NHS GRAMPIAN
Minute of the Grampian Area Partnership Forum (GAPF)
held on Wednesday 17 April 2013 at 2.00pm
in the Conference Room, Summerfield House
Present:
Richard Carey, Chief Executive (Chairperson)
Sharon Duncan, Staff Side Chair/Employee Director
Mike Adams, UCATT
Alistair Grant, RCN
Laura Gray, Communications Director
Joe Collier, Clinical Nurse Manager
Ian Francis, CSP
Jenny Greener, Non-Executive Director
Liz Laing, BAOT (deputy for Sandra-Dee Masson)
Steven Lindsay, Unite
Jonathan Lofthouse, General Manager Acute
Martin McKay, UNISON
George McLean, Interim Business Manager (deputy for Adam Coldwells)
Terry Mackie, Staff Governance Committee
Deirdre McIntyre, SOCAP
Graham Mutch, Head of Maintenance, Estates Dept (deputy for Gary Mortimer
Clark Paterson, Group Finance Manager (deputy for Alan Gray)
Sandy Reid, Programme Development Manager, Aberdeen CHP/Aberdeen City Council,
(deputy for Frances Dunne)
Clare Ruxton, Deputy Director of Workforce
Sharon Southern, RCN (shadowing)
Graeme Smith, Head of Modernisation Unit
Pauline Strachan, Chief Operating Officer
Keith Thomson, Head of Health and Safety
Joan Anderson, Partnership Support Officer
In Attendance
Diane Annand, HR Team Leader - for item 2
Bettina Low, Partnership Representative - for item 2
Jenny Gibb, Head of Nursing, Mental Health and Learning Disability Service - for item 5b and 6f
Preston Gan, Facilities Performance & Governance Manager - for item 7b
Lorraine Scott, Programme Manager, Modernisation Directorate - for item 7c
Item / Subject / Action1 / Apologies
Apologies were received from Kirsten Sawers, RCM (no deputy available),
Jim Clark, GMB (no deputy available), Alan Gray, Director of Finance (Clark Paterson deputised), Eileen Grant, GHP (no deputy), Gary Mortimer (Graham Mutch deputised), Lewis Ritchie (no deputy), Mike Scott, Staff Governance Committee (no deputy),Sandra-Dee Masson, BAOT (Liz Laing deputised), Elinor Smith, Director of Nursing and Midwifery (no deputy), Annie Ingram, Director of Workforce (Clare Ruxton deputised), Anne Ross, Head of Performance and Quality (no deputy), Alison Hardy (Joe Collier deputy), Gemma Barclay, SOR (no deputy), Bill Cowling (Jenny Gibb deputy), Adam Coldwells, General Manager (George McLean deputy), Leanne Gardner, BDA (no deputy), Fergus McKiddie, HPA (no deputy)
2 / GAPF Terms and Conditions Sub-Group Presentation
Diane Annand and Bettina Low attended the meeting to present the work of the GAPF Terms and Conditions Sub-Group over the last year and plans for the current year.
The group had progressed two salary sacrifice schemes, cycle to work scheme and home computing scheme. A total of £1.3m of equipment was purchased by staff via the schemes. Other projects included Annex T, On Call, Withdrawal of Recruitment and Retention Premia (RRP) and the successful application of RRP for specific staff.
Work areas for the current year include clarification of payments for special leave, reviewing circulars, annual leave guidance, payment during annual leave for bank/casual workers CEL 15 (2011), Review membership and Salary Sacrifice Scheme.
The On-call payments were implemented on time in Grampian due to the sterling work of Lorraine Hunter and her Team. Some Boards were late in implementing the new on-call payments which meant that some staff received another increment which benefitted staff. If NHS Grampian had been late in implementing some staff would have received another increment but it could have caused other problems.
Mike Adams reported that the success of the RRP Application was due to the assistance from the Terms and Conditions Sub-Group, Payroll Department and the Facilities Team. Other Boards have asked to use the template from NHS Grampian for their own applications.
3 / Minute of Meeting held on 13 March 2013
The minute of meeting held on 13 March 2013 was approved.
4 / Matters Arising
6b. Emergency Care Centre (ECC)
The issues with water temperature on the 7th floor of the ECC had been resolved.
10a. National Staff Survey
NHS Grampian was ready to undertake the National Staff Survey on 20 May but they were waiting for guidance from the Scottish Government on whether the Survey would go ahead. As soon as it was confirmed everyone would be informed. / CR
5 / Improving Efficiency, Productivity and Sustainability
a.NHS Financial Update
Clark Paterson reported on the financial situation. The Finance Report would be circulated soon. NHS Grampian had reached their financial target for 2012/13. Thanks were given to all Finance Managers and all Staff for assisting in reaching the target.
2013/14 would be more of a challenge. There were three key issues. The Budget Steering Group had met during the week and agreed the allocation of savings targets. They agreed an additional allocation of £0.7m to Mental Health and Learning Disabilities making a total of £2.6m. Most areas have to make savings of 1.37%. Mental Health and Learning Disabilities and Acute Sectors have higher savings targets. The Pay Award was going to cost £400k on top of what had been set aside so as a consequence the money for the incremental drift had been reduced by £2m to £1.6m. Discussions would take place with all departments.
b.Partnership Reports from Sectors
Facilities
Graham Mutch explained that a redesign was ongoing at senior levels of the directorate. Each lead had been tasked with discussing proposals with their own staff and groups. This had been put into a structure and each lead would discuss this with Gary Mortimer. Once complete a group discussion would take place. Mike Adams was the Partnership Representative involved.
The levels below the Senior Managers would be looked at once the review had been completed so the structure above was clear.
There was a separate project on Non-Patient Catering Reconfiguration. Mike Adams and Ian Francis would be on this group as Partnership Representatives.
Moray
George McLean explained that discussions were ongoing with NHS and Local Authority regarding integrated working which would include more flexible working.
Health and Safety IOSH training had taken place with managers in Dufftown.
There were significant financial challenges ahead and work would take place with Partnership and Staff to look at the workforce plan, housekeeping, etc.
City
Sandy Reid reported that the Health Point Carers Point was to assist with the wider work ongoing with Carers including an Arts and Culture project. A booklet was being produced and sponsorship was sought from outside agencies.
It was being linked to the Aberdeen City of Culture 2017, which may assist with being successful with funding.
Workshops had been ongoing with Health and Social Care on integrated working. The next one would be 20 June at 12noon in the Sheddocksley Baptist Church Fine Peace. If anyone wished to attend, contact Sandy Reid.
The Aberdeen Health Village was the biggest piece of work ongoing. It was good to refresh everyone with service profile and services being offered in the new Village. It was agreed that this would form part of a future report.
Acute
Jonathan Lofthouse reported that he had been meeting weekly with Alistair Grant, who is an integral member of the Acute Sector Management Group. They had reaffirmed the Partnership contribution to the Acute Sector process for Review for Divisional Leadership, which Alistair Grant was fully engaged with..
They were currently reviewing every proposal for assisting with the financial challenge. They had started taking a growing number of steps to embed the ethos of Partnership working. Alistair Grant had been involved in joint walkabouts in each of the Acute environments. There had been open discussions with senior charge nurses for ARI to facilitate good engagement.
Mental Health and Learning Disabilities
Jenny Gibb updated the group on the current situation with staffing at Mental Health and Learning Disabilities. A national advert for band 5 nurses had attracted 13 applications to date and the closing date was 1 May, with interviews set for 9 May. Seven band 2 nursing assistants had commenced work and another four had just been cleared to start work. There had been a visit to Robert Gordon's University to speak to student nurses to reassure them that there would be employment opportunities within NHS Grampian when they finished in September.
A lot of work was ongoing around the staffing issues and would continue to be reported regularly to GAPF.
c.Office Accommodation/Flexible Workstyles
This item was deferred the next meeting.
d.Shared Services
Sharon Duncan reported that there were concerns about some national groups on Shared Services, which had no Partnership Representation. There was a need to address the situation of Partnership Representation and feedback information from groups to local staff.
Keith Thomson suggested contacting Douglas Segal to raise the lack of Partnership Representation.
Martin McKay reported that Unison were aware of the gaps on groups and were working to populate them from a Unison point of view. He also reported that there may be some formal requests for information regarding shared services coming to NHS Grampian.
It was agreed to take this forward to try and resolve the issues.
e.Computer Single Sign In
Sharon Duncan asked the group if there had been Partnership input into the decision to go ahead with the computer single sign in project.
Pauline Strachan explained that the proposal was within the eHealth Work Programme and had been signed off by the eHealth Committee. It was not presented to the Operational Management Team for approval.
The concerns were regarding multi use computers. These concerns would be explained to Pauline Strachan who would raise with eHealth and report back at a future meeting. / SR
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6 / Developing the Workforce and Empowering Staff
a.Workforce 2020
Clare Ruxton explained that the paper previously circulated proposed that the Scrutiny Panel would be the group, which would oversee recruitment, workforce plans and service redesigns together to provide a better oversight and to make the process more robust. The GAPF approved the paper. The detail of how the process would work in practice would be taken forward.
b.Integration Update
The paper, previously circulated, proposed that although NHS Grampian had three separate Local Authority partners with whom the integration of health and social care would be progressed locally, NHS Grampian needed to ensure that its own staff were regularly informed and provided with the appropriate level of reassurance. This was especially important, as terms and conditions for health staff would be unaffected by the integration, but the approach in each emerging partnership might be different.
An NHS Grampian group would be set up with the Employee Director and Workforce Director as joint chairs and the five Full-Time Partnership Representatives, the Deputy Director of Workforce and Four Human Resources Managers as members.
Sandy Reid explained that there was a Bill coming from the Scottish Government within the next month on Health and Social Care. This would be encouraging to do as much things together as possible and challenging doing things separately.
The GAPF agreed the paper on the basis that there would be as much joint communication as possible but that there had to be consistent messages to NHS Grampian staff too.
c.Staff Governance Action Plan Update
Clare Ruxton organised a short workshop session for the GAPF to discuss the draft Staff Governance Action Plan for 2013/14 and asked for ideas from the groups of what should be included. At the end of the workshop the ideas were submitted to Clare who would put this together and present to a future GAPF for further discussion.
d.Proposed visit by the NHS Pay Review Body - NHS Grampian
A Global Email, Up Front Article and Team Brief had been circulated to staff asking for volunteers from all the different categories of staff to attend a meeting with the Pay Review Body on 14 May. Most of the groups were full and there were a few spaces left on two of the groups.
There had been a request to fit in a Moray Rep on one of the groups which was full, and Clare Ruxton agreed to see if there was flexibility for this.
It was agreed to try and set up a pre-meeting of all the volunteers to explain to them the purpose of the event so everyone was prepared.
e.Pay Review Body Pay Award
Clare Ruxton reported that the pay award was 1%, and £250 for those staff earning less than £20,000. The circular had not yet been received and therefore the uplift would not be paid in April.
f.Guidance on Accessing Funding for Nursing and Midwifery Post Registration study – Professional and Practice Development
Jenny Gibb explained that this guidance paper had been approved by the GAPF Learning and Development/Workforce Sub-Group.
The GAPF approved the paper subject to the wording being amended regarding consideration to shared funding and acknowledgement that some areas receive a lot of endowment fund donations compared to others. / CR
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* / Delivering Safe, Effective & Timely Care in the Right Place
a.Update on Health and Safety in NHS Grampian and Health and Safety Training
Keith Thomson reported that the biggest piece of work ongoing is with Health and Safety Training regarding the Aberdeen Health Village and in the community and also with Local Authority staff who are related to the Aberdeen Health Village.
Access to Manual Handling Training for Carers is good progress.
The Health and Safety Audit response had increased to 85% over the last 6 weeks and the content was very detailed.
Health and Safety Committees were all up and running and they were aligning sub-groups to the committees, reporting to the Occupational Health and safety Committee, which provides an organisational overview.. There was not a Health and Safety Committee for corporate services, but there were a number of user groups of Corporate Departments. If it was felt there was a need for an appropriate Health and Safety Committee this would be looked into.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Stress Tool was being piloted for wider use across NHS Grampian.
Fire Evacuation training and planning was in progress.
Health and Safety Policies and Procedures were being prioritised for review. Staff Side Health and Safety Representatives had been identified and Management Representatives would be identified to join the review groups. The Safety Representatives Protocol would be reviewed recognising that there were legal differences between accredited and non-accredited Health and Safety Representatives.
Sharon Duncan had provided Keith Thomson with a letter of comfort regarding the training for non-accredited health and safety representatives through the TUC. This training would be organised in the next three months.
European Health and Safety Week would take place during the week of
7 October 2013. Everyone was encouraged to put this date in their diaries and offer support to organise events and attend events during the week. Further information would be circulated as soon as events were finalised.
The 12 Hour Shift Review was ongoing. The survey would begin in Mental Health and Learning Disabilities and then be rolled out across NHS Grampian. Other forms of evidence were also being gathered including information from OHS and a previous audit in Acute Research on 12 hour shifts was being gathered from other agencies as well including the HSE.
A programme and timeline would be prepared for this review. Joe Collier was be included in the group taking this forward.
- Wayfinding Project
The ECC was complete with the new signage and colour zones. The colours for the whole project would be yellow, pink, purple and orange.
The floor levels would be renumbered from basement as 0, the lower ground floor as 1, main concourse to be level 2. The wards at ARI would be renumbered.
The walls at ARI would be repainted starting mid June, and the signs would then be replaced. The whole project would be finished over the long weekend 5-8 July.
There had been a massive public and patient involvement in this project over the last 5 years. Information leaflets would be circulated to explain all the changes and it was agreed to include information on shuttle buses into the leaflet. Up Front would include articles explaining the changes to staff. A video will be produced and put on the intranet once the project was complete to guide people through the new signage and numbering.
Preston would be working with Dr Grays Hospital to do a similar wayfinding project once the reconfiguration is complete there.
Richard Carey commended Preston for all the work he had done on this project to finally bring it to fruition.
c.Emergency Care Centre and Modernisation Unit
Graeme Smith explained that the Modernisation Team had been focusing on the development of the Unscheduled Care Programme and Healthfit 2020.
The Healthfit Newsletter which had been previously circulated had been to Corporate Communications and Corporate Graphics and was now ready to issued. It was suggested that the newsletter be circulated with Team Brief at the end of April.
Lorraine Scott came along to the meeting to update on Unscheduled Care Project. There had been three papers circulated (attached) which explained the proposals for unscheduled care.
By 2 September 2013 there would be a Clinical Decision Support Unit set up in the Emergency Care Centre (ECC) staffed by senior consultants or GPs. It would initially focus on clinicians, GPs and give 24 hour support. The first part of this project would be set up by September and the rest in 12 to 24 months. Although the Clinical Decision Support Unit would be based in the ECC it would be available for all NHS Grampian staff and wider agencies to access.
There was a lot of engagement and development ongoing and there was information in one of the papers regarding how to take this forward. There would be a robust evaluation process in place. Staff needed to be involved in consultation on the project to ensure that they were able to feed in comments to make it more effective. It was suggested to include it in the topics for face to face sessions with staff.
There was a communications process ongoing, with the papers being taken to the advisory committees as well as GAPF over the next 6 weeks.
There would be a workshop on 26 April and Martin McKay was attending as a Partnership Representative.
The proposal would go to the NHS Grampian Board in June for approval. GAPF requested regular updates. / ALL
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8 / Involving Patients, Public, Staff and Partners Towards Mutuality
No items.
9 / Improving the Public’s Health and Reducing Inequalities
a.Commonwealth Games Volunteers
A letter had been circulated asking that Boards establish how many staff were volunteering for the Commonwealth Games. It was agreed to include a request in Team Brief for staff to inform NHS Grampian if they had volunteered and note that staff would have to take their own annual leave for this purpose. / LG
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* / Any Other Competent Business
GAPF Away Day 18 June
The programme was currently being drafted for the GAPF Away Day on 18 June. There would be workshops which were Sector Specific and therefore everyone was asked to ensure they had good representation from each Sector. Sectors to send names of attendees to Joan Anderson prior to the event. The Draft programme would be circulated for comments (attached).
11 / Communication to Organisation from GAPF
Communications from GAPF to include:
GAPF Away Day
National Shared Services
Pay Review Body Visit
Review of 12 Hour Shifts / SD
12 / Date of Next Meeting
The next meeting will be held on 2pm to 5pm Wednesday 28 May 2013 in the Conference Room, Summerfield House.
Email:
Telephone: (01224) 558459