NHS Shetland and Sodexo: Transferring Hotel Services

Shetland Islands Council

Case study: TUPE in the Public sector

Sodexo transferred their hotel services over to NHS Shetland in 2012, catalyst by a government directive but the move also presented an opportunity to improve services delivered for customers, to reduce waste in the system and ensure best value. Staff transferred using TUPE regulations.A phased approach was taken to consult with affected employed staff. Both organisations had a year lead in time to the transfer. A project board was set up to monitor and oversee the proceedings. The project board consisted of a NHS Shetland Project Manager, third party consultant from Health Facilities Scotland and NHS Shetland Head of Estates and NHS Shetland Facilities Manager. A wider project team linked into the project board and a project group sat below the team. The project group met monthly and included finance, procurement, staff development, human resources and union representatives. The frequency of these meetings increased as the implementation date grew nearer. A project office was established and a single point of contact for the project established there.

The project board had full responsibility and devolved authority to handle decisions regarding the transfer.

Communication was absolutely vital to the success of the transfer. Individual consultation took place with each and every member of staff. Formal letters were sent out following the verbal consultation process. This administration was heavily supported by HR.

Having spoken to members of the staff team that transferred to the NHS from Sodexo, they feel that investing in the time to speak to staff about their concerns and go through the practical issues of a transfer was really beneficial and was a contributing factor to the success of the transfer.

A contingency fund was built in to the budget to cover any exceptions. In addition, costed overtime was built into the budget that year. There were additional funds put aside for management support for transition and to drive implementation.

The whole transfer was very tightly project managed.

Positives

Staff posts did not change
Peoples roles did not change
Pay frequency did not change. (With sodexo staff were paid weekly and it was felt that to change the frequency of the pay to bring it in line with other staff would be more detrimental to the transferred staff and the organisation than benefits would bring.)
Line management structure didn’t change
chain of communication remained unchanged
Communication to staff regarding the transfer was viewed as effective
Having a robust programme plan combined with a communication plan was absolutely essential to the success of the project.
The staff transferred successfully with very little issues

Lessons learned and challenges faced

It would be pertinent to discuss with employees before transfer any policy/procedure that is named as contractual, i.e grievance and disciplinary to decide which organisational format is going too used and get formal sign off on that from the employees as part of the formal consultation process. This was not done with the Sodexo/NHS Shetland transfer and it is a learning point noted.
Sharing of information between two organisational systems was initially problematic.
Taking on employees with excessive hours contracts/protected overtime/local on call agreements was challenging for a human resources side to work through initially and remains a cost pressure and operational challenge for Facilities management.
NHS and Sodexo had different training pathways and distinct standards. This was challenging to work through from a management perspective. Some issues are still being worked through.
Increased benchmarking, auditing, targets and inspections with NHS which the sodexo processes were not equipped for, therefore management had to implement new systems which was resource consuming.

It was felt by staff that TUPE in this instance worked well for them; however it wasa huge amount of work for management and support services and that must be acknowledged.

Case study: Strengthened Partnership working in the Public sector

NHS Shetland and Shetland Islands Council Occupational Therapy team:

A single management structure was introduced in 2008/09 for some community health and social care services. This included jointly appointed managers for:

Mental Health
Occupational Therapy and
Adult Resources including all learning disability services.

The single management structure reports through the Director of Community Health and Social Care to the senior management teams of both the Board and the Council.

This was not done under any formal TUPE arrangement but through the partnership arrangements afforded by Joint Futures and then the Community Health Partnership, regulations 2004.

The principles for the change were;

A focus on services delivered for customers that make improvements to the customer’s experience of services

Evolution, building on what has been achieved so far
Improved efficiency and value for money; providing efficiency savings for the public sector in Shetland
Reduction in bureaucracy; eliminating duplication and improving the speed of decision making.

Adoption of one system and using national systems where they provide Best Value.

NHS staff remained on their own terms and conditions and SIC staff remained on their own terms and conditions but staff worked alongside one another, in one team, under one manager. Below are listed a number of pro’s and cons of this arrangement, from the view of the staff;

Pro’s

Having a joint team means there is more efficient service delivery
The possibility of working with one set of operational procedures, taking the best from both organisations
More efficient and cost effective to have one manager

Cons

Having a team with two differing sets of terms and conditions which is not felt to be sustainable long term. For example, there are situations where a team leader or manager is managing/supervising staff on higher pay and grade than they are due to the different terms and conditions. This could cause resentment amongst the staff team and lead to performance issues.
The potential benefits of the current arrangement are being subsumed by the team of staff being on two different terms and conditions, due to the fact that they are employed by 2 different agencies.
Having different policies and procedures can be seen as inequitable, depending on which organisation the person works for. The team are fairly pragmatic and use the one that best suits the team/individual regardless of which organisation it comes from. However for employment and contractual matters they need to use the employee’s organisational policies which means using 2 different policy sets. This can make management and supervision more difficult.