UNAPPROVED
NHS GRAMPIAN
Minute of the Grampian Area Partnership Forum (GAPF)
held on Wednesday 22 April 2009 at 2.00pm
in the Conference Room, Summerfield House
Approved
Present:
Gordon Stephen, Staff Side Chair/Employee Director (Chair)
Board Meeting
Mike Adams, UCATT
02 06 09
Bill Boyes, ADOF - Corporate Finance (deputy for Alan Gall)
Open Session
John Brett, Head of Health and Safety
Item 9.1
Jim Clark, GMB
Jon Cresswell, BMA
Sharon Duncan, Unite
Frances Dunne, Service Manager, Aberdeen City CHP (deputy for Heather Hardisty)
Laura Gray, Communications Director
Anne Inglis, Head of Organisational Development
Liz Laing, BAOT (deputy for Sandra-Dee Masson)
Ruaraidh MacKinnon, UNISON (deputy for Bettina Low)
Deirdre MacKintyre, SOCAP
Mike Ogg, Assistant General Manager (deputy for Jack Stuart)
Jen Pittendreigh, BDA
Ed Rennie, Head of Human Resources (HR)
Anne Ross, Head of Performance and Quality
Mark Sinclair, HR Director
Vincent Shields, Assistant ~General manager - Division 3 (deputy for Alisdair Chisholm)
Philip Shipman, HR Manager Moray (deputy for Andrew Fowlie)
Kirsten Sawers, RCM
Karen Thow, RCN
Joan Anderson, Partnership Support Officer
In Attendance
Alan Gall, Director of Finance for Item 4
Diane Annand, Project Manager for Item 6b and 11c
Elinor Smith, Director of Nursing for item 10e
Item
1.
Apologies
Subject
Apologies were received from Ann-Louise Shields, BOS (no deputy),
Andrew Fowlie, General Manager Moray (Philip Shipman deputised), Sandra
Dee Masson, BAOT (Partnership Co-ordinator) (Liz Laing deputised), Alisdair
Chisholm, Acute General Manager (Vincent Shields deputised), Fiona
MacKenzie, Lead Nurse Acute Sector (and Joe Collier), Bettina Low, UNISON
(Ruaraidh MacKinnon), Eric Murray, Facilities Director (no deputy), Alan Gall,
Director of Finance (Bill Boyes deputised), Lynn Shand, CSP (no deputy),
Richard Carey, Chief Executive (no deputy), Mike Scott, Chair Staff
Governance Committee (no deputy), Jack Stuart, General Manager,
Aberdeenshire CHP (Mike Ogg deputised), Heather Hardisty, Senior Service
Manager, Aberdeen City CHP (Frances Dunne deputised), David Graham (no
deputy)
1
Action
Item
Subject
2
Minute of meeting held on 11 February 2009
The Minute of meeting held on 11 February 2009 was approved.
3
Matters Arising
a.
Continuous Service Improvement (CSI)
A small group had been formed, which Gordon Stephen was part of, to scope
about 8-10 projects. They will meet to turn this into a project plan. Staff Side
Reps to be invited to join the groups for the demonstrator projects. Managers
will be brought up to date with progress at the Information Exchange at the
end of April. ATOS have done a detailed mapping exercise which will be
shared with GAPF at the May meeting.
The information exchange is open to those on the key contacts list. The venue
can only hold 200 people so space is limited. GAPF were asked to explain to
their colleagues, teams etc that a short series of roadshows would begin after
the information exchange and take the same message out to staff so no-one
would miss out. A DVD may be produced for those unable to attend any of the
events. It is recognised that face to face sessions are always better, but
sometimes it is impossible for all interested staff to attend a roadshow.
Open space events were also mentioned as a way of speaking to staff. They
would involve a senior executive attending a venue for staff to come and
speak to them and ask questions. More work is required to organise this.
It was made clear that although ATOS have been contacted by the Scottish
Government and we have an agreement with them to undertake work around
CSI, they will only do what is asked of them by NHS Grampian and not the
other way round.
Engagement with clinicians, middle and lower managers needs to be
increased.
It was agreed that a form of words should be agreed on to describe the
CSI/Lean work so everyone is using the same terminology.
b.
Voluntary Severance (VS)/Voluntary Early Release Scheme (VERS)
These schemes both enhance statutory requirements and it very much
depends on the individual member of staff which scheme would be best for
them. The variables are length of service, age and membership of the
superannuation pension scheme.
NHS Grampian are in a challenging financial time and are encouraging all staff
and all managers to think about redesign to allow staff to volunteer to leave the
organisation under one of these schemes. These schemes are voluntary and
no-one will be forced to take up the offer.
The two schemes VS and VERS will be launched at the information exchange
even though they are not quite finalised.
2
Action
Item
Subject
It is proposed to have a “window of opportunity” for a period of time eg from 1
July 2009 for three months. This way planning can be done around how to
redesign services knowing how many staff would like to leave. Managers
would be encouraged to redesign and HR will support them with this.
Comments were requested on the paper by 30 April. The final paper will go to
the June GAPF and then it would go to OMT to approve.
There was discussion about whether the post had to disappear altogether or
could it be replaced with a post a couple of bands below. It was agreed to
make no replacement the norm, but write in a degree of flexibility of
replacement if the payback can be shown.
The purpose of offering these two schemes is to encourage staff to leave on a
voluntary basis to try and save money as NHS Grampian has to save £20m
recurring to be able to balance the books.
It was proposed to offer career support to staff who showed interest in one of
the schemes by way of an outside consultancy company. This is similar
support which has been offered to staff in the past during times of change. .
Costs can only be guestimates meantime until it is known how many staff take
up the offer.
If the savings does not come from the voluntary schemes, is there a plan b?
There are some ideas which will also be looked at.
c.
Grampian Credit Union
Following the presentation to the last meeting, it was agreed to set up a small
group to discuss development proposals for the credit union. This group
would be made up of Ed Rennie, Barry Jenkins (Assistant Director of Finance),
Frances Dunne and Sharon Duncan. They will report back to a future meeting
of the forum.
4
Financial Report
Alan Gall attended the meeting to give a presentation on the current financial
position (slides attached).
2008/09 NHS Grampian met their three key financial targets and many, if not
all, key operational targets. This was well done, but unfortunately 2009/10
figures are not so good. There is a £16m gap between income and the
estimated cost of providing services for the year. 2010/11 planned uplift of
3.15% will most likely be reduced to nearer 1%. Very tough financial controls
will have to be put into place until the 2009/10 budget is agreed and approved
by the Board.
3
Action
Item
Subject
Achieving a balanced revenue budget 2009/10 Short-Term Financial Control
Measures on Recruitment and Related Activity – draft paper had been
circulated. It was agreed that Gordon Stephen would endorse the paper if
certain changes were made regarding the priority posts and the band change
paragraph.
The forum felt the use of staff on the redeployment register was a positive
move.
Changes need to be made soon to begin to save money as overspends are
happening now.
5
Workforce Information Report
The report gives figures on a number of areas of workforce. Absence figures
have been reduced although the target of 4% was not reached, but good work
had been done on this.
6
Agenda for Change
a.
KSF
i.
Monitoring Forms February and March 2009
Anne Inglis explained that 15526 members of staff now have an agreed
personal development plan (PDP). This takes us over 100% because the ISD
figure for our total staff is 12685 but this figure did not include bank staff, new
staff, fixed term contracts, etc. Some staff have a PDP but they do not have
an assigned outline. Work is ongoing to rectify this.
The new HEAT Target is a 2 year target and we are waiting for details on this.
The eKSF helpline is in place and the calls are being monitored.
eKSF roadshows for facilities staff have been arranged and dates will be
circulated to managers who are to ensure the information is cascaded to all
staff.
eKSF training is all held at Royal Cornhill Hospital now and demand for this is
still high. The Gateway activation has been delayed nationally, despite being
ready for it locally.
The KSF sub-group has now concluded its business and has merged with the
GAPF Learning and Development/Workforce Sub-Group.
Thanks was given to everyone who had worked to meet the targets.
b.
*
Job Evaluation/Review Update
Diane Annand, Agenda for Change Project Manager, attended the meeting to
update the group on assimilation and review progress (paper attached).
4
Action
Item
Subject
Scottish Government now closely monitoring the progress of the assimilation
of substantive employees, bank workers and Leavers. In addition, a new
target was given for payment of arrears. Some of the targets were sooner
than our agreed timescales and some were the same. NHS Grampian had
met the 30 April 2009 targets and had given feedback on the others.
Despite the Government asking for strict deadlines, they had not given
individual feedback to NHS Grampian on the submitted returns.
Of all the review applications completed to date, 74.6% have achieved a band
change.
7
GAPF Away Day 19 March 2009
The GAPF Away Day was felt by all to have been a success. There was lots
of discussion and the Sector Partnership Forum Reports were particularly
helpful. An action plan will be drafted for discussion and approval at the next
GAPF meeting in May.
8
Recruitment/Retention Premia for Joiners
There had been some confusion around this application as follows:
The application had been sent from GAPF to the management side and the
staff side of STAC (Scottish Terms and Conditions Committee) to consider.
On 23 March an email was sent from Janis Miller who supports STAC, to Mark
Sinclair asking four questions. As Mark was unavailable Ed Rennie responded
to the email. One of the questions asked if NHS Grampian management still
supported the application. The response to this was that management were
fully supportive of the application.
At the meeting of STAC, the group were told that NHS Grampian had
contacted MSG to withdraw the application. Therefore the application was not
discussed at STAC.
The Staff Side members of STAC were very confused and they were
supportive of the application. The Staff Side Secretary to STAC wrote to
Gordon Stephen as Employee Director to ask why the application had been
withdrawn. Gordon responded to say we had not withdrawn the application.
GAPF once again stated its support for the application and reinforced their
request to have this discussed at STAC. This will be communicated to the
STAC Staff Side Secretary and It was also agreed that Gordon Stephen and
Richard Carey would write to MSG and ask for an explanation of what had
happened and why.
9
Staff Governance Audit
The end of year Progress Report 2008/09 and the Priority Report had been
circulated.
5
Action
Item
Subject
Audit Scotland would be involved to audit 2008/09 Report and the
development of 2009/10 Action Plan. Hall Harper, Ed Rennie and Gordon
Stephen were to meet with Audit Scotland on 23 April. Ed Rennie agreed to
speak to the Scottish Government about some confusion which had taken
place regarding the work that was to be undertaken and the understanding of
Audit Scotland. They had requested evidence for some of the actions with
three days notice.
10
Policies for Approval
a.
Workplace Adjustment Policy
The group felt that staff on half pay when returning to work on a phased basis
should go back to full pay during the phased period and that bullet point 4.1
and 4.2 don’t fit. It was agreed to ask the working group to re-look at the
policy and write out the element of half pay.
b.
Employee Conduct Policy
This amendment was approved.
It was noted that the Employee Conduct Policy did not cover Medical and
Dental staff. A similar paper would be given to the Joint Negotiating
Committee for consideration.
c.
Dignity at Work Policy
Approved.
d.
Organisational Change Policy
Approved.
e.
Clinical Supervision Policy
The policy was approved with a proviso that it would be reviewed and be taken
back to GAPF within six months with a statement saying that the policy will be
carried out “within existing resource”. The areas of concern included:
Who would do the supervision – not usually the line manager
Responsibility of the supervisor
Notes – who keeps them and for how long?
f.
Dress Policy
This policy was only approved as guidance and not as a policy, with the
condition that local workplaces should have their own policies.
g.
NHS Grampian Healthcare Associated Infection Learning and
Development Strategic Plan
Approved.
6
Action
Item
h.
Subject
Time off and Facilities Policy
Approved.
11
Update from Sub-Groups
a.
Health, Safety and Wellbeing Sub-Group
i.
Management of Buildings/Premises with Multi-Occupancy (This item
was taken at top of the agenda)
The group agreed that a solution needed to be found for the
management of multi-occupancy buildings which are not already being
managed. This includes buildings across the whole of NHS Grampian
in a similar position. Mark Sinclair agreed to speak to Ewan Robertson
to try and come up with a solution and report back to the group.
ii.
Draft Constitution for the NHS Grampian Occupational Health and
Safety Committee for consultation.
This new committee would replace the GAPF Health and Safety SubGroup and would be a partnership group with direct reporting to
Operational Management Team (OMT) and links to GAPF, Staff
Governance Committee, Sector Health and Safety Groups along with
other relevant groups.
The constitution was approved by the forum. It is hoped to set up the
first meeting of the committee in either May or June.
b.
Learning and Development/Workforce
Time ran out and this item was not discussed.
c.
Terms and Conditions
i.
Mileage Consultation
The UK deadline for the comments on the mileage consultation had been
changed from 24 April to 8 May. Only 5 questionnaires/3 comments had been
received to date, so it was agreed to put it out for consultation for a further
period by way of a global email to all staff. Comments to be sent to Diane
prior to 8 May so there is time to collate a response and submit it before the
deadline. It was agreed that GAPF would not see the NHS Grampian
response prior to submission.
ii.
Job Description Transfers
The forum approved the proposal to end the practice of job description
transfers giving staff 6 weeks notice of this. The reason for this is that the
review process is nearing an end and any staff newly assimilated have the
opportunity to proceed for preliminary screening or review or job description
transfer within the agreed three month timescale from the date of their
assimilation letter.
7
Action
Item
Subject
d.
Staff Management Policies and Procedures
Time ran out and this item was not discussed.
e.
Staff Communications
Time ran out and this item was not discussed.
12
Any Other Competent Business
Annual Review
This years Annual Review will be held on 2 November. Timings for the day
have not yet been received. More information will be circulated when
available.
13
Date of Next Meeting
The next meeting will be held on Wednesday 13 May 2009 from 2pm to 5pm in
the Conference Room, Summerfield House.
14
Items for Information
Noted.
Email: joananderson@nhs.net
Telephone: (01224) 556372
8
Action