Minutes of the VSS Board Meeting No 102

Board Meeting Type: Strategic Board Meeting

Thursday 21 March at 10:00am

Equality House Belfast

Board Members Present:

Patricia Haren (PH)                       Board Member

John Cahill (JC)                            Board Member

Sandra Horley (SH)                      Board Member

Catriona MacArthur (CMA)           Board Member

Brian Gilfedder (BG)                    Board Member

Oliver Wilkinson (OW)                  Chair

VSS Officers in Attendance:

Andrew Walker (AW) Chief Executive Officer

Tara Lewsley (TL)                         Head of Corporate Services

Nicola Nugent (NN)                      Head of Health and Wellbeing

Emma Dargan (ED)                      Acting Head of Service Development

Deborah Campbell (DC)              HR Administrator (Minutes) 

A      Minutes of Previous Meeting

The minutes of the previous meeting were approved, subject to amending date of next meeting included as February, since February meeting was cancelled. 

B      Conflict of Interest Declarations

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

C      CEO update by exception reporting (Verbal update) 

OW and AW provided an update on their attendance at the TEO Committee which took place yesterday.

AW notified the Board that the Staffing Restructure Business Case had been approved subject to affordability. Progress on moving to full approved structure will require approval of the 2024/25 budget from TEO as well as the PEACEPLUS Bid.

AW updated that the NI budget for 2024/25 has not yet been set and latest indications are that this will be published after 30 April 2024. TEO and then VSS will be provided with a 2024/25 budget after this date. Operationally this creates difficulties as VSS cannot issue 2024/25 Letters of Offer to funded organisations or schedule a payment date for the Self Directed Assistance payments to individual victims and survivors. Communications to update individuals has been made available through the VSS website and we have provided email updates to our 49 funded organisations.

Additional to this, the VSS Troubles/conflict programmes business case which covers the Victims Support Programme (VSP) and the Individual Needs Programme (INP) for 2024/25 – 2025/26 has not yet been approved. It is expected that this will be approved by the TEO Accounting Officer before 31 March 2024.

An update was provided on the progress of the PEACEPLUS bid. VSS expected that its bid would go to the March 2024 steering committee. Unfortunately, delays in the approvals ahead of steering committee have resulted in this now being delayed until April/May. Delays to approval and the permission to start the project mean that the risk in respect of GAP funding will be escalated. Project Partners will be updated on these delays.

E       PeacePlus Project Briefing:

ED delivered a presentation to the board and covered the following key points in respect of the PEACEPLUS Project:

VSS has been named as the lead partner for theme 4 (investment area 3- ‘victims and survivors’) of the new PEACEPLUS Programme. The project title will be VSS-PULSE: Partnership for Understanding, Learning, Support and Education and the overall objective will be to improve the health and wellbeing of victims and survivors by increasing and improving access to high quality, trauma informed services across Northern Ireland, Great Britain, and Ireland.

The project will have 13 partners and a formal partnership agreement will be established. Project partners are:

· Health and Wellbeing and Advocacy Support include; WAVE Trauma Centre, South East Fermanagh Foundation and Relatives for Justice.

· Health and Wellbeing- Ashton Community Trust- Bridge of Hope, Ely Centre, Decorum NI and Cunamh.

· Advocacy Support Programme- Pat Finucane Centre, Ulster Human Rights Watch and Papertrail.

· Training - WAVE Trauma Centre VSS

· Research- Commission for Victims and Survivors

· Cross Border Partner (Delivering health and wellbeing support and services and resilience activities)- Pobal

ED also spoke to the project deliverables, results and outputs across the areas of Health and Wellbeing, Advocacy and training.

There will also be a change in the delivery of the Resilience Programme within this project. The 5 largest community partners will develop annual resilience action plans, drawing on the needs of all victims and survivors as supported across the entire victims and survivors sector. VSS will provide a framework for these resilience plans, will approve, support and monitor progress.

Discussion took place around the communications strategy for the project and measurement of project outcomes.

AP1: ED to email out a copy of the PEACEPLUS presentation slides.

F       Forward Planning 24/25 Board Strategic sessions

Forward planning has been paused until the new Chair and Board members are appointed.

G       Policy/Guidance Note:

The Board noted the Supervision and Termination of Funding Policies

AOB

Discussion on the VSS Corporate Overview document took place briefly with Board Members noting that it will need to be updated on the appointment of new Board Members and in doing so, version control should be used within the document.

Date of next meeting: 25 April 2024.