Minutes of the VSS Board Meeting No 110

Board Meeting Type: Quarter End Board Meeting      

Wednesday 22nd January at 10:00am (Members only) and 10.30am (All attendees)

The Clayton Hotel, Belfast

 

 

Board Members Present:

Sandra Horley (SH)                      Board Member (Interim Chair)

John Cahill (JC)                            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 Learning and Growth

Victoria Murray (VM)                    Acting Head of Corporate Services

Emma Dargan (ED)                     Head of Service Development

Diksha Balodia (DB)                     Business Support Officer (Minutes) 

 

 

 

 

A      Apologies

Apologies received from Nicola Nugent.

 

B      Minutes of Previous Meeting

Minutes of the previous meeting were approved.

 

C       Action Points

Action Points from previous meetings:

-                 22.05.24 AP1: Remains open. Agreed that an invitation to Louise Warde Hunter (CEO, ICRIR) be extended to attend a Strategic Board session in Q1 2025/26.

-                25.01.24 AP2: Work scheduled for Q3 2024-25 in ongoing, with updated documents to be issued following finalisation of Partnership Agreement.

-                13.08.24 AP2: Session to be scheduled in Q4 2024-25.

-                13.08.24 AP3: Closed, Draft Code of Conduct included with meeting papers.

-                24.10.24 AP1: Closed, Chair issued letter to First Minister/deputy First Minister on 1 November 2024.

-                MSFM Ref 4.4.3 One longstanding AP relating to MSFM Ref 4.4.3 remains open.

 

Action points arising from 22 January 2025:

-                22.01.25 AP1: Extend an invitation to Patrick Gallagher (Director of Victims and Survivors, TEO) to attend a Board session in Q1 of 25/26.

-                22.01.25 AP2: VSS management to write to TEO to outline the anticipated budgetary pressures arising from the indicative opening budget envelope for 2025-26.

-                22.01.25 AP3: Amend risk score of STG50 to ‘red’.

-                22.01.25 AP4: Amend Reference Policy to forbid verbal references and make drafting amendments prior to finalisation.

-                22.01.25 AP5: Update Code of Conduct for Board Members to include reference to Trauma-Informed approach and VSS Values and circulate to Members for approval.

-                22.01.25 AP6: Provide a copy of the Board induction plan to members for review.

 

D      Conflict of Interest

Chair asked all present to consider and declare any conflicts of interest.

No conflicts of interest were declared.

 

D1     Supplier List / Agenda Items

 The Board noted this paper.

 

D2     Declaration Form

 The Board noted this paper.

 

D3    Conflict of Interest Register

The Board noted this paper.

 

E       Chair’s Report

The Board noted this paper.                

 

F       Quarter 2 Reporting – September 2024

F1     CEO/AO Exception Report

AW provided the Board with an update on the following key issues:

 

VSP Planning

VSS has had ongoing engagement with TEO in recent months to set out the planning timeline for its new programmes due to commence from 1 April 2026. VSS carried out consultation events with community partners and other key stakeholders to gauge their views and submitted a paper to TEO outlining a range of scenarios for consideration, informed by both the existing programmes’ outcomes and outputs, and the context of increasing demand within the sector. VSS are now proceeding to the call design stage of the process. The planning timescale remains extremely tight and is reliant upon the timely completion of the overall business case.

The above has been captured on the strategic risk register with risk STG77.

 

Board Appointments

The Interim Chair of the VSS Board wrote to the First Minister and Deputy First Minister on 1 November 2024 requesting an update on the current status of the appointment process for new VSS Board members, and the anticipated timeframes for confirmed appointments. A formal response to the letter has not yet been received.

SH advised that she had subsequently spoken with Patrick Gallagher on 17 January 2025 to further raise the Board’s concerns with respect to the delay and note the lack of response to the original letter.

After discussion, the Board agreed that it would be appropriate to invite Patrick Gallagher to attend a meeting of the Board to discuss not only this matter but also wider strategic updates. It was agreed that future periodic attendance by Patrick Gallagher at meetings of the VSS Board would be desirable. This has been captured as AP1 22.01.25.

 

Budget Planning for 2025-26

The Northern Ireland Executive has agreed upon a draft budget for 2025-26, and this is now subject to a 12-week public consultation period, set to close on 13 March 2025. The opening budget allocations are expected to be in-line with the 2024-25 budget envelope. VSS anticipates a significant challenge in the context of the current demand for services, and the unavoidable pressures resulting from the increases to employer’s national insurance contributions from 1 April 2025. This has been captured in the risk register as risk STG80.

AW advised that VSS will raise the concerns around meeting the increased needs across the sector and the challenges from the expected budgetary pressures with TEO and will also be flagged to community partners. This is captured as AP2 22.01.25.

 

PEACEPLUS Cashflow

AW advised that whilst this had presented a significant issue at the time of writing papers, an update had subsequently been received from SEUPB to advise that an interim process will be put in place to facilitate payment of staff costs claims in advance of verification. VSS are now working with project partners to upload claims for the initial project periods and the situation will be kept under close review.

The PEACEPLUS cash risk has been captured on the risk register as STG75.

 

MBMLW

The Public Consultation is now complete, and a response is awaited from the Executive Office. An ongoing issue exists regarding the definition of those impacted by MBMLW and consequently an individual’s eligibility to qualify for support and services at this time. This should be addressed when legislation comes into effect, and VSS expects an increase in demand for services following the commencement of the Public Inquiry and Redress Scheme.

 

Legacy

AW provided an update regarding the expected changes to legislation which have been announced by the Secretary of State (remedial order). AW proposed that the CEO of the ICRIR be invited to attend a meeting of the VSS Board later in 2025, in order to provide members within an update on the operations of the ICRIR. Members were in agreement. This is captured as an amendment to AP4 22.05.24.

 

Regional Trauma Network (RTN)

VSS along with 5 community partners met with the Minister of Health in December 2024 and presented the challenges for the RTN going forward. Emphasis was placed on three key areas; the divergence of experiences across different trusts, the need to extend the initial pilot period until such time as sufficient resources can be provided to enable effective operation of the referral pathways, and the end of the PEACEPLUS programme in 2028, which may cause many partners to drop away, posing a risk to the overall network.

The ongoing issue with progress of the RTN is captured on the risk register as risk STG71.

 

PEACEPLUS

There was significant progress this quarter in the implementation of the VSS PULSE project. The VSS PEACEPLUS team have now been recruited and has made good progress towards establishing project management processes as well as building relationships with Project Partners and SEUPB.

 

Organisational Restructure

The organisational restructure is now largely complete following significant recruitment activity during the quarter. AW confirmed that 28 posts had been permanently filled in 2024, and there remain only 3 posts vacant.

 

CEO Engagement

AW noted his engagements during the quarter. AW highlighted his meeting with the Probation Board, which had been requested by them to obtain an understanding of VSS’s trauma-informed approach and achievement of the trauma-informed accreditation. VSS are pleased to be able to share learnings with other organisations.

 

F1.1   Budget Report

VM provided an update on the VSS budget position.

The January monitoring allocations have been finalised and VSS has received additional funding for Troubles/conflict and for HIA. VSS made an easement on the MBMLW programme, as a result of the issues noted regarding lower numbers of individuals coming forward for support in the current year.

An additional £200k of core T/c funding was also awarded by TEO. This has been used to address remaining pressures identified during the funding call process undertaken in August 2024, for which budget was unavailable at the time.

The monitoring round adjustments have amended the full year budget to £20.2m. VSS is currently receiving third quarter claims from funded organisations and will be working over the remainder of January to review these and identify any underspends for reallocation in order to maximise budget utilisation to the end of the year.

VM noted that subsequent to requesting the additional funding for HIA, demand for framework support has declined significantly during the 3rd quarter, as focus has moved to completion of statements of lived experience in advance of the deadline for redress applications on 02 April 2025. This shift in focus can also be observed in the over achievement of the advocacy support delivery plan target. VSS are working with community partners to identify all potential means of utilising funding however this may not be possible in year. It is also anticipated that an underspend could occur under the MBMLW programme as numbers of individuals coming forward for support continue to fall below expected levels.

VM noted that whilst there is no further formal opportunity to amend budgets post-January Monitoring, TEO will be kept updated.

 

F1.2 Strategic Risk Register

VM summarised the Strategic Risk Register and noted that the majority of risks had been discussed earlier in the meeting. One risk was de-escalated, this quarter while one was closed and superseded by another. Two new risks were added, giving a total of 10 risks currently open.

The Board discussed STG50 (risk that VSS does not have complete governance structures to provide oversight and guidance) and agreed that the risk score on this risk should be moved to red (score of 6). This is captured as AP3 22.01.25.

 

F2    Quarterly ALB Performance Report

The Board noted this paper.

VM noted that that following finalisation of the HIA M&E Report, the HIA Social Support target has been amended to red status as it will not be met. This reflects the shift in focus of activity to supporting individuals with completion of statements of lived experience, and over achievement of the Advocacy Support target can be observed as a result. A revised version of the ALB Report has been submitted to TEO to reflect this change.

 

 

F3    Quarterly Assurance Statement

The Board noted this paper.

 

F4    M&E Quarterly Reports Q3 2024/25

The Board noted these papers.

 

G      Board Subcommittees

G1    Audit and Risk Committee (Verbal Update)

JC provided an update from the VSS Audit and Risk Committee. The TPDPS Internal Audit Report had been received from Cavanagh Kelly with a ‘satisfactory’ overall assurance level, which is the highest level that can be awarded. JC noted the detailed nature of the audit and the resulting robust level of assurance which had been obtained.

 

G2    Health and Wellbeing Committee (Verbal Update)

SH and TL provided an update on the Health and Wellbeing Committee. The following key points were noted:

-                A meeting to review updates to the Health and Wellbeing Workplan, Committee Terms of Reference and meeting structure is planned for Q1 2025.

-                The HR Manager will attend the committee going forward to provide an update on the Employee Wellbeing Action Plan.

-                Progress has been made in relation to the cop-option of clinical expertise to the Committee. VSS are working to prepare documentation for this role which will be circulated to DoH for an internal trawl for expertise at the appropriate level, and this will be taken forward by the NN and TL in the coming quarter.

 

H     Board Workplan and Development

H1    Board Attendance and Work Plan

The Board noted this paper.

H2    Board Training Questionnaire  

The Board noted this paper.

 

H3    Board Self-Assessment Update         

VM provided an update on the actions captured at the June 2024 Board effectiveness session. The following key points were noted:

-                Engagement and Influence with TEO: The draft partnership agreement remains with TEO Corporate Governance Branch for Review. It was noted that the extension of an invitation to Patrick Gallagher to attend future meetings of the VSS Board will contribute to ongoing engagement.

-                Detailed stakeholder engagement planning is scheduled for March 2024, which is the earliest opportunity following the appointment of the new communications manager.

-                The Board Induction programme has been drafted and awaiting implementation on appointment of the new members. Members requested sight of the programme. This is captured as AP6 22.01.25

-                The integration of a values-based approach to HR processes is included within the HR workplan. TL noted the HR department’s contribution over this quarter through the successful recruitment efforts, and their support with the Trauma-Informed Organisation Accreditation plan.

-                Management will work to support the Interim Chair and Members regarding Board Appraisals process in the coming quarter.

The next Board Effectiveness Review is scheduled to take place at the March 2025 Board Meeting and will once again be facilitated by Steve Mungavin of the Chief Executives’ Forum.

 

I        Standing Agenda Items

I1     Compliance Update

The Board noted this paper.

AW noted that the Ombudsman complaint in relation to the rejection of a previous appeal by Board members remains under consideration for acceptance for investigation by NIPSO.  A robust submission has been made to NIPSO by VSS.

 

I2     Client Risk Update

The Board noted this paper.

 

J      AOB

J1    Draft Reference Policy

AW noted that this was a new policy being implemented by VSS to ensure consistency and clarity regarding the process for provision of references. After discussion it was agreed that section 1.7 be amended to forbid the provision of verbal references in all circumstances. TL noted a minor drafting improvement to be implemented before finalisation. The Board approved the Policy subject to these amendments. This was captured in AP4 22.01.25.

 

J2    Code of Conduct for Board Members

VM advised that the Code of Conduct for Board Members had been updated to align with the most up to date Cabinet Office guidance. SH suggested including a clause to reflect the Board’s adherence and alignment with a Trauma-Informed approach. It was agreed that the policy be amended and a final version circulated to Members for approval.

This was captured in AP5 22.01.25.

 

K      Date of Next Meeting

The next meeting of the Board is scheduled to take place on Wednesday 12th February 2025.