NHS GRAMPIAN

Minute of the Grampian Area Partnership Forum (GAPF)

held on Thursday 18 December 2008 at 2.00pm

in the Conference Room, Summerfield House

Present:

Richard Carey, Chief Executive (Chair)

Gordon Stephen, Staff Side Chair/Employee Director

Mike Adams, UCATT

Jim Clark, GMB

Joe Collier (shadowing Fiona MacKenzie)

Jon Cresswell, BMA

Heather Hardisty, Service Manager, Aberdeen City CHP

Alan Gall, Director of Finance

Laura Gray, Communications Director

Anne Inglis, Head of Learning & Development (Partnership Co-ordinator)

Ruaraidh MacKinnon, UNISON (deputising for Bettina Low)

Fiona MacKenzie, Lead Nurse Acute Sector (and deputising for Alisdair Chisholm)

Deirdre McIntyre, SOCAP (Video Conferenced)

George Reid, Catering Manager (deputising for Eric Murray, Facilities Director)

Ed Rennie, Head of Human Resources (HR)

Anne Ross, Head of Performance and Quality Improvement

Lynn Shand, CSP

Mark Sinclair, HR Director

Jack Stuart, General Manager, Aberdeenshire CHP

Karen Thow, RCN

Joan Anderson, Partnership Support Officer

In Attendance

Bosun Ajuidahun - RGU Student on placement

Diane Annand, Agenda for Change Project Manager for Item 9b

Item / Subject / Action
1. / Apologies
Apologies were received from Ann-Louise Shields, BOS (no deputy),
Andrew Fowlie, General Manager Moray (no deputy), Sandra Dee Masson, BAOT (Partnership Co-ordinator) ( Liz Laing deputising), Alisdair Chisholm, Acute General Manager (Fiona MacKenzie deputising), Bettina Low, UNISON, Eric Murray, Facilities Director (George Reid deputising), Mike Scott, Chair Staff Governance Committee (no deputy available)
2 / Minute of meeting held on 20 November 2008
The Minute of meeting held on 20 November 2008 was approved.
3 / Matters Arising
a.Recruitment and Retention Premia
The application has now been finalised and signed off. A copy will be sent to the management side secretariat and the staff side secretariat to ensure it goes on the agenda of STAC (Scottish Terms and Conditions Committee).
b.Annual Review Outstanding Issues
The Scottish Government have asked for more information on the number of staff who may be affected by additional tax when receiving their back payment under Agenda for Change. A lot of this work can be undertaken by the Payroll Department.
There is a meeting in January 2009 to review progress from the Annual Review.
4
* / Feedback from Away Day on 3 September 2008
A copy of the Report and Action Plan was tabled (attached). Priorities and Actions have been identified and a progress report will be received at the next away day on 19 March 2009.
Suggestions were requested for the next away day in March and it was agreed to discuss the organisations values and vision and strategic objectives. It was also agreed to ask for an ATOS speaker to discuss continued service improvement methodology.
5 / Financial Position
Alan Gall explained that the November Finance Report was almost ready and would be circulated soon.
At this stage NHS Grampian were £1.5m behind target. The spending trend would have to be reversed and savings made to get back on target. This will be done in a variety of ways. Budget managers will have to carefully control budgets and question all expenditure to ensure only essential spending is approved.
2009/2010 financial year will be challenging as the income will be less than previous years.
6
* / Workforce Information Report
A copy of the Workforce Information Report July to September 2009 was tabled (attached).
There is an overspend currently on pay but it is hoped that this will even out over the rest of the year.
Absence – NHS Grampian had always been among the lowest of the boards for absence percentages, but recently this had risen to 4.9% and with winter ahead it will be a challenging time. It was agreed that staff are to be supported as much as possible through this time. Acute Sector are to submit figures on this as required.
Vacancy Management – this needs to be looked at to ensure that we are not overusing the fast-track system.
Displaced Staff – there are currently 52 members of staff on the Redeployment Register which is lower than previous reports. It was acknowledged that some of the staff who have been on the register for a long time are due to the pending closure of Campbell Hospital, but questions were asked about why others were on the register for 6 months or more. Information was required on how much work was done with the staff on the register to assist them to get a job. Those on the register were being given the opportunity of the Job jump Start process.
There was a query about whether staff on the Redeployment Register were being discriminated against because of lack of understanding of why staff are on the register. Enquiries to be made with Sector Managers about what arrangements are being made to get jobs for these staff. / ER
ER
7 / Voluntary Severance Scheme
Only 2 staff had been approved for Voluntary Severance. The current system was seen to be very limiting. It was known by Staff Side Representatives that quite a few staff had enquired to their manager but been turned down at the first request.
A new scheme called Voluntary Early Release Scheme was being looked at. This scheme would have to be linked to redesign and must be approved by line management and the Executive Team. This was at very early stages and reassurances were given that Staff Side would be fully involved. Mark Sinclair is leading this on behalf of the management team. Discussions to take place with the NHS Grampian Board, Pension Agency, Tax Office and Central Legal Office and Staff Side Representatives before anything can be progressed.
Any new system should include a process that can be monitored so that numbers of staff enquiring and being turned down in the first stage and the reasons for this can be audited.
It was suggested that in the meantime the old Voluntary Severance Scheme should be re-launched with a process to follow so that staff who may have been turned down earlier can investigate again.
8 / Catering Review Group
George Reid, Catering Manager, outlined the current issues being discussed at the Catering Review Group. The group has met 7 times this year and they feel they have reached a bit of an impasse. The ideas which were discussed at a previous GAPF Meeting earlier in the year were advertised in Up Front, by Global Emails, etc. 32 replies had been received from staff but this this not give enough information to be able to take forward. The plan was then put on hold.
The Scottish Government have now issued a circular stating that every hospital has to achieve the Healthy Living Award by March 2008. Another Scottish Government Circular had been received instructing that we were not allowed to sell any soft drinks with over 0.5% of sugar per 100g. More clarification was being requested on this circular.
If we achieve the Healthy Living Award for all hospitals this will automatically achieve the relevant part of Health Working Lives relating to this. The Healthy Living Award is a 50% rule, for every unhealthy option available there has to be a healthy option on offer. The healthy option does not have to be taken up by staff as long as it is on offer.
Currently the subsidy is £280,000. The target is to reduce the subsidy until there is no subsidy for staff meals.
There are two significant areas of subsidy which if they were removed from the figures, would reduce the overall subsidy figures. These are:
The patient/visitor dining room at RoyalCornhillHospital which is primarily for patients as part of their treatment.
The night service between 11pm and 2pm to cover Junior Doctors terms and conditions.
Papers are being drawn up to explain why these two subsidies are required to stay, then agreement may be reached to remove them from the overall figure.
George Reid will attend the Forum meeting in February to discuss final proposals.
9
* / Agenda for Change
a.KSF
As at 15 December 2009 the percentage against the HEAT target is 30.82%. The trajectory was for 50% to be complete by end December 2008. All Sectors are now submitting figures. Some Sectors were making more progress than others.
IT Management have visited all areas and developments have been made to increase the access for staff to computers. This is being funded from the capital budget.
Basic IT training is available and all different types of staff are accessing this. Flyers have gone out over the system to advertise and staff are asked to be in touch with their requirements so numbers can be collated.
A communication will be made from General Managers to managers to update them before Christmas and Richard Carey and Gordon Stephen will circulate an update after Christmas.
b.Job Evaluation/Review Update
Diane Annand, Agenda for Change Project Manager, attended the meeting to update the forum on Agenda for Change Job Evaluation Reviews (paper attached). As at 16 December 2008, the target was being met for Reassimilations. In addition, more than half of bank staff had been assimiliated. Leavers assimilation target is for August 2009 although no recent progress had been made as re-assimilations had been concentrated on.
Local Evaluations (JAQs) – progress is being made to reduce the numbers of staff who have to go through the JAQ process. Most staff are happy to try other avenues of matching or transfers.
There was a query regarding ancillary bank staff and whether they are above the minimum wage. As payment on account was being paid prior to assimilation, they would be above minimum wage.
NHS Grampian has a higher than average rate of success with reviews at 81%. It is impossible at this stage to compare numbers with other similar Boards as they are not at the same stage of completion as Grampian is.
An audit by PricewaterhouseCoopers was about to be commissioned to look at bands 8 and 9 only at this stage, as a starting point, to check that job descriptions are accurate and that the staff are working to the job description.
Once the terms of reference for the audit is complete, this will be shared with forum members. The terms of reference will be signed by Head of HR, Director of HR and Employee Director. The audit is to give reassurance that Grampian is not doing anything different to other Boards.
The no detriment agreement will not be changed and no individual member of staff will be affected. Staff are, however, expected to work to the band they are given as per the original agreement.
10 / National Staff Survey Update
NHS Grampian achieved 36% return rate for the Staff Survey questionnaires. This is 1% below the national average, but same or above similar Boards in Scotland.
There is a meeting on 15 and 16 January to look at how to develop an action plan and Gordon Stephen and Hall Harper will attend this.
The results will be available on 21 January and there will be a local presentation by ORC (the company who are running the survey) on NHS Grampian results.
The Action Plan will be presented to the Forum in due course.
11
* / Update from Sub-Groups
a.Health, Safety and Wellbeing Sub-Group
John Brett gave a brief update on the work of the group and the way forward. The presentation which was supposed to be given is attached.
The GAPF Sub-Group was set up a year ago and lots of work has been carried out. European Health and Safety Week went well and discussions have begun for next years campaign which is also on Risk Assessment.
Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is currently auditing WoodendHospital, the Laundry at ARI and Sterile Services, concentrating on Healthcare Acquired Infections (HAI).
Gordon Stephen had a meeting with the representatives of HSE on Monday 15 December 2008 along with two health and safety representatives. The report of the audit will be available at the end of February although verbal feedback will be received earlier.
Gordon Stephen raised an issue over a Health and Safety Representative being told by his manager that he is not allowed the full time off required to undertake his role. It is essential that there is a clear understanding across NHS Grampian of the importance of Health and Safety Representatives, their duties and their rights to time off.
b.Learning and Development/Workforce
The group met on 27 November and as this is a merged group the agenda was long. Minutes will be circulated in due course.
c.Terms and Conditions
Meetings ongoing and minutes have been circulated.
d.Staff Management Policies and Procedures
Next meeting 19 December 2008. Three Policies had been developed through the sub-group recently, consulted on and were ready for approval under item 12.
e.Staff Communications
Next meeting 13 January 2009.
There had been unhelpful media coverage about the Health and Safety Executives Audit which had to be managed.
Work beginning around vision and values. A major piece of work will begin January/February and March linked to the Health Plan. An event will take place for heads of service, sector leads, etc on 6 January 2009 to discuss financial challenges, etc – this event will be a two way discussion process. Packs of information for the events will include a DVD and a paper version of the presentation plus all other relevant information to allow those attending to share the information with others.
12 / Policies
a.Conduct – Approved
b.Capability - Approved
c.Standard Setting Support - Approved
d.Dress Policy
A national uniform policy had just been approved. Need to ensure that the local Draft Dress Policy is cross referenced with the national policy. The local Dress Policy is to be presented to Operational Management Team (OMT) in January. This would go as a management paper as it would not have been approved by GAPF at that stage. The deadline for comments is 31 December and comments are to be sent to Anne Cargill.
Staff Side suggested that the single page guidance produced by the Medical Director could be amended and circulated to clinical staff as interim guidance until such time as a policy is agreed.
13 / Any Other Competent Business
Dignity at Work:
Dignity at Work Interim Amendment to update the current policy to bring it in line with legislation was agreed. The full policy is currently being reviewed and will go through the usual consultation process before coming to the forum for final approval.
Car Parking:
Gordon Stephen asked for reassurance that there would be no charge for the blue car parking stickers for staff to park in the shale car park at Foresterhill. It was confirmed that there would be no charge for these stickers.
14 / Date of Next Meeting
The next meeting will be held on Wednesday 11 February 2009 at 2pm to 5pm in the Conference Room, Summerfield House
15 / Items for Information
Noted.

Email:

Telephone: (01224) 556372