APPROVED

NHS GRAMPIAN

Minute of the Special Meeting of the Grampian Area Partnership Forum

held on Wednesday 8 September 2010 at 8.30am

in the Conference Room, Summerfield House

Present:

Gordon Stephen, Employee Director (Chairperson)

Richard Carey, Chief Executive

Mike Adams, UCATT

Bridget Aitken, RCN

John Brett, Head of Health and Safety

Joe Collier, Clinical Nurse Manager

Jim Clark, GMB

Sharon Duncan, Unite

Frances Dunne, Service Manager (deputy for Heather Hardisty)

Alan Gall, Director of Finance

Ally Grant, RCN

Laura Gray, Director of Communications

Liz Laing, BAOT (deputy for Sandra-Dee Masson)

Deirdre McIntyre, SOCAP

Martin McKay, UNISON

Gary Mortimer, Interim Facilities Director

Mike Ogg, Deputy General Manager, Aberdeenshire

Vincent Shields, Acting General Manager, Acute

Philip Shipman, HR Manager (deputy for Andrew Fowlie)

Mark Sinclair, Director of HR & Strategic Change

Jane Starley, BIOS

Duncan Stephen, ACB

Pauline Strachan, Chief Operating Officer

Anne Ross, Head of Performance & Quality Improvement

Clare Ruxton, Deputy Director of HR

Joan Anderson, Partnership Support Officer

In Attendance:

Becky Grangeret and Jim Hogsflesh, Right Management – for item 2

Susan Coull, HR Manager – for item 3

Dipesh Regmi, Techical Support Services Manager (Shadowing Laura Gray)

Item / Subject / Action
1. / APOLOGIES
Apologies had been received from Sandra-Dee Masson (Liz Laing deputised), Andrew Fowlie (Philip Shipman deputised), Sandy Dustan (Mike Ogg deputised), Heather Hardisty (Frances Dunne deputised), Lynn Shand (no deputy), Mike Scott (and deputy David Anderson), Bill Harrison (and deputy Ali Walker), Ruth Stephenson (and deputy Simon Barker)
2.
* / CAREERS IN TRANSITION
Mark Sinclair explained that there was funding available for this pilot from the Working Well Fund and if we were successful in receiving funding it would have to be spent by the end of this financial year. Mark introducedBecky Grangeret and Jim Hogsflesh from Right Management to present the proposed pilot (presentation slides attached).
No decision on whether to go ahead with the pilot was made at the meeting. The decision would be taken at GAPF on 21 September 2010.
Right Management would train NHS Grampian staff to be facilitators to offer career transition support to NHS Grampian staff. The number which was mentioned as 10-12 facilitators but this could be altered.
NHS Grampian would short list possible facilitators and Right Management would do the final selection based on skills required. It was thought that HR and Staff Side may already have some of these skills but that the offer should be open to other staff and managers to volunteer as well.
The training would consist of 4 days training then the facilitators would begin to meet people and be observed by Right Management, receive feedback and then once completed all successfully the facilitators would be accredited. They would then receive supervision sessions and continuous service improvement.
The pilot would be evaluated and this would focus on the quality of the workshops and one to one meetings with facilitators and it would also look at the numbers of staff finding new roles within the organisation quicker. The evaluation criteria would be agreed before the pilot begun. As the pilot would be funded by the Working Well Fund the evaluation would have to be sent to John Davidson, Staff Governance Unit, Scottish Government.
Some concerns from the forum were: that this type of support was already part of HR roles and there may be a perception out there that staff misunderstand the roles; backfill funding arrangements; capacity of staff to undertaken the training.
Positive comments were: facilitators would be trained and therefore would continue to undertake this role long after the Safe Affordable Workforce project has finished; some staff may already have some of these skills and a desire to undertake this training; there may be the capacity of embed this into the organisation.
Right Management can offer as much support as required, but if it is outside the boundaries of the pilot, NHS Grampian would have to fund any additional support.
3. / SAFE AFFORDABLE WORKFORCE IMPLEMENTATION
The final challenge meetings took place on 7 September and the overall review challenge meeting was to take place on 13 September with feedback from this meeting taking place on 15 September, and a workshop to begin to take implementation forward on 16 September.
The Redeployment Process amendments were approved at GAPF meeting on 2 August 2010. Susan Coull attended the meeting to take everyone through the flow chart at the back of the paper circulated to ensure everyone understood it and were happy with it. The flow chart followed existing policies.
The Organisational Change Overview Steering Group would be revamped and Ewan Robertson, Chairperson, would be asked to re-establish this group. The draft role and remit of the group would be presented to the next GAPF meeting on 21 September for discussion. This group will be the deciding group for contentious issues.
Vacancy Management was now devolved to Sectors and each Sector had set up a group for this. All local vacancy panels will receive a list of all displaced staff to ensure staff are matched to vacancies across NHS Grampian. They will also receive a list of staff who are on protection.
Staff on protection should be compulsorily redeployed when a suitable post comes up at the protected band.
Redeployment Co-ordinator role had to be discussed. A lot of the work will be done with HR but will need support from the Redeployment Co-ordinator. Redeployment Co-ordinator has a note of the skill set of displaced staff and should be checking constantly for vacancies which may be appropriate. Staff also have a responsibility to check vacancies.
This process is about protecting jobs for those within the organisation not about career opportunities.
There was discussion about what suitable alternative employment was and it was agreed that there had to be a sensible sensitive approach to this as every individual will have a different view of what is suitable for them. As each individual who is displaced will have the opportunity to turn down two suitable alternative posts, it will be very difficult for anyone to advise as to whether they should take each of the posts offered as there will be no way of knowing what might or might not become available next.
Whether the department goes for redesign or natural turnover would be up to the manager depending on the circumstances and also the budget to be met. Within Sectors each department could do something different depending on the circumstances.
There was a discussion about the letter Nicola Sturgeon, Cabinet Secretary for Health, had circulated to all staff stating that there would be no compulsory redundancies and no job losses. If a member of staff came to the end of their time on the redeployment register (either 3 months or 6 months) and no suitable alternative post was offered, the policy states that they are made redundant.
Mark Sinclair stated that Nicola Sturgeon had changed her wording on the statement made to “there will be no compulsory redundancies this year”. Mark Sinclair agreed to find the written statement and circulate to the group for information. Clarity could be requested of Nicola Sturgeon at the Annual Review.
If a member of staff was offered three suitable alternative posts and turned them down, at the end of their time on the redeployment register, according to policy, they would have terminated their own employment which is not then classed as redundancy.
GAPF have to have a clear agreement on whether there would be redundancies or not following time on the redeployment register. This decision was still to be made.
When a post is redesigned, the new post must be Agenda for Change matched to ensure that the correct banding is used.
The group was reminded that the safety of staff and patients had to come first as it was in the title Safe Affordable Workforce. Staff are already under pressure and this process will increase the pressure on staff as numbers are reduced.
Once a process had been agreed, appendices of guidance and clarifications should be created to ensure everyone was clear about each process.
Following the meeting on 15 September, staff need to be informed of what comes next and how that will happen. The face to face sessions in November are too late for this. It was agreed to communicate with staff via a special Team Brief which was to be given face to face to staff. Team Brief is always supposed to be carried out face to face. This item will be especially important to communicate face to face and managers will be informed that this is not a choice.
The Communications Sub-Group could have a role in the communication process to staff. It was suggested that a Question and Answer sheet may be a good idea.
If funds become available then Voluntary Severance would be offered again. / MS/CR
ALL
LG/SD
4. / ANY OTHER COMPETENT BUSINESS
None.
5. / DATE AND TIME OF NEXT MEETING
The next meeting will be held on Tuesday 21 September 2010 at 2pm to 5pm in the Conference Room, Summerfield House, Aberdeen

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