Executive Management Team Wednesday 10 August 2016 at 10.30 p.m. Ochil House,

Stirling AGENDA

Papers Action

1. Apologies

2. AOB

3. Minute of Meeting 13 July 2016

4. Q1 2016/17 Budget Monitoring

EM

5. Corporate Plan Update

LB

6. Locality Performance Reviews

AH/TP

7. FM Contract Update

8. Forward Plan a) Audit Committee 18 August b) SCRA Board 22 September c) Operational Group – 23 August d) Other

9. New Risks

10. Date of next meeting

14 September 2016

EMT (Aug 16) Item 3

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Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration Executive Management Team Note of meeting - 13 July 2016 Present Lisa Bennett – Head of Strategy and Organisational Development Susan Deery – Head of Human Resources Ed Morrison – Head of Finance and Resources Malcolm Schaffer – Head of Practice and Policy Alistair Hogg – Senior Operational Manager (North and West) Tom Philliben – Senior Operational Manager (South and East) Neil Hunter- Principal Reporter/Chief Executive 1. Apologies Lawrie McDonald – Joint Head of IT/Digital 2. AOB Official Statistics – counting policy to be added

3. Matters Arising

(a) Facility Time – SD meeting with Branch Officials to discuss this.

(b) Historical Abuse Inquiry – no further update.

Records to be maintained as previously agreed. (c) CMS remote working check off – with MS for

consideration (d) Facilities management – discussions ongoing

with provider – need to see more evidence of improvement – meeting scheduled for next week with Carillion. Full report in Augus

(e) Joint Property Strategy – CHS understood to

be content with changes/development. Discussion on level below the strategy around key standards. Going in the right direction.

(f) PIN/PQN Review – timescale – working on the

basis of October to be reporting back to EMT for approval.

(g) Going to a Hearing Business Case – MS has

EMT (Aug 16) Item 3

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now reviewed the existing film and has confirmed that it does need replaced in the near future, when resources exist to support this.

(h) CHIP Learning and Development secondment

– not yet progressed. NH will provide feedback.

(i) Property/Locality arrangements – helpful discussion towards a model consistent with approach taken by other business partners.

4.

Learning and Development SD introduced – need to shape up the commitment to learning and development in the pay offer. Paper being developed to set out the broad approach to learning and professional development within SCRA – the balance between formal and informal learning and the need for PDP to drive how we plan and commission learning opportunities, including self-directed learning resources. Agreed not to underestimate the support people will require to develop an understanding of self-directed learning as one key element of next phase. Paper to be circulated to EMT for comments before going wider to managers in order to build the offering. Secondment/Mentoring opportunities TP/AH have met to discuss a co-ordinated approach to mentoring and shadow opportunities. Need to get a programme off the ground in order to help people carve out opportunities. External Opportunities (CIS/SG etc.) Shadowing – EMT/Board/Change Board/external Need to develop offerings linked to mentoring support and wider succession planning. Agreed to list opportunities to NH by 19/7 and from there overlay coaching/mentoring/shadowing – as part of a dynamic self directed approach.

SD All

Asap 19/7

5. Equalities Network Women into Leadership

EMT (Aug 16) Item 3

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SD had circulated a report based on research undertaken via focus groups in SCRA. The report recommends a number of activities that require EMT sign up and support to Equalities Network and other structures in order to progress:-– Noted This research identified eight recommendations with which SCRA can support women into leadership by tackling the obstacles identified by participants:

1. Demonstrate consistently over time that SCRA

sees women into leadership as important and viable.

2. Make management roles more accessible to women whose family commitments require part time, flexible, local working patterns.

3. Line managers and mentors should increase their support of women, encouraging them to think of themselves as leaders and to develop themselves in that direction. Improve the appraisal process so that it provides a strong, consistent vehicle through which leadership development can be realised.

4. Facilitate the formation of supportive peer groups of women who can encourage and learn from one another in their efforts to lead.

5. Provide women with training in leadership skills, focusing particularly on a replacement for the DPSL. Consider providing specific training for women into leadership, drawing on programs offered elsewhere.

6. Consider providing a range of opportunities to lead, and enabling employees to use the experience thus gained to make a case for promotion within their current role, without necessarily having to wait for a vacancy to come up.

7. Provide employees with more information about the content of management roles, for instance through shadowing, briefing, case studies and delegation.

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8. Educate men and women in SCRA about

subtle societal gender biases that are likely to unconsciously influence their perceptions and interactions in the organisation.

Agreed To support the recommendations and await further consideration by the Equalities Network.

6. (a) (b)

IT/Digital SCRA IT Operational Plan Agreed EMT content with direction of travel – budget gap still to be addressed . Principles and objectives agreed. Action plan still being populated and progressed and prioritisation of resource allocation is ongoing. Noted SD updated on the development of a job description – IT and Digital Programme Manager – initially for 12 months which is being evaluated currently and will be advertised. Backfill initially is not available – but needs to be subject to ongoing assessment and encourage managers to have a dialogue about how we can support any release. CMS hosting plan EM gave the background information to this. A meeting of EMT members (who were available) and Lockheed Martin who had been engaged as consultants. End of life hardware, contract arrangements Lacks mobility Not consistent with overall direction of travel Paper from LMcD has been circulated to EMT which gives a range of options with a preferred option of moving to a cloud based option. This also comes with some financial benefits and lower risk profile, improved disaster recovery timelines.

Appointment of project manager

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(c)

NCA for Pulsant into end of year/October 2017

Virtualise environment by March 17

Procure longer term (2-3 year) hosting package/product

Discussion on this week’s single point failure, risks of which would be reduced in future Agreed EMT agreed to preferred option 3 and ratified the recommendation from EMT members who were able to attend the hosting workshop. Egress Switch Report from LMcN highlighting the decision of Police Scotland to use Egress Switch in further communications from ‘risk and concern’ hubs. Noted A number of issues arise for SCRA:- We will not be able to receive encrypted information from the Police unless we upgrade to Egress Switch on operational Mail boxes Agreed To progress towards purchase of Egress switches for SCRA mailboxes at a cost of circa £1k NH to raise issues via planned engagement with:-

SOLACE

Cyber security paper and discussion with Scots LSM network advice to be sought on any process changes that may be required o support this arrangement

NH LB

Asap Next LSM network

7. Staff Event MMCI – joined the meeting by VC. Paper had been circulated setting out options for the staff event, based on

Reducing numbers

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Rising cost per head

Modest increases in levels of satisfaction with event in recent years

Discussion

Getting out of this winter cycle – maybe towards Spring as a better approach

Regional events lose something – wider networking opportunity – and in any case we can potentially fill these gaps by other means

External speakers add a great deal of value

Locality/Team show and tell adds value and should be developed

What needs are we trying to fulfil/trying to achieve and what are the benefits of the staff event

Should it be bi-annual?

Need for Partnership and Board view Workshops – need to consider costs – but could be selectively valuable. Could link to corporate plan and key projects (RCP/Court) – national identity (21st birthday coming Agreed

To propose that the 2016 November event be shifted to March 2017

Work up the paper – setting out objective of staff event/purpose/benefits and disbenefits

Targeted approach – to areas who have not fully taken up in past

To consult with Chair/Board and NPF

MMcI NH

Immediate Immediate

8. (a)

Finance 2016/17 Quarter 1 Being constructed now. Known issues:-

Gap in IT budgets to support IT Operational plan

Glasgow case – Translation costs – flagged initially to SG – need to finalise what the costs might be including cost sharing with other parties

Ayrshire – emerging issues that might impact on savings profile including MA living wage costs. Agreed to assess ways of offsetting the direct hit for this Locality give disproportionate impact.

Budget meetings underway to review results.

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(b) (c)

2015/16 Accounts update Very involved process this year – back to back with the CHS accounts. EMT concerns remain over the related parties disclosure which is felt to be disproportionate. 2016 Spending Review Likely to be one year settlement, given financial uncertainty– but SCRA should plan on the basis of our 3 year needs across the corporate plan period. Agreed To commence the process of EMT workshops in the course of August to start thinking about 3 year budget needs – focussing on workforce etc. Opportunity – LRM shadow experience around budget process

EM/NH

August 16

9. (a) (b)

Complexity Case studies Localities to be pressed to complete these as they have been very useful in briefing material for SG and Ministers. Defining Complexity – research proposal Noted Paper from LB/GH on complexity. Proposes a research project to randomly select cases, measure events in that year and other known factors which constitute complexity.

Case complexity

Inter-agency collaboration

Legislative complexity

Organisational complexity Need to ensure that issues such as non-disclosure are included. Agreed

TP/AH

Immediate

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To support the research proposal which shows great promise in relation to understanding multiple dimensions of complexity and associate data/measurement. SCTS – have done some work on complexity – is it worth talking to them on approach. NH to approach

NH

August 16

10. Strategic Risks EM identified need to ensure continued face to face review of risks as part of EMT Agreed leads to review and feedback to EM/NH

EM/PA/NH

Immediate ongoing

11. Official Statistics Official stats being quality assured at present. Our current policy is not to report on data of less than 5 (n=5 ) to secure identity. LB proposed that our policy aligns to that of SG, Police Scotland etc. and that we routinely publish data n>5 – with specific cases (e.g. very rural communities) being screened out in advance Agreed Following discussion this was agreed with the stated safeguards.

LB

Immediate

12. Forward Plan SCRA Board – Aberdeen – some forward planning around EMT input will be required.

13. New Risks Succession planning (referred by Remuneration Committee) – SD will scope

SD

immediate

EMT (Aug 2016) Item 6

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Report From: Neil Hunter Alistair Hogg Tom Philliben To: SCRA Executive Management Team Subject: Locality Performance Review – developing the approach Date: 10 August 2016 1. Background 1.1 Locality Performance Reviews were introduced in October 2015 as part of the

SOM Review. Two performance review cycles have now been completed and reported to the SCRA Board. At the Board meeting in June 2016 a number of areas of development of the approach and method of review were discussed. There is a need to ensure that the review process continues to be relevant, fresh and valuable to SCRA.

2. Next steps 2.1 The PR/CE and SOM’s met in July to identify specific areas where we could

usefully develop the performance review approach. A detailed note of that meeting is attached at appendix A. Key issues we consider to be important in the next phase are:

Developing key ‘themes’ of strategic or operational significance in order to enhance performance review sessions

Widen the participation in performance, from time to time, to key guests – such as strategic or programme leads

A focus on developing improvement conversations linked to commitments and approaches – to ensure steady, measurable progress

2.2 A notional list of key themes is contained within the note of the meeting. EMT,

their teams and Localities should be key to developing and agreeing the priority themes which will be integrated into future performance reviews.

3. Recommendations 3.1 EMT is asked to

a) Support the intention to develop performance reviews methodology and content

b) Agree the strategic themes which are to be developed c) Consider and agree EMT (and wider) input to future performance reviews

EMT (Aug 2016) Item 6

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SCRA SOM led Performance Review – note of discussion – 21 July 2016 Present:- Tom Philliben, Alistair Hogg, Neil Hunter Recent discussion of 2nd performance review at SCRA Board in June 2016. TP spoke to the report and discussion took place on the long term development of the approach, focus and methodology. Acknowledged that the Board derives growing reassurance from closer proximity to Senior Operational Managers and performance review report twice a year gives this additional focus and structure and a level of detail which compliments other inputs from SOM’s There is an agreed/acknowledged risk that the performance reviews, if they continue in the same format approach could become repetitive/’sameish’ and an acknowledged danger that they become less challenging and valuable to localities and therefore to SCRA. . The co-work of the SOM’s in approaching this continues to be valuable to ensure that these don’t become simply extensions to the existing line management arrangements. Working these reviews together, although labour intensive seems to add a greater value in terms of thoughtful challenge/review/critique. Developing a thematic approach It is suggested that we now develop the performance reviews to incorporate ‘themes’/thematic issues which will both enliven and continue the forward momentum as well as allowing a degree of ‘mining’ into particular areas of organisational priority/concern. Initial suggested list of themed areas could derive from corporate/business plan but also other areas of organisational concern:-

Risk management

Engagement/staff partnership

External Partnership and wider performance and quality in the hearing system

Customer care

Corporate parenting

Staff /work force development

Outputs from quality assurance

Information Governance

Absence management This ‘thematic’ approach could also play in other EMT lead areas – practice/strategy/resources/workforce etc. and this has the real potential to enrich our approach to holistic organisational improvement – across the range of portfolios. Also an opportunity to re- establish EMT link/buddy arrangements which could give that additional edge of challenge from outwith the line management arrangements as well as work with the SOM’s at reviews themselves to provide sharp thematic focus.

Appendix 1

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We would therefore seek to move to a ‘mix and match’ generic (oversight of the delivery of the locality plan) with themed areas of scrutiny, ordered in a way that aligns with SCRA’s priorities/concerns/pre-occupations. We would envisage EMT having a leading role in setting themes. Integration of the Locality plan with LMT routine business should lead us to interrogation of the exceptions rather than the detail as wit the first round of reviews, therefore giving us the space for these detailed thematic discussions. Improvement conversations We acknowledge that the performance management approach requires detailed discussions involving LMT’s as a resource to unlock conundrums/understand what’s getting in the way of sustained improvement and how can we minimise these elements and maximise the enablers. We want to develop our own skills in having Improvement conversations, drilling down – understanding the physiology of blockers/barriers – thinking about what supports are needed to stimulate forward progression/stimulate improvement and developing whole EMT capacity to have improvement orientated conversations –

ask the questions that elicit very specific improvement objectives/activities

what’s getting in the way of improvement

what interventions and supports are going to help

what timescales are we working to

how will we know that we are making a difference This approach sits alongside traditional exhortation on improvement – but is likely to have more sustainable results. Next steps and timescale Need to find a wee bit of space to discuss what might be a programme of themes over times linked to relative priorities/concerns/issues. In the next few weeks we should be in a position to have a stratified future programme of themed additional scrutiny. Aim to have revised approach in formation by mid -August for next round of reviews commencing September 2016. Other issues/opportunities

1. Also opportunity to influence the next phase of development of the blue print for children’s hearings – what’s seen as important in terms of future indicators of performance for the wider hearing system – LMT operational perspective can be important here.

2. To what extent can we influence partner performance/behaviours in the

absence of key data and how shall we manage this in the future?