HSE People and Culture Committee meeting minutes 12 May 2023

Members Present

Dr Yvonne Traynor (Chair), Brendan Whelan, Bernie O'Reilly, Dr Sarah McLoughlin, Aogán Ó Fearghail, Deirdre Cullivan and Michelle O’Sullivan

HSE Executive Attendance

Anne Marie Hoey (ND HR); Dr Philippa Withero (AND Strategic Workforce Planning and Intelligence); Theresa Heller (AND HR Corporate Business Partner); Colette Cowan (CEO UL Hospitals Group); Emma Finn (Head of Internal Communications); Fidelma Browne (AND Communications Strategy); Niamh Drew (Deputy Corporate Secretary); Paula McShane (Office of the CEO); Breda Moore (Office of the Board).

Minutes reflect the order in which items were considered and are numbered in accordance with the original agenda. All performance/activity data used in this document refers to the latest information available at the time.

The Committee held a private session where the Chair provided a brief summary on the agenda, the relevant papers and approach to conducting the meeting.

2.1 Declarations of Interest

No conflicts of interest were declared.

2.2 Minutes

The Minutes of the People and Culture meeting held on the 10th March were approved.

2.3 Matters for noting

The Chair welcomed Prof Colette Cowan, CEO UL Hospitals Group as the new member of the Senior Management Team, who will be attending the Committee meeting going forward so as to provide and support Committee discussion from hospital group and community healthcare organisation perspective.

3.1 Internal Communications Report

Emma Finn, Head of Internal Communications joined the meeting

The Head of Internal Communications provided a briefing to the Committee on activity within the internal communications team since the last update in January 2023. The communications team has provided leadership communication to staff from the new CEO.

A comprehensive communications strategy has been developed to support the rollout of Regional Health Authorities, a series of training and guidance documentation on internal communications has been developed to support local communications teams.

Accessibility user testing sessions have been completed. The objective of these sessions is to test the usability of the staff website with staff who have diverse ways of working and diverse individual needs. Following significant work in collaboration with the digital accessibility officer, the staff website has achieved an Accessibility DCI score of 87.5, the industry target for government websites is 80.0. Work continues to improve accessibility.

Work on redeveloping pension’s web content for staff is continuing in collaboration with colleagues in Shared Services. Work is underway with colleagues in HR to promote the staff survey, Your Opinion Counts.

The Committee discussed the importance of ensuring that Internal Communications is utilised to share examples of best practice or innovations in one area with all staff. Equally, the importance of ensuring that staff are briefed on negative stories in advance of same appearing in the media was discussed.

4.1 Bi Monthly Report

The ND HR presented her Bi Monthly report.

The ND HR informed the Committee that the new public-only Hospital Consultant Contract is in place since the 8th March. She informed the Committee that Local implementation groups have been set up in each CHO and Hospital Group. Briefing Webinars have been provided for staff. HR has written to all Consultants advising what the new contract entails for them. International marketing campaigns in print and social media are being developed with Communications.

The ND HR advised the Committee that Heads of HR have nominated survey champions to promote engagement with the 2023 Staff Survey. All services are responsible for promoting significant completion of the survey and will be provided with weekly updates over the course of the survey period.

The Committee was updated on the revised HSE Dignity at Work Policy. The Dignity at Work eLearning programme on HSELand was updated in line with the policy and is mandatory for all HSE and Section 38 staff.

The ND HR updated the Committee on the NCHD Taskforce Interim Report. A Steering Group, cochaired by the ND HR and the Chief Clinical Officer, which has been established to oversee implementation of the recommendations.

The ND HR reported on the HSE HR Conference “Enhancing Healthcare Delivery through our People” which was held on the 20th April. The Conference was an opportunity to share with those attending, statutory and non-statutory, the progress being made across our health services and the plans and roadmaps for the future.

The ND HR presented the HSE Diversity, Equality and Inclusion Annual Report 2022 which provided an overview of enquiries received by the Diversity, Equality and Inclusion Team throughout 2022.

The data gathered from the enquiries received was used by the team to support implementation in areas such as training, guidelines, policy and communications.

4.2 HR Dashboard

The Committee reviewed the HR Dashboard which had been circulated prior to the meeting. The Committee noted that health sector employment levels show strong growth and that the overall increase since December 2019 now stands at +20,020 (+16.7%). The Committee also noted that the March 2023 outcome is strongly ahead of target at +306 WTE. The Committee discussed in detail the Resourcing Pay & Numbers Strategy and requested that future reports, in addition to the current remaining WTE, to also include the annual targets and the total WTE growth year to date. It was agreed that this would allow the Committee to get a deeper view of the direction of travel of targets and their achievements.

The Committee raised concerns that recruitment was ahead of profiled targets at the end of March, however remained within the 2023 targets. The Committee would like an explanation for this and would like to understand the controls in place to prevent this from happening.

The ND HR briefed the Committee on the HSE Career hub which allows potential candidates to register their interest in positions within the HSE. Interested candidates then receive regular emails of targeted job advertisements.

The Committee discussed how the HSE actively target candidates within the Health and Social Care Professional category and welcomed the HR process of visiting colleges to brief undergraduate students in relation to careers in the HSE.

4.3 HR Dashboard - Internal Management Data Dashboard

The Committee discussed the data that had been provided in regard to causes of harm January - March 2023 noting that violence, harassment and aggression was the highest reported item. The Committee suggested that they would have liked to have seen a more deep dive into this area, which would have shown the impact on the staff members involved and the impact that any such instances have on the service itself (i.e. an overview was also provided with regards to the impact of absenteeism). A discussion was held with regards to the processes and procedures that are in place to address these types of instances and the training and supports provided to staff and it was noted that this item would be discussed further under Risk Management.

Data was provided to the Committee on HSELand 3-year compliance percentage completion by headcount. The Committee noted that some areas were performing better than others and the ND HR noted that work remains ongoing to grow compliance.

5.1 CRR 020 Workplace Violence and Aggression

Katrina Dempsey joined the meeting

The Committee was briefed on latest data in relation to workplace violence and aggression. There has been a welcome decrease in violent incidents. Violence and aggression against nursing staff has decreased, however it is acknowledged that health care assistants are more exposed to intentional or unintentional physical assault due to the nature of their role in personal care. The HSE has a range of policies in place to mitigate the risk to staff and service users.

6.1 Presentation on Safe Staffing in Nursing

Sinead Lardner, National Lead for Safe Nurse Staffing and Skill Mix, ONMSD joined the meeting.

The Committee was provided with an overview of the Framework for Safe Nurse Staffing and Skill Mix Phase I and II 2023 which outlines a radical new approach to determining safe nurse staffing levels. The Framework is designed to put patient needs first and focus on positive health outcomes. The National Lead for Safe Nurse Staffing and Skill Mix confirmed that nursing unions have welcomed the Framework.

The challenge is to get it implemented quickly. Recruitment, staff information/education sessions are in progress. Local implementation groups, which include Union Representatives, have been established in sites selected for implementation.

7.1 KK016CHO51122 - Compliance with Children First Legislation Primary Care Services SECH - Audit Briefing

Joseph Duggan, National Director, Internal Audit and Yvonne O’Neill, ND, Community Operations joined the meeting.

The ND, Internal Audit briefed the Committee on the findings of recent audits into compliance with the Children First Act 2015 and the HSE’s Child Protection and Welfare Policy. The ND, Internal Audit advised that Internal Audit has met with HSE leads to discuss the findings. The Committee acknowledged the serious nature of lack of compliance with the Children First Act 2015.

7.2 Briefing on Implementation of recommendations

The ND, Community Operations welcomed the audits as a means of assessing how new governance structures are operating. She briefed the Committee on the implementation plan and actions taken by Community Operations following the findings of the Internal Audits. The Chair confirmed that the Committee will continue to monitor compliance with mandatory training in Children First.

8.1 Performance and Accountability Framework 2023

The Performance and Accountability Framework 2023 was noted.

No matters arose and no further issues were discussed.

The meeting concluded at 1pm.

Terms of Reference: People and Culture Committee