Corporate report

UKHSA Advisory Board: People and Culture Committee minutes

Updated 22 May 2023

Date: Wednesday 24 May 2023

Sponsor: Gordon Messenger

Recommendation

The Advisory Board is asked to note the minutes of the 24 January 2023 meeting of the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) People and Culture Committee. The minutes were agreed on 20 April 2023.

Minutes, UKHSA People and Culture Committee, Tuesday 24 January 2023

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:

• 4 attendees with names and titles redacted
• 1 attendee with name and title redacted (minutes)

Welcome, apologies and declarations of interest

23/001 The Chair welcomed participants to the meeting and noted that there were no apologies or declarations of interest.

Minutes of previous meeting and matters arising

23/002 The People and Culture Committee approved the minutes of the previous meeting held on 3 October 2022 (enclosure PACC/23/001). The Chair noted that the actions from the previous meeting (enclosure PACC/23/002) to update the People and Culture Committee Terms of Reference had been completed and the final version circulated to members.

Engagement survey results

23/003 The Chief People Officer and the [title redacted] gave an overview of the 2022 Civil Service People Survey results for UKHSA.

23/004 There has been an increase in the results relating to organisational purpose, which is positive in our first year of operation, however the results were disappointing overall, with a decline in employee engagement and other key themes, most notably managing change and in bullying and harassment and discrimination.

23/005 The Chief People Officer shared the next steps in responding to the People Survey results. All leaders have received their local data and will hold focus groups locally to investigate issues underlying the results and agreeing improvement actions. The Executive Committee are additionally agreeing some specific actions to take that can impact across UKHSA.

23/006 The People and Culture Committee noted the 2022 People Survey Results and agreed that the results are of concern. The Committee noted the action planning at UKHSA wide and local levels, noting that a concerted leadership effort was needed to reverse these figures with a clear plan on how the Executive Committee would achieve this.

23/007 It was noted that the delay in discussing the results of a People Survey conducted in October 2022 showed a staff feedback process that is far from agile. The Chief People Officer agreed the delay is not ideal and is linked to the overall timescales of the Civil Service People Survey timescales with results not released until mid-December. However, a more agile People Survey approach is being considered.

23/008 The members suggested that to bridge what is seen as a disconnect between the Executive Committee and issues on the ground, leadership should put in place a communications plan to highlight the steps taken towards targets put in place following the results of People Survey. A communications plan should include:

• consistent and repeated messaging on policies, values, and progress on actions
• forums that give employees direct access to Executive Committee members, along the lines of the Chief Executive’s UKHSA Live calls which have proven to be popular
• regular updates for middle-management on progress across the organisation will enable messaging to have a wider reach

23/009 It was noted that addressing high bullying and harassment also required cultural change to create an environment where people feel safe to speak up about issues with colleagues. A targeted approach through regular, short, and focused Pulse Surveys was suggested to monitor progress on anti-bullying and harassment measures put in place.

23/010 The UKHSA Freedom to Speak Up Guardian will be invited to the next People and Culture Committee in April 2023 with an analysis on the types of bullying and harassment cases that have been raised through this route.

Pay and reward

23/011 The [title redacted] gave an update on UKHSA’s pay and reward initiatives, giving the context of a mixture of reward frameworks including the UKHSA Pay Framework, a separate Pay Framework for Senior Civil Servants set by the Cabinet Office, and the NHS Pay Framework for those on Medical and Dental Terms and Conditions.

23/012 The People and Culture Committee noted the update on the organisational reward context and priority projects underway.

23/013 The members expressed the importance of managing expectations on how competitive UKHSA could become in terms of pay. As there is inevitably a ceiling on how much UKHSA can afford, there needed to be a focus on developing UKHSA’s Employee Value Proposition (EVP) and its branding to attract and retain talent, particularly for critical and specialised segments of the workforce. The Chief People Officer confirmed that the UKHSA’s EVP workstream is running parallel to the Pay and Reward workstreams.

Industrial relations landscape update

23/014 The [title redacted] provided an update on the current situation of the industrial relations landscape across UKHSA and current risks/mitigations in place (enclosure PACC/23/005):

• there are 11 trade unions recognised by UKHSA, therefore, any potential industrial relations issues can impact varying employee groups across the organisation
• UKHSA has received one notification of potential strike action on 1 February 2023 and is expecting further notifications of industrial action in the coming weeks
• HR has been supporting groups to develop their local business continuity plans and update these on a 2-weekly basis
• UKHSA HR is working closely with Civil Service HR and Government Legal Department on responses

23/015 The People and Culture Committee noted the update and supported the actions being taken by UKHSA. The Chief Executive confirmed that there was an ongoing risk assessment which was flagged to the Executive Committee and reviewed regularly.

Forward look and topics for future meetings

23/016 Suggested discussions for future meetings included:

• next steps on the People Survey results, including a view of EDI data
• next steps on bullying, harassment and discrimination and an analysis of cases that have been raised through Freedom to Speak Up
• progress on Pay and Rewards Frameworks and EVP Strategy
• promotion of UKHSA values across the organisation
• people development and training
• leadership beyond the Executive Committee
• strategic linkages to external organisations for public health responses

Any other business and close

23/017 No other business was recorded. The meeting closed at 4pm.