APPROVED
NHS GRAMPIAN
Minute of the Staff Governance Committee
held on Tuesday, 18 August 2009 at 11.00 am
in Council Chambers, Gordon House, Inverurie
Present:
Mike Scott, Board Member (Chair)
Kate Dean, Board Member
Dr John Reid, Chair ACF/Board Member
Gordon Stephen, Employee Director
David Cameron, Chairman
Richard Carey, Chief Executive
Laura McDonald, Staff Side Rep
Sandra Dee Masson, Staff Side Rep
In Attendance:
Mark Sinclair, Director of HR & Strategic Change
Ed Rennie, Head of HR
Lynn Marsland, Head of Strategic Change
John Brett, Head of Health & Safety
Clare Ruxton, Head of HR
Eleanor Morrison, Head of Workforce Development & Redesign – for item 6
Mary Innes
Item / Subject / Action /1. / Apologies
Apologies had been received from David Anderson, Board Member. It was noted that Gus Gordon was due to retire and his replacement, Sandra Dee Masson, was welcomed to the meeting.
A welcome was also made to Gwynne Cromar, Gail Noakes and Bettina Low who were attending the meeting as observers.
2. / Minute of Meeting 19 May 2009
Accepted as a true record.
3. / Matters Arising
3.1 / NHS Grampian Internal Audit Plan
It was confirmed that Alan Gray of PWC had agreed to get in touch with Mike to discuss the internal audit plan process.
4. / Voluntary Early Release (VERS)/Voluntary Severance (VS) Scheme
A full discussion had already taken place on this at the earlier meeting of the Remuneration Committee. Mark gave the background to the above scheme and the following was noted.
· The above scheme had been developed in partnership and launched on 1 July, the closing dates for notes of interest was 14 August, of which nearly 600 had been received.
· Formal applications had to be received by 11 September.
· The main criteria for acceptance was redesign and affordability
· All applications would be considered by an Executive Panel in early October and those successful would then go to the Remuneration Committee on 29 October for endorsement, after which staff would be informed
After discussion, the Committee endorsed the process.
5. / Draft People Strategy
The draft People Strategy had been consulted on throughout the organisation, including engagement with staff side, and would also be going to GAPF, OMT and finally the Board in October for final approval. It was agreed that the strategy should be circulated to the Non-Executive Board Members for final comments prior to the Board meeting so that the final document would be going to the Board for sign off.
The strategy was representative of what the HR would be in the future and it was recognised there would be a period of transition in order to continue the process of developing managers to have the capability to take on more HR responsibility.
Annex 1 sets out the actions and progress on these actions and it was noted that this would be reported through GAPF and SGC on a quarterly basis.
The Committee conveyed their thanks to all involved in the development of the strategy and noted the progress to date.
6. / Health & Safety Update
The update paper was noted the following highlighted.
· The NHSG Occupational H&S Committee had been established with an extensive agenda including improved consultation, improved structures and would be the focal point for the reporting of key H&S issues. Reports from this committee would come to the SGC.
· Work on the H&S structure had still to be finalised, primarily due to various attempts to work the structure into the current organisational arrangements, whilst not exerting any further pressure on the current budgetary position. The final approved structure would be shared at the next meeting.
· The report from the HSE on the HAI Inspection at Woodend had been received with 17 key recommendations. A small working group had been established to take forward these recommendations. It was agreed to circulate a copy of the recommendations to the Committee.
· The Committee noted the key risks associated with the above.
· It was also noted that during the European H&S week two events would be held, one in Elgin and the other in Woodend.
The Committee accepted the recommendations in the update. / JB
7. / Workforce Development & Redesign
Eleanor Morrison was welcomed to the meeting.
7.1 / Workforce Plan
It was recognised that a significant amount of work had gone into the plan and Eleanor gave an overview.
· The concept of workforce planning was the multi-professional team and this was now being accepted within the service.
· Workforce projections – indicative as no proper systems in place to project.
· Nationally trying to work more closely in terms of workforce planning.
· It was important the Workforce Plan linked in with the Health Plan and also the People Strategy in order take a more strategic lead with this.
· It was recommended that the Vision and Values section should be moved to the front of the document.
· A matrix approach had been taken to the future shape of workforce and periodic updates on progress would be shared at future meetings.
The Committee approved the plan.
7.2 / Pay Modernisation
(i) New Contract for Non-Consultant Career Grades
It was noted that 95% expressions of interest had been received to transfer to this national contract. In order to transfer a new job plan, sign off by Clinical Manager and General Manager, was required. Letters were being issued but the main problem was receiving the job plans.
The other issue within the new existing staff grade staff was an opportunity to apply for specialist posts. 30 applications had been received and discussions ongoing with the service whether supportive of that.
It was recognised that there would be cost implications associated with this contract and would need to be signed off by finance. Eleanor agreed to prepare a short report on the financial implications. Richard to also discuss with Alan Gall. It was confirmed that this contract did not allow for discretionary points. / EM
RC
(ii)/(iii) MMC/EWTD
MMC was introduced two years ago as the process in which the training of new trainee doctors had been upgraded and this involved a Scottish wide recruitment process.
In relation to EWTD, a significant amount of work had been done and NHSG were now 93% compliant. Of the 7%, there was an assessment ongoing and it was expected that at least half of that should be compliant. It was hoped that the remaining would be compliant by the end of the month and that there would be no need to go for derogation.
The Committee congratulated Eleanor, Simon and the rest of the team for the hard work involved in reaching this satisfactory outcome.
(iv) Agenda for Change Update
The Agenda for Change update was noted and the following highlighted.
· Assimilation – completed – the only exceptions were those on organisational change or TUPE employees.
· Payment of arrears – completed
· Arrears for leavers – local agreement for payment within 6 months after assimilation – on target
· JAQs – progress made and finalising these
· Reviews – a few outstanding and working through re-assimilation for them – this was not part of Government monitoring arrangements
· There were a number of outstanding tasks, including range of T&C queries being discussed at national level
· Exit strategy had been developed for the AfC with some successfully re-allocated and re-employed, some to retire.
· A process had been developed to mainstream AfC job evaluation which involved the recruitment of a part-time Grade 3 post in order to evaluate new posts arising from redesign, CSI, vacancy management.
· The key risks were noted.
The Committee extended a big thank you to the AfC Team and Payroll for the tremendous effort made to finalise this process.
a. / Internal Audit Report
PWC were asked to conduct an internal audit after the Board came under extreme pressure to explain the favourable outcomes from preliminary screening and/or reviews.
The audit had now been completed and the following results reported:
· From the evidence presented by line managers for a number of posts re-submitted, greater significance had been attached to certain aspects of their duties than they merited.
· The desire to secure the ‘best outcome’ for staff and the support for this approach from senior management did have a significant influence on the extent to which job evidence was developed and re-submitted.
As a result of the above, a protocol had been developed and approved by GAPF on a way forward depending on the outcome.
The results of this audit had been shared with the Scottish Government and would go to Audit Committee.
It was accepted that the process was robust and all processes had been followed.
8 / Staff Governance
8.1 / Health, Safety & Wellbeing
(i) Attendance Management
An Absence Management Implementation Group had been established whose main aim was to become more operational and focus on accessing appropriate and timely data in support of the management of absence. The emphasis was on supporting systems and the integration of data to produce real time absence so that early intervention could be made.
Work had been carried out in Acute to performance manage the information available and it was planned to roll this out to every Sector.
The good work done by OHS and the Workforce Team was recognised and the recommendations in the report were accepted.
(ii) Pandemic Influenza
It was recognised that this was taking up a lot of time, eg preparing for the schools going back, etc. Problems had arisen in relation to communications with staff and Corporate Communications were devising a weekly flu brief which would be circulated through the OMT management structure.
The latest information was that the immunisation programme would start mid October and a Vaccination Steering Group had been set up to take this forward. Once the vaccine had been licensed and distributed, a communication would be issued. It had been agreed that frontline health and social care workers would be first for vaccination.
(iii) Integrated Risk Management Information System (DATIX) Annual Report
The DATIX tool was very user friendly and it was now being rolled out, including salaried GP practices. There were five modules included in the system – Incident Reporting, Complaints, Claims, Risk Register, Request for Information – plus an additional module – Safety Alert Broadcast System. Around 1,200 incidents reported monthly on the system and it was recognised that there was an under-reporting culture. A trend analysis would also be carried out to measure NHSG against others and also to identify hotspots.
(iv) Review of Mediation
The mediation scheme and conflict management training scheme was launched in NHSG two years ago. A Scottish DAW Steering Group had now been established in order to increase capability across NHSS.
Early indicators were encouraging and the mediations delivered so far had enabled the employees involved to move forward without senior management involvement – 8 cases had been satisfactorily resolved. In addition, some of our mediators qualified as trainers in conflict management training. The main emphasis on managing conflict was early intervention. It was too early to say what the cost benefit of these two initiatives might be, but noted that there had been no long drawn out cases.
The risks were noted including lack of suitable accommodation, costs and sustainability. It was confirmed that the cost of this service continuing would be part of the budget setting process every year.
It was requested that a cost comparison be prepared between successful mediation cases and that of cases which went to dispute and employment tribunal.
The Committee were satisfied that these two initiatives were having a positive effect
8.2 / Draft Staff Governance Action Plan 2009/10
The final draft response of the Action Plan was approved and half-yearly update would be provided to the Committee. It was agreed that an extra column would be added to the plan showing if the action had been completed.
8.3 / Strategic Change Update
The Committee noted the update and the following was highlighted:
· The CSI review of the L&D Team was almost complete.
· The key priorities had been agreed – a risk was that L&D may be viewed as inflexible but Learning Zone had been upgraded, on-line training identified, etc
· KSF – plans in place to start the training for managers and staff in order to work towards HEAT target of 80% KSF PDPs completed and recorded on eKSF by March 2011
· Support for VERS/VS scheme – one day programme “Planning for the Future” could now be delivered in-house
· Work ongoing around procurement – should deliver cost savings this year.
· AfC – Grampian ahead with eKSF and also the reviews compared to other Boards. AfC to be mainstreamed with line management taking on more responsibility for AfC.
· H&S/Risk – request for assistance from NHS Orkney. – SLA would be put in place.
· Future reports would include updates for CSI projects
8.1 / Report from GAPF
It was noted that Gordon had been re-elected as Staff Side Chair for next 4 years.
The serious financial position had been highlighted at the June meeting and a special GAPF had been held in July to discuss this.
Organisation needed to be aware of the national instruction to delay the use of gateways meantime.
CSI – agreed that a communication strategy be developed to inform staff of the various projects.
Reminder of ½ day development session on 2 September
9. / Corporate Reputation
Recently NHS Grampian had a few cases of bad publicity, eg employing someone who was being investigated by the GMC, the dress code, the situation with Ward 12 at ARI. All these could and should have been avoided and it was important that NHSG worked harder and smarter to prevent situations like these arising.
After discussion it was agreed that this should be discussed through the Performance Governance Committee.
10. / AOCB
Mike thanked Ed personally for making for all his help with the meetings and wished him all the very best on behalf of the Committee.
11. / Date of Next Meeting
The date of the next meeting is Tuesday, 17 November 2009 at 11.30 am in the Seminar Room, Summerfield House.
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