Protect - Management
THE SIXTIETH MEETING OF THE EXECUTIVE BOARDHELD IN THE SILVAN HOUSE BOARDROOMSON WEDNESDAY 28 NOVEMBER 2012
MINUTES
Members: Tim Rollinson (Chair), Simon Hodgson, Jean Lindsay, Trefor Owen,
James Pendlebury and Paul Snaith
Guests: Roger Coppock (Agenda Item 7 only), Peter Garson (Agenda Item 6 only), David Howat (Agenda Items 4-8), Chris Quine and Emily Ramsay (Agenda Item 6 only)
Secretary: Stephen Bennett
Apologies were received from Wilma Harper and Bob McIntosh.
1. Minutes of the last meeting and matters arising
Chief Executive, Forest Research (FR) proposed a change to section eight of the minutes of the meeting held on 26 September. He felt that the statement that the EB had “signed off the proposed new governance arrangements” was incorrect, due to the fact that he had proposed changes. EB members discussed this and were clear that although several alternative options had been raised and discussed at the meeting, the final outcome was that the governance arrangements as outlined in paper 23/12 were agreed at the meeting. Chief Executive, FR had proposed an alternative option for the governance of FR, and had produced a paper to outline these, but this was outwith and after the meeting of the EB. While it was accepted that some of the internal governance arrangements for FR may need to be reviewed in due course, this would be the responsibility of the new Director, Central Services to re-examine the appropriateness of the governance measures as things evolved. EB members re-iterated that it was vital at this stage that Forest Research clearly remained a GB Agency and part of the GB central functions. This was also the view of the Forestry Commissioners.
Therefore, the minutes of the meeting held on 26 September were agreed.
One matter arising was discussed:
· Appointments
The EB was informed of progress with various senior staff appointments:
Ø Interviews for the Director England had been scheduled for 9 January. However, the potential of moving these forward to December was being explored;
Action: Jean Lindsay
Ø The ‘Expression of Interest’ for the role of Director, Central Services would be issued on 3 December, with a view to making the appointment by the end of the year;
Action: Tim Rollinson
Ø An announcement from Defra Ministers was expected soon about the appointment of the Chair;
Ø Interviews had been held and a candidate selected for the position of
non-executive Commissioner for England. A submission was in preparation for Defra Ministers;
Action: Stephen Bennett
2. Independent Forestry Panel
The EB was advised about the latest developments with regard to the Independent Forestry Panel.
The first draft of responses to the Panel recommendations was being considered by the Programme Theme Leaders.
Richard Greenhous had recast the proposals for Forest Services and set out all of the functions and their relative importance to the future role of Forest Services. This had been well-received by Defra officials.
3. Natural Resources Wales
The target date for setting up the new Single Body remained 1 April 2013. The following key tasks were essential to achieving this:
· Legal - the second Legal Order to transfer functions was laid on 15 November and would be subject to ‘scrutiny’ for 60 days. It was reported that the forestry elements of this were well drafted. The Order would be re-laid in February after the scrutiny period at which point the Secretary of State for Wales would check that all relevant partners, including those in Whitehall, are content.
· IT – a solution was being explored utilising off-the-shelf Microsoft products.
A Board and Chief Executive had been appointed. As NRW had no staff as yet, they were relying heavily on the Living Wales programme and three legacy bodies for support. The new Chief Executive was keen to meet the Director General before he retired.
EB members were advised that it was clear that the Single Body would require access to legacy systems for at least three to five years.
Director Wales was currently focussing on business continuity and a detailed transition plan which he hoped to have ready for Christmas.
4. Finance and Information Systems Update
No problems were highlighted with regard to the agreed budgets and current forecasts for CFS and the shared services as the variances proposed to date were small.
Annual meetings with Country Directors and Chief Executives to review the Silvan House shared services business plans for 2013-14 and 2014-15 took place in September/October. The proposed plans were approved with few changes. Reductions in the costs of shared services had been achieved over the SR10 period.
The Finance team continued to be heavily involved in the Natural Resources Wales project. The team was assisting with various strands of financial systems and accounting projects currently underway including options for delivery of banking, purchase ledger, sales ledger and credit management services from 1 April 2013.
Processes were in place to record the FC costs incurred with the initial and ongoing Chalara survey work. A process had been agreed to collate the data needed to satisfy both internal and external requests for information. Defra required a return detailing the estimated costs for the first week of intensive action. This showed an overall rough estimate of £600k across GB covering re-directed resources and additional costs such as contract surveyors and couriers. Similar returns were now required on a weekly basis. FC England had submitted a bid of £1m to Defra as part of the monthly forecasting cycle to cover the potential additional costs of dealing with the Chalara outbreak within FC GB/England. To date, no additional bids had been made by FC Scotland and FC Wales.
The Scottish Government procurement reform continued. By the end of January 2013 it would be clear what changes would be proposed to public procurement in Scotland and the subsequent effect on FC policy. This would be based around good record keeping and a transparent process. The FC was likely to have to demonstrate compliance with a legislative General Duty.
The EU regulations changes were at the final negotiations stage. It was expected that they would become law in the EU in early 2013. The UK Governments/Administrations would then have 18 months to enact them into UK law. The new regulations would mean bringing forestry operations procurement under the EU rules. This would be a significant change for the FC.
The HMRC had commenced a series of visits to the FC. The initial focus appeared to be on VAT.
5. HR Update
The following issues were highlighted from the paper:
· Pay 2012
Negotiations with the Trade Unions had been concluded. As the Trade Unions had rejected the pay offer, the EB had agreed via correspondence to impose the pay offer, which was consistent with the current Government’s pay policy (two-year pay freeze). Therefore, the pay award would be implemented in the December pay.
· Civil Service Terms and Conditions
All Government Departments had been instructed to examine employee terms and conditions. Director, HR was currently exploring the implications for the FC.
Action: Jean Lindsay
6. Health and Safety Update
The EB was updated on the development of the FC’s Health and Safety Strategy.
EB members agreed that the Strategy should be a short document that focused on simple statements, without a great deal of complex detail. As it was aimed at changing the health and safety culture of the FC it would be explicit about behavioural changes rather than process changes.
The EB decided that the scope of the Strategy was occupational health and safety of employees and contractors as well as public safety. The associated action plan would be used to prioritise tasks, relating to statutory health and safety responsibilities. The action plan would include specific leadership actions for EB members and the wider Senior Staff Group to effect the appropriate culture change at the top of the organisation.
The EB agreed the following initial conclusions of the Health and Safety Advisory Group:
· Leadership and its impact on safety culture would be the over-arching theme of the H&S Strategy;
· The action plan supporting the Strategy would identify and acknowledge the important enabling roles required to deliver the strategy e.g. leadership roles and responsibilities, H&S cultural awareness, H&S technical training, communications and evaluation;
· Using the FC procurement process, consultants would be engaged in a targeted way to advise the FC on the development of the five point plan proposed by Tim Marsh, assist in the development of training courses and provide assurance to the Executive Board about progress;
· Ryder Marsh consultants would also advise and support the Forest Industry Safety Accord (FISA) through the Leadership Group and the Behavioural Change working group. A presentation by Tim Marsh had been scheduled for the next Leadership Group meeting in January;
· The FC’s H&S Strategy would relate to the FC’s People Strategy and to the Forest Industry Safety Accord. However, the Strategy would need to be brief and engaging. Key areas for action would be set out in an accompanying Action Plan;
· A clear vision would help to engage FC staff. In addition to adopting the FISA motto / strap line of Think Safe, Stay Safe, a vision statement would be developed, using positive language, to help staff to understand the objective. It was recognised that the vision statement might need to be in two parts; one part relating to health and safety at work and the other to public safety where a different duty of care applies.
· The FC’s H&S Strategy needed to recognise the range of activities across the FC and the trend towards greater devolution but balance this with a need for a clear unified corporate approach. Therefore, the Strategy would provide a common safety culture and commitment to safety leadership as well as a commitment to work to industry standards and corporate guidance. The associated Action Plan would then identify the key areas for action but would not be comprehensive or detailed. Countries and Forest Research would use this as a framework within which to develop more specific actions tailored to their particular risks and context and taking account of the changing FC structure.
Actions: Emily Ramsay & Peter Garson
7. Biosecurity
The Executive Board was updated about tree and plant health initiatives, including the current Chalara outbreak.
Currently, Chalara had been identified in 17 nursery sites, 105 recent planting sites and 135 wider environment sites. A further 384 sites were under investigation, mostly wider environment sites. The extensive survey undertaken by FC staff in early November visited 9919 sites in five days. This had been supplemented by 339 further sites by industry organisations. While these surveys had indicated that the disease was present in the wider environment, the full extent of infection was not currently known. However, it was now widely accepted that eradication would not be possible. A control plan to try to slow the rate of spread of the disease had been prepared by Defra with input from the FC and forestry sector. This plan would be presented to the Defra Secretary of State on 30 November.
The Secretary of State had committed to significantly improving the delivery of plant health services. To that end, a Biosecurity Expert Taskforce had been formed by the Defra Chief Scientist to identify how an improved plant health service would be delivered. This Taskforce was supported by FC, FR, and Defra colleagues, and would produce an interim report to coincide with the Chalara control plan launch. The interim report would contain eight recommendations, which, if accepted by the Secretary of State, would then be developed, refined and costed for implementation into policy. The Taskforce would produce a final report on its strategic view of the evidence in spring 2013.
Meanwhile, work was also continuing to deliver the existing tree health and plant biosecurity action plan. The Secretary of State had asked how this work could be brought forward. Ministers in Scotland and Wales had also been engaged and involved.
The recent biosecurity crises had highlighted the following risks for the FC:
· The FC did not have the capacity to adequately address the increasing number of tree pests and diseases and undertake our other business objectives;
· Additional resources from Defra to address this would be requested;
· Changes to plant health legislation and organisational structures to deliver improved plant health would have implications for the FC.
EB members agreed that it was important to clarify the respective roles of the GB Plant Health and FC England Plant Health teams in a transparent way, particularly as there would be new arrangements for forestry in England after the Government responds to the Independent Panel Report in January. This would also be important prior to the next peak of work on Chalara anticipated in the spring. In order to improve future planning, and to prepare for this, the Chalara Project Team was currently working on pulling together the ‘lessons learned’ from this exercise. Part of this would be a consistent approach across the FC to grants, reclaims, etc.
EB members discussed the future facilitation role of the FC with regard to Plant Health, potentially providing research and protocols for surveys to a network of plant health volunteers. These ideas would be built into the lessons learned project.
The EB was advised that monitoring of the expenditure incurred to cope with Chalara was underway. It was anticipated that the FC would be able to cope this financial year, but would need to engage with Defra Ministers and officials about a new programme of funding beyond that.
The Executive Board members formally recorded their sincere thanks to everyone in the FC who had worked so hard during the Chalara crisis. It was agreed that it was an inspiring effort and showed the FC and its staff at its very best.
Actions: Wilma Harper & Roger Coppock
8. Any Other Business
One item of any other business was raised:
· Ash Monograph – The DG had received a request from an ex-employee of the FC requesting his support for the writing of a monograph about ash trees. EB members felt that this was a premature reaction to the current ash tree health crisis. Under the circumstances it was agreed not to provide support at this time and an appropriate response would be issued from the DG accordingly.
Action: David Howat & Tim Rollinson
9. Date of next meeting
The next meeting of the EB was scheduled for 9am, Wednesday 30 January 2012, in the Silvan House Boardrooms. This would be followed by the leaving function for the Director General.
2 | EB Minutes | Stephen Bennett | 21/12/2012