the APF later than in previous years. As reported at the last APF this is due to the delay in completing these to enable the outcome of the Adult In-Patient Nursing Workforce Tool to be concluded. The templates had been seen and approved by Wilma Brown as APF Co-Chair due to the need for them to be submitted before the APF next meet.
Ms Hutchins stressed that the figures are not be shared further and are embargoed until published with all Boards figures on 26 August. The figures show ‘Staff in Post’ rather than Establishment so much of the projected increases are due to anticipated filling of current vacancies. The main increase relating to an increase in posts is within Nursing due to the Adult In-Patient exercise undertaken.
Professor McLean said that the Nursing Workforce Tool is continually moving forward. The tool has been implemented across 7 sites which amounts to 810 beds. We have now worked with finance colleagues and signed off in the region of £3m. It was taken to SMT on Monday and will be a topic for discussion at the Development Session of the Board in 3 week’s time before going to a public session of the Board in October. Communication to C/Ns will begin next week about the timescales for approval from the Board and the next steps.
Mrs Brown raised a question about the nursing staff who had previously worked in the surge ward and whether or not they had been redeployed. Ms Hutchins explained that the figures referred to posts and not staff.
APF noted the update.
66/14 / EQUALITY & DIVERSITY: REPORT ON RECRUITMENT AND REDEPLOYMENT STATISTICS
Mr McKenna was invited to speak to his report and advised APF colleagues that he had prepared the report on the back of the Policy that had been agreed earlier this year. The report focuses on Recruitment. Within the last year over 1400 applications have been received, and 53 people are listed on the redeployment register.