Corporate report

UKHSA Advisory Board: People and Culture Committee minutes

Updated 10 May 2023

Date: Tuesday 14 March 2023

Sponsor: Sir Gordon Messenger

Recommendation

The Advisory Board is asked to note the minutes of 3 October 2022 meeting of the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) People and Culture Committee. The minutes were agreed on 24 January 2023.

Minutes (confirmed), UKHSA People and Culture Committee, Monday 3 October 2022

Present at the meeting were:

• Sir Gordon Messenger – non-executive Chair
• Jon Friedland – non-executive member
• Jac Gardner – Chief People Officer
• Dame Jenny Harries – Chief Executive
• Mark Lloyd – non-executive member

In attendance were:

• Business and Governance Senior Officer
• Clinical Fellow to Chief Executive
• Deputy Director, Inclusion, Policy and Reward
• Board Secretary (minutes)

Welcome, apologies and declarations of interest

22/001 The Chair welcomed participants to the first meeting of the People and Culture Committee. The role of the Committee would be to provide advice and challenge with the goal of being supportive.

Introductions

22/002 All participants provided a short introduction of their role and background.

Terms of reference (ToR)

22/003 The Chief People Officer provided background on development of the ToR. The aim was to be broader than a standard remuneration committee with a focus on the organisational context, culture and unique skills requirement of UKHSA employees.

22/004 Question was raised on the intention behind closed meetings of the Committee within 3.7 of the ToR. It was explained this was about maintaining skillsets of non-executive members of the Advisory Board while allowing the Chair of Advisory Board to maintain accountability for effectiveness of the Board. It was suggested to make the role of closed group more explicit in the ToR.

22/005 The ToR should clarify the role of the People and Culture Committee as internally focused in the equality, diversity and inclusion sphere. This was in comparison to the broader societal focus of the Equalities, Ethics and Communities Committee.

22/006 Discussion followed on the role of external parties and employee participants at Committee meetings. It was agreed to empower engagement with employees rather than permanent Committee membership. Members of the Committee wanted access to employee voices through an engagement programme including attending leadership calls, and having a clear organogram of suitable contacts.

22/007 The Chief People Officer would incorporate additional comments into the Terms of Reference, particularly on access to workforce contacts and the distinction between permanent Committee members and invited participants for specific topics.

(Jac Gardner, Sir Gordon Messenger)

UKHSA workforce

22/008 The Chief People Officer introduced the discussion on UKHSA workforce to familiarise the Committee with people issues ahead of topical discussion at later meetings.

22/009 Significant progress was made to reduce the size of UKHSA workforce from just over 11,000 in March 2022 to 6,700 in March 2023. However, the shape of the workforce remained changeable with an expected increase in delivery focused roles. The lower percentage of permanent roles in some Groups demonstrated the difficulty of attracting and retaining the right people. Comments noted that challenge in areas such as technology were not unique to UKHSA. There was a likelihood of relying on consultants for some time to maintain safe delivery of key services.

22/010 Discussion occurred on distinguishing everyday health security and latent resilience within the existing workforce. It was noted that many roles during the COVID-19 pandemic could be filled from generalist skills but challenge remained on maintain balance within the organisation. Digital systems and partnerships were important factors in supporting responses where needed.

22/011 While the focus remained on UKHSA as a new organisation, members were eager to understand any issues from predecessor organisations. The Committee was keen to understand figures on turnover and ethnic or gender pay gaps. Additional points of interest included single points of failure and the ability to respond to trends in time.

UKHSA leadership

22/012 The Chief People Officer presented the update on leadership across UKHSA. The majority of senior posts had been recruited permanently with comment that the number of direct reports to the Chief Executive was high.

22/013 While focus was given to having appropriate leaders at Director roles. Barriers remained on attractiveness of pay and long-term career pathways. It was suggested to look at career pathways within the wider health sector. Discussion was expected at a future Advisory Board meeting on the Science Strategy and discussion was underway within the organisation on clinical ringfence and Science pay challenges.

22/014 Members were keen to understand discretion for pay and reward within the system and its role within this. The Chief People Officer would ensure Terms of Reference reflected the Committee’s role in advising the process for senior pay and reward while the decisions remained with the Chief Executive. The Committee observed constraint of the Civil Service pay award not enabling effective targets of pay increases where required.

(Jac Gardner, Sir Gordon Messenger)

22/015 It was noted that a Change Programme was in progress to challenge leadership and accountability across the organisation. Leadership support below the senior level was critical to success of the organisation and strongly supported by the Committee. Many, such as Health Protection Teams (HPTs), needed to ensure the balance of leadership and specialist skills in management posts.

Engagement survey and values

22/016 The Deputy Director, Inclusion, Policy and Reward presented the update on employee engagement. The values and behaviours had been developed through extensive work since October 2021. The Committee queried whether the language of values was strong enough with more aspirational phrases suggested. It was noted that the values were developed from bottom up to ensure ownership of the language. Additionally, phrases such as uncompromising focus were favoured as a way of including aspirational wording. Further comment noted that rollout of the UKHSA strategy would support employee buy-in to UKHSA mission.

22/017 The everyday values toolkit was seen to support behaviours in day-to-day interactions and a valuable opportunity to engage new starters in the organisation.

22/018 Encouragement was given to embedding values through internal communications and regularly checking employee attitudes. Existing activities included bringing values into UKHSA Live events and Pulse surveys, which had been paused.

22/019 It was noted that managing change and leadership at all levels were key to effective employee engagement.

Forward look and topics for future meetings

22/020 Suggested discussions for future meetings included:

• maintaining competitive recruitment offers in key skills areas that are often hard to recruit to and retain employees
• science workforce challenges with a focus on challenging the structure around longstanding issues
• embedding senior leadership development and skills across the organisation
• tracking results of the Civil Service Survey and the impact of any actions
• pay at senior levels

Any other business and close

22/021 Reflections on the meeting noted a positive discussion and the need to engage with middle management colleagues.

22/022 The ToR should be revised ahead of the next Advisory Board meeting.

22/023 The meeting closed at 12:18pm.

[Name redacted]
Board Secretary
October 2022