Minutes of the Patient Information Forum (PiF)
Strategy Group
Wednesday 29 February 2012 – 10.30-13.00
Academy of Medical Royal Colleges
10 Dallington Street, London EC1V 0DB
Present:
Hilary Baseley – SG member (by telephone)
Mark Duman - Chair, PiF (Chair of meeting)
Mel Kirk – SG member
Nicole Naylor - Administrator, PiF
Roger Killen – SG member
Sarah Smith - Operations Director, PiF
1.0
Apologies for absence
Apologies for absence were received from Jeremy Theobald.
2.0
Minutes of the last meeting held on 7 December 2011 and matters arising
The minutes from the last meeting held on 7 December 2011 were approved.
Discussion point 1: It was agreed that Sarah would continue to prepare an outline bid for the
National Lottery Board, and Roger would advise where appropriate.
Discussion point 2: Sarah explained that she had met with the book-keepers and discussed
the problems. Monthly accounts have been produced and the information is much more up
to date. Discussions took place regarding cashflow forecasting but it does not provide the
information required. Nominal codes required further organisation. Sarah has explained to
the book-keepers that this is the last chance for them to demonstrate they meet PiF’s bookkeeping needs.
Roger described that his book-keeper sends over details once a week of what is in the bank
account, what is outstanding, the current balance, etc.
Sarah felt that Mark needed to become more involved in the finances of PiF and it was
agreed they would spend 30 minutes during the weekly Director’s meeting discussing this
topic.
Discussion point 3: Nicole had circulated a Time and Motion spreadsheet to the PiF Directors.
An attempt to use it had been made but more focussed energy was required for a period of
one month. Discussion took place regarding how to record time spent and it was suggested
that half hour or 2 hourly slots could be recorded.
Discussion point 4: No action had been taken to chase the accountants to make contact with
Jeremy as Jeremy has now started a new role.
Discussion point 5: A draft Declarations of Interest document had been produced by Nicole
and Mark was working on this further.
PiF Strategy Group meeting minutes – 29 February 2012
Page 1 of 6
Discussion point 6: Sarah had spoken to Carol Stevenson regarding the Account/
Membership Manager role. Carol may be too expensive to fulfil the role at 2 and half days a
week but if Carol could make the role self-sustaining then this would be beneficial. The role
would focus on raising the profile of PiF, events, annual conference and manage the
relationship with Partners and Supporters. If confirmed the DH funding for this role would
not be available until year 2. It was agreed that Carol would get back to Sarah with ideas.
Carol is unable to start work until July 2012 as she is on maternity leave.
Mark stated that there was a real need to follow up on membership leads, and asked the
group if they knew of good people who would be able to fulfil this role.
Discussion point 7: Nicole had provided a list of organisations who are Information Standard
certified, and this had been incorporated into the membership recruitment spreadsheet.
Discussion point 8: Mark had met with various Board members of the NHS Confederation to
explore joint working.
Discussion point 9: Providing Regional/Country Co-ordinators with training on the CMS was
deferred until the possible overhaul of the PiF website.
Discussion point 10: Sarah explained MSD had agreed to provide PiF with Annie Gilbert, to
do some survey work around health literacy. MSD would pay for Annie’s time, money to
generate a report and PR time and a roundtable discussion with policy makers. However,
they are unable to fund a PiF guide on the topic. The aim is to find a baseline on health
literacy in the UK. Results are coming out in October 2012. MSD will then undertake some
policy work on the topic. Sarah is waiting for Annie to come back to her. The project will
attract some good PR on the topic. A special edition of PiF Aware will be produced, social
media will be used and an Executive Circle meeting will be arranged on the topic.
The group were asked for suggestions of where PiF could find a funder for a PiF guide on the
topic of health literacy.
Action
Item No.
1
2
3
4
Action
SS to complete National Lottery
funding application with input
from RK
SS and MD to schedule time in
weekly Directors call for finance
discussions
Individuals to be suggested who
may be able to fulfil the role of
chasing membership leads
Suggestions to be put forward
for a funder for a PiF Guide on
Health Literacy.
PiF Strategy Group meeting minutes – 29 February 2012
By Whom
By When
SS, RK
End of May 2012
SS, MD
Ongoing from
March 2012
All
By 1 April 2012
All
By end of June
2012
Page 2 of 6
3.0
Strategy Review
A wide ranging discussion took place on the draft PiF Vision, Aims and Goals slides which had
been circulated to the group. It was felt the documents were much improved from previous
versions. It was felt that a Mission Statement was missing. This should describe PiF’s ethics
and ethos. Some of the language used was unclear e.g. consumer health information
professionals. Health information providers was felt a better term. Hilary thought that the
vision should be more emotive, and that a date for achieving the aims was required.
It was suggested that the points within the document should follow ‘Awareness, Interest,
Desire, Action (AIDA):
Awareness - Recognise the value and impact and creating demand
Interest - Interest in doing something about it – incentives and levers
Desire – collaborative approach
Action – expert group and systemising
Followed by:
-
Understand world of health info
Help set standards to help achieve them
Find resources
share and collaborate develop
Mel and Hilary would work on the document and Mel would ask her copywriter to have some
input. The deadline agreed for the document to be sent back to PiF was Wednesday 21
March 2012. It would then be sent around the Strategy Group and Advisory Group for
approval and then publication on the website.
Action
Item No.
5
4.0
Action
MK and HB to provide revised
Mission, Vision, Aims and
Objectives document.
By Whom
MK and HB
By When
Revised document
to be returned to
PiF by Wednesday
21 March.
Staffing Review
Sarah described that all those paid by PiF were contractors and this was possibly an
expensive way of managing the PiF workload. It could also potentially be an issue with the
HMRC. If PiF were successful with the DH bid it would also be taking on more staff. The
reason PiF had not employed staff previously has been due to a lack of confidence in PiF’s
financial future.
It was thought to be straightforward to set up payroll via PiF’s accountants. Mark suggested
that he would discuss the situation informally with his accountant if Sarah were able to
provide the necessary information. Sarah advised that Mark could obtain the necessary
information from the Dropbox.
It was felt that PiF had too many ‘chiefs and not enough indians’. It was necessary to put into
place a strategy that would safeguard PiF should key individuals leave or need to take a leave
of absence.
PiF Strategy Group meeting minutes – 29 February 2012
Page 3 of 6
It was agreed Mark and Sarah would put together a list of job titles, and roles that would be
required by PiF during the next two years.
Hilary suggested that PiF could employ individuals on a limited salary and then the employee
could invoice for additional consultancy days.
Action
Item No.
6
7
5.0
Action
MD to informally discuss
employee -v- contractor
situation with his accountant
MD and SS to put together a list
of job titles, and roles that
would be required by PiF during
the next two years.
By Whom
By When
MD
April 2012
MD, SS
April 2012
Finance
Sarah outlined the current PiF financial status. PiF were £62K in profit over the period. This
was due primarily to the Scotland conference, BMA project, Microsoft project, Supporter and
Partner membership fees, and reduced monthly costs.
Roger highlighted that it would be useful if the budget were phased to help with the overall
understanding of the P&L.
6.0
Membership Recruitment (Journalista)
Sarah explained that Journalista had been paid £2.5K to put together a database of potential
membership targets in NHS Trusts. As part of this piece of work Journalista had put together
some marketing emails. The email was sent to 280 individuals – 36 clicked on the links
within the email and these were followed up with a phone call. One person indicated they
were not interested, and five were warm leads and their details were passed on to PiF to
take forward.
The group agreed that PiF should take the data collected by Journalista and use it for further
promoting PiF and it’s membership services.
Action
Item No.
8
7.0
Action
SS to obtain database of NHS
Trusts from Journalista.
By Whom
SS
By When
End of March 2012
Any Other Business
7.1
MSD & HL
Covered above
PiF Strategy Group meeting minutes – 29 February 2012
Page 4 of 6
7.2
Microsoft and PHRs
Microsoft had paid PiF £25K to develop a PiF Guide on Personalised Health Records
(PHRs) and a summary version for commissioners and clinicians. PiF have contracted
Geraldine Mynors and Emily Newsom-Smith to support a couple of events and
conduct interviews with three main groups – patients, commissioners and policy
leads. The group were asked for their thoughts on PR for this project. Mel offered
to write up a PR strategy for the project.
7.3
DH project
PiF has been awarded £175k over 3 years from the DH to help build our capacity and
delivery.
7.4
Sounding Board
Mark informed the group that PiF had been asked by other organisations to help with
key areas of work and provide a ‘quality assured board’ that reviews information
products. Mel suggested that organisations should be charged for this service – a
suggested figure of £2K was put forward and for this organisations would receive PiF
membership for one year and the review of three pieces of work. It would be
necessary for someone to manage the Sounding Board. The Advisory Group could
take on the role of the Sounding Board and receive vouchers as payment, as this was
easier to manage from a tax viewpoint.
7.5
Executive Circle events
Mark confirmed two dates for Executive Circle events as follows, and described that
other speakers and topics were to be confirmed:
Shared Decision Making: how to make it a reality
Angela Coulter - Director Global Initiatives, Foundation for Informed Medical
Decision Making
24 April 2012 | 1400-1630 | London
Personal Health Records: narrowing the inequalities gap?
Dr Kate Christensen - Medical Director Internet Services Group, Kaiser Permanente
19 September 2012 | 1400-1630 | London
Nicole was asked to source a venue for 15 people for this event which could be used
for additional future events. It was hoped Earl Howe would speak at an Executive
Circle in May or June. The DH was due to confirm a date.
Action
Item No.
9
10
11
Action
By Whom
By When
Mel to write up a PR strategy
for the Microsoft project.
SS to prepare briefing paper for
AG/ SG in order to (hopefully)
identify a Sounding Board
project lead.
MK
End of April 2012
SS
End of May 2012
MD to chase DH on post
Information Strategy event(s)
and Cabinet Office for
November date.
MD
End of April 2012
PiF Strategy Group meeting minutes – 29 February 2012
Page 5 of 6
8.0
Next Meetings
Date
Tuesday 1 May 2012
Time and Notes
PiF Annual Conference (for information only)
Wed 13 June 2012
Lunch for both SG and Directors: 1 - 2pm
Strategy Meeting: 2 - 4.30pm
Wed 12 September 2012
Strategy Meeting: 10.30am - 12 noon
PiF 2011 AGM for SG, AG, Regional/Country Coordinators: 12 - 1pm
Lunch for all: 1 - 2pm
Wed 5 December 2012
Lunch for both SG and Directors: 1 - 2pm
Strategy Meeting: 2 - 4.30pm
PiF Strategy Group meeting minutes – 29 February 2012
Page 6 of 6