Minutes of Board Meeting No. 1 Monday 27 January 2014, 9.30am Millennium House, Belfast Board Members in Attendance: Peter Gay VSS Director (Chair) Bertha McDougall VSS Board Member Richard Solomon VSS Board Member Oliver Wilkinson VSS Board Member VSS Officers in Attendance: Anne Dorbie Chief Executive & Accounting Officer Chris Turkington VSS Board Secretary, (Temporary Finance and Governance Manager) VSS Officers in Attendance for part of the meeting: Margaret Bateson Head of Corporate Services & Programmes Katrina Hinfey Head of Client Services Sara Templer Information & Engagement Officer Apologies: None 1. Introductions The Board were introduced to the temporary Finance and Governance Manager, in attendance as Secretary to the Board. 2. Minutes Minutes of the previous board meeting (under previous interim board members) for 23 September 2013 were acknowledged. 3. Agenda The agenda was agreed and Monitoring & Evaluation added to AOB. 4. Register of Interests The Directors had reviewed the VSS - Suppliers list dated 22 January 2014. The Chair reported an interest in The Cedar Foundation and declared a member of his family owned a company supplying hearing aids. One Board Member declared an interest in Carecall. The other two Board Members stated that they had no interests to declare at this time.
VSS Accounting Officer asked the board to complete the Register of Interest Report and submit at the next board meeting. AP 5. Environmental Scan Groups List of funded Groups. A full detailed list of groups currently funded by VSS was provided to the Board. The importance of establishing stronger stakeholder engagement was discussed and it was agreed that priority should be given to resetting our relationships with the groups. VSS Accounting Officer agreed to consolidate a list of any issues that Groups have had in the past with VSS. AP The Chair suggested that two board members would meet the groups with the VSS as part of the discussions around 2014/2015 and future funding. AP The Board agreed that closer links to the groups was essential and that they welcomed the opportunity to actively build relationships going forward. The Chair reported that Commission for Victims and Survivors had proposed holding a round table meeting at the end of March. It was agreed that this would be very beneficial. Commission The Chair noted that the VSS was currently awaiting the report from the Commission on the review of the VSS. Upon receipt, VSS will consider and reply in due course. AP Haass Report It was agreed that that the Haass report reflected the work the VSS currently carries out, namely: a) Link services and provide service delivery. b) Provide access to Advocate Counsellor c) Choice d) Sensitivity e) Provide access to high quality mental health. The Haass report would be considered and taken into account when preparing the VSS Corporate and Business Plan for the future. 6. Operational Issues - Client Services The Board discussed in full the recent decision taken by Ministers, to defer the individual needs reviews (INRs) for victims and survivors in January and February 2014.
Agreed correspondence was approved by the Board for the VSS website, in addition to communication to groups and individuals. It was agreed that: - Copies of all correspondence should be issued to the Commission and the Department for approval before publication. - Communication should be clear and state VSS will continue to deliver support and assistance during this interim period. - VSP funded organisations should be immediately briefed on the current situation and provided with the agreed correspondence. - Clients who had appointments cancelled should be contacted and issued new appointment dates, within the next two weeks. The Head of Client Services provided a briefing to the Board on the number of people currently awaiting a needs review and the time scales that are involved in processing these. The Head of Client Services stated that it was very important to note why we are using very skilled people to complete these assessments. This is order to ensure client safety is maintained at all times. Concern was expressed by the Board, about the number clients on the INP waiting list and taking into consideration the time left in the current financial year; did VSS have the resources to process the outstanding clients on the waiting list? The Head of Corporate Services and Programmes advised that based on the current staffing complement, that the current waiting list could be cleared by the 31 st March 2014. However, requests were continuing at a rate of 50 per week. In addition most of the assessors were on fixed term contracts until March 2014 and would be looking for new jobs, bringing with it a risk of staff leaving. The Head of Corporate Services and Programmes advised that an activity analysis had been carried out based on resources versus demand and unfortunately no additional resource in Corporate Services and Programmes team was available. The Board asked would it be possible to recruit Temporary staff to help process the outstanding clients. The Head of Corporate Services and Programmes advised that the VSS was already at full headcount of 37FTE and a staffing paper had been submitted to the Department in September 2013 but a response was outstanding. After discussion, agreement was reached that it would be necessary to find additional resource. It was agreed that VSS would submit proposals & business case to the department for additional temporary resource. AP Complaints Policy The Board agreed it would not be prudent to carry out a full review until feedback is received from the Forum Services Working Group, Department & the Commission.
It was agreed that the VSS would re-draft the policy based on previous Commission feedback and the Board would then review and take forward in March 2014. 7. Corporate Services / Programme Progress reports for month end December 2013 were presented to the Board on: - Programmes; - Information & Engagement. The Accounting Officer reported on the current position on MIS procurement. VSS have addressed any CPD queries and was waiting on the outcome of the CVS review to finalise. The Board stated there was strong support for the procurement of an integrated MIS and its importance for VSS in terms of improving client service delivery. The invitation to tender for the provision of a Public Relations service was approved by the board and it was agreed this would be procured immediately, with an appointment made by the end of February 2014. The Accounting Officer advised that correspondence had been sent to the department at the start of January, outlining the lessons learnt in administering Scheme 6 Financial assistance to date and the policy implications for moving forward into 2014/15. At this current time, VSS is awaiting a response from the Department. The Board noted with interest the Financial Assistance Feedback Questionnaire, the 69% response rate and the very good feedback received. The Board agreed that that this very positive information should be shared with the Commission. AP 8. Audit & Risk Committee It was proposed that the Audit & Risk Committee should meet on the same day as the next full Board meeting. This was provisionally set for the morning of 3rd March 2014. The four members of the Board would be present. The Board asked if an independent accountant could be appointed to the Board. The Chair also asked if independent auditors could be appointed going forward. The Accounting Officer confirmed she would discuss both points with the Department and reported the recent appointment of Capita Consulting as VSS Internal Audit, with planning meetings due to commence in early February 2014.
The Board requested details of any procurement that has been carried out by the VSS, this year to date and also going forward. The Accounting Officer advised that this was reported as a standing agenda item to the Department as part of the Accountability meetings and would be provided going forward to the ARC. 9. Risk Analysis The Board reviewed the risk registers, both the operational risk register and the strategic risk register. The Board advised that these would be reviewed along with the Risk Management Strategy of the VSS. AP 10. Corporate & Business Plan and Budget Monitoring The Head of Corporate Services and Programmes provided a detailed analysis of the current budget position, advising that this was a fluid situation which required careful monitoring on a weekly basis. The Head of Corporate Services and Programmes further added a strong caveat that all a large number of risks, variables and assumptions had been used to produce the forecast and provided the Board with a schedule of these. Based on current risks, variable and assumptions: 1. The Victims Support Programme, with proactive management and issuing of a call for applications of small capital items and equipment could aim to overspend by approximately 200,000. 2. This could cover the following projected under spends: o Individual Needs Programme approximately 150K o VSS Training Budget approximately 36K. The Head of Corporate Services and Programmes confirmed that the VSS is confident that the full budget allocation could be committed. However, ensuring the letters of offer and award letter were converted to expenditure would prove challenging. This is primarily due to - Historically, NIMF clients did not always take up funding made available to them; - Delay in additional 1.1m requested in July 2013 by the VSS and approved 28 th November 2013 by the Project Board for allocation. The Head of Corporate Services and Programmes advised that this could be counteracted by dedicating a resource to assisting clients through the process by telephone. Unfortunately, a staffing resource is not available to carry this out. The Board requested that this additional resource was added to the temporary request to the Department. Discussions were held around other options to maximise expenditure including: - the possibility of increasing contribution of heating costs. The Chair expressed concern if any increase would be sustainable as once agreed the precedent would be set for future years. The Board also pointed out that it
would also have to be back paid to previous claimants within this financial year. - 100 carers could be identified by cross referencing with chronic pain clients. Each carer could be entitled up to 1,000 each. The Chair asked for clarification on what would be eligible for assistance? The Accounting Officer advised mainly white goods. The Accounting Officer reported that the VSS could work with the groups to help identify currently hidden carers. The Board agreed that these options should be explored. AP 11. Programme Board The last meeting had been held on the 17 th January 2014. The minutes had not yet been received but would be issued to the Board as soon as available. 12. Clinical Governance The Board was provided with the VSS response to the review of Client Services by the CVS. The Board discussed the report in full and proposed a meeting with representatives of the Health and Social Care Board, to explore the issues on mental health provision. It was agreed, that further discussions need to be held to review and act upon the report in detail. AP 13. Accommodation The Board commented on the very high cost of the current accommodation and that it should be reviewed. The Accounting Officer confirmed that the VSS had been placed in Millennium House by the Department as the lease was still in existence from a previous OFMDFM ALB. The Board agreed to seek a one year extension to the current lease to allow VSS to review alternative options once the structure, staffing requirements and office requirements were known following the CVS review. 14. Monitoring & Evaluation. The Chair stated that it should be made a high priority to re-instate a monitoring and evaluation system. The Chair further outlined further reporting required for the Board: 1) The amount of funding the groups have been awarded? 2) What expenditure to-date have they incurred? 3) What key performance indicators have the groups completed? 4) What activity have the groups reported? 5) What are the outcomes for individuals?
The Accounting Officer reported that the monitoring and evaluation was halted under instructions from the Department. In order to re-instate, the following would need to be considered: - Feedback from the Commission in relation to interim tools proposed by the VSS; - Presentation to the Forum Services Working Group; - User/Pilot testing and consultation with the VSP funded organisations. A copy of the current monitoring and evaluation documentation was provided to the Board for consideration. 15. Date of next Board Meeting It was proposed that the board meeting would be held 3 rd March 2014