Staff Governance Committee Report to Grampian NHS Board

Committee Meeting on 4 August 2015

Purpose of Report

This report updates the Grampian NHS Board on key issues arising from the Committee meeting on 4 August 2015.

Recommendation

The Board is asked to note the following key points; and approve the revised constitution outlined in paragraph 1:

  1. Review of Constitution and membership

In line with the Audit Committee Review of Board Committees, both the Staff Governance Committee and the Remuneration Committee have reviewed membership and Constitutions for these Board Committees. Attached to this report are the revised Constitutions for final approvalby the Board. Since the Committee meetings, minor amendments have been made to the sections relating to Deputy for Chair to ensure clarity and consistency between the two constitutions.

  1. Staff Experience

Implementation and engagement with the first cohort of theiMatter staff experience monitoring tool has been very positive. Within Cohort 1, Manager Reportswere shared with team members by 14 August 2015, and teams are currently working towards the development of action plans, which are required by 11 October 2015. Participation in Cohort 1, which involved 442 staff, including the Executive Directors and Non-Executive Board Members and a number of the Corporate Directorates hasbeen high with:

  • 74% attending an awareness session;
  • 51 of the 60 managers attending a managers orientation session;
  • 87% response rate of answering the questionnaire;
  • 60 of the 63 teams receiving a report, which meant there had been either a 60% response rate or 100% response rate if the team was less than five employees;
  • All Directorates received an aggregated report as each had received on average of a 60% response rate.

The Staff Experience Steering Group will review the Board report at their next meeting to begin the development of an organisation wide action plan. The group will also monitor the development of action plans. The Board report will thereafter be shared with GAPF and the Staff Governance Committee.

Awareness sessions for Cohort 2, consisting of the Medical Directorate, Modernisation Directorate, eHealth, Public Health, Women’s and Children’s service and Dr Gray’s (excluding Grampian wide services) commence from 24 August 2015, with the questionnaire available from 28 September 2015. The size of cohort 2 had increased significantly to 2594 employees, with 213 managers, compared to 60 managers in cohort 1.

The work to implement iMatter is intensive both within the Workforce Directorate and within the servicessurveyed. There is concern that the resources required to support full implementation will require to be expanded and this is the subject of further review. Currently, the dedicated resources available arethe Staff Experience Manager and part of two OD roles. Initial plans to increase the resource, through use of the operational HR Teams, the Learning and Development team, and the OD teams, with support from the partnership representatives is being progressed but, as the roll-out continues, there is concern that further resources has been needed. This is an issue for many NHS Boards.

  1. Workforce Directorate Annual Report

The Annual Report documented the significant work of the Workforce Directorate during 2014-15, in support of organisational goals, set in the context of the continuing challenges faced by NHS Grampian. The Report is split into the sections of HR Service Centre and Nurseries; Operational HR; Workforce Planning and Development; Corporate Health and Safety; and Go Health Services. The Report has been sent to all Board members.

  1. Integration – Workforce implications

NHS Grampian has a legal duty to comply with the Staff Governance Standard. Reassurance that the Standard will be maintained for those staff transferred into the Integrated Joint Boards is being sought from the Chief Officers.

  1. Learning and Development

During the first three months of 2015/16, there has been a 2% increase in the number of KSF completed reviews, concluding with 39% or 4795 employees. There are two project officers working directly with staff to further improve this figure and to support meaningful appraisal across the organisation.

In anticipation to moving to the new Performance Management system in the next couple of years, a process to reduce the number of KSF outlines has commenced. It aims to rationalise the number of available outlines to around 100 generic outlines covering all staff groups, currently there are over 2000 outlines. It is proposed to stop accepting new outlines in the old format from September 2015.

There continues to be a comprehensive programme of leadership development and training for clinical and managerial staff at national and regional level across the North East Public sector, as well as within the Board. The Future Leaders Programme launched in June 2015 as part of the Talent Management Framework.

  1. Equality compliance

Information to meet NHS Grampian’s obligation in relation to the Equality Act Specific Duties and the March 2015 gender pay gap exercise was presented. The data confirmed that NHS Grampian has no equal pay issue and that the Equal Pay statement was still appropriate.

The NHS Grampian Equality and Diversity Workforce Monitoring Report was presented to the Committee. Thereport was revised, approved and published.

  1. Scottish Government Responses to the Freedom to Speak Up Review

The Scottish Government has asked Boards to consider the necessary actions resulting from the recommendations from the Freedom to Speak Up Review. A proposal to develop the Staff Experience Steering Group was accepted as the appropriate group to oversee the actions. The Scottish Government are to develop and establish an Independent National Whistleblowing Officer to provide external review on the handling of whistleblowing cases. In addition, Non-Executive “whistleblowing” champions are being introduced in each Board. This role has been developed in partnership and is intended to act predominately as an oversight and assurance mechanism, as well as a conduit to ensure that internal mechanisms are working effectively to support whistleblowing arrangements and staff in raising concerns. The Scottish Government has advised that the role should not be undertaken by the Employee Director and has suggested a member of the Staff Governance Committee. The Chairman has considered the proposaland subsequently confirmed that the Chair of the Staff Governance Committee will undertake this role.

  1. Medical Education

The remit for the Medical and Dental Education Governance Group was approved.

In the HIS report, three specialties had their 2014 GMC National Trainee Survey results extensively reported. In comparing against the 2015 survey results, it was reported there had been improvements made. The Committee was encouraged to see the improvements. A paper outlining the GMC Trainee survey results and NHS Grampian’s response will be presented to the Board in October 2015.The Committee was reassured that there was now an appropriate mechanism to take GMC Survey outcomes forward.

  1. Attendance Management

The annual sickness absence rate has increased slightly to 4.66%, compared to 4.62% at the same point last year. Performance in NHS Grampian remains above the 4% HEAT target, but is better than the majority of comparable Boards and NHS Grampian’s performance in managing long term absence is the best in Scotland. Specific work is to be taken forward where high sickness has beenhighlighted. The annual NHS Scotland absence rate for 2014/15 was 5.04%.

  1. Turnover

Turnover has decreased by more than 0.4% this year (YTD) to 11.86%; however turnover is lower than the 12.3% high from the last quarter report.

  1. Nursing and Midwifery Bank and Agency Usage

The year to date (April 2015 to June 2015) nursing agency spend is £405,000 which is nearly half of last year’s total spend, £944,000. The Committee noted the need for a discussion with the sectors to limit this spend.

  1. Locum Agency Spend

In 2014/15, locum agency spend has increased to £9,262,108, compared with £6,618,432 in the previous year, which is an increase of 39.9%. The Committee noted that presently locums were part of the solution for the challenges in recruitment for some disciplines but due to the cost, may not be possible in the future. The number of requests for the Recruitment Team to source a locum has increased by 45%.

  1. Staff Governance Report – April 2014 to March 2015

The Staff Governance Report for the year 2014/15 is attached for presentation to the Board. The Report contains validated data and information on Workforce Planning and Redesign, Operational Human Resources, Learning and Development, Modernisation Directorate, Occupational Health and Health and Safety.

  1. Vacancy management April 2014 to March 2015

It was reported that there had been a significant increase in recruitment activity within NHS Grampian resulting in an increased workload for the Recruitment Team which was summarised as follows:

  • The number of vacancies had increased by 11% with the number of vacancies over the last year being 1,950 compared to 1,732 in 2013/14;
  • 41% of posts had been filled on a different basis and 59% filled on a like for like basis;
  • The number of applications received had increased by 7% with the number of applications over the last year being 42,607 compared to 39,507 in 2013/14;
  • Whist the overall number of applications had increased the average number of applications per vacancy had decreased slightly from 23 to 21.85.

All appropriate actions were being taken to ensure that the recruitment process was as efficient and effective as possible.

  1. Health and Safety Incident Statistics

The statistics presented showed a continued downturn in the total number of incidents reported on Datix for staff and students. The top five reasons had been consistent over a protracted number of years, with abuse etc of staff by patients and/or others, remaining highest. Work was being undertaken to reduce the number of abuse incidents along with re-establishing zero tolerance of abuse of NHS staff.

  1. Occupational Health Service and pre-employment screening

The paper based pre-employment health questionnaire has been replaced with an updated, evidence based questionnaire, which is available both online and in paper format, to facilitate an effective and efficient service to the recruitment process. It was reported that this had greatly assisted with the work associated with the changeover of Junior Doctors in August 2015.

More detail is recorded regarding immunisations and previous infections such as measles, within the occupational health database to provide more detailed data, which can be accessed readily by occupational health in the event of an infectious disease outbreak, such as measles.

  1. Safe and Effective Nursing and Midwifery Workforce

After a successful development day for Senior Charge Nurse/Midwife and Team Leaders in April 2015, masterclasses have been organised, based on the core skills workshops held on the day, between October 2015 and March 2016 in three locations. The six workshops are coaching skills, courageous conversations, dealing with conflict, human factors of change, personal resilience and working in partnership.

Terry Mackie

Chair

Staff Governance Committee

4 August 2015

1