Minutes of the Scottish Prison Service Board Meeting Held on Wednesday 18 July 2007 At

RESTRICTED – BOARD MEMBERS

MINUTES OF THE SCOTTISH PRISON SERVICE BOARD MEETING HELD ON WEDNESDAY 16 JULY 2008 AT 0930 IN HMP ABERDEEN

Present:Mike Ewart (Chief Executive)

Mike Duffy (Director of Prisons)

Andrew Fraser (Director of Health and Care)

Rachel Gwyon (Director of Corporate Services)

Eric Murch (Director of Partnerships and Commissioning)

Willie Pretswell (Director of Finance & Business Services)

Stephen Swan (Director, Human Resources)

Bill Carr (Non Executive Director)

Colin Mackenzie (Director of Social Work and Housing, Aberdeenshire Council)

Harry McGuigan (Non-Executive Director)

Valerie Macniven (Director of Criminal Justice, Scottish Government)

Tom Fox (Head of Communications)

1. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

1.1Apologies for absence were received from Elinor Smith, who had been required to attend a meeting (in place of the Chairman) at Glasgow Health Board. It would have been Elinor’s final meeting following her resignation to pursue other commitments, and the Board thanked her in her absence for her contribution.

1.2The Chief Executive welcomed Councillor Harry McGuigan to his first meeting as a Non-Executive Director and introduced Colin Mackenzie as an observer. Once details were finalised with Aberdeenshire Council the intention was that Mr Mackenzie would take up Non-Executive Director status. The Chief Executive also welcomed Valerie Macniven as an observer to the meeting.

2. PRESENTATION BY AUDREY MOONEY, GIC, HMP ABERDEEN

2.1Audrey, accompanied by George Peden and Jim Spink, led a presentation about the prison and the challenges facing it. The presentation also covered the positive progress made in linking services with external agencies, particularly to assist the throughcare on health and employment issues for prisoners. The Chief Executive thanked the team for their helpful presentation.

3. MINUTES OF LAST MEETING

3.1The minutes of the last meeting were approved.

4. MATTERS ARISING

4.1 Valerie Macniven gave an update on the McLeish Prisons’ Commission work. A government response could be expected in the late autumn. There might be related legislation included in the 2008-09 Criminal Justice Bill.

5. RISK REGISTER ID: 13

5.1 Eric Murch tabled a paper on quality issues and assuring improved quality of delivery and outcomes. Much progress had been made and the new facility at HMP Grampian in particular would provide the impetus to consider big changes in services, their quality and evaluation. SPS would need to look at competence and capacity issues, as well as evidencing areas of best practice perhaps against international providers. Many countries looked to Scotland for a lead and were going through their own changes. In discussion the following points emerged:

Drug misuse and access to housing on release would remain major challenges.
Benchmarking should be more widely used to establish which of our internal processes were working well.
A stronger and more focused brief was needed for the research team.
Assurance was working well and more moves were planned to strengthen it and implementation of findings further.
The need was to look at the prisoners experience and to personalise services to a greater degree, rather than suiting the provider.
There needed to be a link with SPS forward vision and an approach which was realistic and linked to resource allocation.

6. BUSINESS CONTINUITY

6.1 Due to pressure of time in the meeting and the advisability of awaiting final signature of the ICM contract, it was agreed to schedule this item for the next Board meeting.

7.FIRST QUARTER KPI OUTTURNS

7.1 The first quarter’s results were noted, including the areas which could be at risk later in the year. It was further noted that the employability target remained low, and that this issue would be a key one SPS planned to explore at its conference with stakeholders.

8. SENIOR MANAGEMENT RECRUITMENT/SELECTION

8.1 Steve Swan presented a report on the skills and attributes required for the forthcoming Band H recruitment. It was noted SPS was, like other organisations, seeking leadership skills and those who could run the organisation with confidence.

9. MONTHLY MONITORING REPORT

9.1The Monthly Monitoring Report was discussed and agreed.

10.FINANCIAL REPORT

10.1The Financial Report was discussed and agreed.

11.RMAC MINUTES

11.1Due to the timing of RMAC meetings, there were two sets of minutes, from May and June to be presented. Both were noted and the key points agreed. The clean bill of health from the external auditors on SPS accounts was welcomed and the positive performance on all indicators against a year of overcrowding in 2007-08 was congratulated.

11.2It was agreed that the new Non-Executive Directors would receive the RMAC Chair’s Annual Report and the induction CD.

12.FUTURE BOARD BUSINESS

12.1It was agreed this should be for information in future, rather than a separate Board item.

Action: Helen Henderson

13. ANY OTHER BUSINESS

13.1Update on transfer of responsibility for prisoner health services to NHS

a)Andrew Fraser updated the Board on the recent Ministerial decision and meetings with the TUS. The next stage was for DG Health to lead in the establishment of a project team to implement the transition work. The Board expressed its thanks to Elinor Smith for the work she had done in assisting the project to date.

13.2Minutes of April Board meeting

a) Due to the fact there had been both a Board workshop and a short Board meeting in April, formal agreement to the Board minutes had been overlooked. The Board minutes were tabled and agreed and could now be published. It was agreed that the summary of the workshop should issue to Colin Mackenzie for information ahead of the August Board workshop.

14.DATE OF NEXT MEETING

14.1The Board Workshop takes place on 13-14August at the Macdonald Houstoun House Hotel, Uphall, West Lothian.

Board mins 16 July