Minutes of the VSS Board Meeting No 97

Board Meeting Type: Strategic Board Meeting      

Thursday 21 September 2023 at 10:00am

Europa Hotel

Board Members Present:

Oliver Wilkinson (OW)                  Chair

Patricia Haren (PH)                      Board Member

Bertha McDougall (BMcD)            Board Member

John Cahill (JC)                            Board Member

Sandra Horley (SH)                      Board Member

Catriona MacArthur (CMA)           Board Member

Brian Gilfedder (BG)                    Board Member

VSS Officers in Attendance:

Andrew Walker (AW) Chief Executive Officer

Tara Lewsley (TL)                        Head of Corporate Services         

Emma Dargan (ED)                      Acting Head of Service Development

A      Board Photograhy

Completed

B      Commissioner for Victims and Survivors – Ian Jeffers

The Chair welcomed Ian Jeffers, Commissioner for Victims and Survivors to the VSS Board meeting and initiated introductions.

Areas of discussion included the CVS role and strategy, the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023, the Commissioner’s upcoming advice on Support for the Bereaved, the CVS commissioned ROI population survey findings and the Victims Forum.

The Chair thanked Mr Jeffers for the detailed discussions.

Ian Jeffers left the meeting at 12 noon.

C      Apologies

Apologies received from Lisa McKinstry (Boardroom Apprentice), Nicola Nugent  (Acting Head of Health and Wellbeing) and Melissa McCartan (Business Support Officer).

D     Minutes of Previous Meeting

        The minutes of the previous meeting were approved. 

E      Conflict of Interest

Chair asked all present to consider and declare any conflicts of interest.  No conflicts of interest were declared.

F      Discussion Paper – VSS Appeals

TL presented a discussion paper on changes to VSS appeals policy and procedures. Discussion took place around the policy updates needed, the appropriate level of Board members involvement to balance Board time which is available and reputational risks, as well as the need at times for external support from experts. It was agreed that TL would update policy and procedure for discussions and explore the option of having a call off panel of additional/expert independent panel members and bring this back to the Board to update members.

G      HR Policies for approval

The Board members approved the updates to the Performance Appraisal Policy and the Probation Policy following a discussion on the areas of update.

Date of Next Meeting

The next meeting of the Board is scheduled to take place on Friday 27 October 2023.

Meeting closed at 2pm.