Minutes
HENE Governing Body
Local Education and Training Board
Date: 27 March 2015
Time: 13.30 – 16.30
Members of meeting:
Chair: Professor Oliver James
In Attendance
Derek Marshall (Chief Workforce Strategist & Planner
HENE)
Paul McLaughlan (Chief Operating Officer HENE)
Michelle Roach (Finance HENE)
Lisa Simmonette (Note Taker HENE)
Venue: Bourne House, Durham
Apologies:
Martin Barkley (Tees, Esk and Wear
Valley NHS FT)
Yvonne Ormston (NEAS)
Attendees
Professor Richard Bellamy (South Tees NHS FT)
Dr Jane Metcalf (North Tees and Hartlepool NHS FT)
John Davison (Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS FT)
Lisa Crichton-Jones (Northumberland, Tyne & Wear NHS
Trust)
Kath Griffin (Sunderland City Hospitals NHS FT)
Alex Glover (Local Director HENE)
Professor Namita Kumar (Postgraduate Dean HENE)
Professor Paul Keane (Teesside University)
Jim Mackey (Northumbria Healthcare NHS FT)
Susan Watson (Gateshead Health NHS FT)
Dr Jonathan Smith (Primary Care)
Paul Cummings (County Durham & Darlington NHS FT)
Professor Julia Newton (Newcastle University)
Ian Frame (South Tyneside FT)
Dr Julie Birch (Local Medical Committee)
Calum Pallister (HEE)
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Item
No.
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Discussion
Strategic
Welcome and apologies, declaration of interest
The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting. He also welcomed Calum
Pallister from HEE and Susan Watson for Gateshead Health NHS
Foundation Trust.
2.1 Draft Minutes of 27 February 2015 meeting
Members agreed that the minutes were a true reflection of the meeting.
Action
ECQ Metrics
Derek Marshall has written to the Universities regarding the proposed
changes to this funding.
Bands 1-4
Letter has now gone out to all Trusts.
Foundation Degree
Funding has been issued
Apps Development from Northumbria and Find Your Place Campaign
Both links circulated with the agenda and papers.
Workforce Strategy
Derek Marshall is collating all feedback by Easter.
2.2 Actions
Action log circulated. All completed actions will be removed.
Biomedical Science Histopathology
Derek Marshall will write to Trusts in early April.
Return to Practice
Discussions are taking place with the Nursing and Midwifery Subgroup.
ACTION: LS to add Revalidation for nurses to matters arising for next
meeting.
LS
Taskforces
Following the GPwSI selection centre on the 26 February four out of the
five candidates assessed on the day were successful at selection and
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therefore deemed to be appointable.
These four GPs have been matched with trusts they said they would be
able/would prefer to work at. The following trusts which have been
allocated a GP are:
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Northumbria
Sunderland
Gateshead
South Tees
Apprenticeships
Following a recent Ofsted inspection HENE received an overall rating of 2
(good) with further work to be undertaken around SFA contract
management.
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2.3 Matters arising
LETB Constitution
Alex Glover confirmed that the constitution would be reviewed regarding
voting rights for both herself and Professor Kumar and also other items
such as the revised terms of reference for the Partnership Council. The
document will come to a future meeting for discussion.
Partnership Council update – 16 March 2014
Discussed under agenda item 6.
National update
Calum Pallister gave a national update including:Mandate refresh
This has now been published and although there are no significant
changes to the document there is more focus around mental health.
Pharmacy
HEE are consulting a programme.
Radiologist posts
There has been recent activity on HEE increasing the number of posts.
Professor Kumar commented that the situation within the region had been
managed within budget and that the posts had been increased by 2 this
round. Derek Marshall added that there was a plan for 7 posts over the
next few years and Jim Mackey agreed that these posts were required
however training was more the issue.
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Manchester merge with Council
Limited information available.
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Alex Glover also gave a brief update informing the group of the GP return
to practice launch and the recent national meeting she had attended
regarding NHS cost recovery for oversees visitors and migrants. She also
added that improvement had been seen in the HENE staff survey results.
Finance update
Michelle Roach confirmed the financial position at the end of February was
£974k underspend. She added that the £900k was not available for
funding bids as the underspend had been previously agreed with HEE as
part of the national financial position for 2014/15. This is to offset the
additional £900k of workforce development funding allocated to HENE in
14/15. As work was continuing in confirming the outturn financial position
for HENE the remaining £74k would not be considered available for
funding bids. Professor James confirmed that the finance manoeuvre of
HEE did not result in an underspend for HENE and requested a section
added to the year-end report showing HENE’s financial outturn excluding
the £900k which was anticipated to be breakeven. This led to a group
discussion in respect of the £900k and Alex Glover informed members that
DH does expect HEE to underspend on Future Workforce as a result of GP
under recruitment.
Partnership Council Constitution
Professor James briefed the group on the preamble and accompanying
documents and added that the main issues to be addressed were around
better communication. He added that further clarity was required for
Trusts on which staff attended what meetings within HENE. Once all
memberships for meetings are confirmed a list will be shared using the
intranet to allow members to view all meetings and relevant
documentation.
Kath Griffin - suggested that HR directors could propose who from the
trusts should attend which subgroups.
Derek Marshall - confirmed that a current list of subgroup attendees had
just been circulated to the Board.
Dr Birch – asked if Primary Care had representation on the subgroups and
it was confirmed that representation was on the medical and dental
subgroup (MDAG) and other groups.
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Professor Keane – asked who would determine representation on the
subgroups and both the chair and Derek Marshall suggested that some
groups are more established then others.
Professor Keane – commented why HEIs had been excluded from the
Nursing and Midwifery Subgroup.
ACTION: Professor James to write to all Subgroups to ask if HEIs are
represented and to ask if they could review membership to include HEIs.
OJ
Paul McLaughlan – intranet work is being carried out to establish best way
to share information documents for all governance meetings.
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The chair referred to the appendices linking to the discussion around the
constitution review at the Partnership Council on 16 March which
highlighted the expectation of the group. It was suggested that the
current bi-monthly meetings were reviewed to be held quarterly to
accommodate better attendance ratings and that all subgroups should
hold a minimum of at least 6 meetings per annum.
ACTION: Professor James to re-write the constitution and appendices.
Revised Governing Body Meeting Dates
The Board agreed to the suggestion to reduce the number of meetings to
six per year and the below dates for the remainder of 2015 were agreed:-
OJ
22 May
24 July
25 September
27 November
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Research Network
Paul McLaughlan confirmed that following the notice which had been
served last year on the research contract we have now completed a
successful procurement process to establish a Research framework as
suggested previously by the board. The new framework will be
operational from 1 April 2015 and the providers who have been appointed
to the framework are Durham University, IFF, Northumbria University and
Newcastle University. The framework is initially for two years with the
option to extend by a further two twelve month periods. Professor James
asked if the Board could be informed when the 2 year framework was up
for renewal to consider if it should be re-tendered or extended at that
point.
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HENE Careers Strategy
Professor Kumar presented the paper which outlined the strategy adding
that there were two aspects to Careers provision, the primary role as a
provider of Postgraduate Medical Education and ensuring GMC standards
are met. She confirmed that each are as applicable to other professional
groups, but Careers advice is delivered by the HEIs as part of the courses
commissioned by HENE. If there would be a desire to widen the work to
the full workforce, more resource would be required
Items highlighted included:Page 2 – Talent for Care and Widening Participation and Shape of Care
Training.
Page 9 – Major risks.
Following discussion Professor Kumar asked the group for feedback.
Professor Keane – welcomed the paper and felt that it was good to widen
out to all as part of widening participation.
Professor Newton – commented on widening participation and how it was
oversubscribed at Newcastle University.
Professor James - commented on careers advisors within schools as not
being targeted. NK made clear this was not the case. He also felt that the
paper had a strong medical steer. He also suggested that information be
included on the statutory obligation.
Dr Metcalf – also welcomed the paper adding comments about work
experience and how HENE could engage and drive this forward. Professor
Kumar commented that the Medical and dental subgroup had been
approached twice but this had failed to work.
John Davison – informed the group of NUTH’s career day where over 80
school children had been taken to the Trust by bus to help with early
engagement.
NK informed the group there were many such regional events.
Further discussion took place around issues within GP work placements
and Kath Griffin emphasised the need to be realistic when engaging.
It was agreed that a full paper and obtaining work experience for the full
workforce will be brought back to the board.
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Budget Setting 2015/16
Calum Pallister and Michelle Roach jointly presented the budget plan for
2015/16 highlighting that there was a significant shortfall between the
proposed allocation and the 21015/16 budget plan. Michelle commented
that although the plan shows a financial gap the figure is yet to be
confirmed following a national review by HEE.
HEE have reduced the funding for Medical and Dental undergraduates but
the accuracy of this is being questioned. Further investigation will be
undertaken to review this including obtaining the activity numbers from
HEFCE. The group discussed this and Calum suggested that it would need
to come back to a meeting once the numbers are clarified by HEFCE and
HEE.
Professor James suggested reinstating the vacancy factor on specialty
training posts (option 1 from Section 5 of the paper), however, it was
proposed that the vacancy factors would be reduced to 0.75% for all trusts
with the exception of Newcastle FT and South Tees FT where a rate of
0.625% would be applied due to the assumed lower vacancies as a result
of more specialised training posts.
In addition he also suggested that a 5% vacancy factor be applied on GP
secondary care posts as currently they are under recruited too.
Alex Glover and Calum Pallister proposed agreement that any savings
made during the financial year would be prioritised to mitigate against
this original reduction.
Dr Metcalf – raised, if trusts agree to take the money (if the vacancy factor
funding was reinstated as surplus funding became available) could they do
more exciting things with it, i.e. could it be used for education and
training initiatives locally. Professor James responded that this was a local
decision for trusts, but agreed in principle.
John Davison – requested that it would be good to have an idea of the
numbers.
Professor James – responded that the reduction to funding would be
applied equitably.
Members had general concerns over unknown numbers which could
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potential be a risk therefore Michelle agreed to circulate this information
once ready.
ACTION: Michelle to circulate the financial impact of the decision to each
trust.
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MR
The group discussed further and it was agreed that the two suggested
measures of applying vacancy factors to GP hospital based posts and other
specialty training posts would be adopted on the understanding that any
surplus funds would be used to reinstate this funding prior to committing
to any new initiatives. This agreement, together with a plan already in
place for CIP should then present a balanced budget.
A.O.B.
HENE Chair replacement – 4 applications have been received with 1
suitable for shortlisting. Interviews have been postponed whilst further
potential candidates are sought.
Alex Glover made a small presentation to the chair on behalf of the Board,
thanking him for all his support and wished him well for his future.
Professor James thanked everyone adding that he had enjoyed his time as
the chair at HENE.
Future agenda items
Details of future meetings
Friday 22 May 2015 (Bourne House)
Friday 24 July 2015 (Bourne House)
Friday 25 September 2015 (Bourne House)
Friday 27 November 2015 (Bourne House)
Minutes completed by:
Minutes confirmed by:
Lisa Simmonette
Alex Glover
Date: 08/04/15
Date 29/04/15
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