Download Workforce and Organisational Development Report

Workforce and
Organisational
Development Report
Author: Ruth Davies, Director of Workforce and Organisational
Development
Date: 24 September 2012
Version: 1
Publication/ Distribution (on completion):

Public Health Wales Executive Team
Purpose and Summary of Document:
The purpose of the paper is to provide the Executive Team members with
an overview of the Public Health Wales workforce and an update on key
workforce issues and OD issues.
Date of Executive Team meeting: 8 October 2012
Please state if the paper is for:
Discussion
Decision
Information
X
Public Health Wales
Workforce and OD Report- Exec Team Meeting
1.
Workforce Statistics
1.1
Staffing levels and costs
As at 21 September 2012, Public Health Wales has 1284 directly
employed staff, which equates to 1110.32 Full Time Equivalents
(Contracted). This figure has remained fairly static over the first half of
the financial year.
1.2
Sickness absence
The sickness absence rate for the period September 2011 to August
2012 is 3.29%, a slight decrease from the comparable period last year
which had an annual rate of 3.36%. The organisation remains on target
to achieve the sickness target set by the Welsh Government of 3.25%.
The latest statistics on sickness absence in the NHS produced by the
Welsh Government were released in August and show that within Wales,
Public Health Wales NHS Trust had the lowest rate of sickness absence
for the quarter ending March 2012.
1.3
Turnover
For the period 1 September 2011 to 31 August 2012, the staff turnover
rate was 8.15% which is within an acceptable range.
Of the 103 leavers in the year, 55 left on a voluntary basis, there were
17 retirements and 10 left on VER Scheme. In addition, 16 had reached
the end of their Fixed Term Contract, two were dismissed, two took ill
health retirement and there was one death in service.
1.4
VER Applications
There are two members of staff leaving under the VER Scheme on 30
September 2012. A further member of staff has been given approval to
leave in January 2013.
2.
Current and Future Workforce Issues
2.1
Partnership Forum
The Partnership Forum met on 17 September 2012 with the next
meeting due to take place on 18 October 2012.
Fiona Fisher, HR Project Manager presented a paper entitled “Employee
Relations and the Partnership Forum”. This set out the findings from
the recent review of employee relations and partnership working within
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Public Health Wales and proposed a series of recommendations derived
from stakeholders’ view on the current process.
All recommendations were accepted with the exception of the one
addressing “Union and Board Engagement” which supported union
attendance at Board meetings but without voting rights. The Chief
Executive advised that the Welsh Government’s revised establishment
order for Board Constitution did not allow for voting rights. The trade
union side wished to have further time to consider this position.
A joint task group will now be established to implement the agreed
recommendations.
Following agreement at the Policy Group, four further policies were
signed off at the Partnership Forum, namely:
-
NHS Number Compliance Policy;
Procedure for Handling Requests for Information;
Policy for Managing Allegations of Abuse Against Staff;
Ionising Radiation Safety Policy.
Members of the Policy Group continue to work effectively in partnership,
with good progress being made in addressing the backlog of policies.
2.2
Joint Medical and Dental Negotiating Group
The Group continue to discuss issues in relation to medical and dental
staffing, including policy development and revalidation. Next meeting is
24 October 2012.
2.3
Workforce Pressures
A number of strategic workforce modernisation initiatives are continuing,
which are being supported by the HR team in addition to the normal
workload.
Administration Review
The implementation phase of the Administration Review is nearing
completion. The majority of staff have now been slotted into posts, with
an effective date of 1 October 2012. Interviews for the remaining
displaced staff (seven within Mid and West and six from the South East)
will commence on 28 September.
It is envisaged that all will be
confirmed in post by 12 October. At that stage, the residual (new) posts
will be advertised for open competition.
Public Health Development Directorate
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Following the publication of an initial discussion document containing
proposals for the realignment of the Directorate, the proposed divisional
structures were circulated, with comments invited by 20 September. It
is the intention that all consultants who are affected by the change will
receive a letter by 28 September 2012 advising them of the process for
filling posts. The realignment exercise will be undertaken in accordance
with the principles of the Organisational Change Policy for Wales.
Restricted Competition interviews will be held during the third and fourth
weeks of October.
Modernising Scientific Careers
Future meetings, to include HR representation and local managers, will
be arranged to address local implementation over the next 12 months.
As an organisation, Public Health Wales will have to develop a plan to
deliver. A key question will be around our future workforce requirements
and the educational commissioning and development plans.
Harmonisation of On Call / Service Change
New pay arrangements have taken effect from 1 July 2012 with
transitional pay protection for 12 months until 31 June 2013. There is an
urgent need to progress service change before the pay protection
arrangements cease next June.
Work is ongoing in relation to Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Screening
and
Digital
Mammography,
and
nearing
completion
for
Reconfiguration of Laboratory Services – Cytology and Bowel.
Reviews are in progress within the laboratory service (North Wales,
South West Wales and the South East Wales Microbiology Modernisation
project).
2.4
Workforce and OD Function Development
The core HR team are continuing to examine their structure and to
consider how this may be amended to add maximum value to the work
of Public Health Wales and to ensure best use of limited resources within
the HR team.
The first of four stakeholder events across Wales has been delivered by
Ruth Davies, Peta Beynon and Claire Barley. These have been designed
to encourage staff and managers to engage in a conversation around the
type of HR and learning and development services and processes our
staff would like to see within Public Health Wales. The first event was
extremely positive and productive with a number of common themes
emerging during the morning and afternoon sessions.
It is also
anticipated that there will be a follow up process incorporating
technology to ensure as many people as possible are able to participate
in the dialogue. The stakeholder events will continue across Wales and
on completion, an evaluation of outcomes will be undertaken.
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Recruitment, Payroll and Pension services are provided by the NHS
Wales Shared Services Partnership. Members of the Public Health Wales
HR and Finance teams continue to meet with representatives of the
shared services organisation on a bimonthly basis in order to discuss
levels of service and to develop a set of Key Performance Indicators.
There are growing concerns over the quality of recruitment services and
an additional meeting has been requested to address these fully.
2.4
Implementation of Electronic Staff Record (ESR) and Oracle
Learning Management (OLM) in Public Health Wales
A group comprising HR, POD and training colleagues has been
established to take forward the roll out of the system to the remainder of
the organisation.
An extended pilot for the roll out is underway,
involving North Wales Public Health team, Cardiff labs and parts of
Screening. Staff from the HR and POD teams are providing full support,
training (a programme of introductory sessions/ presentations and/or e
learning module), manual, frequently asked questions, key contacts and
other information to facilitate a smooth roll out.
There are significant resource constraints which will affect further roll out
of self service as considerable work will be required on the part of the HR
team in building organisational hierarchies and providing administrative
support to the ESR system. In recognition of this and to enable self
service to continue in a timely fashion.
2.6
Equality and Diversity
Fiona Fisher, Interim HR Project Manager, has started work on reviewing
the Strategic Equality Plan and will make recommendations for updating
the Plan and re-establishing a Strategic Equality Group to oversee
delivery.
3.
Workforce Development
3.1
Statutory and Mandatory
Classroom Training in the following areas has been timetabled between
September and December 2012:

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
Manual handling
Fire Awareness*
Health and Safety*
Information Governance*
Safeguarding
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*These sessions also have an option for undertaking an e learning
module. All sessions were advertised through the weekly bulletin, on the
training and education web pages (linked to POD pages), through
individual leads across the organisation, referenced in blog articles.
(January – March 2013, will be scheduled in the next few weeks).
Compliance levels (whilst increasing) are still unacceptable and there
needs to be a concerted effort and drive to ensure individuals attend
sessions that are put on. Many events recently have been cancelled last
minute due to lack of attendees.
The training database handed over to POD has a number of inaccuracies
and missing information, in order to address these issues in advance of
the roll out of OLM, the POD team are proposing a statutory and
mandatory audit across the organisation. A draft questionnaire and
process is to be submitted to the Quality and Safety Committee 4
October 2012.
3.2
Public Health Practitioners
Claire Barley will be presenting on the proposals for the development of
professional accreditation for Advanced Practitioners, at the national
event on the public health practitioner workforce development with local
leaders (across the UK) and the UK Public Health Register (UKPHR). In
addition, the UK PHR has invited Claire to participate in the Practitioners
Registration working Group, which is exploring the requirements for an
established regulatory pathway for initial registration (prior to completion
of the portfolio).
This year’s recruitment to the practitioner scheme is underway and it is
anticipated that there will be approximately ten new practitioners
participating this year.
3.3
Defined Specialists
The recruitment to the Defined Specialist portfolio development support
route is underway with between three and five applications expected.
3.4
Managing Change and Transition
The POD team in partnership with the Health Improvement Directorate
have commissioned ten sessions across Wales on Managing Change and
Transition. The sessions are happening between October and November
in response to the major change initiatives happening across the
organisation. The sessions are specifically aimed at individuals involved
in now or in the near future in change programmes and are very much
focused on supporting the individual in considering their approach to
change and effective ways to engage in the change process.
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