Corporate report

UKHSA Advisory Board: People and Culture Committee terms of reference

Updated 16 November 2022

Date: Wednesday 16 November 2022

Sponsor: Sir Gordon Messenger

Purpose of the paper

The purpose of the paper is to provide the Advisory Board with the Terms of Reference for the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) People and Culture Committee.

The Terms of Reference were discussed by the People and Culture Committee at its first meeting, held on Monday 3 October 2022 and agreed in correspondence on 8 November 2022.

Recommendation

The Advisory Board is asked to endorse the terms of reference for the People and Culture Committee.

Terms of reference

1. Purpose

1.1 The UKHSA Advisory Board has established a People and Culture Committee of the Advisory Board to fulfil its functions. The People and Culture Committee will assist the UKHSA Advisory Board by:

• giving advice on UKHSA’s strategies and plans for talent management
• succession planning
• capability building
• performance management
• incentives and rewards

It advises on whether the organisation’s people related processes are effective in helping UKHSA achieve its goals.

1.2 The Committee will also monitor and review issues relating to the values and organisational culture of UKHSA, drawing as necessary on data and narrative insights to ensure that the culture of the organisation, its skills and capabilities and the well-being of the workforce are consistent with UKHSA’s long-term strategy and purpose.

2. Constitution

2.1 The People and Culture Committee is an advisory committee with no executive powers; it is not the duty of the People and Culture Committee to carry out any function that properly belongs to the Executive.

2.2 UKHSA has agreed to work in partnership with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC)’s Nominations and Governance Committee for the purposes of decisions on Director General pay, performance management and talent management.

3. Membership

3.1 The People and Culture Committee shall be chaired by a non-executive member of the UKHSA Advisory Board, selected and appointed by the UKHSA Chair for a period of up to 2 years.

3.2 The members of the People and Culture Committee are:

• non-executive chair
• 2 non-executive members
• associate non-executive member
• Chief Executive Officer
• Chief People Officer

3.3 Members of the People and Culture Committee will be required to represent diversity and inclusion in their broadest sense within the advice it provides to UKHSA. Discussions on diversity and inclusion will be focused on internal activity of UKHSA, distinct from the external view of the Equalities, Ethics and Communities Committee.

3.4 The People and Culture Committee may invite individuals outside the core membership to participate on specific topics, in order to represent our employees’ voice.

3.5 The People and Culture Committee shall review its membership at least every 2 years.

3.6 The People and Culture Committee will be provided with a secretariat function by the UKHSA Governance, Risk and Assurance Team.

3.7 A closed session of the People and Culture Committee may occur up to twice per year with the Chair of the Advisory Board to support their responsibilities as outlined in 5.30 and 5.31 of the framework agreement. These closed sessions will be limited to the Chair of the Advisory Board, CEO, CPO, Chair of the People and Culture Committee and one representative of the Governance, Risk and Assurance team as secretariat.

4. Reporting

4.1 The People and Culture Committee will formally report in writing to the UKHSA Advisory Board after each meeting. This will be by the issuing of minutes and any other report that the Chair may deem appropriate. Minutes will be provided to the Chair for review in time for presentation to the next meeting of the UKHSA Advisory Board and not later than the end of the week following the meeting.

5. Remit and responsibilities

5.1 The People and Culture Committee will advise the UKHSA Advisory Board on:

• ensuring that the appropriate organisational culture, values and behaviours are in place to enable UKHSA to fulfil its function and deliver its mission whilst fostering employee engagement, wellness and inclusivity
• promoting the efficient and effective deployment of employees, and ensuring UKHSA builds the skills and capabilities needed to deliver its long-term strategy and purpose
• supporting and informing the evolution of UKHSA’s organisational design, people strategy and development, to ensure UKHSA recruits, builds and retains talent as a world leading public health organisation
• its approach to leadership: leadership standards, talent and performance management and succession planning, ensuring an appropriate balance of skills, experience and diversity; and additionally, to consider succession and knowledge transfer for leadership roles within the Civil Service context
• incentive structures and rewards in UKHSA, and advising on the extent to which these arrangements are effective at underpinning a high performance culture and recognising our employees’ contribution and expertise
• the process to determine pay and reward of UKHSA’s senior leaders, although individual decisions would remain the responsibility of the Chief Executive

6. Meetings

6.1 Meetings of the People and Culture Committee are chaired by the appointed Chair, who shall not be the Chair of the UKHSA Advisory Board. The People and Culture Committee Chair must be a non-executive member of the Advisory Board appointed to undertake the role.

6.2 The People and Culture Committee will meet at least 4 times a year. The Chair may convene additional meetings, as they deem necessary.

6.3 People and Culture Committee meetings will not be held in public but agreed minutes from meetings will be put on the agenda for public sessions of the UKHSA Advisory Board and published on UKHSA’s website with Advisory Board papers (subject to any redactions in line with exemptions under the Freedom of Information Act 2000).

6.4 Unless otherwise agreed, notice of each meeting confirming the venue, time and date together with an agenda of items to be discussed, shall be forwarded to each member of the Committee no later than 7 days before the date of the meeting.

6.5 A minimum of 3 members of the People and Culture Committee, of which one must be the CEO or CPO, will be present for the meeting to be deemed quorate.

6.6 Where a meeting is not quorate under paragraph 6.5 within one half hour from the time appointed for the meeting, or becomes inquorate during the course of the meeting, the People and Culture Committee members present may determine either to:

• adjourn to such time, date and place as they determine
• continue and confirm any decision at the next quorate meeting

6.7 The People and Culture Committee may invite individuals with particular expertise, knowledge or experience to provide input on a specific topic or agenda item.

7. Approval and review

7.1 The People and Culture Committee shall conduct a review of its own effectiveness after one year from its first meeting.

7.2 The terms of reference of the Committee shall be approved by the UKHSA Advisory Board and reviewed at least every 2 years.

Date agreed by UKHSA People and Culture Committee: 8 November 2022

Review date: 8 November 2024

Chair of People and Culture Committee: Sir Gordon Messenger