NHS GRAMPIAN Minute of the Grampian Area Partnership Forum (GAPF) held on Thursday 13 April 2017 at 1.00pm Conference Room, Summerfield House Approved Present: Sharon Duncan, Staff Side Chair/Employee Director (Chairperson) Mike Adams, UCATT Amy Anderson, Non-Executive Director Diane Annand, Staff Governance Manager Elaine Allan, Lead Nurse School Nursing (deputy for Amanda Croft) Audrey Bell, Head of Domestic Support Services (deputy for Paul Allen) Jim Clark, GMB Susan Coull, Head of HR Jane Fletcher, Head of Hosted MH&LD Services (deputy for Karen Gunn) Michael Forbes, RCN (deputy for Alistair Grant) Laura Gray, Communications Director Gemma Hood, SOR Annie Ingram, Director of Workforce Gerry Lawrie, Head of Workforce & Development Steven Lindsay, Unite Rachael Little, SOCAP Martin McKay, UNISON Deirdre McIntyre, SOCAP Cameron Matthew, Divisional General Manager (deputy for Gary Mortimer) Stephen Merchant, Head of Health and Safety Tracy Miller, RCM Mike Ogg, General Manager Aberdeenshire Maurice Scott, GMB (taking over from Jim Clark) Alan Sharp, Assistant Director of Finance (deputy for Alan Gray) Graeme Smith, Director of Modernisation Joan Anderson, Partnership Support Officer In Attendance Scott Sim, Interim Head of ehealth for item 6b Tracy Hicks, Recruitment Manager for item 7b 1 Apologies Apologies were received from Rebecca Clark, BDA; Amanda Croft, Director of Nursing (Elaine Allan deputised); Gary Mortimer, General Manager Acute (Cameron Matthew deputised); Malcolm Wright, Chief Executive; Alistair Grant, RCN (Michael Forbes deputised); Paul Allan, General Manager, Facilities (Audrey Bell deputised); Anne Ross, Head of Performance and Quality; Eric Sinclair, Chair of Staff Governance Committee; Mike Park, Staff Side Health and Safety Chairperson; Sandy Reid, Senior Service Manager; Ruth Marshall, CSP. 1
Sharon Duncan congratulated Gemma Barclay on recently getting married. Gemma would know be known as Gemma Hood. Jim Clark would be retiring on 12 May 2017. He was thanked for all his input into Partnership working. Maurice Scott would take over from Jim at GAPF on behalf of GMB. Maurice Scott had been elected as the Facilities Partnership Forum Staff Side Chair. 2 Minute of Last Meeting held on 16 March 2017 The minute of the last meeting was approved. 3 Matters Arising GAPF Development Day 18 May 2017 The all day event would be held in Curl Aberdeen and each Sector would be asked to send a minimum of 10 people and if possible at least one management person and one staff side person who are new to Partnership. ALL/ Sector Chairs 4 Provided with a continuously improving and safe working environment, promoting the health and wellbeing of staff, patients and the wider community a. Health and Safety Executive Inspection (HSE) Update Stephen Merchant explained the background to the HSE improvement notices. Two notices had been removed and four were still outstanding. The Health and Safety Expert Group was taking forward the actions required. There was discussion on all the improvements made, but much more work was still to be undertaken. The biggest challenge was to roll out the actions to areas outwith the improvement notice areas. Sharon Duncan reported that Steven Logan, Board Chairman, commended Partnership working within NHS Grampian before HSE involvement. She stated that Partnership worked around health and safety because of everyone round the GAPF. b. Health and Safety Workshops Two workshops had been organised for 26 April and 24 May. The HSE inspectors had been invited to attend. Everyone was encouraged to attend one of the days. The work done would inform the review of the Health and Safety Strategy and Policy. Being involved would give everyone a better understanding and greater ownership of the strategic direction. 2
At a recent integration event the TUC Education Officer had explained that Highland Council had a Partnership Covenant Agreement with the TUC which allowed Partnership working with the TUC. Staff Side were asked to consider whether they would agree to a similar agreement between NHS Grampian and the TUC and if so Sharon Duncan and Annie Ingram would take forward. Sharon Duncan reported that two five day health and safety courses had been set up by the TUC for NHS Grampian recognised organisations to put people forward for. Both courses were to be attended. Information would be circulated to Trade Unions and Professional Organisations. Managers were asked to release staff for these courses. Everyone was reminded that Health and Safety Representatives had rights to undertake their role, including training. Time off should not be unreasonably refused. Staff Side SD 5 Treated Fairly and Consistently, with Dignity and Respect, in an environment where Diversity is Valued a. Staff Experience Measure Diane Annand explained that the provisional distribution date for the complementary questionnaire was 6 November 2017. The process of using imatter and the complementary questionnaire (including the questions) would be evaluated by the Scottish Government in 2018, with a view to refining the approach to measuring staff experience nationally. Laura Gray explained that the National Leads of Communications had met and their views on the complementary questionnaire were similar to local views i.e. that it could be counter-productive. Annie Ingram reported that the HR Directors group had similar views. It was noted that it had been supported by the Scottish Partnership Forum and it was suggested that Staff Side Representatives pass on local views to their national colleagues. A branding between imatter and the complementary questionnaire was going ahead despite requests not to do so. As the Scottish Government was treating 2017 as a transitional year, a shorter Staff Governance Standard Monitoring questionnaire, to inform the NHS Scotland Annual Review process, had been produced for submission by 31 May 2017. Sectors and Corporate areas had been asked to provide full year evidence for 2016/17 commitments and complete a nationally provided local template by 1 May 2017 for consideration at the Staff Governance Committee on 22 May 2017. The Staff Governance Committee had agreed that a 2017/18 action plan should still be produced for local monitoring although this was not required to be submitted to the Scottish Government this year. b. Once for Scotland Approach This was an initiative for sharing services across NHS Scotland. A comprehensive paper had been previously circulated. These services included Recruitment, Employee Services, Doctors and Dentists in Training and Payroll Services. 3
Susan Coull and Steven Lindsay were members of the Recruitment Steering Group. There had been two workshops and 6 options were presented. Diane Annand and Sharon Duncan were members of the HR Shared Services Steering Group. The timeline had shifted for this and felt that it may be moved even further away. Sharon and Diane planned to run local presentations to staff and also to do similar in NHS Orkney on Employee Services. Local events would inform regional discussions. No proposals had been produced from this group to date. Annie Ingram was on the Doctors and Dentists in Training Steering Group. A recent decision had been made for NHS Grampian to be an early adopter in relation to GP trainees from August 2017. Full implementation was planned for August 2018. In 2015 NHS Grampian and NHS Tayside agreed to collaborate to sustain delivery of Payroll, SSTS and expenses Services co-chaired by Annie Ingram and Robert MacKinnon (NHS Tayside). NHS Grampian had provided payroll services for NHS Orkney and NHS Shetland since 2012 and NHS Highland has recently joined the collaborative. Lorraine Hunter had recently been appointed as the joint Head of Service between NHS Grampian and NHS Tayside. Annie Ingram chairs the National Programme Board to establish NHS Scotland Payroll Services bringing together the four regional consortia. A national workshop was held on 22 February 2017 which discussed the Target Operating Model for payroll services across Scotland and the national plan. Further information could be asked of any of the representatives on any of the groups. ALL 6 Well Informed a. Finance Update Alan Sharp explained that the 2016/17 financial position would be available soon. It was hoped that NHS Grampian would break even. A 5 year financial plan had been submitted to the Scottish Government on 31 March 2017. It was hoped to break even again for 2017/18 but highlighted an 8m risk. There was a revenue deficit projected across NHS Scotland for 2017/18 with some Boards projecting very significant financial challenges. i. 10 Key Financial Facts This list added to the tools which could be used in conversations with staff. The whole list would not be used at one time; relevant parts to be used depending on the audience. 4
ii. 10 Workforce Highlights This list would be useful to use in conversations with staff, again not necessarily the whole list at a time. Gerry Lawrie reported some workforce facts and figures. The number of staff under the age of 20 in NHS Grampian had dropped. Those under 25 years had increased very slightly. The overall message was that the workforce was an older one and staff were staying longer. There was discussion on how to acknowledge long service. The charities rules changed a number of years ago and financial or other gifts could no longer be given. It was agreed to do some work to cost out a badge or certificate and whether funding could come from elsewhere other than the NHS Grampian Endowments. A small group would be set up to take this work forward and Joan Anderson would email round for volunteers. JA b. Information Commissioner s Office (ICO) Enforcement for Data Protection Breaches Scott Sim attended the meeting to explain the progress which had been made. GAPF gave approval in 2014 to go ahead with actions to resolve data protection breaches. The issue with Trackcare had been resolved almost immediately. It had been set up with a user identifier using a member of staffs user account when generating printing. The solution to all the other printing done in NHS Grampian had taken longer. The solution had now been found and tested within a department. When someone sent a paper to the printer it would be printed with their NHSG log in user ID in very small print at the bottom of the page. ehealth had been tasked with putting an identifier on the printed paper and that had been achieved. There remained an issue of staff photocopying papers and other people being in control of these. Education and guidance to staff to safeguard papers and only print when absolutely necessary was required. There may be exceptional instances where someone would wish to remain anonymous, for example, in relation to a formal investigation. This is deemed appropriate, and care needed to be taken when printing papers to ensure that the owner was protected. GAPF approved the proposal. Scott Sim was asked a question while he was in attendance regarding poor wi-fi in some community clinics/gp practices in Aberdeenshire, making logging in with new mobile devices difficult at times. Scott agreed that this would be looked into and the wi fi availability would be improved where necessary. Staff should not be asked to take their mobile devices home to charge up and log in to download data. The mobile device was security protected but there were certain places e.g. public wi-fi spots that should not be used. 5
c. NHS Conference The NHS Conference was being held on 20 and 21 June 2017 in Glasgow. The information would be available soon and sectors were encouraged to put people forward for this directly. Laura Gray reported that out of 40 posters submitted to this conference from NHS Grampian, 10 had been accepted. 7 Involved in Decision Making a. Terms and Conditions Sub-Group Presentation Diane Annand and Michael Forbes, Co-Chairs of the Terms and Conditions Sub-Group had submitted a comprehensive paper to the group. They highlighted a few of the issues they had been dealing with since they last reported to GAPF two years ago. One issue which had taken up a lot of time for a lot of people was Paid As If At Work (PAIAW). This issue was very complicated and sessions were being held for staff in different areas. The group members were thanked for all their hard work. The work of the group assisted managers and staff side as well as HR Staff to ensure staff were treated fairly and consistently. b. Recruitment and Selection Policy for approval Tracey Hicks highlighted the changes to the policy. The policy was approved with the amendment of the page numbers in the contents sheet. The review date was set at 5 years i.e. 2022, but because of changes expected to happen in the next few months regarding Corporate Induction the policy may have to be reviewed earlier. The new policy would be supported with training. c. Shared Services Sharon Duncan Covered in 5b above. d. Partnership Diary Sharon Duncan Sharon Duncan gave a plea to all Sectors to set dates for the year and keep these dates so that attendance was good. Everyone was asked to try and avoid clashes of dates with other important meetings. There was a Corporate Diary where meetings could be logged and GAPF dates were already in this diary. There was discussion about the use of vc and Cisco Jabber for personal computers. Skype for Business which was used by local authorities may be able to be used by NHS in the future. 6
8 Sector Partnership Forum Reports All written reports were received prior to the meeting. a. Acute Although meetings had been cancelled, there was still a lot of Partnership working going one. Cameron Matthew and Alistair Grant had done some walk rounds at ARI regarding ward moves and peoples readiness to move. This was to benchmark issues and would be reviewed six weeks later. Sharon Duncan had spoken to Gary Mortimer regarding dates for Sector Partnership Forum meetings and it was agreed that in discussion with the cochairs Karen Watson and Carolyn Venters these dates would be set and not changed. Annie Ingram noted that commitment to Partnership working was key and that Staff Side Representatives needed to be released to attend meetings. b. Aberdeenshire A lot of positive things happening in Aberdeenshire in Partnership. c. Moray The Partnership Forum had discussed the Staff Governance Annual Return at their latest meeting. There was a question regarding staff in Spynie Hospital. It was noted that this should be monitored for any health and safety issues. d. City Nothing further to report. e. Facilities Work was ongoing to make good all the trenches at Foresterhill, so the site was being tidied up. Douglas Andrew, Training and Development Manager, Facilities, had produced a video for You Tube regarding careers in Estates and Facilities. It was agreed to add the link to the minute. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmgdvtxcwfk&feature=youtu.be ALL f. Mental Health and Learning Disabilities Nothing further to report. g. Corporate Nothing further to report. 7
9 Appropriately Trained and Developed No items were discussed under this heading. 10 Any Other Competent Business SBAR - Proposed Reduction of Opening Hours of Pink Zone Café This paper had been presented to GAPF following a review of the use of the Pink Zone Café (Phase II). Staff catering services had to financially break even and with the low use of the café at certain times this was not happening. GAPF noted the issues this would cause for the staff and patients/relatives using the café. It was agreed that further discussion should take place with Paul Allen regarding the timing of vending machines being in place, opening hours of other cafes in the area alongside the need for staff and patients/relatives to have somewhere to go away from the wards which did not only offer vending machines. AB 11 Communication to Organisation from GAPF It was agreed to communicate the following to staff: a. Health and Safety what has been achieved and what still to be done. Use Up Front and Team Brief. b. ICO Enforcement user ID on printed papers c. Recruitment and Selection Policy using the agreed Policies Sub- Group process. d. Terms and Conditions Diane Annand was considering a global email to be requested for terms and conditions issues only. SM/AI SS/LG DA DA 12 Date and Time of Next Meeting The GAPF Development Day to be held on Thursday 18 May 2017 at Curl Aberdeen from 9.30am to 4pm. Everyone was invited to attend. The next meeting of GAPF will be held on Thursday 15 June 2017 at 1pm to 4pm in the Conference Room, Summerfield House. Joan Anderson, Partnership Support Officer, ext 58459 email joananderson@nhs.net 8