Item 8.1 for 3 Aug 10 GAPF June 2010

APPROVED NHS GRAMPIAN Minute of the Grampian Area Partnership Forum (GAPF) held on Wednesday 16 June 2010 at 2.00pm in the Conference Room, Summerfield House

Present: Gordon Stephen, Staff Side Chair/Employee Director (Chairperson) Brigid Aitken, RCN (Video Conferenced) VC Failed to work after Item 2 Aimee Bevan, SOCAP (deputy for Deirdre McIntyre) Neil Buchanan, EPPMO (deputy for Jack Stuart) Jim Clark, GMB Joe Collier, Unit Nurse Manager Jon Cresswell, BMA Sharon Duncan, Unite Laura Gray, Communications Director Liz Laing, BAOT (deputy for Sandra-Dee Masson) Martin McKay, UNISON Stewart Rogerson (deputy for Gary Mortimer) Anne Ross, Head of Performance and Quality Clare Ruxton, Head of Human Resources (HR) Mike Scott, Staff Governance Committee Lynn Shand, CSP Alan Sharp, Assistant Director of Finance (deputy for Alan Gall) Vincent Shields, Interim Director of Acute Services Duncan Stephen, ACB Pauline Strachan, Chief Operating Officer Ali Walker, Service Manager (deputy for Bill Harrison) Joan Anderson, Partnership Support Officer

In Attendance

Janet Fraser, Dignity at Work Manager – for Item 2 Ashley Catto, HR Manager – for Items 8a and 10c Gerry Lawrie, Workforce Development and Redesign Manager – for Item 4c and 10b Scott Greer, Principal Investigator for Directly Elected Boards Pilot

Item Subject Action 1 Apologies

Apologies were received Eric Murray (Stewart Rogerson deputised), Heather Hardisty (and deputy Frances Dunne), Sandra-Dee Masson, BAOT (Liz Laing deputised), Sandy Dustan (Mike Ogg deputised), Richard Carey, Chief Executive, (no deputy), Deirdre MacIntyre, SOCAP (Aimee Bevan deputised), Mark Sinclair, Director of HR and Strategic Change (no deputy), John Brett, Head of Health and Safety (no deputy), Mike Adams, UCATT (no deputy), Alan Gall, Director of Finance (Alan Sharp deputised), Kirsten Sawers, RCM (no deputy), Bill Harrison (Ali Walker deputised), Jack Stuart (Neil Buchanan deputised), Brigid Aitken, RCN (left because of VC problems)

1 2 Dignity at Work

Janet Fraser, Dignity at Work Manager, attended the meeting to update the * Group on the Dignity at Work Toolkit (presentation slides attached). The previous time Janet attended GAPF it was agreed that she set up a short life working group to look at the Dignity at Work Toolkit to develop recommendations on what NHS Grampian could do with it. There is no mandate to implement this toolkit or implement in any particular way.

The small group generated 8 criteria to use to check through the Toolkit.

NHS Grampian was already doing things which are in line with the toolkit and may be further ahead then other Boards in this area. Work was ongoing on extending current dignity at work initiatives and the toolkit will be used for inspiration.

The “Recognise, Respond, Resolve” easy to remember formula for managers, plus some conflict management shortened training was being worked on. All the dignity at work initiatives are monitored.

There were some things about the Toolkit which were deficient eg access for people with a sight or reading difficulty. The budget to develop the toolkit nationally was 6 figures. The forum agreed that the problems with the Toolkit should be reported back to the Scottish Government to allow them to learn for the future.

Janet was thanked for her presentation and confirmed that the short life working group should continue with its recommendations on the Toolkit, and the Forum would invite her to attend a future meeting to update again on progress with Dignity at Work.

3 Minute of Meeting held on 11 May 2010

The minute of meeting held on 11 May 2010 was approved.

4 Matters Arising

a. On Call Rota

The issue about if someone was on two different rotas would they be paid twice was clarified. For example if someone was on two 1 in 12 rotas they would be paid 2 times 1 in 12, not 1 in 6.

b. Pensions Roadshows Feedback

Clare Ruxton reported that Richard Morrison, HRSC Manager, had discussed putting the presentation on the intranet with the Pensions Agency who did not feel this would be helpful without further explanation. The Pension Agency agreed to have ongoing workshops with staff instead. This was to be planned. It was noted that the final date for return of the Pension Choice exercise was CR 30 June 2010. If a member does not reply, they will stay on the old pension scheme.

2 There were talks nationally about increasing payments to superannuation by the employee and it was felt that this might affect the choice made by the member. It is very early stages of these talks and the forum were unsure whether they would be able to change contributions for existing employees, but for new employees this might be a risk.

Public Sector pensions will definitely be under scrutiny. They should be looked at as deferred pay for public sector works as both the employer and the employee contribute to the scheme.

c. NHS Grampian Workforce Plan 2010/2011

Gerry Lawrie explained that the Workforce Plan 2010/2011 was developed to answer specific questions from the Scottish Government and this was approved by the Board on 4 June. National figures were being scrutinised prior to any information being released publically, but NHS Grampians figures are already public as they were discussed at an open Board meeting.

d. Patient Escort

At the last meeting it was agreed that if there was no major cost implication to the paper on Patient Escorts it would be agreed. Richard Carey agreed the Patient Escort paper the day after the meeting and an email was sent round to inform forum members of this.

5 Any Other Competent Business Determination

None. 6 Improving the Public’s Health and Reducing Inequalities

No Items in this section.

7 Delivering Safe, Effective & Timely Care in the Right Place

a. Continuous Service Improvement (CSI)

Neville Trower, the new Lean expert has just started with the CSI department. Neville hoped to attend GAPF in July as part of his induction programme.

The planned CSI event had been postponed until August.

There are Thursday afternoon open sessions on CSI so anyone can attend. CR Further information from Clare Ruxton.

There was a request for a column to be added to the CSI Report to GAPF on outcomes so it was easier to see the benefits realisation achieved. Anne Ross reported that this was the most difficult part of CSI and there was to be an away day event soon to look at this.

3 b. Independent Inquiry into care provided by Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust – GAPF response

Comments were gathered from the workshop held at the end of the last Forum CR/GS/ meeting and a small group would meet to draft a GAPF response to the Report SDM/JA which was due in August. The draft response would be submitted to the July GAPF meeting.

It was important not to see the Mid Staffordshire Report in isolation; it needs to relate to the overall work of NHS Grampian. The Forum needs to be reassured that staff feel confident about reporting concerns through voicing concern or any other processes in place for this, plus using staff surveys.

8 Involving Patients, Public, Staff and Partners Towards Mutuality

a. GAPF Away Day Update

Ashley Catto attended the meeting to take the Forum through the GAPF Away Day Report and Action Plan 25 March 2010.

Apart from Item 5 regarding local questions for the Staff Survey, the Report and Action Plan was approved as a good way forward.

9 Improving Efficiency, Productivity and Sustainability

a. NHS Reports

Alan Sharp reported that the Financial Report for April and May would be sent out in the next few days. The accumulated overspend for NHS Grampian was £1.6m after two months. Most operational areas were overspending by a greater or lesser degree. The main areas of overspend were Acute, Facilities, Moray, Mental Health Services which were mainly due to pay overspends, and GP Prescribing. Cost reduction schemes such as SAW and stricter vacancy control were not yet implemented to a level that would achieve savings to meet the cost reduction targets applied to budgets from 1 April 2010. These will back up current controls of bank and agency use. Richard Carey noted that this amount of overspend has been seen at the same time in previous financial years and NHS Grampian has been able to balance the books so if everyone keeps working hard on budgets this could still be achievable.

There is no official report requested from the Scottish Government this month, but there will probably be a verbal report requested.

b. Financial Reports from Sectors

Aberdeenshire – concentrating on SAW workshops and efficiencies and the correlation between the two.

Mental Health Services – concentrating on SAW and EPPMO. Bill Harrison, General Manager, had met with all 5 Service Managers to discuss the years finance and asked for all budget holders to look at every way to save money.

4 Acute – putting all cost savings ideas to EPPMO. Invited the Staff Side Chairperson of the Acute Sector Partnership Forum to attend the Senior Management Team meeting to discuss finances. They are overspent at the moment, but not by as much as expected so feel that some initiatives begun last financial year are beginning to work or still working.

Facilities – at the moment concentrating on the Safe and Unaffordable Workforce and trying to get to the Safe and Affordable situation, with a lot of work to do. The whiteboarding exercise for SAW is underway.

Corporate – Whiteboard for SAW has begun in some of the areas, but as there are so many parts to Corporate Sector it was not possible to have an update from them all.

Pauline Strachan asked why Sectors were just asked for a financial report and not a more general report as well. This was because of the immediate financial situation but the Forum would be happy to expand the report to include other subjects as long as the report was still fairly quick. This change RC/GS would have to be communicated to General Managers. c. Safe Affordable Workforce (SAW) Update

At the last Forum meeting an anonymous version of the Senior Managers 8a and above SAW Report was to be circulated. This had not been done and CR Clare Ruxton agreed to take this forward.

Clare Ruxton reported that whiteboarding was taking place throughout Sectors and it had been hoped to arrange challenge meetings for the end of July but there may be some slippage. There had been some initial difficulties in partnership working in some areas but hopefully these have now been resolved. It is important that all Staff Side SAW Reps and local Staff Side Reps are involved in all the local processes.

Vincent Shields explained that there were subtle differences in the Management Review 8a and Above and the SAW Review because of the numbers of staff involved. It will take more time to identify all staff which will have to be done through managers who will take the information to all staff.

Aberdeenshire were working through three phases, SAW, professions around localities and linking it all with the productive community.

It was stressed how important it was for Staff Side SAW Reps to be included at the beginning of the process and agree how to disseminate information with them to ensure all staff have access to information. Staff Side Reps need plenty notice to be able to attend meetings despite the timescale for the project. Each area may have to be done differently depending on the area.

Everyone within the workplace has a role to ensure that everyone has an understanding of the process being followed. All forms of communications should be used eg paper, intranet, emails, etc.

It was recognised that although there may be some slippage in timescale, the work on this project has begun and it was better to do it right than make mistakes because of rushing it.

5 d. Efficiency and Productivity Programme Management Office (EPPMO)

Neil Buchanan gave an introduction to the background of EPPMO. There are three main workstreams ongoing – CSI, SAW and EPPMO which are all generating savings to meet deficient finances. CSI is unlikely to generate savings this year and SAW will generate savings nearer the end of the financial year. EPPMO is about quicker savings and to further support budget managers to identify savings from ideas from staff, committees, etc.

Ideas are collated on a daily bases and then those which EPPMO think are workable to go Budget Steering Group (BSG) for approval to take further. There are monthly reports from each Sector on savings from EPPMO.

There is currently a workplan of 70-80 suggestions which will go to BSG for a view and Staff Side can receive a copy of this list. It is just suggestions at this stage which require further work.

There was discussion about when is an idea agreed and by whom and when should it be discussed at GAPF. Gordon Stephen asked for the Budget GS/JS Steering Group Minute to be circulated to GAPF along with the list of ideas.

There had been a breakdown in the partnership involvement and decision making regarding EPPMO, eg Staff Uniform Laundering. There was also some confusion regarding whether staff could request tax relief if there were no in-house laundering being offered.

It was accepted that there was lack of clarity on the process for EPPMO and that there needed to be an agreed process. GS/JS

It was very important to get the communication to staff right on this and Laura Gray was meeting regularly with Neil Buchanan to do this. Sometimes the media would pick up an idea before a decision had been made on it and a communication would have to be put to staff on this prior to them hearing about it in the media.

Richard Carey chairs the BSG and he felt that there may be times when there are differences of opinion on the way forward and if there was something that would give a high savings return and was controversial it may have to be escalated to the NHSG Board to make a decision. Failure to agree does not mean that some items will not be implemented.

The Forum was reminded of the Memorandum of Understanding where Staff Side committed to work with management through this difficult financial time on the understanding that they would be involved at the earliest stage in the process.

There are agreed processes for Partnership and the Partnership in Reality Flowchart is one of these, which can be accessed on the Partnership Intranet Site along with other Partnership paperwork.

Medical and Dental issues have to be discussed at the BMA Joint Negotiating Committee.

6 e. Voluntary Severance (VS)

The figures on how many notes of interest and the approximate costs and savings had been circulated. A global had been circulated the day before stressing to staff not to submit a formal application until further information regarding funding is known.

The funding options for VS were to be discussed and a definite agreement had to come out of the NHSG Board meeting on 25 June 2010. The proposal is to allow overspend to fund VS which would be paid back using the profits from the proceeds from the sale of Upper and Lower Royal Cornhill Hospital which was estimated to be in the region of £10m.

John Mathieson, the Finance Director for the Scottish Government confirmed that the use of the profits of a sale in this way was admissible.

Richard Carey expressed a view that he would like to see VS be offered more regularly with the sale of future properties or other funding initiatives funding it.

An assurance was requested that there was agreement on the following:

a. If someone has been supported by their manager in their application for VS and they are not successful for whatever reason, they will not be targeted for compulsory redeployment, and

b. If someone has been supported by their manager in their application for VS and they are not successful for whatever reason, they will not be singled out automatically for compulsory redeployment if subsequent redesign takes place. All staff to be treated equally in a redesign situation.

Pauline Strachan confirmed that this assurance had definitely been given.

9 Developing the Workforce and Empowering Staff

Grampian Area Partnership Forum Sub-Group Updates

a. Aberdeen City Sector Partnership Forum Presentation – postponed until a future date.

b. Learning and Development/Workforce Sub-Group Presentation

Gerry Lawrie attended the meeting on behalf of the Learning and Development/Workforce Sub-Group to give a presentation on the workplan of * the group (presentation slides attached).

The group works on a variety of Learning and Development or Workforce related policies. They are trying to encourage other groups not to work up their own policies and just present them to the group but to come to them with the proposal for a policy for discussion and to ensure policies are written in Partnership.

They discuss workforce issues related to Local Delivery Plans and operational issues of KSF, not the strategic KSF issues that GAPF would discuss.

7 Staff Side induction was being developed and will be reported in due course to GAPF.

The group links with the national Scottish Workforce and Governance Committee (SWAG).

The group lacks Staff Side representation because of a number of staff leaving or changing roles and this presents a challenge to the group.

Most of the work comes from the ground up to them rather than from GAPF. It was questioned whether they were duplicating work done elsewhere and did they need to meet, but it was clarified that they only meet four times a year and when they did they had a very full agenda of appropriate issues and they had representation on the group from the relevant areas. c. Terms and Conditions Sub-Group – Gordon Stephen

Discussions nationally on On-Call have not progressed. Once this is available, Scotland would have to take it forward and decide if local means Scotland wide or local Boards. i. Carry Over of Holiday Entitlement During Long Term Sick Leave

Ashley Catto presented this paper on behalf of the Terms and Conditions Sub- Group. She explained that although there was a cost implication to this paper of approximately £75,000, there is a legal requirement for all Employers and NHS Employers through CEL 17(2009) to do this. The paper was noted. d. Policies and Procedures Sub-Group

The last few Policies and Procedures Sub-Group meetings had been cancelled and this was concerning. The next meeting to be on 2 July and it must go ahead as there is a lot of work to do. e. Communications Sub-Group

It is usually the Communications Sub-Group that takes forward the organisation and campaign for the Staff Survey. There is no funding available for it this year. f. Knowledge and Skills Framework (KSF) HEAT Target

Helen Cheyne was unable to attend the meeting. The SBAR gave the figures and there was a question regarding why we were reporting on 19,921 staff. This figure includes Bank Staff and they will be removed from the figure in due course. g. Agenda for Change Mainstreaming

Mainstreaming panels were about to start. Still require more Staff Side matchers to join the panels. Refresher training was being offered.

Clare Ruxton explained that there had been a redesign within HR teams and a post of co-ordinator for the job evaluation was going to the next vacancy panel for approval. Funding would come from within existing resources. 8 h. Staff Governance Audit Report Update

The final report was agreed by the Staff Governance Committee in May and submitted to the Scottish Government by the deadline of 31 May. It was noted that next year GAPF should see the report early in the year to see how much progress was being made, and the final report should come to GAPF for approval prior to Staff Governance Committee.

An Action Plan for 2010/2011 was now to be developed and it was agreed that we should not be too ambitious and only put in actions which we are already doing as part of NHSG Strategic Themes.

i. Workforce Information Report

This report to done quarterly and at the end of March 2010 the absence figure was at 4.08% which almost made the HEAT Target of 4%.

Staff Side asked for figures on grievances and disciplinary hearings to be CR included in the report to allow for better monitoring.

There was a question about how are we tracking Nicola Sturgeons statement that we will have more staff in post at the end of the SNP term in office than at the beginning? It was agreed that Gordon Stephen and Clare Ruxton would check that this was being done. It was understood that this meant headcount rather than whole time equivalent numbers.

11 Any Other Competent Business

12 Date of Next Meeting

The next meeting will be on the GAPF Away Day to be held on Wednesday 14 July 2010 from 2pm to 5pm in the Conference Room, Summerfield House, Aberdeen.

Items for Information

Noted.

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