HSE People and Culture Committee meeting minutes 10 February 2020

Members Present

Yvonne Traynor (Chairperson), Aogan Ó Fearghail, Bernie O’Reilly, Sarah McLoughlin (via telecon) F Tierney.

HSE Executive Members in Attendance

Anne Marie Hoey, Philip Crowley, Niamh Drew (Secretary) Apologies; Paul Connors

Joined Meeting

Item 4. 1 Philippa Withero 4.2 Caitriona Heslin, Anne Ryan and Padraig Doherty

The Chair welcomed members to the meeting noting that this was Fiona Tierney’s first meeting as a Committee Member. The Chair took the opportunity to inform the Committee that Mark Molly had stood down both as a Board and Committee member and that she wanted to acknowledge and thank Mark for his commitment to the Committee over the last six months.

The Committee approved the signing of the minutes of the previous meeting held on 27 November 2020. There were no matters arising to be dealt with on the agenda. The Action Log of the Committee was reviewed and will be updated accordingly based on the discussions.

The Chair opened the discussion with regards to the ongoing development of the Committees 2020 Workplan and Committee members concurred with the proposed items and the agreed frequency of meetings. The HR National Director suggested that the Committee would benefit from a presentation on the NiRSP system and it was agreed that this should be added to the workplan.

The Committee acknowledged that they were satisfied with the areas that would be covered over the course of the next 12 months and that the workplan was in alignment with the Committees Terms of Reference noting that the delivery of performance and accountability are key.

No conflicts of interest were declared.

The HR National Director provided the Committee with an update in relation to the ongoing development of the organisations Corporate Risk Register. It was agreed that following further review, development and discussion with the Executive Management Team that the relevant HR / Culture risks would be brought to the Committee for analysis and discussion.

3.1 National Director HR

National Director HR gave an overview of her monthly report to the Committee under the headings of the nine pillars of the HR People Strategy 2019, noting the following highlights under several of the priorities;

Priority 1 Leadership and Culture

• the achievement of the Investors in Diversity Bronze Award from the Irish Centre for Diversity
• graduation of Leading Care 1 graduates receiving Health Service Leadership Academy Leading Care 1 Awards and IMI Graduate Awards in Executive Healthcare Leadership
• introduction of Work Buddy system initiative in the Dublin Midlands
• newly appointed Managers program across UL Hospital Group

Priority 2 Employee Experience

• lunch and learning sessions in RCSI
• New Year’s Condition Testing day for staff in St Luke’s

The Chair referred to the “Listening Meetings Exercises” that are currently being rolled out across two separate locations, the first being Cork on the 13 February by Comms Department and supported by the CEO and queried how this priority links priority 2 Employee Experience going forward. It was agreed that further details of this would be circulated in due course.

Priority 3 Capability and Talent

• on line training programme Hidden Harm
• Health Service Excellence Awards

The Committee welcomed and acknowledged the high increase in applications for the Excellence Awards which stands at 651 compared to 222 in 2018.

Priority 4 Workforce Planning

• This item was discussed separately under agenda item 4

Priority 5 Evidence and Knowledge

The Committee welcomed that the concept of the Staff Bank initiative which is being piloted in Ireland East at present and endorsed this as being a very proactive approach to resource needs.

Priority 6 Performance and Accountability

• the Committee welcomed progress to date on implementation and noted the work that has been carried out to date
• the Committee agreed that tracking progress on the implementation is important and requested this is continuously reported on
• Garda Vetting improvement in time noted

Priority 7 Network and Partner

• pilot of HSE Work Positive Framework noted

The Committee thanked the HR National Director for the detailed update. It was noted that a challenging piece of work for 2020 was going to be the roll out and implementation of the Regional health areas and the implementation of the recommendation from the Review of the Centre. The Committee requested that EY be invited to attend the Committee meeting in Q2 / Q3 to present on their findings and recommendations made.

3.2 People Strategy Dashboard

The Committee agreed that due to time constraints this item would not be referred until the next Committee meeting and will be allocated enough time to facilitate a detailed discussion at that meeting

3.3 Staff Survey Action Planning 2018 – 2019

HR National Director provided the Committee with an overview on the feedback of the survey results and the actions that emerged following the Staff Survey that was carried out in October 2018 the aim of which was to assess staff opinions in order to identify opportunities for improvement in order to help build a better health service. It was noted that the survey findings were circulated across the system and in order to gather and track progress the co-sponsors of the National Staff Engagement Forum, ND HR and ND QID wrote to all senior managers in December 2019 seeking updates.

It was noted that the responses overall showed that most services are demonstrating two-way communications and several positive examples were provided to the Committee for discussion. The overall results are going to be shared with the organisation at the next HR Forum. The Committee welcomed the update and requested that further analysis is carried out to see if the areas that showed the positive responses were highly actively engaged under the remit of Values in Action.

4.1 Workforce Planning

Philippa Withero joined the meeting for this item and presented the Committee with a presentation on the Strategic Workforce Planning and Intelligence Pay and Numbers Strategy.

The Committee discussed in detail each of the key principles underpinning the Strategy and the control measures that have been put in place in the context of managing the performance arena and frontline services. It was noted that the Pay and Numbers Strategy, taking the approach of WTE limit setting has yet to reach a mature level as 2019 was the first year of full implementation and key learnings from 2019 such as “WTE Floor” have been taken on board and are being implemented.

The Committee welcomed the presentation and acknowledged the level of detail that they were provided with. The Committee endorsed and agreed that the Strategy will provide greater confidence across the system.

4.2 Change Management

Caitriona Heslin and Anne Ryan from HR and Padraig Doherty joined for this item and presented on the implementation of the organisational policy on change as set out in Action 1.11 of the People Strategy.

The Committee were provided updates on work in progress under the four key action areas of

1. Accelerate Communication and Awareness.
2. Tailor Education and Practice Development.
3. Lever Alignment and Synergy at Strategic Level.
4. Increase Cohesion and Practice Improvement at Delivery Level.

The Committee welcomed and supported the progress to date and agreed that it will increase the capacity to confidently address people and culture change at both team and organisational level within the organisation. The Committee requested that they are kept up dated on progress made in this area.

Date of Next Meeting:

Location: Oak House, Millennium Park, Naas at 2:00 pm

Meeting concluded at 5.30 pm