Halton & St Helens VCA
MINUTES OF HEALTHWATCH ST HELENS DIRECTORS MEETING
Friday 9th August 2013
held at Tontine House, St Helens
PRESENT:Justin Hill (JH)
Tom Kelly (TK)
Eddie Cunningham (EC)
Tom Hughes (TH)
IN ATTENDANCE: Sally Yeoman (SY), Emma Rodriquez Dos Santos (Emma RDS), Debbie Morris (DM) (minute taker)
Meeting started at 2.30pm.
As this was the inaugural meeting of Directors, introductions were made. Tom Hughes chaired the meeting.
- Apologies
None
- Background and Tender information
St Helens MBC made the decision to put out to tender the Healthwatch contract, and with VCA Board agreement, the former LINks project tendered for the contract and was successful. This required Healthwatch to be set up as a separate entity and was consequently set up as a trading subsidiary of VCA. On receipt of legal advice it was agreed that 2 Board Members from VCA Board and 2 members from LINks would become Company Directors. The Company came into existence from 12th June 2013 and the Directors were to discharge duties in line with contract requirements. VCA would continue to employ staff who would be assisted by volunteers to carry out the work. Contract has approximately 18 months left to run.
Healthwatch Management Committee will develop workplan and Directors will be responsible for monitoring and reporting back to VCA Board. Once the implementation plan has been achieved then the monitoring for the Council will report on key performance indicators (KPI) and workplan.
- Update on Company Status
Tom Hughes officially agreed to become a company Director.
- Implementation plan update – staffing update
Staffing Update
Previous staff from LINks, Emma RDS and Jayne Parkinson, were transferred over to Healthwatch. 3 additional posts were advertised and have been successfully recruited as follows:
- Janet Roberts – Part time Outreach Worker
- Sarah Jones – Part time Communication and Information Officer
- Debbie East – Full time Administrative and Volunteers Support Worker
Debbie East was an internal candidate and will start work on Monday 12th August while the other 2 staff will be in post at the beginning of September. Emma RDS will line manage staff and Sally will line manage Emma. Jayne Parkinson’s post will develop into an engagement role.
Implementation Plan
Directors reviewed the implementation plan and looked at the amber and red areas of concern. It was agreed that some of the tasks had already been completed and that by the end of August some of the amber tasks would be completed with the Away Day, the plan would need to be revised to reflect this. There were however some areas that still needed addressing:
Draft business plan developed with Directors and Healthwatch Management Committee After discussion it was agreed that this task was taken from the tender document but we need to review with Council, to gain agreement that we all meant producing a workplan, rather than a business plan.
Log of volunteers hours and cost savings / Cash sponsorship of events and support-in-kind from partners
Change from red to green as we now have the mechanism in place for recording this when necessary.
Relaunch website
This has been an issue due to capacity and initial problems with the recommended Healthwatch England product“website in a box”. Directors agreed that this was essential in order for clear branding and marketing of Healthwatch. Directors agreed that some of theunderspend should be used to prioritise website development in-house, whilst awaiting the communications officer to start in post.
Signposting service agree; contracts agreed & signed with sub contractors
Change from red to green, single price contracts have been agreed rather than on a case by case basis in order to help with organisations budgeting requirements. The intelligence they provide will be integrated in monitoring reports and help to inform workplan.
Suggestion boxes and collection points agreed and implemented
Change from red to amber. Locations are being agreed and continuing to negotiate with other providers to share boxes rather than put in an additional box.
Arrange a workshop session with relevant parties to agree complementary roles of the Health and Wellbeing Board, Scrutiny committee and Healthwatch
Change from red to amber as session has already been held March 2013,organized by the Transition Alliance.In order to turn to green there would need to be an evaluation session of this, led by an outside body.
Action: Emma RDS to review workplan and update.
- Budget & Financial Information
Directors reviewed financial information. It was noted that there is currently an underspend mainly due to late recruitment of staff and this had also been referenced by the local authority. After discussion the Directors agreed that it would be better to use the underspend to move the project along rather than extend the timespan of the project.
Decision: Directors agreed to use the underspend from staffing costs to pay for a member of VCA staff to complete the development of the website ready for launch. Moniesalso to be allocated for set up costs and launch. SY and Emma RDS to circulate proposal for underspend and seek agreement of Directorswith ratification to take place at November meeting.
After discussion it was agreed that future financial reporting should include
Actual
Budget
Comparison and commentary
Any exception reporting
- Any other business
Directors requested clarity as regards to their responsibility.
VCA is responsible for staff; they are not employed by the Directors.
End of year accounts will be produced for Healthwatch, VCA will have the consolidated accounts but Healthwatch will have subsidiary accounts produced.
Need to check liability insurance.
Decision: Agreed to draft a SLA outlining the Directors responsibilities – Emma RDS and SY to action.
- Dates of Future Meetings
Directors agreed to proposed meeting dates, asked for them to be emailed, DM to action.
Dateof next meeting
Date of next Directors Meeting is Friday 15thNovember at 1.30pm atTontine House, St Helens.
Meeting finished at 3.48pm.
Page 1 of 3Healthwatch St Helens Directors Meeting 9th August 2013 Final