Meetings

Lowri Williams (Head of HR) was welcomed to the meeting to discuss the approach to the growing demands and pressures on the organisation and its capacity to meet them both currently and in the future. There was a need to create agility to tackle peaks in work, secondments and temporary appointments and to integrate programmes of work, such as youth engagement. Capacity management, as a diagnostic tool, would bring a helpful discipline in putting in place responses to build capability.

There were three options for addressing future challenges: stop doing some things; invest in additional resource; or do some things differently. The likelihood was that a combination of these approaches would be required but, in order to be certain of the correct approach, it was important to understand the whole organisation picture of activity and pressures.

The Board discussed the model of service planning proposed and concluded that it was essential, and approved the flowchart and timings. The Board stressed that it was equally important to keep the paperwork simple, but robust enough to ensure read-across between different areas. The service plans should inform the work and be developed in a way that was meaningful to teams, the way they worked and the organisation’s values.

A detailed session on capacity planning was scheduled for 24 November and HR would provide data to assist planning for bilingual staff, the impact of the flexible working policy, use of consultancy and contractors, short/fixed term posts, internal secondments and other such information. The Board highlighted the importance of balancing needs and the management of policies with the organisation’s values.

Actions:

The Board asked Lowri to review the proposed mechanism again and

·      look to simplify the service plan template so that it was not overly constraining;

·      provide guidance on what service plans needed to cover, including resource requirements for planned activities, checking they are aligned with the strategic goals, particularly in relation to requests for extra resource;

·      ensure data would be available in plenty of time to prepare for  24 November meeting;

·      Formally launch the revised recruitment/new post flow chart and business case template.

Management Board to advise Lowri of any other data requirements as soon as possible.

The matter of staff resourcing for future requirements was discussed briefly by Management Board and the legislation programme in particular was raised. An annual Resource and Planning Board was scheduled for 24 November but it was felt that earlier discussion was needed and it was agreed to look at bringing that discussion forward. The paper on Capacity Management, prepared by Lowri Williams for IRB, would be circulated in the meantime.