Corporate report

UKHSA Advisory Board: People and Culture Committee minutes

Updated 12 March 2024

Date: 13 March 2024

Sponsor: Sir Gordon Messenger

1. Recommendation

The Advisory Board is asked to note the minutes of 31 October 2023 meeting of the People and Culture Committee. The minutes were agreed on 5 February 2024.

2. Minutes (confirmed), UKHSA People and Culture Committee, 31 October 2023

Present at the meeting were:

• Sir Gordon Messenger – Non-Executive Member of UKHSA Advisory Board (Chair)

• Jon Friedland – Non-Executive Member of UKHSA Advisory Board

• Mark Lloyd – Non-Executive Member of UKHSA Advisory Board

• Jac Gardner – Chief People Officer

• Dame Jenny Harries – Chief Executive

In attendance were:

• Lee Bailey – Communications Director

Five attendees had their names and titles redacted.

3. Welcome, apologies and declarations of interest

23/074 The Chair welcomed participants to the People and Culture Committee and noted no apologies and declarations of interest.

4. Minutes of the previous meeting and matters arising

23/075 The minutes from the previous meeting on 11 July 2023 (enclosure PAAC-23-018) were agreed.

23/076 It was noted that two actions were completed, and one was in progress (enclosure PAAC-23-019). Full explanations were provided.

5. Annual Report and Effectiveness Review 2022 to 2023

23/077 The Chair introduced the Annual Report and Effectiveness Review 2022 to 2023 (enclosure PACC-23-020).

23/078 The People and Culture Committee noted the Annual Report for 2022 to 2023 and the summary of the Effectiveness Review 2022 to 2023.

23/079 The People and Culture Committee endorsed all proposed recommendations for implementation in the 2023 to 2024 reporting year.

23/080 On recommendation 3 (section 4.3 b), discussion noted the potential for duplication between the Advisory Board’s committees. It was agreed that workforce matters in general would be overseen by People and Culture Committee and those relating to the scientific workforce would be considered by the Science and Research Committee. It was noted that while the People and Culture Committee oversaw equality and inclusion within the workforce, the Equalities, Ethics and Communities Committee covered these issues within UKHSA’s external facing workstreams. 

23/081 Action: to avoid duplication, review committee Terms of References to ensure differences in remit relating to people and culture matters are explicit. It was expected that Science and Research Committee would consider scientific workforce issues in the first instance, with the People and Culture Committee able to provide oversight as required. (Secretariat)

23/082 Action: establish a feedback mechanism to ensure the People and Culture Committee is briefed on people and culture matters that are covered in the Science and Research Committee and the Equalities, Ethics and Communities Committee.  (Secretariat)

23/083 It was noted that with the agency moving toward maturity, and with the recent publication of the UKHSA Strategy, the People and Culture Committee would begin considering organisational performance from a people perspective, and that a hierarchy of HR Key Performance Indicators (KPI) was under development.

23/084 Action: schedule regular performance sessions at the People and Culture Committee to monitor performance against high level HR KPI metrics. (Secretariat / Jac Gardner)

6. Chief People Officer brief

23/085 The Chief People Officer provided an update on organisation-wide people-related activities (enclosure PACC-23-021).

23/086 The People and Culture Committee noted progress on activities discussed at previous meetings including:

• increased recruitment resulting in a larger permanent workforce (76%) than a year ago (31%), demonstrating a more established organisation

• insights from recruitment data being used to drive efficiency improvements in the recruitment process

• the implementation of an expanded Clinical Ring Fence (CRF) for scientific roles covering approximately 15% of workforce

• introduction of a Leadership Framework to build line manager capability

23/087 The People and Culture Committee noted the priority areas going forward including:

• development of a business case to support an overall pay and reward strategy for improving recruitment and retention in specialist roles  

• a review of Money and People Services (MaPS) to assess remaining HR functionality that could be leveraged

• identifying a future payroll service model

• building internal capacity for business-as-usual recruitment

• development of a landing page with key information about UKHSA to help attract job applicants

23/088 There was discussion around scientific roles that do not fall within the CRF. It was noted that the absence of pay progression within grade bands made roles inherently unattractive. It was further noted that a two-tier set of terms and conditions may not be perceived well across the general workforce. Noting the challenges and urgency to attract and retain specialist staff, the People and Culture Committee recommended that proposals for pay progression be considered as part of the business case for UKHSA’s overall pay and reward strategy.

23/089 It was noted that work was ongoing to set expectations of leaders in generalist and technical fields and ensure talent reviews were consistently applied across the agency. The People and Culture Committee recommended the development of mechanisms to select potential leaders early on in their careers to benefit from leadership training. 

23/090 The People and Culture Committee endorsed a review of MaPS to assess remaining HR functionality that could be implemented. They also commented on the urgency of putting in place a standardised performance management system and the ability of MaPS to have a central record of employee skills and expertise in order to quickly identify capabilities for rapid response situations.

7. Freedom to Speak Up

23/091 The Head of Casework and Employee Relations Support provided an update on activities to resolve concerns raised by employees and drive better behaviour and culture across UKHSA (enclosure PACC-23-022).

23/092 The People and Culture Committee noted progress on organisation-wide initiatives put in place following the 2022 Civil Service People Survey results:

• 19 Working Better Together workshops delivered

• ExCo Deep Dive Session scheduled to begin shortly

• a centralised HR Casework Service established for the management of concerns, grievances and whistleblowing cases

23/093 The People and Culture Committee noted next steps to improving organisational culture and behaviours:

• reviewing 2023 People Survey results, due in December 2023, to measure impact of interventions already implemented

• an audit on whistleblowing to help identify any opportunities for refinement and improve processes

• using data from the new central case management system to identify trends and patterns for targeted interventions

• contributing to new starter inductions and line manager training programmes to build expectations around behaviours

23/094 There was discussion on the capacity of the new casework service to deal with legacy complaints. It was noted that recruitment for experienced caseworkers was ongoing, and that the casework service would aim to resolve as many cases as possible through informal resolution mechanisms, as formal grievances are time intensive and can irreparably damage relationships of those involved requiring further interventions such as managed moves.

23/095 The People and Culture Committee raised the importance of ensuring effort goes into assessing the experience of parties at the end of the grievance process and making improvements accordingly, as word of mouth would influence the willingness of others to follow this route. It was confirmed that end-of-process surveys would be circulated to complainants and ways to make the process as supportive as possible for all parties would be considered.

23/096 It was noted that the case management system could track cases by complaint type such as race or disability discrimination but could not currently identify whether complainants had protected characteristics. The People and Culture Committee recommended developing capability to record protected characteristics of complainants to identify trends and patterns through a diversity and inclusion lens.

23/097 Noting that people from minority backgrounds can often feel less supported going through complaints processes, the People and Culture Committee recommended that diversity and inclusion perspectives be incorporated into existing plans for the upskilling of case managers.

8. UKHSA Reward

23/098 The Pay and Reward Lead provided an update on planned shorter and longer-term strategic pay and reward interventions (enclosure PACC-23-023).

23/099 The People and Culture Committee noted pay and reward achievements to date including:

• completion of the 2022 to 2023 performance and reward process for Senior Civil Servants (SCS) 

• payment of consolidated and non-consolidated awards for delegated grades

• development of the business case for Digital, Data, and Technology Pay Framework, awaiting approval from DHSC

23/0100 The People and Culture Committee noted next steps on pay and reward including:

• development of a business case for UKHSA’s longer-term reward strategy to address pay-linked recruitment and retention difficulties

• improving engagement on SCS bonus-linked performance management and moderation processes, including training on criteria, ratings, objectives and expectations

23/101 There was discussion on other health-related departments and agencies looking to put pay and reward business cases forward acting as a comparator for UKHSA. It was noted that while UKHSA had similarities with other health-related departments and agencies, there were also some differentials in terms of types of specialisms. The People and Culture Committee supported expanding comparators and allies beyond health as recruiting and retaining specialist staff was a common issue faced by many public sector bodies. Where there were commonalities, aspects of business cases already approved could be replicated.

23/102 The People and Culture Committee agreed that UKHSA needed to get salaries to an acceptable level and develop other offers for potential recruits, such as mission-driven work, capability-based pay, and graduate programmes, to compete with the private sector. Removing pay as a blocker as a first step would enable UKHSA to focus on enhancing its overall employee value proposition. 

23/103 With the pay and reward work primarily focused on the recruitment and retention of specialist staff, the People and Culture Committee noted the potential for pay to create discord across the agency. To counter this, the People and Culture Committee recommended socialising the pay and reward strategy and the justification behind it.

9. Forward look and topics for future meetings

23/104 The People and Culture Committee noted the Forward Look and suggested topics for future discussion (enclosure PACC-23-23):

• talent management and leadership development

• People Strategy and KPI metrics

• a deep dive on communications – its role in internal organisation-wide culture change, supporting the inclusion of regional office locations, and influencing external perception of the agency

10. Any other business and close

23/105 The Chief People Officer notified the People and Culture Committee on the process to be put in place for the independent oversight of pay and bonus awards for direct reports of the Chief Executive (enclosure PACC-23-25). The recommendations had been endorsed via correspondence by the Chief Executive, the Chief People Officer, the Chair of the Advisory Board, and the Chair of the People and Culture Committee.

23/106 The People and Culture Committee endorsed the approach to provide independent scrutiny of performance bonuses and awards for direct reports to the Chief Executive.