Minutes of the Meeting of Held at on in the s2

MINUTEs OF THE STAFF GOVERNANCE COMMITTEE HELD ON THURSDAY 30TH MARCH 2017 AT 15:00 HRS IN ROOM 521, HAYFIELD HOUSE

Present:

Ms Moira Adams, Non Executive Director (Chairperson)
Mr John Paterson, Non Executive Director
Mr Martin Black, Non Executive Director
Mr Simon Fevre, Co-Chair, H&SC Partnership LPF
Ms Alison Nicoll, RCN, H&SCP LPF
Mr Andy Verrecchia, Co-Chair, Acute Services LPF

In Attendance:

Mr Paul Hawkins, Chief Executive
Ms Sharon Hutchins, Acting Director of Human Resources
Ms Morag Gardner, Associate Director of Nursing (attending for Scott McLean)
Mr David Heaney, Div General Manager, H&SCP (attending for Michael Kellet)
Mr Bruce Anderson, Head of Staff Governance
Mr David Kerr, Head of Learning and Development
Mrs T Marwick, Chair, NHS Fife (observing)
Ms B A Nelson, incoming Interim Director of Workforce (effective 01.04.17)
Mrs Helen Bailey, Human Resources PA (minute taker)
NO. / HEADING / ACTION
01/17 / WELCOME AND OPENING REMARKS
Ms Adams welcomed members and welcomed Tricia Marwick who was attending as an observer and Barbara Anne Nelson to her first meeting of Staff Governance Committee.
Ms Adams requested that in future members give more advance notice if they cannot attend a meeting.
02/17 / DECLARATION OF MEMBERS’ INTERESTS
None declared.
03/17 / APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
Apologies were noted for Scott McLean, Michael Kellet, Lorna Sherriffs, Wilma Brown and Andrew Rodger.
04/17 / MINUTES AND ACTION LIST OF PREVIOUS MEETING
The minutes of the previous meeting held on 10th November 2016 were reviewed. Ms Nicoll stated that she had given apologies for the last meeting and asked they be noted. Apart from this the minutes were approved as a true and accurate recording.
Mr Paterson referred to Item 58/16 under AOCB regarding the workforce tool and asked if this had been implemented across the Board now. Ms Gardner informed him that Acute had signed off the outcomes of the workforce tool and actions had been implemented.
Mr Fevre reported that it was not fully complete in H&SC, and that Mental Health are currently undertaking the workforce tool. Mr Hawkins stated a significant piece of work is ongoing in Mental Health. Mr Heaney will report back on this to Mr Paterson and it will remain on the Action List. / DH
Any other matters arising from these minutes are on the action list or the agenda.
Action List
The Action List was reviewed and addressed as items on the agenda.
Item 32/16 – Nurse Recruitment, Mr Black asked if Mr Kellet had updated Cllr Rodger regarding nurses in the hospice admitting and prescribing. Mrs Bailey stated that Claire Dobson was following up on this and Mr Heaney was to report on this at the meeting. Mr Heaney will check this took place and will notify Mrs Bailey of the outcome. / DH
05/17 / MATTERS ARISING
Item 51/16 – Staff Governance Action Plan H&SC Partnership Communication
Mr Paterson asked if communication was improving. Mr Fevre stated this was definitely improving, there is a focus on it at LPF, it is being communicated through the intranet and it is a priority area for the H&SCP.
06/17 / STAFF GOVERNANCE COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP
Ms Adams stated that currently the membership does not meet the national standard, the membership was incorrect and quorum did not allow for staff side to be here to be quorate.
Ms Hutchins talked the Committee through the membership being 4 non executives, the standard states that one of whom would be the Employee Director. As there is currently a Non Executive member who is retiring, they will not be replaced.
Executive Directors attending the meeting have been requested to send deputies in their absence.
Now that H&SC has been set up it was also changed to reflect the 2 LPF forum staff side chairs. They also have nominated deputies to attend in their absence.
The revised Constitution and Terms of Reference had been circulated with tracked changes and Mr Anderson reported that Mrs Brown is content with these changes.
The Constitution and Terms of Reference were reviewed, agreed and approved by the Staff Governance Committee and will be put to the Board meeting in April. / ToR to Board
07/17 / WELL AT WORK
Integrated Performance Report (IPR)
The IPR is the mechanism that provides assurance to the Board in relation to NHS Fife’s performance against national standards, local priorities and significant risks. Ms Hutchins reported that the revised format now comes from the Staff Governance Committee so that discussion takes place at the meeting with the issues that need to be raised going to the Board.
Mr Hawkins updated the Committee on this stating that all governance committees can see the work of other governance committees and as a Committee members can add other KPIs. The Committee is the only place the full report will be seen, a smaller version will go to Board with any relevant issues.
Mr Fevre stated it was reassuring to know members could change it and he suggested it be shaped to all the elements of staff governance standards. Ms Nelson suggested linking to the 20:20 vision.
The Committee agreed the agenda contained some positive items to put in the IPR. Ms Adams, Mrs Brown and Ms Nelson will discuss this further. / BAN/MA/WB
Mrs Marwick suggested members identify the areas to discuss and make them a standard item on every agenda. Mrs Marwick suggested members pass ideas to Ms Adams which can then be discussed to see if they need to be included.
Attendance Management Update
Ms Hutchins referred to the report and referred members to the month on month increases during November, December and January. It is the usual pattern but is still disappointing. Increases were across the board.
Ms Hutchins updated the Committee on ongoing work addressing absence, looking at reasons, implementation of Review and Improvement Panels, action plans, use of Management Resource Pack, monthly half day training sessions, mental health training, etc.
Mr Hawkins stated percentages would be worse if work on this hadn’t been implemented last year. He suggested looking at absence and the link between sickness and stress to determine if anything further can be learnt from this.
Mr Paterson agreed and suggested 3 particular areas to be looked at were Emergency Care, Corporate and East and addressing the cause of the issues, eg stress and what is causing the stress.
Mrs Marwick suggested issuing an anonymous questionnaire asking people about stress and see if there is a pattern.
Mr Verrecchia raised concerns in Acute at the stress being caused by the challenge of making savings. He stated that he had recently taken out the Stress Management Kit which proved popular and encouraged its use.
Mr Fevre stated that Dr Hannah is producing a paper looking at providing staff with a range of support around mindfulness, etc which staff feel has helped them cope with stress. Mr Fevre stated he would like to see this piece of work move on but it requires funding and he suggested it would be a good use of endowment monies.
Mr Hawkins suggested this be discussed in partnership at LPFs. Mrs Marwick agreed and suggested a paper come back here following discussion at LPF. Mrs Marwick suggested focus on an area, drill down to see the kind of work needed to be done, the conversation to focus on it and the commitment we are going to do something about it.
Mr Hawkins suggested Ms Nelson pull together the conversation for LPF and APF and also focus a piece of work on Corporate – IJB, to drill down and get an analysis and diagnostic around it. Ms Nelson to bring a paper to the next meeting on this. / BAN
Ms Nicoll expressed concern at staff being released for more training. This should also be addressed at LPFs.
08/17 / CORE TRAINING UPDATE
Mr Kerr reported that core training continues to progress extremely well. Mr Kerr highlighted the core clinical skills areas and Resuscitation training showing excellent improvement. Mr Paterson praised the staff involved on this outstanding performance.
Mr Kerr referred to Mr Fevre’s point on potential for including Mental Health training on core training and he will explore this.
/ DK
Congratulations to be relayed to staff via huddle and intranet on this outstanding performance / DK
09/17 / CONSULTANT RECRUITMENT
Ms Hutchins referred to the paper giving an update on consultant recruitment and vacancy position. The main areas of concern are radiology and psychiatry. There are plans in place regionally for radiology as part of the South East Regional Radiology Insourcing Solution (SERRIS). This is where colleagues in other boards will be able to help reporting. This is good news and should help deal with radiology.
In terms of psychiatry, up to 6 of NHS Fife psychiatrists could retire in the next year and it is known this specialty has a low fill rate so a solution is being looked at for this. This needs benchmarked and IJB are looking into this.
Mr Paterson congratulated the progress made here. He stated Emergency Medicine was a concern as there are 3 vacancies and no response to recruitment activity. Mr Hawkins stated that this has become a less attractive post due to shifts, on-call, etc.
10/17 / MEDICAL REVALIDATION
Ms Hutchins referred to the document from CMO requesting us to ensure medical revalidation is seen by those with governing responsibility. This Committee had a report on this at the November 2016 meeting which covered all aspects.
Further reports in 2017 will come to Staff Governance.
11/17 / KSF UPDATE
Mr Kerr recapped on KSF and the fact that it was previously a HEAT target but is no longer but we still need to maintain 80% compliance.
Mr Kerr referred to the figures in the paper and in particular the huge improvement in Acute with 71% of staff engaging with the system and 55% compliance rate. Mrs Marwick asked what they were doing different to give this disparity. Mr Kerr stated it was a standing item on their agenda, Ms Gardner stated it is monitored on a monthly basis and they are driving it with a lot of support. Mr Kerr stated they had senior manager focus there and also stated that Estates and Facilities were managing well around KSF compliance.
Mr Kerr referred to work carried out looking at KSF compliance and absence rates which was discussed at the Attendance Management Group meeting. It was suggested that there would be a benefit in “triangulating” available data (vacancy, absence, iMatter engagement).
Mr Paterson congratulated Acute and Estates & Facilities but raised concern at H&SC and Corporate.
Mr Kerr referred to Corporate and stated this was being addressed with Corporate Directors.
Mr Heaney stated he would address this by putting it on the agenda of the leadership team. Mr Kerr stated he would be happy to talk to the leadership team. / DH
Mr Paterson stated it was a management responsibility to make sure this happens and asked for an action plan of what is going to be done differently to make it happen.
Mrs Marwick requested that HR and Staff Side have this discussion and come back here with a draft action plan that would be signed off at Staff Governance Committee. / BAN/WB
Mr Hawkins stated that he and Ms Nelson would draft the Corporate action plan. / PH/BAN
Mr Heaney will discuss this with Mr Kellet. / DH
12/17 / HR POLICY UPDATE
Mr Anderson stated this was to provide the Committee with assurance that NHS Fife is up to date with HR policy developments. Mr Anderson talked the Committee through the action plan.
Ms Nelson stated there were some early ongoing national discussions regarding a “Once for Scotland” approach to policies and she would keep members updated.
13/17 / WHISTLEBLOWING NCAL REPORT
Mr Anderson stated this was to highlight to the Committee that every 6 months we receive from Public Concern at Work the NHS Scotland Confidential Alert Line report. These reports specify the number of calls received with a range. The reports state that in both time periods 0 – 3 calls were received in relation to Reported Public Interest Cases and Reported Bullying. NHS Fife have never had any.
Mr Anderson informed the Committee they were attending refresher training to ensure it was correct and staff understood it.
Mr Anderson is to check this is on the intranet. / BA
14/17 / WORKFORCE STRATEGY UPDATE
Ms Hutchins reported this was developed to support the clinical strategy in partnership with Staff Side and intention was that the workforce strategy would have gone to Board for sign off in December but since then we have had both the consultation document around national workforce planning and regional working so that all plays into the workforce strategy so it continues to be a draft to build in national and regional plans.
Mr Paterson asked when would this be at Board meeting, Ms Hutchins stated Ms Jann Gardner was now leading on this, Ms Nelson will discuss this with Ms J Gardner.
Ms Adams asked if they could see something in draft form to get a clearer view of what is the workforce strategy and the impact it would have on staff and what the plans are moving forward. / BAN
15/17 / ITEMS FOR INFORMATION
Mr Fevre referred to the item Best Value Framework and in particular the chart of the various committees, checking in terms of Health and Safety as the minutes go to Clinical Governance, how do Staff Governance get assurance around health and safety.