Corporate report

UKHSA Advisory Board: Science and Research committee minutes

Updated 10 May 2023

Date: Tuesday 14 March 2023

Sponsor: Jon Friedland

Recommendation

The Advisory Board is asked to note the minutes of 1 December 2022 meeting of the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) Science and Research Committee. The minutes were agreed on 8 February 2023.

Minutes (confirmed), UKHSA Science and Research Committee, Thursday 1 December 2022

Present at the meeting were:

• Jon Friedland – non-executive Chair
• Jennifer Dixon – non-executive member
• Graham Hart – non-executive member
• Susan Hopkins – Chief Medical Advisor
• Isabel Oliver – Chief Scientific Officer
• Steven Riley – Director General, Data, Analytics and Surveillance

In attendance were:

• Rachael Allsop – Director of Human Resources
• Interim Head of Business Partnering
• Head of Governance
• Richard Gleave – Director of Scientific Strategy and Development
• Public Health Advisor
• Chief of Staff to Chief Scientific Officer
• Deputy Director of Innovation
• Senior Governance Officer (minutes)
• Ed Wynne Evans – Director of Radiation, Chemical and Environmental Hazards (RCE)

Apologies were received from:

• Raj Long – associate non-executive member
• John Arne-Røttingen – International Impact Expert - Ambassador for Global Health at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway

Welcome, apologies and declarations of interest

22/020 The Chair welcomed participants to the second meeting of the Science and Research Committee.

22/021 Apologies had been received from Raj Long and John Arne-Røttingen.

Minutes of previous meeting and matters arising

22/022 The minutes of the previous meeting of 30 September 2022 (enclosure SRC/22/004) were approved.

22/023 It was agreed that the actions in the minutes would be more clearly highlighted going forward.

(Name redacted)

22/024 The Committee noted the actions report (enclosure SRC/22/005).

22/025 The action for the Chief Scientific Officer to discuss the risks across international sector and the global impact on public health with John Arne-Røttingen would be carried forward. It was clarified that the action included defining the breadth of the vaccine centre in the strategy.

Science workforce

22/026 The Chief Scientific Officer introduced the Science Pay update which was presented by Interim Head of Business Partnering and Director of Human Resources (enclosure SRC/22/004).

22/027 One of the major challenges was recruitment and retention of the scientific workforce. A review had been undertaken by Rachael Allsop, Director of HR focussing on scientists within the Science Group. The Interim Head of Business Partnering was leading on implementing the recommendations which had been discussed with the Chief Executive.

22/028 The conclusions were that whilst several temporary and targeted measures such as Market Pay Supplements had been implemented, these were insufficient and there was a need to address the issues identified more strategically.

The review proposed a 3 phase response to these challenges through separate but linked current pieces of work:

• extending the current clinical ringfence (CRF)
• review of the CRF criteria and performance
• the wider UKHSA Reward Strategy

22/029 It was explained that the issue was affecting the organisation’s ability to meet its strategic objectives and deliver services. The proposed phased approach would allow the issue to be addressed more quickly. If there was a delay until a people strategy more generally was agreed, progress would not be made.

22/030 The Committee noted that the review had compared UKHSA scientist pay to NHS scientist pay rather than pay in academia. The review had focused on Science Group but there were other scientists employed throughout UKHSA.

22/031 It was noted that the CRF was only the first step, and that a review of the scope of the clinical ringfence and the scientific framework for all scientific staff would follow.

22/032 The Committee discussed other government funded organisations such as the Medical Research Council, which had a similar scientific workforce and their own pay structures in place. It was suggested that these models could be used to help inform the work. It was explained that these models differentiated between academic or scientific career paths and support functions. UKHSA employed its staff on Civil Service terms and conditions, except for the CRF. It was acknowledged that the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) made additional payments by exception for some scientists, but this was for a very small part of the workforce.

22/033 The Committee agreed that communication regarding the first phase of expansion of the roles included in the CRF should emphasise that it was about solving a laboratory problem mainly on NHS sites, rather than the full scientific pay challenge. The wider science career and pay structure was a wider issue which would be addressed later.

22/034 The Committee agreed that:

• clinical ringfencing was insufficient to address the organisation’s needs in the long term
• the problem of science pay was largest in the Science Group but was something that permeated across different parts of the wider UKHSA where scientists were employed in diverse roles
• the issue needed resolving quickly or talent would be permanently lost and recruitment of new staff was at risk
• it was essential for the risk to be properly dealt with*
• the issue and associated risks needed to be flagged to Government in due course

*the Chair would discuss with the UKHSA Advisory Board Chair to ensure the gravity of the risk was properly reflected on the organisation’s risk register and ideally discussed at the main Advisory Board. Concurrently, the Chief Scientific Officer would discuss further with the Chief Executive Officer also with a view to bringing this issue to Advisory Board, sponsored by the Chair and Chief Executive Officer.

(Jon Friedland, Isabel Oliver)

22/035 The Committee noted the paper and the measures it set out.

Capabilities to respond to radiation and chemical incidents

22/036 The Chief Scientific Officer and Director of Radiation Chemicals and Environmental Hazards introduced a paper that outlined the current specialist capabilities of UKHSA to respond to chemical, radiological and nuclear incidents and how it was proposed this would be improved.

22/037 The Committee discussed the proposed training of staff to provide surge support, and whether this would be done in house. For nuclear and radiation, new graduates and early career researchers would be recruited and trained, but retention remained a risk. For toxicologists, within the chemical area, there was a UK shortage and market supplements had been deployed to attract suitable UK and overseas graduates.

22/038 The Committee discussed the different types of responses required depending on whether a chemical or radiation incident occurred. It was noted that an incident involving multiple simultaneous chemical or radiation releases in different locations would be the most difficult to deal with. It was important that UKHSA was clear on its role and accountabilities in relation to other government departments.

22/039 The Committee discussed the important role that the UKHSA could play in connecting with other organisations and companies to draft people in quickly if there was a need to respond to an emergency.

22/040 The Committee also discussed the potential opportunity of part-funding some posts and for government grant-giving bodies to create career pathways for scientists. It was noted that there had been some success using Health Protection Research Unit models looking at chemical or radialogical and environmental hazards. The National Poisons Information Service also included a pool of talent that could be utilised.

22/041 The Committee noted the paper and expressed support for the work.

22/042 The Committee agreed that:

• there was a need to ensure the organisation had adequately reflected the risk and the risk should be considered by the Advisory Board as it was potentially very high profile
• the proposed strengthening of capabilities in this area would allow UKHSA to respond effectively to a single very large scale incident in the UK or elsewhere, as well as a number of smaller, yet still major impact concurrent incidents
• partnerships in industry should be developed to improve surge capability, particularly as regards chemicals
• an update would be provided to the Committee in one year

(Isabel Oliver)

Science strategy

22/043 The Chief Scientific Officer, Deputy Director of Innovation and Director of Scientific Strategy and Development presented a paper which summarised the Advisory Board feedback and proposed changes to the in-development Science Strategy.

22/044 It was reported that the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Scientific Officer had agreed that a specialist scientific writer would assist with the updating of the science strategy document.

22/045 The main recommendations from the Advisory Board were highlighted in 3.1 to 3.5 of the paper.

22/046 A clearer idea of timescales for the final document would be known once the scientific writer was engaged on 12 December 2022. It was agreed that an additional meeting of the Science and Research Committee would be arranged on Microsoft Teams to discuss the final version of the strategy.

(Isabel Oliver, name redacted)

22/047 The Committee agreed that:

• the science hub should be developed further within the strategy document
• for the ‘return on investment’ section and ‘response to threats’ section, the strategy should not detail specific timescales

(Isabel Oliver)

22/048 The Committee noted the update.

Forward look and topics for future meetings

22/049 The Science and Research Committee noted the topics for future meetings as listed in the paper.

22/050 In addition, the Committee agreed that the following potential topics would be added to the forward look:

• research partnerships
• research income and Research funders – research funded that is external, in partnership or scientific training needed for the future that would impact on UKHSA (Steven Riley would be invited to join relevant conversations with research funders)
• UKHSA’s place and role in science ecosystem (for example, discussions with National Institute for Health and Care Research regarding Health Protection Research Units)
• animal research – Governance and Oversight
• sharing good examples of public health incident responses (for example, mpox (monkeypox))
• risk assessment – understanding how the Science area is structured to meet risks
• business strategy

Any other business and close

22/051 In advance of future Science and Research Committee meetings, a short meeting between the Chief Scientific Officer and Chair would be arranged the day before the meeting was due to take place.

(Name redacted)

22/052 There being no other business, the meeting closed at 11:45am.

[Name redacted]
December 2022