SALISBURY NHS FOUNDATION TRUST HUMAN RESOURCES STRATEGY UPDATE REPORT

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1 SALISBURY NHS FOUNDATION TRUST PAPER: SFT 1845 TITLE: HUMAN RESOURCES STRATEGY UPDATE REPORT PURPOSE OF PAPER: To highlight the main areas of progress made against the Trust s Human Resources Strategy Working Together for Better Patient Care. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: 1) The update report gives a summary of the development of the HR Strategy, and the context within which the strategy was designed to operate. 2) The report goes on to highlight some of the main areas of progress made in the last six months since last update of October 2007, and briefly describes the activities that have led to that progress. ACTION REQUIRED BY THE BOARD: 1) To note the report. Name: Position: Alan Denton Director of Human Resources

2 HUMAN RESOURCES STRATEGY UPDATE REPORT Introduction The Trust s Human Resources (HR) Strategy Working Together for Better Patient Care was developed during the second half of 2005 specifically in support of the application process for Foundation Trust Status. It was agreed and introduced in early Within the strategy it was recognised that the Trust operated within an evolving NHS environment in which there were a number of policy initiatives and key strategic drivers. Some of these addressed changes to service delivery or organisational configuration, some specifically addressed staff, their working lives, skills development or terms and conditions of employment. The Trust also operated and continues to operate within a particular South Wiltshire locality, within a larger Southern England geographical region, and in addition is are subject to local, regional and national labour market and general economic trends. Our strategy for Human Resources had to address these issues, as they all impacted upon staff and their ability to deliver our services into the future. Becoming a Foundation Trust added additional dimensions to the strategy. The creation of a new type of organisation with little track record or history added an element of uncertainty. The transition over time for staff from being employees to also being members and in some cases governors of the organisation they worked for was an exciting prospect, but it was not easy to understand where that transition would lead. The purpose of the HR Strategy was summed up as follows: - This Human Resources Strategy aims to illustrate how the Trust intends to recruit, retain, develop and deploy its staff in order to deliver its service plans within a framework of high quality governance arrangements over the next five years. In short, the purpose of this strategy is to show how the Trust s people will be enabled to deliver high quality services, working together for better patient care. (p3) The strategy went on to illustrate various aspects it was relevant to describe in order to set a context within which the proposed strategic themes would exist. To that end, the strategy described the make up of the workforce (p4), our partnership working with Trade Unions (p8), the Trust environment (p9), our Service Development Strategy (p11), governance arrangements (p12), systems reforms that would impact on the Trust (p13), and our partners, stakeholders and the local population. (p14). Having set the context, and identified issues that arose in relation to each aspect of the Strategy, a set of four Human Resources Strategic Themes were developed, identifying those matters to be addressed by the Strategy, and describing how those matters would be addressed.

3 The Strategic Themes are: - 1. An employer of choice. 2. Modernising systems to support careers. 3. Sharing goals. 4. Building HR Management Capability and Capacity. The remainder of this update report addresses how some of the initiatives proposed have been taken forward since the last update report (SHC 1795) which came to the board in October Update Report This section reports on progress since the last HR Strategy update of October The numbers refer to the paragraph numbering in the HR Strategy. Theme One An Employer of Choice Equality and Diversity A separate report now comes to the Board twice a year from the Equality and Diversity steering group, the last report was in February 2008 and for the first time we were able to produce statistical reports across a range of diversity indicators Occupational Health The Trust has made an arrangement to receive two days per week of Consultant in Occupational Health time from Southampton University Hospital in the form of Dr Ian Brown, a very well established consultant with a national reputation in his field. Dr Brown is a replacement of Dr Nick Armand Smith who is due to retire later in the summer. To support general staff well being a series of alternative therapy sessions have been provided for staff, starting in September These offer staff the chance to try aromatherapy, body massage, Thai foot massage and reflexology during work time some of these can be provided at the place of work. The first six months of provision has proved popular with staff and excellent outcomes have been reported. A decision has been taken to continue provision for a further 6 months until the end of September 2008 pending a further review. Promotion of staff health issues began with the introduction of smoke cessasion clinics for staff on the hospital site. Further staff health promotion work, together with ill health avoidance initiatives will begin in 2008/2009. An internal reshuffle has enabled the Occupational health department to offer in house physiotherapy to staff to aid early recovery. (This service is accessed by referral from the OH physicians and advisors rather than being a self referral service)

4 2.1.6 Staff Security and Personal Safety The Local Security Management Specialist (LSMS) commissioned a pilot course of breakaway training, which received positive feedback. It is intended to introduce a limited number of courses for selected staff in this subject to complement the current training provision for front line staff on the subject of diffusing aggression Childcare The childcare voucher scheme introduced over the last two years has gone from strength to strength, enabling staff to pay for their childcare needs in a tax efficient way through the use of salary sacrifice Flexible Working and Work/Life Balance A revised Trust flexible working policy was launched during the period. The aim of the policy is to enable all staff to have an opportunity to balance their work and outside lives (subject to the needs of the service) and apply for flexible working patterns of a variety of types. The latest staff survey results suggest that the Trust is in the top 20% of acute trusts for both quality of work life balance and percentage of staff using flexible working options NHS Pension Scheme The new NHS pension scheme provisions will be implemented on 1 April A considerable amount of publicity and awareness raising for existing staff has been undertaken to alert them to the imminent changes, including attachments to payslips, articles in Health News Weekly etc. There will be a further requirement for publicity at a later date as there will be a period during which existing staff can exercise an option to switch to the new scheme if they wish /Careers Advice and Works Experience The Trust has continued to offer opportunities for school pupils/students to undertake work experience placements. In the year there will be about 200 such placements. In addition we have arranged specific class visits, for instance the recent visit of science students to our laser and radiography services. We have also attended a variety of careers fairs and similar events locally Recruitment Processes and Systems The Trust has maintained its very significant move into the use of E- Recruitment, which has led to a large reduction in expenditure on advertisements. Our expenditure for 2007/2008 will be approximately 10% of what the spend on recruitment advertising was in 2002/2003 despite an increase in recruitment activity. With the introduction of the ESR payroll/personnel computer system it is now possible to download the personal details of successful candidates from their e-applications into the Trust s ESR, thereby cutting out a data entry step in the recruitment process. In addition we are able to produce activity reports (including recruitment diversity information) at the touch of a button.

5 A revised recruitment and selection policy has been agreed and implemented that integrates the use of NHS Jobs into the normal recruitment process and delivers a more responsive, robust, yet flexible and customer focused service, The processes used for the recruitment of substantive medical staff have also been revised and now includes the use of e-recruitment. Theme Two - Modernising Systems to Support Careers Agenda for Change (AfC) Assimilation AfC maintenance Variations to AfC Certain conditions of employment, most notably arrangements for common unsocial hours payments were still to be introduced into the national agreement at the time of AfC introduction in At the time of the last report the Trust was taking part in a national consultation exercise on proposals. Agreement has now been reached at national level on the proposals, and these are to be introduced from 1 April A considerable degree of discussion with staff and their representatives has been conducted to support and explain the changes that will occur to existing unsocial hours agreements. Some conditions of employment already agreed were to be phased in over several years. December 2007 saw the first staff groups whose basic hours were less than 37.5 per week increasing their hours either to or towards (Examples included Admin and Clerical staff, radiographers, therapists etc.) These changes went ahead without any problems being experienced, effectively giving the Trust a partial return on the investment cost of AfC in the form of additional hours for the same cost (or the same hours for less cost). At national level the secretary of state for health gave the Nurses and Other Health Professions Pay Review Body (NOHPRB) the task of advising the government on the issue of remuneration for all staff covered by AfC. Their recommendations for 2008/2009 remain unmade at the time of writing but are likely to be made in a difficult position of changing economic conditions and the end of a long period of strong growth in the NHS Workforce Planning New Role Development After a period when workforce planning has rather lost its way locally regionally and nationally there are signs once again that SHA s are exploring ways in which some order can be brought to both estimating demand and providing supply. As a Trust progress is being made to produce a meaningful demand model based on agreed service plans and the service strategy. However, this remains at every level based on traditional staff groupings. There is still more work to be done to explore the contribution that might be made by innovative role design outside of the professional silos of nurses, therapists etc Continuous Learning, Maximising the use of new Technology in Learning/ Training and Prioritise Training Delivery

6 The major expansion to the availability and access to E-learning continues. Trust training resources have been focused towards the delivery of corporate and directorate service plans (through the Training Needs Analysis process) and ensuring Trust staff are equipped with the skills required to achieve the core competencies of the KSF at relevant levels. The Facilities Directorate has been in the forefront of these initiatives and has achieved outstanding success in getting their staff through essential training in large numbers using innovative packages. Overall, the staff survey shows Trust staff are above average for the amount of job relevant training they receive in a year. Mandatory training has now been defined by the Trust s Education and Workforce Development committee, and a revised induction procedure is about to commence aimed at ensuring that all newly recruited staff have accessed some core mandatory training prior to them starting work in their departments Registration Checks Pre and Post Employment Checks The Trust s system for on line checking of registrations is now well established and a policy describing the process with an associated flow chart was developed for the NHSLA standards for better health pre visit in February. Trust practice for carrying out the checks required before staff start employment with the Trust or transfer to other employment within the Trust continues to be updated in line with developments to best practice NHS standards. The coming year will see the introduction of a vetting and barring scheme for those who work with children and vulnerable adults which Trust staff will be subject to. Changes to the work permit system are about to occur which require the Trust to register as a sponsoring organisation. In brief the implications are that only those organisations which meet certain standards will be allowed to employ non-eu staff (those who require work permits) in an attempt to minimise the degree of inappropriate employment in certain quarters. It is essential that the Trust obtains sponsor status as we employ a considerable number of staff in this category, not least medical staff. From 1 March it has been an offence punishable by a fine of 10,000 on each breach for organisations to employ individuals who are not entitled to work in the UK Conduct, Capability and Competence Supplementary guidance for those who found themselves in various management side roles in the disciplinary process has been developed and made available as human resources management guidance on the Trust Intranet. It has been determined to expand the number of trust investigatory officers through on the job training. Suitable candidates are currently being nominated.

7 Theme 3 Sharing Goals Values and Beliefs Focus Groups As part of the development of the new Trust OD strategy it was felt to be a good opportunity to revisit the current values and beliefs statements. A cross-section of staff have joined together as a reference group to undertake this process. After a series of consultative and developmental meetings with various groups of staff a revised set of values and beliefs statements have been developed and are due to come to the April 2008 Trust Board meeting for final approval Staff Survey The corporate action plan from the 2006 Staff Survey was progressed along with action plans for each Directorate in the period covered. The 2007 staff survey results have now been received and show that the Trust continues to be in a relatively strong position compared with other NHS acute trusts. The outcome of the most recent staff survey is the subject of a separate report to the Trust Board but demonstrates some pleasing improvements in work related injury and flexible working, both issues addressed as part of the 2006 survey action plan Celebrating Staff Success. The use of a Trust Success Fund to purchase items within each department to help improve working lives has been well received by staff. The fund was sourced from the additional surplus generated by the Trust in 2006/2007 and demonstrates to staff a tangible benefit of being a Foundation Trust, in that they are able to share in Trust success Partnership Working with Trade Unions IR Systems and Structures The Trust continues to enjoy excellent relations with Trade Unions locally, and a staff representative sits as a full member of the Operational Management Board and another is in attendance at public Trust Board meetings. Recent significant work includes: joint consultation on a move to weekly pay only for all Trust staff, leading to a collective agreement enabling this to occur (effecting nearly 2000 staff in total); a joint submission to the review of the ill health retirement scheme (current national review): out of hours arrangements (see above) and agreement to an allowance for supervisors of midwifes. In the period covered by the report a revised Recognition agreement has been signed with trust trade unions which includes the structures within which consultation (Joint Consultative Committee) and negotiation (Joint Negotiating Committee and Joint Negotiating Groups) will be conducted. At the same time a revised Facilities agreement was signed. This describes the arrangements that will exist for such matters as time off for Trade union activities and duties, the use of Trust facilities such as computers, telephones, the post, meeting rooms etc in order to carry out the work of trade union representatives locally.

8 In support of services needing staff s working arrangments to change, as a result of changed business need, a more structured best practice process for consulting and involving those staff was introduced in 2007 and has become a well used methodology. It has now been incorporated into the recently revised Security of Employment Policy. Theme 4 Building HR Management Capability and Capacity Training on HR Issues The main emphasis during the period has been on training managers of staff and trade union representatives on the new Attendance Policy and its application (The policy came into operation on 1 October 2007). To date 40 courses on this subject have been run and over 300 individuals have attended the training. In addition, HR staff have worked with managers across the Trust to build capacity in such matters as Equality Impact Assessments, using the e-recruitment system NHS jobs, best practice in recruitment and selection, and the administration of the disciplinary process Partnership Working with outside HR Organisations A considerable amount of close working with the Trust s legal advisors has been necessary over the period on a number of very complex staff issues, including cases involving disability discrimination claims, conduct cases, capability cases, equal pay claims, and potential claims of age, gender and race discrimination all occurring recently. In addition, there have been a number of changes in employment and case law that have required Trust HR staff to attend updates and increase their knowledge, where our legal advisors have assisted and advised Reporting Mechanisms The successful implementation during 2007 of the new NHS Personnel/Payroll system ESR (Electronic Staff Record) has provided the platform to collect and report on a variety of workforce data sets locally and nationally. Locally we now have a facility to collect and report on the six equality strands across our workforce, and this was in part the reason that a census of staff was conducted in the autumn of 2007 to add to and update the data we kept on our system. The census had a very good return rate in the main, and we are currently engaged in chasing up non responders to ensure we have the most comprehensive picture possible. We have added to the data we collect about new staff to complement the census.

9 Conclusion The Trust has continued to make good progress to deliver its HR Strategy. With the work currently being undertaken to develop an OD Strategy, and the time that has now elapsed since the HR strategy was developed, the coming year is an ideal time to review and revise the HR strategy to make sure it reflects the developing environment within which the Trust operates. It is therefore proposed that the strategy be reviewed in 2007/2008 to be more in line with the OD strategy and other internal and external drivers. Alan Denton Director of Human Resources Peter Hill Director of Operations March 2008