MINUTES OF THE 132nd MEETING OF THE BOARD OF THE HEALTH AND SAFETY EXECUTIVE FOR NORTHERN IRELAND HELD ON THURSDAY 25 JULY 2024 IN THE T&R ROOM, HSENI, LADAS DRIVE, AT 10:00AM
Present:
Board Members:
- Mrs C Irwin – Chair
- Mr S McDowell
- Mrs S Rooney
- Mr G Strong
HSENI Officials:
- Mr R Kidd – Chief Executive
- Mr L Burns – Deputy Chief Executive
- Dr B Monson – Deputy Chief Executive
- Mrs N Monson – Deputy Chief Executive
- Mr K Neeson – Deputy Chief Executive
- Mr M Ditchfield – HSENI Finance Unit
- Ms L Nelson – HSENI – Minutes
The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting.
1. Apologies
Dr Pat Hart
2. Corporate Health, Safety and Welfare
The Chief Executive stated that there were no issues to report.
3. Declaration of Conflict of Interest(s)
No conflicts of interest were reported.
4. Minutes
The minutes of the Board meetings held on 2nd May 2024 and 20th June 2024 were agreed and adopted.
5.Matters Arising
The Chief Executive reported that actions 1,2,4,5 and 8 from the previous meeting have been completed.
Action 3 – The Chief Executive suggested a change in wording to this action as the full action was not carried over from the body of the minutes. The Chief Executive suggested the following ‘Workplace Transport Safety paper to be updated to acknowledge the positives of the campaign and include the reason for not meeting all WTS targets’. The Chair was content with this amendment to Action 3.
Action 6 will be carried forward to the October ARMC meeting.
Action 7 – Discussion on the Annual Review Committee is included under AOB Agenda item at this meeting.
The Chief Executive reported on restructuring within the Department. David Malcolm has moved to Acting Permanent Secretary in The Executive Office, Shane Murphy has replaced David Malcolm. Maeve Hamilton has replaced Colin Jack in the Partnership role with HSENI.
Mr McDowell asked if there were any changes to the Annual Report and Accounts between the Board meeting and the document being laid. The Chief Executive confirmed that HSENI had not been notified of any changes.
6. Audit and Risk Management Committee Report
The ARMC Chair highlighted the following as having been discussed at the ARMC meeting on 20th June 2024:
- External Audit
Mr McDowell reported that the Annual Report and Accounts received one priority 3 recommendation. Mr McDowell congratulated the team on this achievement.
- Internal Audit update
Mr McDowell reported that all audits were completed in 2023/2024.
The audit plan for 2024/2025 has been agreed.
- Risk Register
Mr McDowell reported that there were 3 risks causing concern as detailed below:
Finance Risk – timing of recruitment is affecting spend. This is being kept under review.
Business Disruption Risk – delays in recruitment of staff. At present HSENI are ensuring that all statutory work is being completed. Going forward HSENI may not be able to complete some targets in the operating plan.
Legislation Risk – HSENI have completed everything within their remit. Mr Burns provided assurance that this is the case.
The ARMC Chair presented the ARMC Annual Report to the Board highlighting the following points:
Internal Audit – 4 audits completed, all received a ‘Satisfactory’ Assurance rating. No priority 1 recommendations received. Two priority 2 recommendations and twelve priority 3 recommendations received. From the fourteen recommendations 8 have been completed and 6 are in progress and will be completed by the due date.
ARMC Effectiveness Report – 34 questions covering 4 principles. The ARMC performance is effective with one recommendation in relation to HSENI’s fraud related documentation.
The Chair asked where the action at No 8 – Issues for consideration in relation to the ARMC Terms of Reference (ToR) - is recorded for the purposes of tracking to completion.
ACTION: The Board to be informed where the action in relation to the ARMC ToR is recorded for the purposes of tracking to completion.
The Chair thanked all for no priority one recommendations and acknowledged the work taken place to achieve this.
7. Chief Executive’s Report
The Chief Executive highlighted the following key points:
- Accident statistics
- Corporate Plan targets including fatal, serious, major and over-3-day injuries, as well as inspections and improvement and prohibition notices.
- Governance - Risk Register – Business Disruption risk to include staff vacancies and the Finance risk.
- Internal Audit
- Service Level Complaints
- Statistics Summary
- Annex A – KPI report including commentary on KPIs
- Annex B - Fatalities
- Annex C - Prosecutions
- Annex D - Events, Campaigns and Publications
- Annex E – HR Report
The Chief Executive reported that SMT met with the Director in the Strategic Planning & Governance (SPG) team in HR to discuss the delay in filing vacancies. A further meeting has been arranged for September.
The Chief Executive reported that general services competitions are due to be launched and there is a risk that HSENI could loose main grade and principal inspectors to these competitions. He noted that we have been losing staff to the private sector for reasons such as salary, private health care and car allowance which HSENI cannot compete with. As a result, the next recruitment of trainee inspectors is now anticipated to be 8 instead of 5.
Mr Strong asked where NICS advertise for posts. The Chief executive reported that posts are advertised on the HR website, social media and the main papers e.g. Belfast Telegraph, Irish News and the News Letter. Mr Strong suggested working with universities when posts are being advertised. The Chief Executive reported that HSENI have worked with universities before and that stakeholders would re-post social media posts on vacancies.
A lengthy discussion took place in relation to vacancies, the filling of posts and qualifications for inspectors, apprenticeships, re-grading and salary of the trainee inspector post. The Chair stated that the risks related to staff vacancies on the risk register are not improving. The Chair stated that she would like to see a paper on what has been done to date to show accountability for performance of the organisation on actions taken if it needs to be escalated to the Department, and to agree a more strategic path forward on recruitment. Mr McDowell agreed with this stating he would like to see the consequences of this current trend on key performance indicators. Mrs Monson reported that she is hopeful the trainee inspector competition will open within the next three to four weeks and asked if the paper could be delayed until then.
Mrs Rooney asked if it would be appropriate to escalate the matter to the Permanent Secretary from the Chair on behalf of the Board. The Chief Executive stated he did not think this would be beneficial at this point in time as he has already written to the Permanent Secretary and is awaiting a reply.
Mrs Rooney asked how many trainee inspectors have completed their training. Mrs Monson reported that 10 out of 11 have completed and 2 from an earlier cohort are still to complete. Mrs Rooney asked if it was possible to include a clause in the contract requesting that inspectors stay for a certain amount of time after completing their training. This cannot be done as inspectors have a NICS contract.
The Chair reported that at the update meeting between the Chair and the Chief Executive towards the end of August they would make a decision if a paper on actions taken in relation to staff vacancies is to be produced for review at the November meeting.
The Chair noted that the October ARMC meeting was another chance for discussion on staff vacancies.
Mr Strong asked if there is a job description for trainee inspectors and requested that he receives a copy.
The Chief Executive reported that the revised format of the ARA would be discussed at the November Board meeting as recommended by NIAO.
ACTION: The Chair and Chief Executive to review the trainee recruitment progress by the end of August, and agree a paper to be prepared for the November meeting, should the recruitment for new trainees not be opened.
ACTION: Mr Strong to be forwarded a copy of the trainee inspector job description.
The Chair thanked the Chief Executive for the report and the subsequent discussion.
8. Finance Report
Mr Ditchfield highlighted the following points:
- Key dates and Summary
9th May 2024 - DfE sent an Indicative Opening Allocations letter, outlining the draft budget for 2024/25. This did not include Northern Ireland Protocol (NIP) budget.
15th May 2024 - June Monitoring Round request received. This did not include NIP.
17th May 2024 - June Monitoring Round submitted bid and reallocation. Summary of submission:
- £304k bid submitted for salaries.
- £69k reallocated to salaries, £49k from administration and £20k from Programme.
24th May 2024 - NIP budget announced.
14th June 2024 - June Monitoring Round confirmation received from DfE as per the submission noted above. Included an extra £20k for Programme.
- Tables 4 and 5 – variances between forecast with all vacancies filled and without vacancies filled. There is potential for an overspend but only if all posts are filled, Mr Ditchfield provided assurance that this is monitored every month and if there is an overspend, this will be addressed in future monitoring rounds.
- Table 2 – Spend to date – 22.3% spent to date, 3.7% of this programme spend. Mr Ditchfield reported that during quarter 1, HSENI had not received a budget allocation and held back on spend. The programme budget will be utilised during quarters 3 and 4.
Mr McDowell asked when the next monitoring round is due. Mr Ditchfield reported that the October monitoring round could happen in August. There is also the January monitoring round with 2 chances to submit bids.
Mrs Rooney asked if the date of 16th August 2023 at 3 (vii) was correct. Mr Ditchfield apologised, this date was incorrect. The date will be amended to 17th May 2024 on the document.
ACTION: Mr Ditchfield to amend the date at 3 (vii) to 17th May 2024 on the Finance board report.
9. Legislation Report
Mr Burns reported that the Legislation team are operating without a head of group, and that the team are working well despite this. They have progressed Legislation as far as is possible, and they are dependent on HSE GB colleagues to progress further, and also noted the dependency on the DSO in relation to EU Exit work.
Mr Burns provided an update on the Health and Safety Fees Regulations confirming a financial risk to HSENI estimated to be £10,300 in arises from these regulations not being made this financial year. He also confirmed that this money has been included in the budget programme.
The Board noted the Legislation Board report.
The Chair thanked Mr Burns for the report, stating that there was a lot of work to be carried out.
Mr McDowell and Mrs Rooney stated it was good report.
10.(i) Business Case – 2024 – 2025 Farm Safety Campaign
Dr Monson reported that he has secured £90,000 match funding from DAERA for the Farm Safety Campaign. Dr Monson stated that feedback from previous campaigns has been very positive.
Mr McDowell inquired if there was more up to date post tracking research as 2021/2022 was reported in the business case. Dr Monson reported that at the time of writing the business case the 2022/2023 figures had not been received from Genesis. Dr Monson will provide the 2022/2023 figures to the Board.
Dr Monson stated that the Farm Safety Partnership action plan has been agreed, the plan will focus on older farmers along with ongoing child safety work. The development of specific resources for older farmers has been planned and work with stakeholder groups. Dr Monson stated that data shows that the proportion of fatalities amongst older farmers is increasing. He further stated that data shows a steady improvement in the number of fatalities on farms over many years. The Chair stated that it would have been useful to have seen these trends as part of the business case, as they provided a strong case.
Dr Monson thanked C Mackey and D Mills for their work producing the business case.
The Chair asked that the up to date figures for the post tracking research and the longer-term trends on fatalities are sent to the Board and appended to the business case.
Mrs Rooney asked if the words in 2.1 No 1 could be changed to read ‘is of limited use’ to this demographic. Dr Monson agreed to amend the document.
ACTION: Dr Monson to provide the 2022/2023 post track research figures and longer-term fatality trends to the Board and append to the document the latest figures.
Dr Monson to amend 2.1 No 1 to read ‘is of limited use’ to this demographic.
The Chair and Board confirmed that they were content to approve the Farm Safety Campaign 2024/2025 business case.
Mr McDowell stated that he was very supportive of the campaign especially with the DAERA match funding and the Farm Safety Partnership.
11. AOB
(i) BCS Organisation review
The Chef Executive provided an update on the document and highlighted the four recommendations as detailed below:
- Delivery Model – The Board and SMT welcome that the review recommendation is that the current operating model for HSENI should remain unchanged.
- Strategic Direction – One of the points discussed with the BCS team was that we were seeking to establish closer links with Energy Division with DfE in order that we would garner some insights into the direction of travel of energy policy in Northern Ireland. We welcome the recommendation in the review which has assisted us in building a case and establishing those links through the partnership team with a number of key contacts within Energy Division.
- Impact and Measuring Performance – The reporting of metrics had been an ongoing issue being discussed with the Board and changes were put in place for the 2023-28 Corporate plan to set measurable targets which were more within our control. We are also looking at possible collaboration with Analytical Services branch within DfE.
- Governance and Accountability – The composition of the board as set out in the H&S NI Order is recognised and the expectation is that the Minister will seek to appoint Trade Union representatives in order to establish the balance as defined. It has also been raised that we consider as part of the skills audit in terms of sector, we would very much welcome a representative from the farming sector to support the Farm Safety Partnership work going forward. The board will feed into PAU following a skills audit to identify any particular gaps in the collective expertise of the board.
Mr McDowell stated that it was a very accurate report representing societal needs where HSENI make people safer in work. He highlighted the comment a trusted organisation, he believes this to be unique and HSENI should work hard to keep this view.
(ii)Annual Review Committee
The Chair reported that the Annual Review Committee did not meet last year to provide input to the Chief Executive’s performance report as there was no Chair in post. The Chair will re-establish the routines for this Committee in the current year.
A discussion took place in relation to an in-year or end-year review meeting. It was agreed that the Chief Executive would contact Shane Murphy and propose a timeline for meetings of the Annual Review Committee for agreement with Board members.
ACTION: Chief Executive to discuss a timeline with S Murphy in relation to making a proposal for the Annual Review Committee meeting schedule.
(iii)Governance Review
The Chair would like a review of all governance documents against the NIAO guidance, and the inclusion of all agreed actions from the external governance review last year. She further stated that she would like the provision of a repository for such documents so that they are easily accessible to all Board members. The Chair has been in contact with other organisations for reference and emphasised most of our documents are available, and that this is a review rather than a rewrite. She further stated that she would like to keep this moving in order to make it easy to onboard new Board members, which will hopefully be in the Autumn/Winter of this year.
The Chief Executive reported that the documents will be placed in the document library on Decision Time. He stated that this would a good time for the Board to look at the Board Standing Orders and agree any changes with the Department.
(iv) Decision Time Tutorial
The Chief Executive and Mr Ditchfield provided advice to Board members on the use of ‘Sticky Notes’ when using Decision Time.
Mr Ditchfield reported that Decision Time will be changing so that it is only HSENI members available to send emails/notes to as attendees and not the entire DfE. The Chair and staff agreed that the use of “Sticky Notes” was useful, particularly for clarifications on Board papers.
Mr Ditchfield reported that sadly Mrs Mullan’s mother and father had both passed away recently and as a result Mrs Mullan would be taking some time off work. Mr Ditchfield asked for Board members to email himself or Ms Nelson with any queries or requests they may have.
The Chair sent condolences to Mrs Mullan on behalf of herself and the Board.
12. Date of next Board Meeting
The next Board meeting will be held on Thursday 21st November 2024 @ 10:00
The meeting ended at 12:40
Board Minutes adopted and approved:
Signed:
Dated:
Catherine Irwin
HSENI Chair