NHS GRAMPIAN

Minute of the Grampian Area Partnership Forum (GAPF)

held on Wednesday 18 December 2013 at 2.00pm

in the Conference Room, Summerfield House

Present:

Sharon Duncan, Staff Side Chair/Employee Director (Chairperson)

Richard Carey, Chief Executive

Mike Adams, UCATT

Brigid Aitken, RCN (deputising for Alistair Grant)

Paul Allan, Deputy General Manager Facilities (deputy for Gary Mortimer)

Jim Clark, GMB

Adam Coldwells, General Manager Aberdeenshire and Moray

Frances Dunne, Senior Service Manager

Ian Francis, CSP

Alan Gray, Director of Finance

Laura Gray, Communications Director

Annie Ingram, Director of Workforce

Sandra-Dee Masson, BAOT

Steven Lindsay, Unite

Martin McKay, UNISON

George McLean, Interim Business Managerrepresenting Moray

Judith McLenan, Business Manager, Mental Health and Learning Disabilities

Gary Mortimer, General Manager, Facilities

Anne Ross, Head of Performance and Quality

Clare Ruxton, Deputy Director of Workforce

Clare Smith, Assistant Divisional Manager (deputising for Jonathan Lofthouse)

Keith Thomson, Head of Health and Safety

Joan Anderson, Partnership Support Officer

In Attendance

Mark McEwan and Rachel Cowley – for item 5c

Margaret Gray – for item 6

Hazel Whyte – for item 8a

Elaine Brown – for item 9b

Item / Subject / Action
1 / Apologies
Apologies were received from Kirsten Sawers, RCM (no deputy),
Eileen Grant, GHP (no deputy), Lewis Ritchie (no deputy), Elinor Smith, Director of Nursing and Midwifery (no deputy), Leanne Gardner, BDA (no deputy), Fergus McKiddie, HPA (no deputy), Mike Scott, Staff Governance Committee,Jonathan Lofthouse, General Manager Acute (Clare Smith deputised),Alison Hardy, Clinical Nurse Manager (no deputy available), Deirdre McIntyre, SOCAP (no deputyavailable), Jenny Greener, Non-Executive Director, Alistair Grant, RCN (Brigid Aitken deputised), Terry Mackie, Staff Governance Committee, Pauline Strachan, Chief Operating Officer
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* / Facilities Sector Partnership Forum Presentation
Paul Allen and Mike Adams gave a presentation on the Facilities Partnership Forum (presentation slides attached).
A redesign had taken place in Facilities and this would be reviewed as part of the process.
AROMA, the grab and go coffee shop, had been more successful than anticipated. There were plans for another one in the Emergency Care Centre witha slightly different layout. Healthy Working Lives criteria would be worked into all the initiatives.
During the ARI Reconfiguration Project (ARP) one of the canteens at ARI may be closed on a temporary basis. Staff would still have access to vending machines and heating up facilities. There was a reminder that Junior Doctors had specific standards which have to be met in this regard.
The Health and Safety Committee was being rejuvenated. Paul Allen would Co-Chair from Management. Jim Clark had been newly appointed as the Staff Side Co-Chair of the Sector Partnership Forum. There was lots of involvement from Partnership Reps in the Sector.
Some challenges for the Sector included an expectation of increased inspections from national enforcement agencies. Attendance management and training was available for all managers who deliver iAMS to staff. iAMS was a support mechanism for staff. The service is a demand driven service and other Sectors were asked to consider any impacts on the Facilities Sector when discussing changes within their own sector.
3 / Minute of Last Meeting held on 20 November 2013
The minute of 20 November was approved.
4 / Matters Arising
None.
5 / Well Informed
a.Finance Report
Alan Gray reported that at the end of November the Board was £400K overspent. There were some non-recurring benefits that should allow for a break even at the end of the financial year, if all the initiatives put in place continue. There had been a lot of good work by staff in achieving this position.
The financial position was going to be very challenging for at least the next 3-4 years. All options would have to be looked at to stay within budget.
Sharon Duncan stated that parity with National Resource Allocation Committee (NRAC) funding would assist the financial position.
One of the challenges was the services started with non-recurring funding and then expected to continue and therefore need to be fundedon a recurring basis.
b.Partnership Reports from Sectors
Moray
A report had been circulated and no questions were asked.
Aberdeenshire
The Sector proposed that the report prepared for local Team Brief should be the same report for GAPF. GAPF agreed that this was an appropriate report for them to receive.
Some changes were being highlighted in Aberdeenshire under the heading of Worksmart. There was a discussion on whether Worksmart was ready to be rolled out yet as agreement had not been reached on policies, IT etc.
The Asset Management Group (AMG) had discussed finding solutions to reduce accommodation and take a progressive approach to this by ensuring all staff had adequate space to work and enough storage for papers etc.
It was agreed that Sharon Duncan and Clare Ruxton would find out what the position was and ensure that a clear way forward was agreed. Adam Coldwells agreed to investigate what was happening in Aberdeenshire and report back to Sharon Duncan and Clare Ruxton.
AberdeenCity
Frances Dunne reported that the Aberdeen Health and CareVillage was now open to staff and patients.
Woodend were working together with Acute to resolve some issues of medical provision at night.
The security issues at WoodendHospital were being taken forward. Richard Carey had written to the Education Department and the Police to ask for a meeting. In the meantime local police had offered to assist.
Sharon Duncan reported that a request for a bigger room for rest breaks had been made for staff at WoodendHospital to use on the public holidays when the canteen would be closed. There was already a room available but the staff felt that this would not be big enough for all the staff and had requested use of a further room. Initially this request had been turned down. Frances Dunne agreed to find out the situation and report back to Sharon Duncan.
Mental Health and Learning Disabilities
Judith McLenan reported that managers who were doing “back to the floor” visits were reporting that staff were feeling that there was an improvement in getting breaks etc.
The activity levels had been very high for the last couple of weeks and everything was being done to ensure continued high quality patient care.
There was a rolling programme of works planned around car parking for the new year. Permits for car parking were being taken forward in the Sector and would also be discussed at the main Car Parking Group.
There was a question about Active Travel and Healthy Working Lives initiatives being promoted and GAPF committing to do more on this for the health of the population. There was existing information on the intranet and this could be advertised more to staff to raise awareness.
Discussions were taking place on a request from staff to have a separate room for breaks away from patients.
Interviews for two nurse practitioners for unscheduled care were going ahead and a meeting was taking place on unscheduled care the next day.
Acute Sector
Clare Smith reported that the Acute Sector Partnership Forum had met on
18 November. Following discussion at that meeting it was agreed to hold monthly meetings and review this in April. Dates for 2014 had been circulated. The first meeting discussed the terms of reference for the Sector Group and Local Partnership Groups.
Workforce meetings were held monthly and Alistair Grant and
Fergus McKiddie both attended these as Partnership Representatives.
Divisional General Managers would be working with the Workforce Team to reinvigorate Knowledge and Skills Framework (KSF) and improve levels of access to appraisal and ensure it is a worthwhile exercise for staff.
Linda McKerron, Learning and Development Manager, had attended a meeting on Induction and this was also being re-energisedwith further discussions to take place.
c.HM Prisons Transitional Period
Mark McEwan and Rachel Cowley attended the meeting to report on the progress of the NHS Grampian involvement in changes to service delivery to HM Prisons.
NHS took over prison health in 2011. The two existing prisons in Grampian then closed and a new one would open and be fully operational by April 2014. There would be a different mix of prisoners to the previous ones.
19 workstreams had been set up and there was a monthly meeting of the leads for each workstream supported by Partnership, Workforce and other specialists when required.
Reassurance was given that NHS Grampian would deliver all the staffing and training requiredwithin the timescale above. A training programme would begin in January.
Health and Safety training was included and discussions on safety had taken place with the Scottish Prison Service.
Staff were being kept informed through a variety of communication strategies. There had been a good response to adverts for new posts. AHP Staff would continue as they did in the previous prisons although they may see more patients. Close working ongoing with Mental Health Sector regarding addictions and a psychologist was to be appointed.
There was a discussion around block recruitment and the numbers of staff required possibly moving from other NHS Grampian services and creating staffing issues there. The Aberdeenshire Area Manager was fully involved in this project along with a Local Authority person.
It was highlighted that posts which asked for previous experience could exclude newly qualified students and a different approach was needed.
There would be a post project review which would enable learning to inform future projects.
d.Sector Partnership Forum and Sub-Group Presentations
The Forum approved a paper detailing when each Sector Partnership Forum and Sub-Group of GAPF would present their annual report. If any group wished to change the date they were to contact Joan Anderson to discuss.
The GAPF Away Day had been set for 21 May and everyone was asked to ensure this date was in their diary. / SD/CR
AC
FD/SD
ALL
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* / Appropriately Trained and Developed
a.Moving and Handling
Margaret Gray attended the meeting to update on progress with Moving and Handling (paper attached).
The evaluation forms completed by staff following training had been reviewed and changes had been implemented to take account of the comments made to try and increase the numbers attending training for clinical moving and handling.
The Key Handlers course had been changed to a pass and fail system to ensure everyone was competent. During the training a risk assessment would be worked on and this would be 95% complete for the Key Handler to take back to their own department. Support would be offered for key handlers and all new key handlers would be contacted for follow up support.
Non clinical training had also been reviewed and amended. Not all staff would need full training depending on the amount and type of movement they are required to undertake.
Annual refreshers would be required and staff would not be allowed to be overdue by more than 2 months. At the refresher course the risk assessment completed at the first course would be reviewed which would ensure that every area had one generic risk assessment.
Key Handlers require time to undertake their role and it was acknowledged that this might not be the only additional role they had. There had been agreement on 1 Key Handler to every 7 people in clinical areas. It was acknowledged that this was still quite a big role.
All staff wereto go through induction. Two elearning modules were being advertised in a global email. Clinical staff would have to undertake both modules and non-clinical staff only one. There had been an issue with the submit button so the number of attempts to undertake the modules had increased to three. These were not currently automatically loaded onto KSF by AT Learning. It was agreed that this should happen.
Work had been done with Robert Gordon’s University regarding the Scottish Manual Handling Passport so that students would be taught the same as expected of them when they take up work at NHS Grampian.
The new sharepoint Health and Safety Intranet site was now live. There would be guidance on risk assessments available and there was a plan for short videos to be available to give manual handing support to staff. Two webmasters had been given dedicated time once a month to keep the site up to date.
A similar review would be taking place with Violence and Aggression Training and then General Health and Safety Training.
7 / Involved in Decisions
a.Integration Update
Annie Ingram explained that the Chief Officer for Aberdeenshire was currently in the middle of the recruitment process. A job description for a similar role had been prepared for Moray. No agreement on how to proceed had been reached withAberdeenCityat that time.
The Body Corporate model had been agreed for all three partnerships. This item would be given longer on an agenda for GAPF next year.
b.Staff Survey Results/b.i Everyone Matters/c. Sector Staff Governance Action Plans – these items were taken together
Clare Ruxton explained that the Staff Survey results had arrived and had been circulated to the group. Clare Ruxton and Sharon Duncan proposed that they would attend Sector Partnership Forum meetings to discuss the Staff Survey Results at Sector level and help in the development of action plans for each Sector. This was supported.
An item would appear in Team Brief so all staff would be able to see the NHS Grampian Staff Survey Results and the national statistics.
As there was not a Corporate Sector Partnership Forum some agreement would need to be reached on how to take forward Corporate Sector information. Decisions on how to take forward NHS Grampian wide issues would also have to be made.
The Acute Sector information had been broken down into divisions, but since the survey questions had been agreed the divisions had changed.
Staff Experience would be on the GAPF agenda as a regular item and would include:
  • TheOngoing national project work being done on the iMatter questionnaire to use in the future. NHS Grampian would be running a pilot in one Sector as an early implementer. The work led by Keith Thomson in relation to management standards will dovetail with this work. The Board lead for this would remain with Clare Ruxton.
  • Staff Governance Action Plan to be prepared in light of all the results and be presented to GAPF and Staff Governance Committee for approval. The Board would receive a report once actions were progressing. The timescale for this would be Spring/Summer.
  • Monitoring updates on progress to Scottish Government would be done in May at both Board and Sector level.
  • Further communication of the Staff Governance Standards throughout the Board
  • Staff Survey results would be reflected in the Local Delivery Plan.
d.Parental Leave Policy for Approval
Sharon Duncan explained that there were a couple of issues to sort out with this policy and therefore it was withdrawn from the agenda meantime.
8
** / Treated Fairly and Consistently, with Dignity and Respect, in an environment where Diversity is Valued
a.Exemplar WardHazel Whyte attended the meeting to explain the Exemplar Ward (presentationslides and paper attached)Hazel explained that she was a Lead Nurse at Dr Gray’s Hospital currently seconded to Lead the Exemplar Ward project until March 2014.
Hazel explained how she began gathering information starting with the Quality Strategy and the Older Peoples Collaborate national programme, undertook workshops with staff and recruited some project support. It was noted that a lot of staff did not know about the Quality Agenda and this needed to be included in meetings with staff.
The project covers 11 wards, 2 in Dr Gray’s Hospital, 1 in AberdeenMaternityHospital, 1 on RoyalAberdeenChildrensHospital and the rest in ARI. The project included multi-disciplinary staff.
Hazel and her team planned to be in the wards 2 days every week in January and February working with staff on the wards and then feeding back to management teams. A short evaluation form would be completed by staff weekly and amendments could be made in light of any comments received. There was a lot of involvement with medical teams.
Processes were in place to capture patient experience and a five point patient feedback was going to be tested. It was to be a flexible approach.
Health and Safety Audit was included in the project and action plans were being developed.
There was concern that the list was very long for staff and it was explained that because of national targets this was what was expected of Senior Charge Nurses and that workshops dealt with themes rather than everything.
Phase one report would go to NHS Grampian at the end of March 2014. Monthly flash reports would also be prepared.
Hazel was invited back to GAPF to report once feedback had been received so a discussion could take place regarding the future work.
9
* / Provided with a Continuously Improving and Safe Working Environment, Promoting the Health and Wellbeing of Staff, Patients and Wider Community
a.Update on Health and Safety and 12 Hour Shift Review
Keith Thomson gave a presentation on the outcomes of the 12 Hour Shift Review (presentation slides attached).
The survey was undertaken in Mental Health and Learning Disabilities. The Staff Governance Standards were used to theme the huge number of free text comments received.
The Partnership Group would meet one more time to conclude work on the results.
The work to roll out through the rest of the organisation would then be taken over by the Short Life Working Group on Bank and Substantive Posts. Following their report which included nurse rosters and shift patterns an implementation group had been set up to take forward actions including
12 hour shifts. More Partnership involvement in this group was agreed. It may be that some amendments to the questions were required if the survey was to roll out to the rest of the organisation to make the analysis of results easier
Some simple high level messages could come out of the survey results about 12 hour shifts.
Richard Carey explained that if there was genuine evidence of anything not being safe then changes would have to be made to 12 hour shifts whether staff liked them or not. So far this evidence had not been conclusive.
Recruitment and retention of nursing staff was a challenge and there needed to be flexibility to allow staff to work the hours they were able to work.
b.Woolmanhill Update
Elaine Brown attended the meeting to update on the departmental moves from Woolmanhill. Woolmanhill was earmarked for disposal and all services were to relocate. The vast number had already relocated and some currently in the process of moving. Claire Nicholl was leading on the relocation of departments.
General Medical, Renal and Liason Psychiatry was moving at the end of January 2014 to Wards 25 and 26 ARI.
The Laundry building that was used for storage of records was to be emptied in January 2014.
ENT and Audiology would be moved together as they have shared clinics. The preferred option was Denburn Health Centre (DHC) for a period of 2-3 years until the GP Practice which is still within DHC relocates. Then ENT and Audiology would probably move to ARI at the end of the ARI Reconfiguration Project. Work was ongoing with Estates on the implications of moving to DHC and final costs were awaited. The final decision to move to DHC would be made at Asset Management Group (AMG) early in the new year to allow staff and patients to know where they were going.
There were financial and security implications of keeping buildings open and also having empty buildings. A written update on the Health and Safety issues was requested for Occupational Health and Safety Committee in January. Two people had responsibility for Woolmanhill currently and more clarity on having one person identified to be responsible was required.
The Shuttle Bus had already been changed to an as and when required service at Woolmanhill rather than timetabled.
Elaine was thanked for updating the group and invited to either return at a future date to update on progress or submit a written report to the group.
10 / Any Other Competent Business
None.
11 / Communication to Organisation from GAPF
The following items were considered for some type of communication to staff:
a.Work Smart – once agreement had been reached at a corporate level on the way forward, then this to be communicated to avoid confusion among staff.
b.HM Prison Update – positive aspect for NHS Grampian
c.Exemplar Ward – an article in Up Front to show case this project
d.Moving and Handling Update
e.12 Hour Shift – current position and future plans
f.Staff Survey – local briefs
12 / Date of Next Meeting
The next meeting will be held on 2pm to 5pm Wednesday 12 February 2014 in Meeting Rooms 4/5 at Aberdeen Health and CareVillage.
The Aberdeen City Sector GAPF Away Day is to be held on the morning of
12 February. Please put this date in your diary and look out for further information.

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