Minutes of the Senior Management Team (SMT) meeting held on Wednesday 5 February 2020 at 9:30am at Chief Executives Office, HSENI, 83 Ladas Drive, Belfast.
In attendance:
- R Kidd - Chair and Chief Executive
- L Burns - Deputy Chief Executive
- N Monson - Deputy Chief Executive
- B Monson - Deputy Chief Executive
- L Morgan - Department for Economy Corporate HR (for item 7 only)
1. Apologies
There were no apologies.
2. Minutes from the previous meeting
The minutes of the last meeting were agreed.
3. Action Points
The action point list was worked through. Work in the reception area is nearing completion and outside grounds maintenance works are also due to commence shortly.
4. Corporate Health, Safety and Welfare
Mention was made of blue light trauma resilience training.
5. Audit, Risk Management and Finance
Nothing further to report since Audit Risk Management Comittee and Board meeting.
L Burns talked through the financial projections as we move into the closing weeks of the financial year. There was some discussion around what areas might produce slippage or underspends and what other tasks we could pull forward if necessary.
6. HR
SMT discussed a number of issues which currently exist on the HR agenda, namely –
- The compliance officer posts within the notifications team have been through the JEGS grading system and are now agreed.
- The paperwork will be submitted to signal our intention to hold a Principal Inspector competition before the summer of 2020 and a trainee recruitment in the autumn.
- There was some discussion around the staffing options for EU Exit preparedness work during the implementation period.
- L Morgan updated SMT on a number of HR issues and there was some discussion around some of the specific challenges facing HSENI and the likely staffing changes on the horizon.
7. Case and Project Work
Major Investigation Team update
There was a general discussion on progress, resource demands on various legal processes were noted.
Case Management System (CMS) update
Audit review of the specification against delivered product is imminent. It was agreed that CMS will be taken off the list for updates as it is now mostly complete.
8. EU Exit
3 areas of interest identified by us – Chemicals, Supply of Machinery and Legislation. Discussions are taking place with colleagues and we are seeking to establish the communication routes to get our issues on the table during key discussions. We need to ascertain the role around market surveillance and intelligence sharing as well as access to EU information in order to fulfil our obligations under the NI Protocol.
9. Operating Plan
2019/20 Operating Plan draft has been completed.
10. Performance Monitoring
There was a discussion around the key statistics. SMT noted the concerning rise in fatal accidents caused by falls from height during January and we discussed the idea of running an awareness campaign while acknowledging this is still a very raw issue for the grieving families. We agreed they would be contacted and spoken to about our proposal to run an article.
11. Board Business
The chief executive advised that comments are being collated from the board/heads of group workshop and this will be fed back to the Chair of the Board and he will be asked to provide feedback as this was a board initiative.
12. Any other business
There were several items –
- SMT agreed that they were content with the revised Asbestos Sampling Procedures guidance to be implemented by HSENI staff when required to collect samples believed to be asbestos.
- We discussed a forthcoming visit by a director from HSE GB to discuss a number of issues to assist in preparation with EU Exit implementation around the area of Chemicals.
- It was agreed that the Chief Executive would advise the board of fatalities when notified to SMT. He also undertook to check if Minister or the Minister's Special Advisor wanted to be included in this message as well.
- There was a discussion around part-time working applications and it was agreed that cases would continue to be reviewed and considered against business need.
13. Date of the next meeting
The next SMT meeting is planned for 4 March 2020.