Inside this issue... Accounts Payable Shared Service Update. On Monday 13 January 2014 after several months of planning. Page 1.

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1 J A N U A R Y Accounts Payable Shared Service Update On Monday 13 January 2014 after several months of planning Accounts Payable Shared Service moved into operational mode in Greenmount House, Ballymena. This exciting development for BSO is the start of the first phase which will ultimately led to the delivery of the financial services - which is time-lined to be fully deployed by May As part of the Early Implementation 25 colleagues have joined BSO - 23 from Northern Health and Social Trust and 2 from Belfast Health and Social Trust. The Accounts Payable Shared Service is led by Maxine Paterson who joined BSO in December Finally we would like to thank all those across BSO who were involved in or provided support during the establishment of the centre and we want to wish all our colleagues in the Account Payable Shared Service well for the future. Inside this issue... Accounts Payable Shared Service Update Page 1 A Warm Welcome to Margaret Murray Page 2 Health Fair Summary Page 2 External Audit Page 3 PHA Health Advice Page 4 HSC Leadership Centre Courses Page 5 HSC Pension Scheme Statistics Page 6 Think Privacy Page 7 Key Accounts Payable Shared Service contact numbers: Maxine Paterson Raymond Compston Shauna McCloskey Stephen Dickey

2 BSO Business Matters January 2014 Page 2 A Warm Welcome to Margaret Murray This month Human Resources would like to offer a warm welcome to Margaret Murray who is joining the team as Assistant Director. Margaret is replacing Paula Smith who is currently on secondment to the Department. Margaret has worked as a Senior Consultant with the HSC Leadership Centre for the last 10 years. She is the Director of Post Graduate Programmes, working in partnership with universities, and she has lead responsibility for Leadership Development and a number of Organisational Development Initiatives. Margaret is an advocate for lifelong learning and has a special interest in Team Development, Coaching in the work place and Staff Engagement. Margaret is a NI Ambassador for Engage for Success. Contact Margaret at: margaret.murray@hscni.net Following the success of the Belfast Health Fair in January 2013 and subsequent feedback from staff in local offices requesting Health fairs, HR, in conjunction with Occupational Health, organised health fairs in Gransha Park House, Tower Hill and County Hall. Health Fair Summary Each fair included a number of exhibitors including nutritionists, the Staff Association, physiotherapists, Cancer Focus NI, Care Call and occupational health nurses who carried out blood pressure and cholesterol checks. The occupational health nurses saw 101 staff in Gransha Park House, 85 in Tower Hill and 62 in County Hall. An evaluation carried out after the health fair revealed that 97% of respondents found the health fair useful and cholesterol and blood pressure checks provided by the occupational health nurses proved most popular. Overall, 78% of respondents felt encouraged to make a lifestyle change following information or advice received at the health fair and 98.9% of respondents indicated that they would like to see the health fair repeated in the future. Quotes from attendees: Thank you for making this available to Tower Hill staff - so often these events are confined to Belfast so it was great to have it on our doorstep. Thank you for making it possible for out of Belfast staff to attend in an out of Belfast location.

3 BSO Business Matters January 2014 Page 3 The ISO external Auditor (Hugh Sweeney (SGS)) has now completed the latest external audit of our Quality Management System and I am pleased to report that ITS has successfully retained its accreditation. At this morning s opening meeting with ITS SMT David Bryce brought Hugh up to date with on-going developments and service improvement initiatives since the last audit in August External Audit After giving our Quality Manual Processes and Procedures a thorough check, the Auditor questioned the following staff at length against the documented processes:- * Stephen Murphy (Supplier Control Outsourcing and Purchasing); * Stephen Porter/Brian McLaughlin (Resource Planning and Control and Service Catalogue); * Susan Campbell/Tony Sands/Geraldine Smyth (FPS Development Project); * Ryan Mohan/Andrew Torrens (Software Development and Testing); and * Susan Campbell (Personal Development Skills and Competence). I m pleased to say that they were all able to answer the questions the Auditor put to them and to provide supporting evidence of compliance where required well done all! Many thanks to all those mentioned above and to those throughout ITS who helped to get us ready for this audit, especially our Internal Auditors. Special and personal thanks as always to Marion Donaldson for her continuing hard work and persistence in helping to ensure the success of these audits. More detailed article to follow in February - Ken Maxwell, ICT Business and Quality Manager, ITS. Forthcoming Board Meeting The next meeting of the BSO Board will take place on Thursday 27 February at 2:00pm in the BSO Boardroom, ADDRESS. If you would like any further information or details of the agenda, please contact Amanda Mills in the Chief Executive s Office. Tel: (028) Amanda.Mills@hscni.net

4 BSO Business Matters January 2014 Page 4 Hop onboard the new stop smoking bus Around 360,000 people aged 16 years and over in Northern Ireland smoke, and sadly half of smokers here die early because of their habit. To help tackle this issue, the Public Health Agency (PHA) is teaming up with Translink and Cancer Focus to provide a special stop smoking bus which will travel around Northern Ireland in February to support smokers on their journey to quitting. Health Minister Edwin Poots said: Smoking is the single greatest cause of preventable ill-health in Northern Ireland and leads to 2,300 preventable deaths each year. The twin approaches of my department s ten-year tobacco control strategy are to reduce the number of people from taking up smoking and helping existing smokers to quit this lethal habit. I welcome this latest initiative by the Public Health Agency. I believe the stop smoking bus will not only to raise awareness, but will also offer practical advice and support to people who want to improve their life quality by stopping once and for all. My department invests significantly in smoking cessation services and these services now provided at more than 600 locations across Northern Ireland. This investment has paid off in the large numbers of smokers accessing these services over recent years. We need to continue to promote cessation services and encourage more smokers to make use of them. The stop smoking bus is an innovative means of supporting the Public Health Agency s broader stop smoking campaign and of taking this message to smokers across Northern Ireland. Dr Carolyn Harper, Director of Public Health at the PHA, explained: if you stop smoking for 28 days or more, you are five times more likely to stop for good, so we are using the 28-day month of February to get this message out and travel across Northern Ireland helping people to give up smoking. Our drop-in stop smoking bus will have Cancer Focus expert s on-hand to offer advice on stopping smoking and provide information on the support that is available right across Northern Ireland. People who hop on-board can avail of a free carbon monoxide test and get a stop smoking Quit Kit, which is a great tool to help plan a quit attempt. The bus will travel across Northern Ireland during February, stopping at busy locations in towns and cities. People can call in without and appointment to find out more about stopping smoking and the help that is available. It might be just the boost needed for those New Year s resolutions. For some people, stopping smoking can take more than one attempt but it important not give up. While the bus will be out and about in February, year-round support is also available across Northern Ireland to help people stop smoking. There are over 600 free stop smoking service in pharmacies, GP surgeries, hospitals, community centres and workplaces that can provide support and advice which will help you on your journey.

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6 BSO Business Matters January 2014 Page 6 HSC Pension Scheme Member Contribution Increases 2014/2015 (Year three of three) It is important that you are aware of the information contained in this article even if you are not currently a member of the HSC Pension Scheme as it contains details of further revised contribution rates for Scheme members as outlined last year. These proposals will, subject to normal legislative processes and approval, become effective for the Scheme year 1 April 2014 to 31 March Please note that the contribution rates shown below may be subject to change following consultation. The table shown in this article may be adjusted for those new to post from April 2014 to reflect any pay uplift that is applied. In the event of any change, you will be informed by your employer and details will be published on the HSC Pensions website at: In most cases, employers still pay the majority of the cost of your pension. Employers currently pay 13.3% of a member s pensionable pay in the form of scheme contributions.

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