Executive Management Team Wednesday 11 March …...2015/03/11 · Executive Management Team Wednesday 11 March 2015 at 10.30 a.m. Ochil House, Stirling AGENDA Paper 1. Apologies 2.

Executive Management Team Wednesday 11 March 2015 at 10.30 a.m. Ochil House, Stirling

AGENDA Paper 1. Apologies 2. AOB 3. Minute of Meeting held on 25 February 2015

Accuracy Matters Arising

To follow

4. Draft Ops Group Minute held on 24/2/15 - for noting (Note – this is a first draft of the minute)

MinuteofOperationalGroup24February2015.doc

4. Budget 2015/16

Draft Budget 2015-16 100315 final for EMT.doc

5. Perth

2015-03 Perth Update - EMT - Mar15.docx

6. Ayrshire PID

Ayrshire Integration Project Budget and Timescales Request - EMT 25 02 15.pdf

7. Business Plan 2015/16

Business Plan 2015-16 (2).pdf

8. Locality Scorecard

Scorecard - National.pdf

9. OPR

OPR Quarter 3 2014-15 v0 6.docx

10. Managers’ Event

11. Organisational Development Strategy

OD Strategy.docx

12. Information Security Report

Information Security Report for EMT - March 2015 V1 0.doc

13. Complaints Procedure Timescale for logging of a complaint

14. Information Governance

15. New Risks

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Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration Executive Management Team

Minute of Meeting held on 11 March 2015 at Ochil House, Stirling Present: Neil Hunter (Chair), Maggie McManus, Susan Deery, Ed Morrison, Alistair Hogg, Elliot Jackson, Tom Philliben In attendance: Janis McDougall, Ricky Mallon (Item 7), Joe Rafferty (Items 10 & 11) Timescale Action 1. AOB

GIRFEC Noted: 1. Phil Raines, Scottish Government will give a

presentation at the Managers Event on 12/2/15.

2. Consultation paper has now been issued with responses due by beginning of May.

3. It has been agreed that a joint response (SCRA/CHS) will be prepared and a consultation event will be organised for end April.

Agreed: 1. Board Member feedback on the consultation

to be progressed via a session at the April Board Development day. The Head of Practice & Policy will prepare a briefing paper.

Pay Policy Guidance – noted this would be dealt with via email.

2. Minute of Meeting held on 25 February 2015 Noted: Minute in course of being finalised – will be emailed to EMT members for sign-off.

March 15

JMcD

3. Draft Ops Group Minute 24/2/15 Noted: 1. The draft minute from the meeting on

24/2/15. 2. The agenda is now shaped to cover all

aspects of business and all localities, with the exception of Highland are represented.

3. The schedule of meetings will be reviewed in the light of other internal and external commitments. If the Ops Group move two monthly rather than monthly meetings, the vacant slot will be allocated for meetings of the new risk management group.

March 15

NH/Ops Group

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Timescale Action 4. Budget 2015/16

The Head of Finance & Resources spoke in detail to the draft budget 2015/16 report which is scheduled for approval at the March Board meeting. Revenue Noted: 1. A section on the position in relation to

2014/15 will be added into the report. 2. Scottish Government have agreed to fund

the £150k overspend in 2014/15. Agreed: 1. The need to think about identifying in-year

opportunities for invest to save projects in particular digital strategy work.

2. To reinstate the grounds maintenance contract with the resultant effect of the savings target remaining at 2.9%.

3. The priorities in year will be (1) to reduce this target and (2) to identify funds for invest to save projects.

Capital Noted: 1. To ensure the draft capital plan for 2015/16

is affordable a number of key capital projects have been deferred. These have been flagged to Sponsor Team who have logged an additional sum of £250k for SCRA with decisions on funding due in the autumn.

2. There is a risk around deferring the website replacement. Discussions are ongoing with the supplier to extend current support but this may not be possible.

3. CMS hosting is being discussed with Scots. Agreed: 1. To move the Fit For Us £10k Improvement to

Hearings Room to part of the Fit for Us budget line in the proposed Capital Programme.

2. To approve the draft Budget Report 2015/16 for submission to the Board.

Sponsor Branch have asked for an outline of requirements by end of March for the period to 17/18 Note – EMT acknowledged the significant amount of work undertaken by Ross Mackenzie in leading on the budget process.

March 15

March 15

EM

EM

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Timescale Action 5. Perth

Noted: The report setting out the current position in relation to Perth Replacement Hearing Centre Project. Agreed: 1. Option 2 – Defer (or Mothball) the Project is

the only feasible option pending the outcome of Scottish Government capital process is confirmed.

2. The Head of Finance & Property to confirm with Head of Property about whether Kinnoull Street should remain for sale or be withdrawn from the market.

March 15

EM

6. Ayrshire PID Agreed: 1. Funding has been included in the minor

works budget for this project. 2. To note and support the Ayrshire PID

direction of travel and that a full business case will be scheduled for consideration at EMT.

3. The need to look at air conditioning requirements for the building.

7. Business Plan 2015/16 Agreed: 1. The Business Plan for 2015/16 subject to

minor textual amendments and in particular: Delete item no.8 (staff recognition staff)

and link with no.6 – organisational development (bringing forward a range of initiatives in terms of demonstrating the value, morale and motivation of staff

To go with the targets as currently drafted and revise wording on page 13 to say revised targets reflect the changed operational environment

Separation of the targets in relation to 50 working days and 20 working days.

Adding in a reference about the type of referrals now received and that the nature of referrals has changed.

2. Locality plans need to reflect an element of lessons learned and for localities to interpret the business plan in terms of what it means for their locality.

Immediate

EJ/RM

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Timescale Action 8. Locality Scorecard

Noted: 1. Positive feedback has been received on

development/format of the scorecard. 2. The SOM review meetings will use the

scorecard as the core data set and add other elements into quadrant 4 (corporate local focus) as required.

Agreed: 1. To create an EMT workspace for access to

locality scorecards. 2. The need to make sure there are linkages

across what the information is telling us and what is important for children and families.

March 15

EJ/RM

9. Q3 Organisational Performance Report Agreed: The Q3 Organisational Performance report for the March Board meeting subject to inclusion of a reference to:

Case sampling on deferred hearings South East leading the consultation on

support assistant (reception).

March 15

EJ

10. Managers’ Briefing Event 12/3/15 Noted: 1. The programme has now been circulated. 2. Alistair Hogg will deliver a presentation

based on the EMT strategy session. 3. Facilitators for the planning exercise were

agreed. 4. The outcome of the review of the approach

to translation and interpretation will be progressed via the Ops Group.

Agreed: The need to start thinking about an external speaker for the August Managers’ Briefing event.

All

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Timescale Action 11. Organisational Development Strategy

Joe Rafferty spoke to the detail of the Organisational Development Strategy. Noted: 1. The strategy encompasses a range of

activity which is already underway within the organisation and gives coherent visibility.

2. The inclusion of the action plan will allow activity to be monitored.

3. The action plan has been discussed at National Partnership Forum and will need to be scheduled for the HR Sub-Group.

4. Leadership of the strategy sits at EMT level. 5. The next stage will be for work to be

undertaken to set out EMT responsibilities and potential leads around delivery linking activity to the workforce plan.

6. The Strategy will be presented to the June Board meeting for approval.

7. Timescales in the action plan will be reviewed.

Agreed: 1. The Organisational Development Strategy

subject to the inclusion of a reference to the Advanced Diploma in Reporter Studies.

April 15

NH/MMcM/JR

12. Information Security Report Noted: The comprehensive interim information security report and the progress made on SCRA’s compliance status with the HMG Security Policy Framework (SPF). Agreed: To approve the Wi-FI User Acceptance Policy as detailed in Appendix 4 to the report.

13. Complaints Procedure Noted: The current complaints procedure does not contain a time limit for the logging of a complaint. Agreed: To set a time limit of one year for logging of a complaint but in exceptional circumstances the Principal Reporter/Chief Executive has the discretion to make a decision to allow the complaint to proceed.

Immediate

MS

6

Timescale Action 14. New Risks

B, M and M vs McGinley – wilfull intent – calling in May – major implications for SCRA practice. AH/MS to assess risk.

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SCRA(MAR15)

SCOTTISH CHILDREN’S REPORTER ADMINISTRATION

Draft Budget Plans 2015/16

Accountable Director: Director of Support Services Date: 9th March 2015

Report Prepared By: Head of Finance and Resources

Recommendations:

1. To approve the draft 2015/16 revenue and capital budgets. 2. To approve the staffing establishment of 396.17 FTE’s, reducing to 390.17

FTEs by March 2016 following the conclusion of round 5 voluntary severance.

3. To delegate approval of the minor works capital budget to the Executive

Management Team.

Reason for Report: Matter reserved to Board

Resource Implications: Within approved resources

Strategy: Within approved plans

Consultation: Budget Holders Executive Management Team

Equalities Duties: A stage 1 equality impact assessment will be carried out prior to the March 2015 Board meeting.

Document Classification: Internal use only

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1. Introduction

1.1 The report is seeking approval of the draft 2015/16 revenue and capital budgets, the staffing establishment and delegation of the minor works capital budget to the Executive Management Team (EMT).

2. Background

2.1 The Board approved an updated Financial Plan 2014/17 in December 2014. The report focused on ‘Most Likely’ forecast revenue budgets for 2015/16 and 2016/17 with significant revenue deficits forecast for both years.

2.2 In January 2015, the Board noted that a Budget Challenge & Review

(C&R) process was required to close a revenue budget gap of £1.3m before application of a general savings target. In fact the C&R process which took place over two EMT meetings on 11th February and 25th February 2015, addressed a revenue budget gap of £1.261m.

2.3 The 2015/16 revenue budget is the fourth prepared at locality level and

the third to be prepared with the full involvement of Locality budget leads. The budgets are consistent with the draft 2015/16 Business Plan.

3. Resources 2015/16

3.1 SCRA has received confirmation of budget allocations for 2015/16 which reflect standstill revenue funding of £20.8m and standstill capital funding of £0.5m. The published allocations are £20.28m for revenue and £0m for capital however Sponsor Team have confirmed standstill funding will be provided in 2015/16. The Directorate Finance Manager is working to change SCRA’s published allocations to reflect the standstill position for revenue and capital in time for 2016/17 budget planning.

3.2 The revenue grant in aid budget allocation for 2015/16 will be

augmented with income of £482k from externally funded posts, rental of surplus accommodation and shared service income.

3.3 The capital grant in aid allocation for 2015/16 is £0.5m. This will be

augmented by the disposal of SCRA’s premises in Gladstone Place, Stirling.

3.4 Summary of Consolidated Revenue Budget Position 2015/16

The draft revenue budget expenditure for 2015/16 amounts to £20.8m.

Draft cost centre budgets are attached to this report at Appendix A.

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4. Revenue Budget 2015/16

4.1 Staff Costs 4.1.1 Establishment A key cost driver in the development of the 2015/16 revenue budget is

staff establishment. The staff cost budget has been prepared at cost centre level, on the basis of individuals in post plus vacancies as at November 2014. Vacancies are budgeted on the basis of recruitment at the bottom of the relevant grade scale.

The establishment returned by budget holders was 396.17 FTE. Over

and above the 396.17 FTE establishment figure the draft Budget includes a net cash sum of £61k for 2.7 FTEs (net) following a recent meeting of the Establishment Group to finalise FTE numbers for 2015/16. The budget includes a number of non establishment posts at a cost in 2015/16 of £390k. As a result of EMT discussions about temporary posts some small changes will be made to establishment and these changes will be reported to the Board in September 2015. The non establishment posts include a number of Locality based posts as well as current trainee reporter posts and a Victims Information Coordinator (VIC) post. The current establishment is attached at Appendix B.

The draft staff budget reflects additional support requested for South

East, Ayrshire, Tayside and Fife and North Strathclyde. In addition Glasgow are reallocating funding for a vacant managerial post to increase assistant reporter numbers. It is expected these additional resources will support continued performance improvement and efficiency initiatives in these Localities.

The draft staff budget does not include any assumptions for natural

turnover savings which were included in the Financial Plan at £38k for 2015/16 rising to £150k for full year 2016/17 nor does it include the cost of further conversions of support posts to assistant reporter or further trainee reporters. The recruitment of new trainee reporters will now take place in 2016/17 and every two years thereafter.

4.1.2 Pay The draft budget plans reflect the third year of the three year Pay Remit approved by the Board and Scottish Government. This includes full year progression in 2015/16.

4.1.3 Voluntary Severance Up front funding for round 5 Voluntary Severance of £400k will be

provided by Scottish Government in 2015/16. This is based on six posts and will generate savings in 2015/16 of £160k with full year savings in 2016/17 of £289k.

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4.1.4 Savings Target

Staff costs include a budget savings target set at 2.70% of staff costs to

reflect the savings and efficiencies being realised and the likelihood of further staff turnover and other efficiencies in 2015/16. This target has been reduced from 3.1% in 2014/15 which a number of Localities have, struggled to achieve.

4.2 Property Costs

The property costs budget was prepared with guidance from the Property Team who provided budget holders with a spreadsheet incorporating all property related costs with the exception of energy costs. The Property Team ensured budgeted costs were consistent with the terms of current leases. The draft budget of £2,814k reflects challenging savings and income generation targets totalling £185k, introduced to maintain the property costs budget at 2014/15 levels. The biggest year on year pressure on property costs is attributable to double running costs in Inverness and Stornoway. To offset this and other cost pressures the Property Team will target the following net cost reduction measures in 2015/16:

Aberdeen rent increase – £25k Glasgow service charge – £51k Facility Management reductions – £94k Net additional income – £45k Other efficiencies – £18k

Some of these measures carry higher risks than others e.g. securing net additional income of £45k depends on successful marketing of surplus space in SCRA’s estate some of which has been vacant for some time. The final mix of cost reduction measures will be approved by EMT with a view to minimising risk and impact on staff, children and families and partners. A small number of Property capital projects will be taken forward in 2015/16 with significant revenue implications resulting from these projects.

4.3 Travel and Subsistence

The guidance to budget holders on travel and subsistence costs was that they should prepare the budget on the assumption that efficiency savings, over and above the centrally set savings target, can be delivered and that savings should be at least sufficient to offset any unavoidable cost pressures. The draft budget at £218k is some £20k (9.9%) higher than the 2014/15 budget.

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4.4 Supplies and Services The draft budget at £2,191k includes £665k for SCOTS services

(Scottish Government’s shared IT service provided by ISIS). This figure includes 20% VAT which is chargeable from 2014/15. Value for money assessments of the SCOTS agreement and the CMS hosting contract are ongoing. CMS hosting currently costs around £150k per annum from a private sector provider. ISIS have been asked to provide a costed proposal to bring CMS hosting within the SCOTS service and a challenging savings target of £75k per annum (part of a £100k contract savings target) has been included in the draft revenue budget plans. The budget includes software support costs (£286k) for CMS, iTrent and eFinancials.

Other significant budget provisions include postages (£317k), hearing

costs (£345k), Practice legal costs (£120k), photocopying (£97k), and stationery (£85k).

In total the supplies and services draft budget is £189k (7.9%) less than

2014/15 primarily as a result of savings across a range of budget lines, particularly IT. These savings should count towards the 2015/16 efficiency target.

4.5 Efficiency Targets

Public bodies are expected to deliver efficiencies of 3% per annum and

reductions in the cost of transactional services. The 2014/15 3% target will be met through efficiency savings including Voluntary Severance savings, procurement savings, savings in property costs and shared service income.

5. Draft Capital Plan 2014/15

5.1 Capital Summary The draft capital programme, as detailed in Appendix C, indicates a net

spend in 2015/16 of £500k, in line with approved Grant in Aid.

5.2 The Head of Planning and Strategy, Head of Property, IT Manager, Digital Strategy lead and Press & Communications Manager have identified potential capital projects for 2015/16, and 2016/17 in the case of Property potential projects.

5.3 Property

5.3.1 Key locations for property projects in 2015/16 are Inverness and

Stornoway. The projects in Inverness and Stornoway have been triggered by lease expiries and all approvals are now in place to move to new locations in 2015/16. In relation to other upcoming lease expiries (Irvine, Stirling and Thurso) it is assumed that SCRA will, with Scottish Government and Board approval, remain in current premises.

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5.3.2 The Perth project (construction works at Belhaven House) has been deferred by EMT as part of the strategy to close a capital budget gap. As a result of recent early Spending Review discussions with Sponsor Team deferred capital projects will be considered for additional capital funding in the Autumn Budget Review, including the Perth project, phased over the 2015/16 and 2016/17 financial years with £170k allocated in each year.

5.3.3 There is still some surplus space in the estate (Arbroath, Falkirk,

Inverness) and the Property Team continue with efforts to agree sub-lease agreements. In addition improved space utilisation in Hamilton (office space) is planned creating lettable space.

5.3.4 It is proposed the allocation of the provision for minor works be

delegated to EMT. The most significant Minor Works project is likely to be works required to adapt the Kilmarnock office as part of the Ayrshire Integration Project.

5.3.5 Recent discussions between the Property and Finance teams

suggest the cost of dilapidations for Bell Street, Glasgow and Dava House, East Kilbride, based on SCRA carrying out the work required, could be £32k higher than previous estimates. No further provision has been made in the 2014/15 capital forecast on the basis that it may be possible to achieve a negotiated cash settlement within current forecasts.

5.3.6 It should be noted that the draft three year Property Plan

prepared by the Head of Property assumes a net capital receipt of £471k for disposal of Gladstone Place in 2015/16.

5.4 IT

5.4.1 In relation to IT capital projects, the main priorities for 2015/16

will be further development of the Case Management System (CMS) and the first phase of an Infrastructure Replacement Programme. The Change Advisory Board will decide on CMS development priorities for 2015/16 and agreed system changes will build on the improvements delivered by the CMS User Interface Programme which will end in April 2015.

5.4.2 In relation to Infrastructure Replacement ISIS will engage with

SCRA to progress a programme of replacing most of the network switches across all of the SCRA sites. This programme is due to commence in 2016/17 but it is proposed to start the work in 2015/16 with a view to improving the infrastructure in poorer performing sites. This will not of itself improve an office performance but newer switches have far more intelligence to identify where problems may actually be.

5.4.3 Other IT capital priorities for 2015/16 include the need to ensure

CMS is refreshed or upgraded in response to planned changes to existing core business applications e.g. website; finance and HR systems; digital agenda; CMS hosting as well as imposed

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changes from SCRA’s IT suppliers (ISIS/Pulsant) and business partners (the police are planning changes to SPR2 in 2015/16).

5.5 Digital Strategy

5.5.1 The Benefits Realisation Programme (BRP) commenced in 2013/14. Capital projects for development under the BRP are reflected in the Hearings System Digital Strategy section in Appendix C. The draft plans include projects for digital hearing papers proof of concept. A draft Children’s Hearings System IT Digital Strategy will be drafted by March 2015. Indicative capital figures to implement the Digital Strategy in 2016/17 and 2017/18 have been provided to Sponsor Team as part of the early Spending Review work referenced in section 5.3.2. The revenue implications of the Digital Strategy projects amounting to £72k are reflected in draft revenue plans.

5.6 Fit For Us

5.6.1 Capital resources of £34k have been allocated to continue the Fit For Us programme which will be focused on wi-fi in core hearing rooms and a small provision for tablets with games.

5.7 Deferred projects

5.7.1 To ensure the draft capital plan for 2015/16 is affordable a number of key capital projects have been deferred. These are listed at the foot of Appendix C and have been flagged to Sponsor Team who have logged an additional sum of £250k for SCRA with decisions on funding due in the autumn.

6. Key Risks

6.1 There are two key risks in the draft budget plans. Firstly there is a risk that the challenging savings targets reflected in the draft 2015/16 revenue plans are not achievable resulting in difficult choices in the second half of 2015/16.

6.2 The second key risk area is in relation to capital investment and the

failure to deliver efficiencies from the Benefits Realisation Programme, particularly the wider implementation of eCommunications, and the Hearings System Digital Strategy in 2015/16 and 2016/17.

7. Business Plan 2015/2016

7.1 A separate report on the Business Plan 2015/16 sets out SCRA’s

business priorities. The Business Plan supports SCRA’s 2014/17 Corporate Plan and provides SCRA with an appropriate strategic framework against which all its available resources and activities can be aligned. Significantly the Plan reflects revised Performance Targets which are more realistic and build on the progress made by Localities in 2014/15. The Business Plan is aligned with the draft 2015/16 revenue and capital budgets.

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8. Forward Years

8.1 The current Financial Plan will be further developed and updated to ensure long term financial sustainability and inform the next Scottish Government Spending Review in summer/autumn 2015. An updated Plan will be presented to Board Members in June 2015. In advance of this the Directorate Finance Manager has requested an overview of SCRA’s future funding requirements by the end of March 2015.

8.2 In pursuit of a sustainable financial position the PR/CE identified three

key areas of activity and review in March 2014: Implementation of more efficient business processes, supported

by a more effective CMS Workforce plans aligned to business needs A more strategic approach to property provision, with a particular

focus on outreach hearing centres Progress has been made in each of these areas and they will remain in focus throughout 2015/16.

9. Conclusions

9.1 In arriving at the draft 2015/16 revenue and capital plans presented in this report EMT have made some tough choices and deprioritised areas of spend that would be viewed in any previous year as highly desirable.

9.2 The following challenging savings/cost reduction assumptions have

largely closed the budget gap of £1.26m:

2.70% savings target (£425k) Property savings (£185k) Contract savings (£100k) BRP savings (£50k) VER/VR savings (£160k) Lower increase in employers pension costs (£270k)

9.3 The main capital projects for 2015/16 are the property projects in

Inverness and Stornoway, the first phase of the Hearings System Digital Strategy and a significant range of IT projects which will deliver further improvements to the CMS and update the underlying IT infrastructure.

10. Recommendations

10.1 To approve the draft 2015/16 revenue and capital budgets. 10.2 To approve the staffing establishment of 396.17 FTE’s, reducing to

390.17 FTEs by March 2016 following the conclusion of round 5 voluntary severance.

10.3 To delegate approval of the minor works capital budget to the Executive

Management Team.

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Appendix A

SCOTTISH CHILDREN'S REPORTER ADMINISTRATION

Budget 2015/2016 Original

Full year Full year Actuals to returned Actuals CODE NARRATIVE Budget period 7 Budget 2013/14 2014/15 2014/15 2015/16

15,487,967 001 Establishment Staff 15,466,878 9,201,765 15,674,151 233,341 007 Non-establishment Staff 630,119 112,607 390,152

0 009 Savings Target (486,676) 0 (424,972) 45,500 003 Board 51,622 27,491 52,934

109,751 010 Training 73,000 49,101 70,208 54,081 011 Allowances 53,022 32,974 31,820 86,232 020 Other Staff Costs 55,568 36,283 62,359

16,016,873 Staff Costs 15,843,533 9,460,220 15,856,652

256,499 100 Repairs and Maintenance 483,079 91,964 396,400 244,053 101 Energy Costs 199,950 67,737 190,700

1,194,258 102 Rents 1,121,630 748,788 1,163,179 647,478 103 Rates 638,566 413,401 661,976 56,540 104 Water Rates 53,131 36,867 62,817

327,250 105 Shared Costs 302,031 172,267 325,454 284,608 106 Contract Services 10,230 19,187 12,996 31,800 107 Other Property Costs 950 6,756 0

3,042,485 Property Costs 2,809,567 1,556,966 2,813,522

77,499 202 Other Travel 66,190 34,843 68,278 160,863 203 Car Mileage 118,723 67,307 125,238 252,084 Travel & Subsistence 198,013 107,962 217,616

14,416 300 Equipment and Furniture 0 3,743 0 70,333 301 Maint. Contracts & Leases 30,142 15,141 26,660 13,734 302 Printing 7,400 1,198 8,200

123,348 303 Stationery 87,402 48,124 85,153 133,073 304 Photocopying 96,500 37,334 96,900 23,881 305 Books and Publications 25,800 5,513 15,850

355,894 306 Postages 336,100 214,725 316,550 54,861 307 Telephones 55,426 30,554 48,110 41,012 308 IT 0 0 72,000

686,176 309 SCOTS 831,000 483,000 664,745 285,750 310 Software 355,985 210,437 286,000 126,803 311 Legal Expenses 120,000 79,463 120,000 308,660 313 Hearing Costs 299,560 155,231 344,700 73,199 314 Other Supplies & Services 36,110 2,762 32,490 35,704 390 Other Corporate Expenses 35,000 7,038 10,000 54,531 395 Audit 64,000 4,876 64,000

2,401,375 Supplies and Services 2,380,425 1,299,141 2,191,358

1,848 401 Interest (1,000) 2,190 3,176 1,379,696 820 Unfunded Pensions 200,000 155,712 200,000

(629,475) 501 Income (495,538) (260,688) (482,324)

22,464,886 TOTAL 20,935,000 12,321,502 20,800,000

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EAST AND CENTRAL SCOTLAND Budget 2015/2016 Original

Full year Full year Actuals to returned Actuals CODE NARRATIVE Budget period 7 Budget 2013/14 2014/15 2014/15 2015/16 6,845,707 001 Establishment Staff 6,850,194 4,032,837 7,006,950

103,353 007 Non-establishment Staff 156,149 30,137 111,388 0 009 Savings Target (212,595) 0 (188,457) 0 003 Board 0 0 0

8,260 010 Training 6,500 352 3,294 19,460 011 Allowances 19,253 10,947 9,189 44,253 020 Other Staff Costs 15,212 7,408 10,206

7,021,033 Staff Costs 6,834,713 4,081,681 6,952,569

351 100 Repairs and Maintenance 0 0 0 128,871 101 Energy Costs 107,650 39,784 90,900 397,964 102 Rents 390,821 296,036 393,596 329,872 103 Rates 318,353 195,099 325,651 29,165 104 Water Rates 24,242 21,829 32,085

170,890 105 Shared Costs 151,450 76,979 168,250 142,027 106 Contract Services 1,050 11,891 7,496 12,116 107 Other Property Costs 950 2,246 0

1,211,257 Property Costs 994,516 643,864 1,017,978

15,896 202 Other Travel 10,090 8,672 14,500 81,058 203 Car Mileage 65,940 37,558 66,894

874 204 Subsistence 650 380 950 97,827 Travel & Subsistence 76,680 46,610 82,344

9,142 300 Equipment and Furniture 0 2,286 0 4,371 301 Maint. Contracts & Leases 2,352 1,905 0

0 302 Printing 0 0 0 65,486 303 Stationery 43,100 27,284 42,936 76,748 304 Photocopying 51,500 21,194 43,000

24 305 Books and Publications 0 11 0 222,649 306 Postages 202,800 131,159 225,350

7,936 307 Telephones 5,140 4,393 0 0 308 IT 0 0 0 0 309 SCOTS 0 0 0 0 310 Software 0 0 0 0 311 Legal Expenses 0 0 0

138,165 313 Hearing Costs 121,500 80,961 186,200 17,571 314 Other Supplies & Services 8,820 6,515 10,070

0 390 Other Corporate Expenses 0 0 0 0 395 Audit 0 0 0

542,092 Supplies and Services 435,212 275,708 507,556 0 401 Interest 0 0 0 0 820 Unfunded Pensions 0 0 0

(237,363) 501 Income (157,855) (93,206) (113,992) 8,634,846 TOTAL 8,183,266 4,954,658 8,446,456

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NORTH WEST AREA Budget 2015/2016 Original


102,479 007 Non-establishment Staff 228,111 62,329 112,499 0 009 Savings Target (174,417) 0 (154,730) 0 003 Board 0 0 0

3,517 010 Training 3,500 4,548 2,414 27,177 011 Allowances 27,692 17,951 16,856 2,313 020 Other Staff Costs 500 1,607 0

5,706,790 Staff Costs 5,700,965 3,360,837 5,736,432

0 100 Repairs and Maintenance 0 0 0

101,028 101 Energy Costs 85,300 26,582 88,800 646,238 102 Rents 605,759 376,701 654,543 256,944 103 Rates 274,714 192,432 296,600 25,613 104 Water Rates 28,889 15,038 38,502

115,392 105 Shared Costs 120,881 74,138 166,404 117,982 106 Contract Services 9,180 6,394 5,500

9,777 107 Other Property Costs 0 4,290 0 1,272,972 Property Costs 1,124,723 695,574 1,250,349

40,658 202 Other Travel 40,450 17,797 36,700 43,040 203 Car Mileage 28,782 16,020 34,666 9,653 204 Subsistence 9,450 3,764 18,600

93,350 Travel & Subsistence 78,682 37,580 89,966

3,700 300 Equipment and Furniture 0 565 0 603 301 Maint. Contracts & Leases 790 792 880

0 302 Printing 0 0 0 57,571 303 Stationery 43,852 20,840 41,817 56,216 304 Photocopying 45,000 16,141 39,400

45 305 Books and Publications 0 37 0 133,149 306 Postages 133,300 83,536 141,200

4,723 307 Telephones 4,684 2,292 700 0 308 IT 0 0 0 0 309 SCOTS 0 0 0 0 310 Software 0 0 0 0 311 Legal Expenses 0 60 0

170,434 313 Hearing Costs 178,060 74,270 178,500 7,308 314 Other Supplies & Services 6,665 3,750 6,050 1,110 390 Other Corporate Expenses 0 234 0

0 395 Audit 0 0 0 434,858 Supplies and Services 412,351 202,517 408,547

0 401 Interest 0 0 0 0 820 Unfunded Pensions 0 0 0

(283,904) 501 Income (244,683) (165,250) (203,207) 7,224,067 TOTAL 7,072,038 4,131,259 7,282,087

12

Practice and Policy Budget 2015/2016 Original


786,018 001 Establishment Staff 750,532 505,495 767,612 23,009 007 Non-establishment Staff 187,200 20,141 107,026

0 009 Savings Target (28,361) 0 (20,284)

3,410 010 Training 0 186 1,500 0 011 Allowances 0 0 0

7,958 020 Other Staff Costs 3,656 (479) 3,300

820,396 Staff Costs 913,027 525,343 859,153

562 105 Shared Costs 0 0 0 875 106 Contract Services 0 0 0

0 107 Other Property Costs 0 0 0

1,437 Property Costs 0 0 0

6,792 202 Other Travel 5,900 2,972 5,900 9,077 203 Car Mileage 6,359 4,004 5,794

299 204 Subsistence 600 674 600

16,168 Travel & Subsistence 12,859 7,650 12,294 0 300 Equipment and Furniture 0 526 0 0 301 Maint. Contracts & Leases 0 0 0

3,746 302 Printing 1,000 0 0 0 303 Stationery 0 0 0 0 304 Photocopying 0 0 0

14,294 305 Books and Publications 15,800 564 7,000 0 306 Postages 0 0 0 0 307 Telephones 0 0 0 0 308 IT 0 0 0 0 309 SCOTS 0 0 0 0 310 Software 0 0 0

126,803 311 Legal Expenses 120,000 79,403 120,000 0 313 Hearing Costs 0 0 (20,000)

15,783 314 Other Supplies & Services 15,425 2,237 16,300 0 390 Other Corporate Expenses 0 0 0

160,626 Supplies and Services 152,225 82,730 123,300 0 401 Interest 0 0 0

(99) 501 Income 0 0 0 998,528 TOTAL 1,078,111 615,724 994,747

13

Executive Budget 2015/2016 Original


160,148 001 Establishment Staff 160,158 95,762 167,614 0 007 Non-establishment Staff 0 0 0 0 009 Savings Target (4,965) 0 (4,517)

45,500 003 Board 51,622 27,491 52,934

89 010 Training 0 0 0 0 011 Allowances 0 0 0

629 020 Other Staff Costs 100 179 100

206,366 Staff Costs 206,915 123,432 216,130 0 Property Costs 0 0 0

1,909 202 Other Travel 1,950 436 2,700 3,623 203 Car Mileage 738 1,210 546

129 204 Subsistence 50 2 100

5,662 Travel & Subsistence 2,738 1,648 3,346 0 300 Equipment and Furniture 0 0 0 0 301 Maint. Contracts & Leases 0 0 0 0 302 Printing 0 0 0 0 303 Stationery 0 0 0 0 304 Photocopying 0 0 0 0 305 Books and Publications 0 0 0 0 306 Postages 0 0 0 0 307 Telephones 100 0 100 0 308 IT 0 0 0 0 313 Hearing Costs 0 0 0

1,036 314 Other Supplies & Services 500 418 0 0 390 Other Corporate Expenses 500 0 1,000

54,531 395 Audit 64,000 4,876 64,000

55,567 Supplies and Services 65,100 5,294 65,100 0 401 Interest 0 0 0

(5) 501 Income 0 0 0 267,590 TOTAL 274,753 130,374 284,576

14

SUPPORT SERVICES Budget 2015/2016 Original


4,500 007 Non-establishment Staff 58,659 0 59,240 0 009 Savings Target (66,338) 0 (56,983)

94,474 010 Training 63,000 44,014 63,000 7,444 011 Allowances 6,077 4,075 5,775

31,078 020 Other Staff Costs 36,100 27,569 48,753

2,262,288 Staff Costs 2,187,913 1,368,927 2,092,367

256,148 100 Repairs and Maintenance 483,079 91,964 396,400 14,154 101 Energy Costs 7,000 1,372 11,000

150,057 102 Rents 125,050 76,050 115,040 60,662 103 Rates 45,499 25,869 39,724 1,761 104 Water Rates 0 0 (7,770)

40,406 105 Shared Costs 29,700 21,150 (9,200) 23,724 106 Contract Services 0 903 0 9,907 107 Other Property Costs 0 220 0

556,819 Property Costs 690,328 217,527 545,194

12,245 202 Other Travel 7,800 4,966 8,478 24,065 203 Car Mileage 16,904 8,515 17,338 2,767 204 Subsistence 2,350 992 3,850

39,077 Travel & Subsistence 27,054 14,473 29,666

1,574 300 Equipment and Furniture 0 366 0 65,359 301 Maint. Contracts & Leases 27,000 12,444 25,780 9,988 302 Printing 6,400 1,198 8,200

292 303 Stationery 450 0 400 109 304 Photocopying 0 0 14,500

9,518 305 Books and Publications 10,000 4,901 8,850 96 306 Postages 0 30 (50,000)

42,202 307 Telephones 45,502 23,869 47,310 41,012 308 IT 0 0 72,000

686,176 309 SCOTS 831,000 483,000 664,745 285,750 310 Software 355,985 210,437 286,000

61 313 Hearing Costs 0 0 0 31,501 314 Other Supplies & Services 4,700 (10,159) 70 34,594 390 Other Corporate Expenses 34,500 6,804 9,000

0 395 Audit 0 0 0 1,208,232 Supplies and Services 1,315,537 732,892 1,086,855

1,848 401 Interest (1,000) 2,190 3,176

1,379,696 820 Unfunded Pensions 200,000 155,712 200,000

(108,104) 501 Income (93,000) (2,232) (165,125) 5,339,856 TOTAL 4,326,832 2,489,489 3,792,133

15

Appendix B

SCRA core establishment 2015/16

A B C D E E+ F G H I TOTAL NORTH WEST Business Team 1.00 1.00 1.00 3.00 Glasgow 7.06 18.20 6.00 22.64 3.37 5.00 62.27 Grampian 2.43 6.50 3.00 8.50 1.00 2.00 23.43 Highlands and Islands 7.50 2.50 6.57 1.00 1.91 19.48 North Strathclyde 2.93 12.30 6.00 13.80 1.80 4.00 40.83 TOTAL 12.42 44.50 1.00 18.50 51.51 7.17 12.91 1.00 149.01 EAST AND CENTRAL SCOTLAND Ayrshire 1.80 10.00 4.50 10.66 1.93 2.00 30.89 Central 3.59 8.36 4.50 11.00 1.00 2.00 30.45 South East 4.76 8.70 6.00 12.70 1.00 3.00 36.16 Tayside & Fife 3.73 12.30 6.04 14.07 2.00 2.00 40.14 Business Team 1.00 1.00 1.00 3.00 Lanarkshire, Dumfries & Galloway 3.79 15.04 6.00 15.80 2.00 3.00 45.63 TOTAL 17.67 54.40 1.00 28.04 64.23 7.93 12.00 1.00 186.27 HEAD OFFICE Executive 1.00 1.00 2.00 Practice & Policy 3.46 2.00 1.40 6.00 1.94 14.80 Support Services 0.90 0.50 3.56 15.25 10.25 10.77 2.00 0.86 44.09 TOTAL 0.90 0.50 7.02 17.25 12.65 16.77 3.94 0.86 1.00 60.89 SCRA TOTAL 30.99 99.40 9.02 63.79 128.38 15.10 41.68 5.94 0.86 1.00 396.17

16

DRAFT CAPITAL BUDGET 2015/16 APPENDIX C

Estimate (£000)

PROPERTY PROGRAMME Livingston Finance lease 37

Inverness Lease event, relocation, fit-out 317

Stornoway Lease event, relocation, fit-out 120

Lerwick Lease event, final phase of fit-out 10

Minor Works Minor alterations, equipment replacement, capitalised repairs

90

Glasgow Bell Street lift replacement 51

Stirling Net disposal receipt -471

IT PROGRAMME

CMS Development 50

IT security Systems accreditation 12

IT infrastructure Replacement programme 44

IT initiatives Various small initiatives 16

Other projects CMS integration/environmental response Finance/HR system

40

15

HEARINGS SYSTEM DIGITAL STRATEGY

Digital hearing papers – devices for pilot 35

Digital hearing papers – technology solution 50

Digital hearing papers – portal 50

FIT FOR US Wi-Fi in core hearing centres, tablets with games

34

TOTAL 500

PRIORITY PROJECTS FOR IN YEAR FUNDING Property Perth - Belhaven upgrading 170 IT Website replacement 40 IT Infrastructure replacement 15 Digital Strategy Electronic Court – tablet devices 15 Fit For Us Improvements to hearing rooms 10 TOTAL 250

EMT Challenge & Review 2015 As an update to the previous schedule, that set out options for cutting budget/savings, the schedule below has been updated to show options ranked by achievability / certainty. Following C&R meetings, it is intended to achieve a standstill budget in 2015/16 and a reduction of £185K sought from Property lines. Note: SCRA has the ability to remove some services from the FM contract (PR100) and these will have either a low or high impact. For the high impact

services, it is likely that SCRA will need to carry out ad-hoc work to address urgent / H&S repairs or as a result of complaints and impact on reputation. The net actual saving from the high impact services is likely to be lower than the figures stated below.

Area of Spend Budget

Reduction / Income

When Known?

Commentary

Achieved or Within SCRA Control Low Impact:

PR100 - General £7,300 Achieved Savings negotiated with Carillion between Nov 14 and Feb 15 PR100 - Environmental Management £7,700 Achieved Agreed with Carillion to remove service. Reduces budget from initial figure in budget

submitted. Saving - Rates £6,000 Apr 15 UBR for 15/16 confirmed at a lower rate than estimated in December PR100 - Keyholding & Callouts £9,000 Apr 15 Current cost of call-outs c£2.2K pa. £11.2K budgeted for moving keyholding and

call-outs onto the FM contract. This service was requested by Localities at tender stage. £9K saving by call-out response remaining with Localities.

PR100 - Window Cleaning £11,200 Apr 15 Stop all external and internal window cleaning. Impact on appearance of our properties.

High Impact:

PR100 - Grounds Maintenance £31,000 Apr 15 Stop grounds maintenance completely during 2015/16. Impact on appearance of our properties.

PR100 - Winter Gritting £14,000 Apr 15 Remove sum budgeted for winter gritting service. Risk of accident/claims. Move responsibility back to Localities.

PR100 – Planned Fabric Maintenance £10,200 Apr 15 Planned maintenance removed but intended to retain reactive service.

Sub-Total £ 96,400

Expected but not within SCRA Control Saving - Glasgow £51,000 May 15 Estimate of sum that can be capitalised from service charge, as per discussions

with Finance team. Saving - Water & Sewerage £4,900 Sep 15 Assume that charges may not be levied on Inverness and Stirling. Income - Kilmarnock £9,600 Oct 15 Assume that new lease struck with existing tenant. Existing tenant’s ability to pay,

however, has been inconsistent throughout initial lease. Income - Dalkeith £13,800 Apr 15 1st floor office now under offer with target date of entry 1 April. Rates become

tenants responsibility Saving - Water & Drainage £7,000 Jun 15 Assumed no increase on costs due to bargaining power of SG. Now known contract

not effective until July and Business Stream to provide interim service. May be an impact on any discount offered.

PR100 – Reactive Maintenance £3,000 Mar 16 Greater challenge to be applied to repair items reported through Helpdesk

Sub-Total £ 185,700 Targeted but not within SCRA Control Saving - Aberdeen £25,000 2016/17 As per discussions with Finance, revised rent recalculated assuming RPI increase

to 2014 then no growth. Aberdeen office market has shown exceptional growth in recent years and most recent reports suggest that the market is returning to more normal levels of growth. It is likely that rent review will require to be referred to 3rd party determination. There may be potential to explore a regearing of the lease. If going to 3rd party outcome likely to be 2016/17

Income - Aberdeen - £6,500 2016/17 Income from Tenant will reduce in line with SCRA rent reduction, see above. Income - Hamilton £14,000 Jan 16 Assume Scottish Government requirement comes forward by Q4 to take vacant

space. Income - Falkirk £4,500 Jan 16 Assume space no longer required by Head Office and tenant comes forward by Q4

to take vacant space. Income - Inverness Willow House £10,000 Jan 16 Assume tenant comes forward by Q4 to take vacant space.

Total £232,700

1

Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration

Minutes of Operational Group held on 24 February 2015 at Ochil House, Stirling

Present: Neil Hunter (Chair), Rosie Campbell, Neil McKinlay, Pauline Proudfoot, Douglas Hill, Tom Philliben, Malcolm Schaffer, Joe McKeown, Tricia Morris, Alistair Hogg, Caroline McGinn, Joe Hamilton In attendance: Janis McDougall Timescale Action 1. Apologies

Apologies were received from Kenneth Ritchie, Iain Gault, Rosemary Burnett, Jill Richards, Anne Gerry, Larraine Dalton and Gordon Brechin.

2. AOB There were no additional items of business.

3. Draft Minute of Meeting held on 29 January 2015 The minute was agreed as a correct record subject to minor formatting amendments. Matters arising Accuracy of recording pre & post hearing/servicing of hearings/admin support for Court Noted: 1. Clarification was sought around the parameters

for this piece of work. It was agreed that the initial focus should be on improving accuracy of recording in the immediate post hearing/post court environment. What are the enablers and/or inhibitors/barriers. It was noted that this would inevitably link into other broader issues e.g. servicing of hearings and admin support.

2. The Senior Operational Managers/Head of Practice and Policy/Principal Reporter remain available to assist with any queries around the scope of this work.

Digital Strategy Noted: A joint session with Children Hearings Scotland has been arranged for early March. Action Tracker The action tracker was reviewed.

2

Timescale Action Noted:

1. Process Maps 1 and 2 – A gap analysis exercise is currently underway to determine the extent of implementation of the process maps in localities. The packages are due to be updated to reflect the recent changes made as part of the CMS User Improvement Programme.

2. The core of package 3 is settled but there will be some changes based on the CMS User Improvement Programme. There will be further interplay between UI programme and process maps as the UI programme comes to a close and changes to CMS are made.

3. Non-disclosure process – training concluded with the exception of Lochgilphead.

4. Central/Stirling Teams – the redaction tool is not working properly. Tricia Morris will pick this issue up. Other than that Operational Group confirmed end of February adoption of on system redaction would be delivered.

5. Non-Disclosure Double-Check Form – the form should still be used pending full scale adoption of redaction on CMS.

6. The operational process guidance note will require to be revised once full implementation of use of the redaction tool. This will include guidance on cross check

7. Tricia Morris will prepare draft and report back to next meeting.

8. Panel Papers – Head of Practice & Policy awaiting a response from CHS and will report back to the next meeting.

9. Cancelled Hearings – issued raised that CMS does not retain record of postponement or record if hearing date changed. Agreed this will be discussed at Practice Network and report back to Ops Group.

10. Importing Documents – LMTs are receiving reports against targets. There is a known issue about some report formats but in general good progress is being made.

11. Actions under performance (Item 8 on action tracker) to be clarified – points (b) and (d).

12. Offence Referrals – coding errors. Some progress has been made but indications are it will move beyond February for some localities to complete. This would be discussed again at item 4.2.

3

Timescale Action 4. Performance

Top Line Performance Indicators Noted: 1. The routine weekly top line performance

indicators. 2. The 2014/15 weekly comparison data which

shows the significant progress made in performance and consequently results in speedier decision making for children.

3. LMTs should routinely be using these reports to feedback on progress.

4. NH will cover aspects of this in the team brief to evidence that staff efforts are clearly visible to SCRA.

Locality Improvement Targets Noted: 1. Locality based targets for 2015/16 are due for

submission on 24/2/15. 2. There was a shared view that the minimum

improvement targets would be between 5% and 7%.

Agreed: The potential from this point to establish a new, revised baseline figure for performance in relation to Reporter decision-making and hearing scheduling with year on year improvements led by Localities. Data Quality Issues re Offence Referrals Noted: 1. The paper providing an update to the

management of data quality errors/anomalies in relation to offence referrals.

2. Clarification was requested around the figures shown in the report and if the figures shown related to the latest position.

3. TM will feedback to KMacD and further advice will be issued on the data.

4. Some progress across the country had been noted and this was encouraging.

Agreed: 1. Email to be circulating to Ops Groups members

clarifying the figures reported. 2. As previously referenced, the backlog of

errors/anomalies is to be cleared as a matter of priority and that the standard is that no error/anomaly has an open status for more than one week.

4

Timescale Action 5. CMS

Noted: 1. The final phase of the User Improvement

Programme is scheduled for completion end March/beginning April. (UNISON (via Joe McKeown) noted and were content with the later completion date).

2. There is an issue outstanding from the last upgrade in relation to the task filter – this issue has been logged and prioritised for resolution.

3. The recent issues with system performance have related to the network rather than CMS itself.

4. Ops Group members are encouraged to give feedback on the improvements – positive and negative.

5. CMS will remain on the Ops Group agenda as a standing item as the programme now moves to functionality development, panel papers, ecoms and digital strategy.

6. CAB will be for forum for progression of the development programme.

Agreed: 1. Training and support packages need to be aligned

with upgrades. 2. Timing for the rollout of the next upgrade to be

considered at CAB to minimise impact given staff holidays over the Easter period.

6. Significant Case Reviews (SCR) Noted: 1. The paper clarifying issues around SCRA’s

involvement in significant case reviews, including information sharing, staff support and sharing results.

2. Alistair Hogg has been involved in reviewing SCR guidance for agencies – this has been finalised and is due for circulation.

3. SCRA needs to capture the wealth of knowledge gained from involvement in these reviews and the need to have this information held in a central point which then becomes a national resource.

4. SCRA’s position is to state clearly that the organisation wants to participate but there are restrictions around what information can be shared and SCRA is working with other partners/Scottish Government on those restrictions.

5

Timescale Action 7. Information Governance

Noted: 1. The Audit Committee reviewed the Quarter 3

report on case information and non-disclosure order breaches and noted the continued range of actions to reduce breaches.

2. The ICO Follow-up report was submitted and a written response has been received to confirm there will be no further follow-up. The ICO noted the significant progress made by the organisation.

3. The ICO accepted the decision not to proceed with watermarking of panel papers due to the labour level not being commensurate with the risk but noted that the organisation had accepted this level of risk.

4. The remaining actions are being progressed via the IG Leads Group. The priority is now to maintain the programme of destruction of over 18s files.

5. Positive feedback has been received from IG Leads on their recent training day.

6. The IG leads are developing the information governance action plan for this year.

7. There are a number of issues arising from the Facilities Management Contract. The Property Team are raising these with Carillion and an update will be provided at the next meeting.

8. Risk Management Group Noted: 1. The Internal Auditors have, at the request of the

Audit Committee, prepared options in relation to further developing SCRA’s approach to Risk Management.

2. The Committee have agreed that a Risk Management Group should be established in SCRA to co-ordinate risk across the organisation. It is proposed that this be a sub-group of the Operational Group. The PR/CE will chair the group with every locality being represented.

3. A draft remit for the group is currently being prepared and will be presented to a future meeting of the Ops Group.

Agreed: To circulate, for information to Ops Group, the internal audit report on further developing SCRA’s approach to risk management for information.

9. Date of Next Meeting: 27 March 2015

To: EMT members From: Neil McKinlay, on behalf of Ayrshire LMT and Ayrshire Integration Project Team Date: 20 February 2015 Subject: Ayrshire Integration Project: Timescale and Budget Setting Request Background The original business case for the then “new build” at Kilmarnock was predicated and approved by the Board in 2008 on the basis that all 3 Ayrshire teams would be co-located on that site. Phase 1 of that plan was achieved by co-locating North and East Ayrshire teams from May 2010. Phase 2 of the original plan was put on hold due to both internal and external issues (including consideration of the implications of the Ayr Office lease agreement). A fresh Ayrshire Property Project Initiation Document was submitted and approved by EMT in June 2014 for progression (see appendix A). This progressed as far as the initial Business Case Option Appraisal stage. However, the protracted consultation stage combined with prioritisation of operational issues meant that the timescales have slipped significantly. Nevertheless, the interim period has allowed the Ayrshire Local Management Team to reflect on the best method to progress the integration of the locality. Progress Report The Local Management Team and the Project Sponsor (Tom Philliben) agreed on 20 January 2015 that the optimum method to actually deliver our “Pillars of Integration” is to maximise economies of scale by pooling our scarce resources into a single, co-located site accommodating the 3 Ayrshire teams, through utilising the existing office space in Kilmarnock. The following Fundamental Principles or “Pillars” of Integration were agreed by the Locality Management Team during the summer of 2014:

Equal workloads; Appreciation of pressure on others; Consistent practice, systems and processes; Better service to stakeholders; Servicing hearings efficiently and effectively; Manage “emergency” situations easier; Clear management arrangements and lines of responsibility; Easier deployment of staff (Reduced resources); Create flexible working practices; Reduce long term costs; Budgetary implications; Reduction of stress on staff; and ultimately Create “Locality Mentality.”

It is recognised and acknowledged that true locality integration will not simply come from the co-location. However, it will act as the catalyst for change in processes, systems and attitude/culture. The reincarnated project, renamed as “Ayrshire Integration Project”, will seek to adhere to these principals throughout the project and form our success criteria. The project will contribute to both SCRA’s corporate and local objectives in relation to Sustainability, Quality and Performance. It is intended that the Integration Project shall form the majority of the Ayrshire Locality Plan 2015-16. The key milestones and any impact of transition on performance figures shall be monitored through the new Locality Balanced Scorecard. The actual operational model option appraisal is still to be completed, However, consultation has already been undertaken on this. The options under active consideration are based on: (a) the “Buddy Group” model (South East Locality); (b) “Specialisation” model (Glasgow Locality); and (c) hybrid variations. Whilst this is the next phase of the project, what is clear is that either model can be achieved through adaptation of the existing workspace. This shall retain the annual income gained from the tenant in Kilmarnock.

More aspirational options have been ruled out on the basis of expense, practicality and anticipated stakeholder resistance. For example:

End tenant’s lease in October 2015 and utilise entire building for SCRA staff; End tenant’s lease in October 2015, relocating all staff onto first floor and converting ground

floor as a Pan-Ayrshire Hearing Centre – e.g. 3 hearing rooms, etc. All Ayrshire staff have been informed of our decision to progress to re-locate South Ayrshire staff to Kilmarnock. All staff appear to be accepting of the decision and collectively understand the rationale behind it. The planning phase shall include HR & UNISON consultation with South Ayrshire staff around personal implications and practical arrangements. In addition, key partners have been informed and reassured that the locality shall continue to meet our core partnership obligations. Therefore, now that these major steps have been taken it is important that the momentum is kept going and we progress to the Project Planning Phase for Implementation in 2015-16. Project Progression: Timescale and Budget Setting Request In order to allow the Project team to progress to the planning phase we respectfully request that EMT:

(a) allocate a timeframe for delivery (thus securing a slot in the property team work plan - recommend Q3 of 2015-16);

(b) allocate a budget for the property strand of the project (thus securing funding for the project - recommend £50,000-£60,000);

(c) factor in to future locality budgets travel expenses for displaced staff, circa £28,915 over 4 years (circa £10,700 - years 1 & 2; £4,961 - year 3; £2,554 – year 4); and

(d) factor in to future locality budgets additional travel expenses for outreach hearings in the converted Ayr office (to be confirmed as likely to be partially offset by other outreach hearing site rationalisation).

Appendix A - PROJECT INITIATION DOCUMENT Project

Name

Ayrshire Property

Project Background

Provide information on who initiated the project and background information for project initiation

The Ayrshire locality has two core sites – Kilmarnock and Ayr. East and North Ayrshire teams are located in Kilmarnock. The South Ayrshire team is located in Ayr. We engaged with the full Ayrshire Locality Staff Group in relation to scoping the Ayrshire Locality Business Plan for 2014-15. We wanted to give everyone an opportunity to “have their say” during the Ayrshire Development Day on 12 March 2014. The views were captured through a staff electronic survey and the facilitated MoSCow Workshop (Must have, Should have, Could have) and then collated into thematic areas consistent with the Corporate Strategy and Business Plan. The Ayrshire Locality Business Plan for 2014-15 drew out the following: Key issues

Need to develop new management arrangements.

Need to improve “locality working”.

Improve communication within the locality.

Different working practice across the 3 teams. Key focus for the year ahead:

To develop new locality management structure.

To embed “locality mentality”.

To equalise workloads.

To move toward more consistent working practice.

To progress co-location of all staff in Kilmarnock office.

To continue to support staff with the operation of the Case Management System. At the Staff development day, staff raised that they felt a means of supported the above was to co-locate staff in Kilmarnock.

Project Aim/Purpose

Provide aim or purpose of the project

The aim/purpose of this project is “to progress co-location of all staff to Kilmarnock Office”. We will conduct an option appraisal to progress the co-location of all staff at Kilmarnock office and alternatives. We will use the outcome of the property options appraisal to inform the delivery and implementation of the preferred option by March 2015. Rationalisation of outreach hearing centres shall also form part of this project’s scope.

Objectives Provide agreed SMART objectives of the project

The objectives of this Project are:

To make the most efficient use of the reduced management and staffing assets following VER/VR and savings targets which are being felt within the locality from April 2014.

To rationalise property assets, reduce overheads and make the most efficient and effective use of remaining property assets be the end of the financial year in order to meet Ayrshire Savings target.

To develop and embed the new locality management structure following the reduction in substantive LRM posts from 2.5 to 2.0 and reduction in temporary LSM posts from 3.0 (2.5 perm + 0.5 temp) to 2.5 (perm) from April and June 2014 respectively. Note: LSM establishment in 14/15 has not reduced.

To aid and support greater equalisation of workloads across the locality from Sept 2014.

To develop and embed more consistent working practice from August 2014

To improved service to children and families through more efficient and consistent practice from August 2013.

To provide quality hearing facilities from October 2014.

To deliver best public value for SCRA operational practice in Ayrshire from April 2015. It is planned that Ayrshire Integration Savings shall be realised in 2015-16.

High Level Plan

Key activities at each stage of the roadmap. Provide Road Map

May 2014 I

June 2014

Project Initiation Document Phase Develop PID Submit to Project Sponsor (Tom Philliben) Report to EMT Communicate to staff once PID complete and

submitted Staff briefing once PID “signed off”

Weeding Of

Files

June 2014 I

August 2014

Business Case Phase

Scoping/Staff engagement to cement options Highlight Practicalities Identify people Issues Implement NUG process mapping Contribute to “Time and Motion” study Draft up floor plan options Estimate costings Draw up timeframes Develop Business Case Submit Business Case to Project Sponsor Report to EMT

August 2014 I

November 2014

Business Case Options Appraisal &

Consultation Phase

Option appraisal deliberations with EMT Collective consultation with UNISON

regarding proposed amendment to terms & conditions for Ayr based staff

Individual consultation with affected staff Consider & respond to any people issues

raised during consultation & build into business case as appropriate

Approved option signed off from EMT

Approved option costs submitted to Challenge and Review

December 2014

I March 2014

Property Development Phase

March 2014 Property Move Phase

Scope What will and especially will not be covered within the project

The following phases shall encompass the project:

Business Case Phase.

Business Case Options Appraisal & Consultation Phase.

Property Development Phase.

Property Move Phase. Rationalisation of outreach hearing centres shall also form part of this project’s scope.

Budget Provide overall budget and if

There is no assigned budget for the co-location within the Ayrshire budget. It transpired that the Ayrshire Locality has an “Integration savings target” of £20k. This was

requested individual costings:

Employee

Equipment

Premises

linked to reimbursing the Challenge and Review funding provided (£20K). However, it was clearly recognised that there would be no projected cost savings of re-location until at least 2015-16. There are no cash savings as Carrick Street has not been let as yet. Early indications are that this will be difficult to LET are recoup costs. The estimated property cost of co-location during 14/15 is circa £50,000. This estimate will include:

Alterations to Premises

Air Conditioning

IT/Connectivity and MFDs

Changes to filing

Furniture The estimated cost relating to travel expenses for “displaced” staff over 4 years is circa £29,000, see table below.

1/4/15 - 31/3/16 10700

1/4/16 - 31/3/17 10700

1/4/17 - 31/3/18 4961

1/4/18 - 31/3/19 2554

4 year total 28915

These travel expenses would require to be factored into future Ayrshire Locality Budgets. Therefore, it is estimated that in total the co-location will cost over the course of 4-5 years circa £79,000. Finally, there would be additional travel expenses for Ayr and Girvan outreach hearing centres, depending on decisions around rationalisation of outreach hearing centres. These would be factored into the yearly financial forecasts.

Required Resources

Provide overview of resources

Employees

Premises

Equipment

Due to the increased number of staff, MFDs and IT within the single location, staff have highlighted that Air Conditioning is a seen as a high priority. This is the “deal maker or breaker” for the majority of staff. This should improve the working environment, show we have considered their needs and contribute greater to a shared “buy in” to locality working.

Expected Benefits

Provide key benefits analysed from benefit case analysis

The following expected key benefits are:

To make the most efficient use of the reduced management and staffing assets .

Cohesive locality management structure.

Easier deployment of staff to priority areas - further enabling flexibility of resourcing.

To aid and support greater equalisation of workloads across the locality.

To rationalise property assets, reduce overheads and make the most efficient and effective use of remaining property assets.

Future Ayrshire integrations savings.

To develop and embed more consistent working practice from August 2014

To improve service to children and families through more efficient and consistent practice.

To provide quality hearing facilities.

To deliver best public value for SCRA operational practice in Ayrshire.

Risks Provide identified high /critical risks

The following identified risks will need to be monitored:

If Expenditure budget is not made available from EMT then this cannot progress. This move would not be achievable on existing Ayrshire Budget.

Integration Savings Target of £20K in 2014-15 is unachievable within this timescale as no integration will have taken place in this period.

Takes longer than end of financial year to complete. Therefore, costs straddle two financial years and so less opportunity for integration savings in 2015-16.

UNISON/Staff opposition, albeit the staff development day was supportive of move.

Property staff availability.

Organisation Provide management structure of project

Project Sponsor – Tom Philliben Project Group – Neil McKinlay (LRM), Alan Mulrooney (LRM), Larraine Dalton (LSM), Janet Robertson (LSM), Linda Wilson (UNISON), Martyn Morris (Property), Morna Sands (HR), Christina Thomson (Business), Ross MacKenzie (Finance), Ricky Mallon (Planning). Further representation will be called upon as when the project group reconvenes post PID “sign off”. For example, Locality’s Senior Practitioner, NUG representative and Communications team. Short life working groups shall be convened as required, eg Practice, Staff Engagement etc.

Project Methods

Provide information on methods for managing the project e.g. MS Project, Gantt Charts.

Appropriate planning tools shall be utilised.

Previous Experience

Provide brief descriptions of similar projects that are ongoing or completed

Previous teams have co-located:

North Ayrshire team co-located with East Ayrshire team in the Kilmarnock office.

Clackmannanshire & Stirling teams co-located with Falkirk Team within Ochil office.

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Organisational Development Strategy 29th January 2015 Executive Summary This Organisational Development Strategy aims to involve all staff in bringing about sustained organisational performance using a planned and systematic approach. The Strategy is structured around SCRA’s Corporate Plan which focusses on sustainability, quality and performance, customer focus and engagement as the key themes for ensuring organisational outcomes. The central challenge which this Strategy seeks to address falls under the heading of ‘sustainability’ and it is SCRA’s core dilemma that resources are decreasing and that the way we currently deploy and utilise our resources cannot comfortably meet the demands that are placed on the organisation. This puts the organisation under pressure which in the long term is unsustainable. The Strategy asserts that we can do things more productively, reduce wastage and access untapped capacity by the considered application of a range of organisational development activities placed within the corporate context (as opposed to a separate OD support platform). These activities include the following:

The application of agreed management standards and further development of our leadership approach

Sufficient staff support resources Innovative approaches to problem-solving Improved dialogue and consultation The application of robust performance management principals A broader platform of more clearly targeted staff training A clear focus on the needs of service users Increased staff engagement

Successful implementation of these activities means embedding them within the corporate culture which they are designed to affect. Therefore the OD Strategy requires a significant breadth of support and involvement. To that end the OD activity needs to be resourced from across SCRA. Comprehensive (albeit not lengthy) planning will be required as will sufficiently broad and considered consultation.

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Table of Contents Introduction 2

1. Sustainability 3

1.1 Leadership ........................................................................................................ 4

1.1.1 Management Standards ............................................................................. 4

1.1.2 Leadership Development ........................................................................... 5

1.2 Accessing Additional Organisational Capacity .................................................. 5

1.2.1 Doing Things More Productively/Reducing Wasteful Processes ................ 6

1.2.2 Deploying Resources More Effectively ....................................................... 6

1.2.3 Increasing Individual Capacity Through Learning & Development ............. 7

1.3 Supporting the Wellbeing of Staff ..................................................................... 8

2. Improved Quality & Performance 9

2.1 Performance Improvement Activity at Individual Level ................................... 10

2.2 Performance Improvement Activity at Locality Level ...................................... 11

2.3 Performance Improvement Activity at Organisational Level ........................... 12

3. Customer Focus 13

4. Engagement 13

Resourcing the Strategy 14

Next Steps 15

Appendix 1 17

Appendix 2 23

Introduction The CIPD defines organisational development as a ‘planned and systematic approach to enabling sustained organisation performance through the involvement of its people’. Over the years SCRA has continuously sought opportunities to improve its performance through the involvement of its people yet, despite many top level initiatives such as the team brief, concept sites, user groups, consultations etc, we often still struggle to engage staff in the key issues which affect them. According to the 2014 Staff Survey 23% of staff strongly agree that SCRA provides opportunities for staff to suggest new ideas for improving service (a figure which is down on the previous survey). 39% partly agree. The rest either disagree or are non-committal. Although many initiatives have been tried to involve people in performance improvement we have not always followed a planned and systematic approach.

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Indeed SCRA would benefit greatly from having a detailed Organisational Development Strategy, something which this document seeks to address. The OD Strategy links to SCRA’s Corporate Plan which itself contains 4 strategies for ensuring organisational outcomes. These are:

1. Sustainability 2. Improved Quality & Performance 3. Customer Focus 4. Engagement

These 4 strategy descriptions form the headings for the OD Strategy which draws out the organisational development actions which are needed to support the corporate outcomes. There are a total of 50 OD related actions contained in this document which are numbered in italic bold for ease of identification. As well as the OD related actions the document contains a section suggesting how the actions may be resourced. The Strategy concludes with a description of the Next Steps. All OD related actions are collated at Appendix 2. 1. Sustainability In most organisations there will be periods when there is a significant tension between the demand for productivity and the resources available to meet that demand. SCRA is no different and indeed there are a number of reasons why this tension has existed within SCRA for some time, for example:

Budgetary pressures Becoming accustomed to the application of new legislation Adjusting to a new IT system and one which needs improvement to become

an ideal tool for managing cases Migrating job roles and the creation of new roles A reducing workforce (through voluntary redundancy, voluntary early

retirement and natural wastage) Changes in organisational structures including decision-making structures

Tension can be good for an organisation as it can be a key driver for change1 however holding an organisation under tension indefinitely causes distress. It leaves the organisation vulnerable to relatively small environmental fluctuations (for example even a small budget cut would have significant ramifications for SCRA) and it creates stress within the workforce as a natural response to a lack of certainty and associated feelings of insecurity. In the long term such a situation is unsustainable. Relieving the tension is about reducing the pressure. An obvious way of reducing the pressure is to relax the current objectives however at the present time this is not possible in any practical way, for example we must implement the new legislation, we have no alternative to the IT system, we need to reduce the workforce to respond 1 See Heifetz, R., Linsky, M (2002) Leadership On The Line: Staying Alive Through the Dangers of Leading. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

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to a projected fiscal squeeze in 2016 etc. Another way to relieve the pressure is to provide more resources. We have been successful in persuading the government that we should not have our budgets reduced in the current fiscal period (other public sector organisations have had to make significant cuts) however we have been unable to secure additional resources. This means that the only way to relieve tension is to access additional capacity either by doing things more productively and reducing wasteful processes, deploying resources more effectively or by increasing individual capacity through training and development. Whilst staff remain under pressure they are potentially vulnerable to health issues. As well as being a moral concern such health issues are in themselves a threat to the sustainability agenda (sickness absence being a significant component of reduced capacity) and in addition we have a duty under health & safety legislation to reduce the risks as far as is reasonably practicable. Both of the key ingredients of the sustainability agenda – accessing additional organisational capacity and ensuring the wellbeing of staff – require excellent leadership if the associated initiatives are to be successful. Leadership, accessing organisational capacity and ensuring the wellbeing of staff have organisational development components. 1.1 Leadership 1.1.1 Management Standards SCRA has invested a great deal of time and effort in training its managers to meet the challenges of greater empowerment and leading teams through times of change (for example, 25% of managers possessed a management qualification in 2007, today the figure is closer to 90%). This has been an organisational imperative which has nonetheless distracted from a fundamental aspect of management development which is a clear set of expectations including the underpinning requirements of the role, competencies, behaviours, values and beliefs. These requirements have been evolving in the last five years in line with organisational change. In order to support managers to meet these emerging demands it is important that we make the requirements explicit within a written set of management standards. The work in this area should begin with EMT consulting and conferring on what it is we need for the future. Focus groups and further consultation should follow, with the HR & OD function helping to facilitate the process and pulling together the final agreed standards. The management standards will be used for performance management, succession planning, staff development and recruitment. For ease of reference the OD actions on management standards are summarised as follows:-

1 Special agenda item at EMT to consider future management standards (competences etc.)

2 Partnership consultation on management standards 3 Publish management standards

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1.1.2 Leadership Development Over the last few years leadership development has been driven by organisational imperatives such that change management, transformational leadership and empowerment have formed the backbone of what we have offered. There are still some organisationally driven priorities, such as the aforementioned definition of management standards, which will influence the direction of leadership training in the future. That said, the development of the standards will not be without consultation, and it is a consultative approach to leadership development which should have a greater influence on decisions about what type of development interventions we select going forward. The purpose is to ensure that the organisation’s leaders get the training they feel they need to support them in their roles. Against this background, the Principle Reporter & CEO has established ‘Manager’s Events’, which all managers are invited to, as an opportunity to connect and consult more and to share thought and experiences. In 2014 a baseline for management/leadership development was established to include master classes, 360° feedback, coaching etc. This was under the banner of ‘Transformational Leadership’. Going forward, some of the more successful elements of this programme should be retained and supplemented with further initiatives which emerge from consultation and from the development of management standards, as well as an on-going commitment to funding managers to gain a qualification through the Diploma in Public Service Leadership or equivalent. This package should be re-launched under the banner of ‘Leadership Development’ mid 2015. The OD activity around leadership development can be summarised as follows:

4 Use the Managers’ Events as an opportunity for on-going consultation on the development needs of managers.

5 Continue with on-going elements of the Transformational Leadership Programme with a view to merging these into an SCRA ‘Leadership Development Programme’ supplemented with elements highlighted through the development of management standards and suggested through the process of consultation.

6 Continue to offer the Diploma in Public Service Leadership or equivalent. 1.2 Accessing Additional Organisational Capacity We have established that accessing additional organisational capacity in the current climate would require doing things more productively and reducing wasteful processes, deploying resources more effectively or increasing individual capacity through learning and development (or a combination of all three). Organisational Development has a part to play in each of these approaches.

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1.2.1 Doing Things More Productively/Reducing Wasteful Processes When it comes to doing things more productively and reducing wasteful processes it is common to use the familiar approach of putting together a working group who are tasked with identifying improvements and putting together an action plan over a series of meetings. This approach can take a long time and often produces problems at the implementation stage. An improved approach may be offered under the banner of organisational development and would involve more operational staff in the development of solutions and at an earlier stage in the process. Such an approach was described in a master class hosted by SCRA in 2014 and delivered by Professor Jason Leitch (Clinical Director of the Quality Unit in the Health and Social Care Directorates of Scottish Government). He proposed a quality improvement approach where new processes are developed in the working environment rather than the conference room. The approach is associated with the Scottish Government’s “The 3-Step Improvement Framework for Scotland’s Public Services2”. Such a methodology could be applied to the challenges within SCRA as it fits well with the aim of involving our people, and with SCRA’s broader journey of empowerment. The OD activity around this approach would involve:

7 Awareness raising of the Scottish Government’s ‘The 3-Step Improvement Framework for Scotland’s Public Services’

8 Training in quality improvement methodology for key advisers (such as the Performance Business Partners)

9 Workplace facilitation to identify more productive/efficient ways of working 10 Advice to specific network groups (e.g. LSM Network, Practice & Quality

Network, Service Improvement Group etc.) 11 Collaboration with Scottish Government’s Quality Unit

1.2.2 Deploying Resources More Effectively SCRA’s key resource is our people and the central document which deals with the deployment of human resources is the Workforce Plan. However there is a significant OD element to the issue of deploying resources more effectively and this relates to empowerment. The devolution of decision-making powers to localities is relatively new to SCRA such that empowerment is not yet fully embedded in the culture. The cultural issues relating to empowerment are complex and so are explored in an appendix to this strategy document entitled “How to Have Empowerment Without Losing Control” (Appendix 1). The key issues from that paper involves understanding and utilising the four key levers to ensuring that we maintain the empowerment agenda without losing the organisation’s integrity. The levers are Diagnostic Control Systems, Belief Systems,

2 The 3-Step Improvement Framework for Scotland’s Public Services, Scottish Government 2013

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Boundary Systems, Interactive Control Systems. In summary, the following associated actions are identified:

12 Quality and Performance Business Partners to support managers in the use of performance information.

13 Information sessions on diagnostic control systems to be presented at LMTs and/or management events.

14 Core belief systems to be promoted at every opportunity and, where necessary, influenced through dialogue, communication and leadership.

15 EMT to review, for validity and integrity, the different forms of boundary system that exist within SCRA.

16 Ensure that where guidance exists there are clear and appropriate channels for challenge and improvement to the guidance.

17 Education and dialogue to ensure boundary systems are understood. 18 The Supervision Framework to be re-launched as a key element of

SCRA’s performance management and interactive control systems. 19 Establish monitoring arrangements to ensure that regular supervision is

taking place 1.2.3 Increasing Individual Capacity Through Learning & Development SCRA’s strategy of developing staff from within the organisation into new job roles, as well as successive staff surveys calling for more personal development training, identifies training as a key priority going forward. In addition, with the revision of the Supervision Framework and with the revised appraisal scheme now rolled out, we would want to respond more quickly and more flexibly to personal development requests. Organisational priorities such as CMS training and practice training around the 2011 Act, as well as finite resources, has meant that progress in this area has been less active to date than we would ideally have liked. However with the intensity of new act training now easing, and with CMS now further embedded, this is an ideal time to develop in this area. The introduction of a new e-learning platform means that we can develop and deliver personal development training more flexibly and more cheaply. In addition we should foster relationships with partner organisations to share training resources by, for example, providing training on a reciprocal basis to bring greater breadth to what we have to offer. We also need to take greater advantage of the range of expertise that exists within our current workforce. In order to accelerate the development of training we need to make the co-ordination of a programme of training a central priority – potentially by placing responsibility for supporting the function under one of our HR Business Partners. In addition we need to utilise as trainers other officers across SCRA who have specific areas of expertise.

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A key strategy for SCRA’s future security has been to proactively support the migration of staff from their current job role into a role which is in greater demand within the organisation. So we have established Assistant Reporters and Trainee Reporters as part of that strategy and we have retrained staff to take up specialist roles in, for example, IT, Quality Management, HR, Procurement and Finance. In order to do this we have supported staff to pursue a relevant degree or a specialist qualification (such as an SVQ or an accredited course such as the CIPD Intermediate Certificate). In addition we have offered the SVQ 3 in Business & Administration for admin staff who wish to have their experience recognised or for ‘A’ grade staff who aspire to the Support Administrator or other admin posts. To date, with the possible exception of the SVQ 3 in Business & Administration, we have supported most of these courses in a reactive manner i.e. according to what individuals needed as they came forward. This is because we had scant data about the type and numbers of staff we would need in the future. The outcome of the current workload project promises to give us some data we can rely on in making workforce predictions, and the recently published workforce plan provides some real clarity about what we are trying to achieve in terms of the skills mix. With this new level of clarity we will continue to support further education and specialist training, but we can do so in a much more planned way and actually seek to promote specific courses in order to develop the employees of the future. Appraisal will then become they key mechanism for the identification of training needs. The key actions associated with increasing individual capacity through learning and development are:

20 Establish a programme of personal development training 21 Prioritise the co-ordination of the programme under a named officer such

as an HR Business Partner 22 Make use of the e-learning platform where possible to provide rapid and

cost effective solutions 23 Forge links with other agencies in order to share training resources 24 Encourage the involvement of officers with specific areas of expertise to

become involved in the delivery of training 25 Establish the appraisal process as the key mechanism for the identification

of individual training needs 26 Support the development of staff through further education in order to

enhance their job role or allow them to migrate to functions where they are most needed

1.3 Supporting the Wellbeing of Staff As we have already suggested, some tension can be good for an organisation. It is tension sustained over a period of time with no clear end point which eventually leads to distress and, in the workforce, can result in symptoms of work-related stress.

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In the long term the antidote has to be to end the tension but this can’t happen overnight. Therefore in the meantime it is important that we put in place control measures to help guard against the risk of suffering from work-related stress symptoms. These control measures include raising awareness of general health/mental health/stress issues amongst staff, training managers to identify and respond to mental health issues, ensuring the provision of employee care and welfare services, and developing and deploying methods of gathering information relating to health and wellbeing. The Health & Wellbeing Group, a partnership group jointly chaired by our CEO & Principal Reporter and by the Branch Secretary of Unison, has been pushing this agenda since its establishment. As a result we have seen the launch of the Employee Health & Wellbeing Survey, the launch of Mental Health Awareness training for managers, the planned launch of Mental Health Awareness training for staff and the decision to pursue Scotland’s Health at Work recognition. It goes without saying that the priority for supporting the health and wellbeing of staff into the future will be easing the pressure on organisational capacity. In the meantime the following remains of importance:

27 Continue with the work of the Health & Wellbeing Group 28 Seek to address issues highlighted through the staff Health & Wellbeing

Survey 29 Repeat the staff Health & Wellbeing Survey on an annual basis 30 Run ‘Mental Health Awareness’ training for managers on an annual basis 31 Launch ‘Mental Health Awareness’ training for employees 32 Follow the programme for Scotland’s Health at Work 33 Continue to monitor the provision of employee care and welfare services

(i.e. occupational health and the employee assistance programme) to ensure that the services match the needs of staff

2. Improved Quality & Performance It is generally more straightforward to measure performance than it is to measure quality because performance measurement usually involves comparing output to pre-set targets whereas quality measurements usually involves subjective opinion. This may be a simplistic view of quality measurement but for our purposes it serves to highlight one of the difficulties we face in managing quality and performance. We will consider both performance and quality within this section of the report. From a performance perspective SCRA now has at its disposal performance data which relates to every level of performance i.e. at organisational level, at locality level, at team level and at individual level. Here the OD challenge is to use

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performance data productively. If performance data is trusted and used to drive performance in a positive way it becomes an important component of a sustainable organisation. In order to explore this challenge further it is useful to consider performance improvement activity at an individual, locality and team level. 2.1 Performance Improvement Activity at Individual Level Within SCRA our performance management system for staff is built on a structure of linked elements. These are:

Appropriate recruitment and selection Effective induction into the values and goals of SCRA Clear policies and guidance Clear standards and competencies Detailed performance information Regular supervision Training based on workforce planning Appraisal Capability framework Staff care and welfare resources Clear code of discipline

Some developments in 2014 have sought to improve this range of elements. Early in 2014 SCRA’s Staff Appraisal Scheme was revised. Later in the same year 360° feedback for managers was launched, as a supporting tool for appraisal and supervision. We are currently in the process of establishing the Scotland’s Health at Work initiative. In January 2015 a revised Supervision Framework is launched. With these tools and processes in place the remaining organisational development challenge is to support the appropriate use these elements, especially detailed performance information. It is important to understand that performance information helps in the proactive management of individual performance – if it is only used as evidence that individuals have not met their targets it will quickly become something which demotivates rather than drives improvement. Supervision is vital but the way in which it is carried out will determine whether it is successful in supporting performance. The spirit of what is needed was revealed in recent internal research into reporter decision making which suggests that there is insufficient on-going dialogue between reporters and their line managers about day-to-day practice and continuous professional development. Without the rigour of appropriate regular supervision there is clearly something missing and this can be explained in the context of the reporter’s role as follows. The role of Children’s Reporter is an unregistered profession, unlike for example Social Worker. There is no pressure and no direction from a lead body to set out priorities for the ongoing development of reporters. Therefore it falls to SCRA to ensure that the profession remains current in its knowledge and competent in the discharge of its responsibilities. In other words if the line manager does not help the

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reporter understand their personal development needs there is no external professional guidance for them to fall back on. In addition it is worth noting that within the social work profession Supervision is seen as a vital construct to ensure that social workers are supported in learning to deal with each new, possibly unfamiliar, set of circumstances. It follows that Supervision must also be vital for reporters who, without such a mechanism, must rely only on practice training, practice direction and the indulgence of their peers to ensure that they continue to make the right decisions. The relatively recent establishment of Senior Practitioners to further support the work of reporters is a welcome addition, and the development of these new post holders is potentially at a critical juncture. If we can harness the potential of Senior Practitioners by developing them in aspects of coaching/mentoring we can start to build a more robust structure for the professional development of reporters. In addition we can add other development techniques, such as Action Learning Sets, to allow reporters to form mutually supportive groups. Coaching training for line managers could complete the picture, particularly if the approach is carried through into Supervision. What we are describing is the establishment of a coaching culture within SCRA which recognises staff as our key asset and sets about supporting them on a path of continuous professional development. Of course the coaching culture mustn’t stop with practice staff. The same principles should apply to all staff which suggests that all managers would benefit in some development activity related to coaching and/or mentoring, in addition to a contextualised training initiative which explains SCRA’s performance management system. In order to try to ensure that performance management is undertaken properly, and especially in order to ensure that performance information is used effectively, the following actions will be taken:

34 Launch of the new Supervision Framework (January 2015). 35 Appropriate training in performance management for all line managers. 36 A coaching strategy to be developed for SCRA.

2.2 Performance Improvement Activity at Locality Level Within this aspect of performance improvement there is a strong crossover into empowerment which is referenced under 1.1.2 Deploying Resources More Effectively and into staff engagement. This is because the key to improving performance at a locality level lies in locality teams feeling empowered to make the changes they perceive are needed and in staff from all levels contributing to the change agenda. As well as a variety of local activities initiated within localities the Quality & Performance Team has embarked on a structured programme of performance improvement driven by the production of performance information about specific

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operational activities at locality level. Teams are encouraged to use the information as a starting point to understanding the key blockages in efficient working. Just like individual performance information, team performance information should not be read in isolation from the underlying story. It is only when the root of the performance information is properly understood that managers will be able to make a judgement of whether remedial action is necessary and what the most helpful remedial action might be. In short, targets are a necessary tool for driving efficiency but they should not become an end in themselves. They serve to draw our attention to issues which may need to be resolved

37 Continue to publish locality performance information, refining the detail of the performance information where necessary.

38 Provide Business Partner (Quality & Performance) support to localities to help in interpreting performance information and responding to it in an appropriate manner.

2.3 Performance Improvement Activity at Organisational Level Strategic management is a key driver of performance management at this level. For SCRA the strategic approach to improving performance includes greater empowerment, increased dialogue, improved performance management tools, improved performance information, improved infrastructure, more creative approaches to problem solving, improved staff engagement and improved customer focus. There is a large organisational development aspect to these initiatives, which this document comprehensively illustrates. The organisation level OD aspects include culture change and an improved approach to to identifying and implementing performance improvements. The culture change which we seek is one in which staff and managers are more empowered to take decisions and become engaged in performance improvement. The document already referenced under 1.2.2 Deploying Resources More Effectively called ““How to Have Empowerment Without Losing Control” and appended to this document provides a detailed account of how we can further improve empowerment within SCRA. An improved approach to identifying and implementing performance improvements has already been referenced under 1.2.1 Doing Things More Productively/Reducing Wasteful Processes as the Scottish Government’s ‘The 3-Step Improvement Framework for Scotland’s Public Services’. What we would add to this at a strategic level is the following OD action:

39 Consider how ‘The 3-~Step Improvement Framework’ can be adopted by SCRA’s network groups to help increase practical outputs from these groups.

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3. Customer Focus Customer Focus is one of the key strategies in our corporate and business plans and to support this, a Customer Focus project is currently on-going. The key aspects of the project are:

The development of a customer charter The launch of a new qualification in Customer Service Customer service training for staff Reception service guidelines (now complete)

The OD actions still associated with the customer focus project are:

40 Support the piloting and further implementation of the customer service qualification.

41 Develop and deliver customer service training and procure awareness raising training on a range of service related topics such as disability, cultural diversity, LGTB issues etc.

Customer Focus is clearly a significant aspect of the organisational culture within SCRA and it is hoped that the training and awareness raising will help embed a culture of customer focus. The research reports produced by our Modern Apprentices and by our Information and Research team continue to provide a means of determining the level of our customer service. Nonetheless we are still in need of suitable indicators of customer service which can be monitored at a locality level. This then forms the final OD action point relating to customer focus:

42 Develop key performance indicators relating to customer service which can be monitored at a locality level.

4. Engagement As we have asserted in the introduction, organisational development is about “sustained organisation performance through the involvement of its people”. The challenge for OD is to find ways of involving our people in the process of identifying and eliminating wastage and in creating more efficient methods. The reasons why involving our people is so important are twofold. Firstly, if we don’t involve our people, the process of identifying and eliminating wastage is likely to create even greater tension in the workforce and threaten stability. Secondly our people are best placed to identify or develop more efficient methods. Even if proposals are generated by someone outside of their system, our people are the ones who use the processes on a day-to-day basis, therefore only they will know whether an idea can work in practice. In addition it is likely that there will be a wealth of ideas amongst a workforce who will have the experience of knowing what could help to make things better.

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SCRA has attempted various methods of increasing staff engagement in recent years and we have seen indicators in the Staff Survey (such as the degree to which people are proud to be part of SCRA) improve. However we know that we still have a great deal of room for improvement. For example the degree of trust in senior management remains stubbornly static. To date, most of our staff engagement initiatives have tended to be top level initiatives. Examples include the Staff Event, Connect Intranet initiatives such as online consultations often using ‘Survey Monkey’, the Team Brief, the Staff Survey, the Health & Wellbeing Survey, Locality Days, Working Groups, User Groups, Network Meetings etc. Where we still have a lot of room to make progress is at the level of staff member and line manager. The strategy of devolution & empowerment for localities has driven engagement at a management level. However it still needs to filter further down to the level of individual employees. This can only be achieved if all managers understand and embrace the concept. They can then use emerging tools and support mechanisms (such as the revised Supervision Framework, individual and team performance data, research evidence, business partners and support networks) to properly engage with staff at an individual level and in so doing empower them to become involved in performance improvement. To that end there are a list of actions which can be taken to help support this culture change:

43 Organisational leaders to promote the concept that staff engagement is a crucial component of sustainability.

44 EMT ‘leads’ to encourage locality managers in involving staff suggesting changes or making improvements.

45 SOMs to make employee engagement a regular component of LRM supervision.

46 All localities to conduct regular and inclusive team meetings where team performance is discussed and suggestions for improvement are highlighted.

47 Employee engagement to feature in the scheduled cycle of management away days.

48 Employee engagement to be the subject of one of the scheduled cycle of leadership master classes.

49 A cluster of indicators from the staff survey to be earmarked to measure and monitor employee engagement.

50 Recognition for staff who contribute to improved quality and performance. Resourcing the Strategy There should not be significant financial resources associated with the Organisational Development Strategy (other than training/meetings costs which should be found within existing budgets) but the breadth of the people involved will

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be significant. By definition (see introduction) the implementation of an Organisational Development Strategy involves the whole organisation. Nonetheless there will be key individuals who will lead, co-ordinate, support or facilitate certain aspects of the strategy. The following table gives an indication of how different groups will be involved. Job role Areas of influence/responsibility Principle Reporter & CEO/Head of Performance/OD Manager

Leadership development, strategic overview and management consultation.

EMT Leading/championing strategic initiatives and driving management performance.

LRMs/LSMs Embedding initiatives locally, managing individual and locality performance.

Unison Partners Consultation and championing initiatives Quality & Performance Business Partners

Supporting quality and performance initiatives.

HR & OD Team Supporting/Delivering on the development or procurement of training, as well as supporting specific initiatives.

Head Office managers/staff Specific specialist involvement. Specific detail on who does what will be further developed and described as the action plan associated with this strategy is developed. Next Steps Some of the actions associated with the OD Strategy are either already on-going or are ready to launch. A complete OD Action Plan is shown at Appendix 2 however the majority of actions will need some further planning particularly relating to resources, responsibilities and communications. The next stage then is to consult with Internal Partners and EMT, and then to share the proposed strategy with the Board. Following this stage, the key stakeholders can move to implementation or further planning.

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Appendix 1 How do we promote and maintain an empowered and adaptive organisation without losing control? Joe Rafferty, Organisational Development Manager 24th November 2014 Introduction The challenge of developing an empowered and adaptive organisation lies in the fact that the purest form of this organisation does not exist. Decision-making cannot be devolved in its entirety and feedback systems can never be all-encompassing or fast enough to allow an organisation to be completely adaptive without any guiding hand. Nonetheless pursuing the ideal is worthwhile as, if managed correctly (and even if the ideal is not achieved), it can produce a much more creative, flexible and agile organisation – and with a highly motivated workforce. Some pushing and pulling over values and boundaries is inevitable at the outset, but with careful leadership it should be possible to end up with an acceptable stabilised position. The key is to know how to handle the inherent dilemma of how to foster empowerment without losing control3. This report seeks to illustrate some key principals in approaching this challenge and apply them to SCRA from an organisational development perspective. Recommendations are made under each main heading and are drawn together in the concluding paragraph. According to Professor Robert Simons4 there are four key levers to ensuring that we do not create unacceptable risks or lose the organisation’s integrity when encouraging an empowered approach. These are:-

Diagnostic Control Systems Belief Systems Boundary Systems Interactive Control Systems

These four bullets form the headings for each key section of this report with a selection of the most readily applicable principles applied to the situation as we currently find it within SCRA. Each section makes recommendations and all of these

3 See Hope, J.,Bunce, P., & Roosli, F. (2011) The Leader’s Dilemma: How to Build an empowered and Adaptive Organization Without Losing Control. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. 4 Simons, R. “Control in An Age of Empowerment”, Harvard Business Review 73, no. 2 (March 1995): 80-88.

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recommendations are summarised under the final conclusions and recommendations section. Diagnostic Control Systems These systems are encapsulated in the metaphor of the dashboard of a car. The various indicators provide the driver (i.e. the manager) with information about abnormal functioning and they also give continuous feedback to assist the manager in maintaining performance within pre-set limits. Such systems are necessary to ensure that the organisation stays on the right path, and we have them within SCRA. But diagnostic control systems need to be used appropriately in an empowered organisation, otherwise they have the potential for disempowering managers. To understand this we need to first of all be clear about the primary purpose of diagnostic control systems. Diagnostic Control Systems are there to assist managers in the day-to-day running of the operation. They highlight areas of concern which managers can then investigate with the purpose of resolving underlying problems. In other words they enable managers to be proactive. The key is empowerment i.e. operational managers and staff taking personal responsibility for understanding the data and taking appropriate action. When diagnostic control systems are used primary as a tool for monitoring the performance of operational managers there is the potential for the philosophy of empowerment to become distorted. The danger is that senior managers may use the diagnostic information purely as a barometer of how well the operational manager is performing, not looking behind the information to understand what is going on. So achieving the target measurement may become an end in itself, rather than the tool being used as an early warning device about operations in need of attention. So we leap to the conclusion that the deviation needs to be brought under control when in fact the deviation may a consequence of something else going wrong in another part of the system. Other potential dangers with diagnostic control systems include the following:

In an organisation which supplies a service rather than producing a product, and

where the service varies depending on individual circumstances, there tends to be some resistance to numerical targets. It is even more important in such circumstances to use the data appropriately. The data highlights where there may be an issue – something which could go unnoticed without the data. The data is not the issue, the issue is what is revealed as the underlying cause.

Where performance indicators are red it creates anxiety. However when

indicators are at red for some time the discomfort is so overwhelming that we can learn to downplay the significance of the indicators. In effect it is possible to develop a way of observing which disregards some of what we see.5

5 This phenomenon – where warnings about faults or dangers are commonplace and so there is a tendency to downplay their significance – is well known and was in fact cited as one of the issues

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Many organisations have problems ensuring that information is accurate. This

erodes trust in the control system. In order for information to be accurate the operator needs to understand the importance of the operations which generate the data e.g. incomplete data on a form on a database can sometimes distort data sets.

Recommendations Managers and staff need to be clear about what diagnostic control systems are for and how they will be deployed. It is important that senior staff support operational managers in the appropriate use of data. Quality & Performance Business Partners should be well positioned to support managers in the use of performance information. This support could be supplemented with information sessions at LMTs and at managers’ events. Belief Systems In an empowered environment the belief systems can help to drive localities in a unified direction. Belief systems include mission, vision and particularly values statements. Internalised value sets are particularly important in an empowered organisation because they create trust and certainty. Take, for example, one of our stated values, that “our hopes and dreams for the children of Scotland are what unites us”. There is no doubt that where staff work long hours in trying circumstances it is more than anything because they care about the children in the system. This may not be a universal driver within the organisation but since SCRA was established it has certainly been a key driver for most of our staff. In other words it is an integral part of our belief systems. This may be because it was always there – it was part of what attracted many people to the job. Therefore people didn’t have to be informed or convinced of this value. By contrast, take another of our stated values, that “the voice of the child must be heard”. No doubt many would agree that, although we try to access the views of the child through, for example, the ‘having your say’ form, we could do a lot better in demonstrating this belief. Perhaps this is because we have different opinions about the potential power of the voice of the child. Maybe it is not an integral part of our belief systems. What is certainly true is there are certain other beliefs which are not yet an integral part of our belief systems but which, if they were, would help us drive forward and consolidate an empowered approach. Consider, for example, the following statements.

We care about our staff.

leading to the Challenger space shuttle disaster (see Vaughan, D., 1996. The Challenger Launch Decision: Risky Technology, Culture, and Deviance at NASA. Chicago University Press, Chicago.)

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We are open to new ideas, however unfamiliar. We believe in treating everyone with courtesy and respect. The child’s experience is always our first concern.

The key to unifying and embedding helpful belief systems lies in excellent leadership, communication and dialogue. A word of caution here is that belief systems can pull an organisation apart as as much as they can hold it together. Consider how the following beliefs, if internalised, could undermine so much of our good work to date.

We can never influence outcomes for children. We cannot improve the child’s experience of the hearings system. It is not possible for agencies to work together.

What this tells us is that in leading an organisation belief systems must be carefully understood, perhaps influenced, but never ignored. Negative belief systems need to be countered with a clear shared vision. Recommendation The organisation’s belief systems need to be clearly understood and, where necessary, influenced through dialogue, communication and leadership. The core values which SCRA wishes to promote should be showcased at every opportunity. Boundary Systems Within an empowered organisation people are not told what to do (although their job role will be clear) but they have to be left in no doubt about what they must not do. This is done by means of boundary systems. Boundary systems are like an organisation’s brakes and they are usually stated as minimum standards. Often people misunderstand the idea of empowerment to mean that they are free from any form of control. But empowerment – fuelled by inspiration and performance satisfaction – should never be interpreted as giving people a blank cheque to do whatever they please. Boundary systems set out the demarcation lines and include, amongst other things, codes of conduct, schemes of delegation and rules of governance. As Professor Robert Simons puts it, “Don’t give up if people misuse trust but react firmly on those who do.” Trust is a very important ingredient in reducing wasteful activity. If you are not able to trust people to perform within the minimum standards then you are likely to want to put in place supervisory systems – such as observation, checklists, double-checks etc. – to ensure that rules are adhered to. Such supervisory systems are costly, time-consuming and ultimately disempowering.

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That is why knowingly failing to act within the boundaries is such a serious misdemeanour – as crossing the boundaries undermines the whole system. It is often tempting to cross a boundary if you do not agree with the guidance. However in an empowered organisation you ought to have no excuse for this. In an empowered organisation there should be ample opportunity to make your views known and, if your views are sensible and make a convincing argument, then the guidance will be modified. Under such circumstances transgression is not necessary and therefore would amount to a wilful act of damage. Recommendation It is important that EMT reviews the different forms of boundary systems that exist in order to assess their integrity and viability. It is particularly important to ensure that where guidance exists there are clear and appropriate channels for challenging the guidance and, where necessary, improving the guidance. Education and dialogue will be an important aspect of ensuring boundary systems are understood. Interactive Control Systems In a small team where a competent manager mixes with their staff and chats over coffee, perhaps exploring the impact of new developments or potential opportunities, there develops a deep and profound feedback loop of information which enables the manager to fine tune the degree to which he/she needs to devolve responsibility or to set boundaries. Frequent dialogue, shared values and general familiarisation develops trust, an environment in which empowerment can be allowed to flourish. In a large and complex organisation, the distances (physical and hierarchical) make it increasingly difficult to pick up on the rich sources of organisational data which exist at the level of service provision. Clearly there needs to be some system to overcome this difficulty – an interactive system, one which facilitates the face-to-face exchange of information and ideas. Within SCRA we have an ideal interactive control system called Supervision. Unfortunately some managers fail to maintain a regular system of supervision, or they conduct a form of supervision which does not include an interactive dialogue including the breadth of the employee’s experiences. Consequently the manager is unable to pick up on critical information and in turn when the manager has supervision with his/her senior manager they are not in a position to provide a complete and accurate picture of what is happening on the ground. Other interactive control systems include LMTs, Area Management Teams and office visits. In addition it is proposed to have three to four management seminars per year which would also form part of an interactive control system. Recommendation Supervision needs to be re-launched, stressing to managers how it forms a crucial element of the organisation’s performance management and control systems. All

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managers who have managers reporting to them need to seek assurance that supervisions are taking place. Conclusion & Recommendations Empowerment is still a young concept within SCRA and we are still testing boundaries and evolving core values. It is within this environment that strong leadership is needed to ensure that we realise the benefits of empowerment and adaptation without losing control and placing the organisation at risk. It is hoped that this report will provide a useful exploration of key concepts in further developing the devolved and adaptive model. The following summarises the report’s recommendations.

Quality and Performance Business Partners to support managers in the use of performance information.

Information sessions on diagnostic control systems to be presented at LMTs and/or management events.

Core belief systems to be promoted at every opportunity and, where necessary, influenced through dialogue, communication and leadership.

EMT to review, for validity and integrity, the different forms of boundary system that exist within SCRA.

Ensure that where guidance exists there are clear and appropriate channels for challenge and improvement to the guidance.

Education and dialogue to ensure boundary systems are understood.

The Supervision Framework to be re-launched as a key element of SCRA’s performance management and interactive control systems.

Regularly seek assurance from managers that regular supervision is taking place.

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Appendix 2

Organisational Development Action Plan

Organisational Development is a ‘planned and systematic approach to enabling sustained organisation performance through the involvement of its people’.

[CIPD]

THEME ACTION LEAD OFFICER TIMESCALE

Management Standards

Develop a proposed list and description of management standards applicable to SCRA.

OD Manager March 2015

EMT to consider and agree proposed management standards.

Principal Reporter and CEO 11th March 2015

Consult with partners on management standards. Principal Reporter and CEO 7th May 2015 Inform SCRA Board of proposed management standards.

Principal Reporter and CEO 25th June 2015

Publish management standards. Press & Communications Manager

July 2015

Present management standards to SCRA managers as an item at manager’s event.

Head of Planning and Strategy

September 2015

Leadership Development

Identify development needs through the Managers’ Events, as well as through the mechanisms of

Line managers to share identified needs with HR

May 2015

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Appraisal & Supervision. &OD. HR & OD to collate and analyse information.

Establish SCRA’s ‘Leadership Development Programme’ retaining on-going elements of the Transformational Leadership Programme supplemented with elements highlighted through consultation.

OD Manager July 2015

Continue to offer a management qualification such as the Diploma in Public Service Leadership or equivalent.

Assistant HR & OD Officer ongoing

Performance Improvement

Raise awareness of the Scottish Government’s “3-Step Improvement Framework for Scotland’s Public Services”

OD Manager/Press & Communications Manager/ Head of Planning and Strategy

March 2015

Initiate collaboration with Scottish Government’s Quality Unit.


April 2015

Training in quality improvement methodology for key advisers (such as Quality & Performance Business Partners).


May 2015

Workplace facilitation to identify more productive/efficient ways of working.

Quality & Performance Business Partners

Commence May/June 2015 then on-going

Advice to specific network groups (e.g. LSM Network, Practice & Quality Network, Service Improvement Group etc.)


Commence May/June 2015 then on-going

Supporting Empowerment

Quality and Performance Business Partners to support managers in the use of performance information.


on-going

Information sessions on diagnostic control systems to be presented at LMTs and/or management events.

OD Manager/Head of Planning and Strategy

12th March 2015

Core belief systems to be highlighted at EMT then promoted at every opportunity and, where necessary, influenced through dialogue, communication and leadership.

EMT/Principal Reporter & CEO

11th April 2015

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EMT to review, for validity and integrity, the different forms of boundary system that exist within SCRA.

EMT 11th April 2015

Ensure that where guidance exists there are clear and appropriate channels for challenge and improvement to the guidance.

All managers responsible for governance – promoted/supported by EMT members.

On-going through line manager supervision

sessions

Education and dialogue to ensure boundary systems are understood.

EMT on-going

Establish monitoring arrangements to ensure that regular supervision is taking place.

Senior managers to check that direct report managers undertaking supervision. Quality & Performance Business Partner (audit)

Through line manager supervision sessions and checked through

2016 audit programme.

Personal Development

Prioritise the co-ordination of a personal development programme under an HR&OD Officer.

HR & OD Officer March 2015

Establish a programme of personal development training.

HR Manager/OD Manager June 2015

Make use of the e-learning platform where possible to provide rapid and cost effective solutions.

HR & OD Officer from March 2015

Forge links with other agencies in order to share training resources.

HR & OD Officer from March 2015

Encourage the involvement of officers with specific areas of expertise to become involved in the delivery of training.

HR & OD Officer from June 2015

Establish the appraisal process as the key mechanism for the identification of individual training needs.

HR & OD Officer (co-ordinating requests)/Line Managers

April 2015

Support the development of staff through further education in order to enhance their job role or allow them to migrate to functions where they are most needed.

HR & OD Officer on-going

Wellbeing Continue with the work of the Health & Wellbeing Principal Reporter & CEO on-going

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Group. Seek to address issues highlighted through the staff Health & Wellbeing Survey

Principal Reporter & CEO with the Health & Wellbeing Forum

on-going

Repeat the staff Health & Wellbeing Survey on an annual basis

Press & Communications Manager

November 2015

Run ‘Mental Health Awareness’ training for managers on an annual basis

HR & OD Officer on-going

Launch ‘Mental Health Awareness’ training for employees

OD Manager February 2015

Follow the programme for Scotland’s Health at Work HR Manager from April 2015 Continue to monitor the provision of employee care and welfare services to ensure that the services match the needs of staff.

HR Manager on-going

Performance Management

Appropriate training in performance management for all line managers (incorporating Supervision and Appraisal).

OD Manager February 2015

A coaching strategy to be developed for SCRA. HR Manager/OD Manager June 2015 Continue to publish locality performance information, refining the detail of the performance information where necessary.


on-going

Provide Business Partner (Quality & Performance) support to localities to help in interpreting performance information and responding to it in an appropriate manner.


on-going

Consider how ‘The 3-~Step Improvement Framework’ can be adopted by SCRA’s network groups to help increase practical outputs from these groups.


June 2015

Customer Service

Support the piloting and further implementation of the customer service qualification.

OD Manager from February 2015

Develop and deliver customer service training and procure awareness raising training on a range of

OD Manager from February 2015

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service related topics such as disability, cultural diversity, LGTB issues etc. Develop key performance indicators relating to customer service which can be monitored at a locality level.

Press & Communications Manager/Quality & Performance Business Partner

June 2015

Employee Engagement

Organisational leaders to promote the concept that staff engagement is a crucial component of sustainability.

EMT from February 2015

EMT ‘leads’ to encourage locality managers in involving staff suggesting changes or making improvements.

EMT from February 2015

SOMs/Heads to make employee engagement a regular component of LRM supervision.

SOMs/Heads from February 2015

All localities to conduct regular and inclusive team meetings where team performance is discussed and suggestions for improvement are highlighted.

All managers from March 2015

Employee engagement to feature in the scheduled cycle of Managers’ Events.

OD Manager/Head of Planning and Strategy

From March 2015

Employee engagement to be the subject of one of the scheduled cycle of leadership master classes.

OD Manager one in 2015

A cluster of indicators from the staff survey to be earmarked to measure and monitor employee engagement.

OD Manager June 2015

Recognition for staff who contribute to improved quality and performance.

HR Manager November 2015

EMT(MAR 15)

SCOTTISH CHILDREN’S REPORTER ADMINISTRATION

INFORMATION SECURITY REPORT (INTERIM) March 2015

Accountable Director: Director of Support Services Date: 9 March 2015 Report Author: Bruce Knight, Information Security & Technical Assurance

Officer

Recommendation:

1. To approve the Interim Information Security Report. Reason for Report: For EMT Approval Resource Implications: Within approved budgets Strategy: Within approved plans Document Classification: Internal Use Only

INFORMATION SECURITY REPORT March 2015

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1. Introduction SCRA’s annual Information Security Report was issued in August 2014. Appendix 1 of that report provided a full account on SCRA’s compliance status with the HMG Security Policy Framework (SPF). The report focused on specific areas of weakness recommending actions to strengthen compliance. This interim report provides an update on the compliance status and progress with the these recommended actions. The interim report also provides an update on any Governmental communications received that have a bearing on the security of SCRA’s information and current work being done to safeguard SCRA’s information and/or reputation. In particular :-

New SCOTS arrangements to manage information held electronically in shared drives;

Applying Government Communications and Common Trust at OFFICIAL level;

CMS Accreditation;

Security of Wi-Fi in hearing centres;

Scottish Governments Response Level System.

2. Security Policy Framework Compliance The SPF defines the Cabinet Office’s expectations on how HMG organisations and third parties handling HMG information and other assets are to apply protective security to ensure HMG can function effectively, efficiently and securely. Compliance status is recorded as follows:

Green – fully compliant or close to full compliance; Amber – partially complaint; Red – not compliant; N/A – Requirement is not considered applicable to SCRA.

A summary of SCRA current compliance is given in Table 1.

Requirements

SPF Policy Area Total Green Amber Red N/A Good Governance 3 2 1 0 0 Culture and Awareness 4 2 2 0 0 Risk Management 5 4 1 0 0 Information 3 2 1 0 0 Technology and Services 2 2 0 0 0 Personnel Security 4 2 0 0 2 Physical Security 3 3 0 0 0 Preparing / Responding to Security Incidents 5 3 1 0 1

Totals 29 20 6 0 3

Table 1 SCRA Compliance Summary


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2.1 Progress Towards Compliance with SPF

The improvements in compliance identified in the August 2014 Report are reiterated below to show progress towards compliance for each requirement and the current action that is being taken.

Good Governance (c)

Arrangements to determine and satisfy themselves that Delivery Partners, service providers and third party suppliers, apply proper security controls too (including List X accreditation for companies handling SECRET assets).

Comment on Compliance: Previously compliant but due to moving to the Public Services Network (PSN) and adoption of the Government Security Classifications (GSC) has meant that our information sharing protocols (ISP) with LA’s Social Work Departments are out of date. Where SCRA has influence (e.g third party suppliers) this is already being addressed.

Progress: SCRA has been working with all LAs through the LA Security Group to get them to sign up to the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which replaces their previous ISP. Progress has been extremely slow despite continual reminders and calls. 18 LAs are still to sign up to the MOU. Current Action: To enlist LRMs help with getting LAs to sign up to MOUs using their contacts in Social Work.

Culture and Awareness (a)

A security culture that supports business and security priorities and is aligned to HMG’s overarching priorities and the organisation’s own appreciation of risk.

Comment on Compliance: SCRA are establishing an information security culture by adopting a top down approach. An Information Governance framework has been created and this work is now being continued by the Information Governance Leads Group supported by the SIRO and key Head Office staff. Their aim is to embed the information security culture throughout SCRA.

Progress: An IG action plan for 2015-16 is being drafted with specific tasks to aid progress towards this goal. Current Action: To ensure this action plan includes actions that build the necessary security culture within SCRA to help protect their sensitive assets.

Culture and Awareness (b)

Training which encourages personal responsibility and good security behaviours.

Comment on Compliance: Security training is being addressed at 2 levels - those with specialised security roles and staff. IAOs, ITSO and the DPO are being encouraged to take suitable training to fulfil their roles. All staff (old and new) are to complete the Information Governance eLearning course. Gap: All staff need focused information security training.

Progress: All staff have now completed the Information Governance eLearning Course Current Action: To submit a proposal on suitable information security training to the IG Leads group in April 2015.


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Risk Management (a)

A mature understanding of the security risks throughout the organisation, where appropriate this will be informed by the National Technical Authorities.

Comment on Compliance: SCRA uses its own Risk Management Policy to identify and manage the different types of risks that SCRA faces. With reference to information risk SCRA uses CESG Guidance to help them understand the various risks associated with a particular service or activity. Gap: SCRA Information Asset Owners (IAOs) are not fully acquainted with assessing risks associated with their information assets.

Progress: An IAO Handbook has been drafted ready for issue. IAO training has been scheduled for 23 March 2015, IAO meetings are being held every 6 months. Current Action: To issue IAO Handbook and assist IAOs with its implementation so information risks are appropriately managed.

Information (a) Staff who are well trained to exercise good judgement, take responsibility and be accountable for the information they handle, including all partner information.

Comment on Compliance: All staff have received both DPA training completed the Information Governance eLearning course. New staff will complete these courses as part of SCRA’s induction training. Gap: SCRA does not have formal induction training on information security and the current Information Governance eLearning course is not an adequate replacement for this.

Current Action: Look at the options available to improve information security training for staff induction. e.g include the SCOTS eLearning modules that all new SCOTS users are expected to complete into SCRA's induction training.

Information (b) Mechanisms and processes to ensure assets are properly classified and appropriately protected.

Comment on Compliance: SCRA have created their own information asset register and IAOs have classified their assets against the new Government Security Classifications.

Progress: SCRA’s information asset register has been created and reviewed by IAOs. The Data Classification Policy has been approved and issued within the Information Security Handbook V3.1.

On-going Action: Further refinements are to be made to the information asset register as IAOs become more familiar with their role. This can be progressed through the IAO meetings as part of the drive for continuous improvement.

Compliance achieved.


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Security Incidents (a)

Business continuity arrangements aligned to industry standards, to maintain key business services, building resilience and security to facilitate a rapid and effective response to recover from incidents.

Comment on Compliance: SCRA has developed their business continuity plan (BCP) over the last few years and it is reviewed and updated regularly. A disaster recovery plan is in place for CMS and has been tested. Gap: The business continuity industry standard is now ISO 22301 and SCRA is not familiar with this standard.

Progress: The incident management procedures has been approved and issued within the Information Security Handbook V3.1. Current Action: To get a copy of the new standard and agree a phased approach to develop SCRA business continuity arrangements to comply with the new standard.

2.2 Continual improvement

Section 2.2 of the annual Information Security Report (August 2014) identified SPF compliance requirements which were either met or close to being fully met. In respect to the improvement actions identified, no further progress has been made.

3. Information Held Electronically in Shared Drives SCRA’s SIRO received a letter on 28 January 2015 (see Appendix 1) from Sarah Davidson of Scottish Government informing us of the planned changes in managing information stored electronically on shared drives (g drive and h drive). The changes are a result of Scottish Government working to the Public Records (Scotland) Act 2011. They have written their own Records Management Plan (RMP) which they are submitting to the Keeper of National Records of Scotland. This plan outlines how it stores and disposes of its information. SCRA as a public sector organisation is also to create their own Records Management Plan (RMP) and submit it to the Keeper. The implications of SCRA of SG adopting their new policy are:- With regard to h drives

From 1 April 2015 information held on the h drive, which has not been modified in the period one year or older, will be archived for two years.

During this two-year period, the business is encouraged to identify information it wishes to retain, and transfer it to the corporate record.

From 1 April 2017, full deletion of the archived information will commence on a daily basis using Enterprise Vault. There will be no recovery facility.

From 1 April 2016 and every year thereafter, information held on h drives, which has not been modified in the period one year and older, will be archived for two years, before deletion using Enterprise Vault.

With regard to g drives There are similar arrangements being applied to g drives where data older than 5 years will be archived for 2 years before it is deleted without any means of recovery.


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Exemption SCRA has asked Scottish Government for exemption (to be confirmed) so that the g drive can be used as our corporate record. If this exemption is accepted then our data on the g drive will be excluded from the SG retention and disposal policy. However the h drive would not be exempt.

Recommended Action This poses a new risk to SCRA and therefore should be recorded on the appropriate risk registers. (BK to record the risk on the information risk register).

Recommended Action Define SCRA’s strategy on the storage and disposal of its information within the Records Management Plan (RMP) and submit it to the Keeper so that SCRA complies with the Public Records (Scotland) Act 2011. The plan should consider:-

How we intend to use the g drive in the future and if we should be moving to a single g drive for the whole of SCRA;

How we intend to communicate with staff / teams so they are fully informed and can begin reviewing the content of their g and h drives;

How we intend to monitor progress with the clean-up of g and h drives; What contingency arrangements may be needed e.g. for data stored in Public

Folders or .PST files; What associated documentation needs to be updated to reflect the new

arrangements.

4. Government Communications and Common Trust at OFFICIAL

Through the LA Security Group, Bruce Knight received a letter (see Appendix 2) from the Cabinet Office addressed to SIROs, DSOs and Technology leaders dated 26 January 2015. This letter refers to a Cabinet Office paper to explain the differences between Government Secure Intranet (GSI) based services and the Public Services Network (PSN) and the broader trust model that exists between Government. The paper describes a fundamental change to the security landscape as a result of communicating through PSN and using the new Government Security Classifications (GSC) introduced last year. August 2015 marks the end of GSI with no new GSI email addresses being issued after this date as all public sector organisations are expected to be on PSN. Existing GSI email addresses will still be in operation for 5 years to allow continuity of communications and Government Departments will start using their own domain e.g. department.gov.uk. SCRA will be operating under a new domain, probably the scra.gov.uk domain. The consequence of this change is:-

SCRA or any other agency will no longer be able to use the email address to recognise the security domain that the organisation belongs to;

PSN provides adequate protection for information in transit for all OFFICIAL information (including OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE);


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SCRA will be responsible for determining where OFFICIAL information can be held or transferred, taking into account any relevant legislation, policy and guidance;

OFFICIAL (including material marked OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE) information may be shared outside the GSI or PSN if there is a business need to do so;

Protection of OFFICIAL information in transit will be achieved through a number of means such as using trusted PSN infrastructure or encryption.

I have concerns over the use of the term “trusted PSN infrastructure” as I do not think this applies to the entire PSN infrastructure as some parts of the infrastructure are not using the encryption layer e.g. Scottish Local Authorities. Data sent from SCOTS to Scottish Local Authorities is encrypted to the point it enters the LAs network, thereafter it is transmitted down their corporate networks as clear text. Before PSN many LAs had two segregated networks,

a secure network complying with the GSX1 Code of Connection with gsx.gov.uk email addresses that linked directly with GSI;

a less secure network using gov.uk email addresses which routes emails through the internet.

When Vodafone put in PSN they replaced the GSX email addresses with new gcsx.gov.uk email addresses. GCSX2 is suitable for sending and receiving OFFICIAL (including OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE) information through the GSI. This gave LAs the opportunity to move all their staff onto the PSN. However the PSN code of connection requires all PSN users to be disclosure checked before they are given access to PSN. Local Authorities with large numbers of employees (>5000) do not have funds to accommodate the extra costs involved. For example, Falkirk Council are insisting that their staff pay for their own disclosure checks which they are reluctant to do. As a result SCRA who regularly send OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE pension data to Falkirk Council have been trying to use their GCSX mailbox but as their staff are not disclosure checked they are unable to collect our emails from that secure mailbox. SCRA is currently trying to resolve the problem by encouraging Falkirk Council to set up some Criminal Justice Secure Mail (CJSM) accounts with our help. Once GSI services are terminated in August 2015 SCRA will no longer be able to distinguish between secure and insecure accounts as both accounts will belong to the same domain. According to the Cabinet Office paper we should employ ‘common trust’ which could be putting our sensitive data at risk. The NHS which uses SWAN3 Services currently uses nhs.net for their secure email accounts, other NHS email accounts are not secure.

1 GSX- Government Secure eXtranet 2 GCSX - Government Community Secure eXtranet 3 SWAN- Scottish Wide Area Network


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Recommended Actions

1. To make an entry into the information risk register with regard to this issue so the risk can be more fully investigated and appropriate risk treatment measures employed before the risk can be accepted. (BK)

2. To take up the LA PSN issue with the Cabinet Office (BK)

5. CMS Accreditation The Security Policy Framework (SPF) prescribes a strict risk assessment and risk management methodology within the Information Assurance Standards 1 & 2 to ensure appropriate safeguards are put in place to protect information assets within business critical systems. Penetration tests are then carried out by CHECK4 testers to provide evidence on how susceptible the system is to attack so additional controls can be put in place if considered necessary. The accreditor examines all system security documentation produced to provide an independent assessment of the overall security of the system and if satisfied will accredit the system. Due to the complex nature of this work, only an information security professional with the appropriate expertise and knowledge in this area can be appointed as the accreditor. CESG5, runs the CLAS (CESG Listed Advisor Scheme) to ensure that consultants registered with this scheme have the appropriate training and expertise to advise government on security issues. An accreditor should ideally be a CLAS Consultant with considerable experience of assessing the security of business critical systems. Accreditation follows a 3 year cycle. In the first year the accreditor will:-

carry out a full document review of the CMS Risk Management and Accreditation Documentation Set (RMADS) against current IA Standards;

review other system documentation and SCRA information security policies as necessary to perform the accreditation;

agree scope of the annual IT Health Check, and review the risk treatment plan with respect to the vulnerabilities discovered;

report any accreditation deficiencies so they can be resolved and accreditation given or agree a suitable timescale for resolution with management.

In years 2 &3 the accreditor will:-

perform an annual review of accreditation status including checking that scope of accreditation is accurate;

agree scope of the annual IT Health Check, and review the risk treatment plan with respect to the vulnerabilities discovered;

report any accreditation deficiencies so they can be resolved and accreditation given or agree a suitable timescale for resolution with SCRA management.

4 The CHECK scheme enables penetration testing by CESG approved companies, employing

penetration testing personnel qualified to assess HMG and other public sector bodies. 5 CESG is the Information Security arm of GCHQ, and the National Technical Authority for Information

Assurance within the UK


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Evolve Business Consultancy have over the last few years been providing the necessary accreditation and testing expertise to SCRA for their Case Management System (CMS). As their contract was near its end SCRA would need to begin a procurement exercise so that CMS can continue to be accredited for the next three years. This would also ensure that any new contractor would start at the beginning of the 3 year accreditation cycle. Any significant changes to CMS, such as moving CMS from Pulsant Data Centre to SCOTS that occur out with the annual accreditation timetable, will require re-accreditation to the new scope. SCRA has included some ad-hoc consultancy during procurement to accommodate for unforeseen changes in accreditation scope or any other instances where a CLAS consultant’s advice would be beneficial.

5.1 Procurement of Security consultants and testers.

In October 2014 a procurement strategy was drafted to define SCRA’s approach to employing suitably qualified security consultants and testers so that CMS can be accredited to relevant Government Security Standards. By agreeing the strategy SCRA could finalise all the tender and evaluation documentation. SCRA invited 5 CESG certified suppliers to tender for this work using the PCS Quick Quote portal. Responses to the tender were received from Evolve Business Consultancy and Sopra Group Ltd. These were subsequently evaluated against price and quality criteria by the evaluation team before the contract was awarded to Evolve Business Consultancy in December 2014. The 3 year contract started on 1 March 2015.

5.2 CESG: Certification of Industry IA consultancy is changing

In CESG’s Cyber Security Consultancy newsletter (See Appendix 3) they announced that they have concluded their review of their Industry IA consultancy. They are proposing to improve the quality of their IA consultancy by raising the bar to entry, and improving the CESG Certified Professional (CCP) scheme. The new Cyber Security Consultancy scheme will require companies to have at least one consultant at Senior Practitioner level or above in one or more CCP roles and use a Senior or Lead Practitioner to lead each service delivery task. Professionals developing their expertise at the practitioner level still have a role in the new scheme under the supervision of a Senior or Lead Practitioner employed by a company. There will be a phased introduction of the new scheme during 2015. As we have already agreed our CLAS consultancy rates in the new contract they will be unable to raise their charge-out rates in view of this change. Given the experience of out accreditor it is hoped that he will be applying to join the new scheme at Senior Practitioner level or above.

Recommended Actions

1. To check with Evolve Business Consultancy what impact this will have on SCRA. (BK)

6. Security of Wi-FI in Hearing Suites By listening to children and young people’s views SCRA decided to research the provision of Wi-Fi by piloting Wi-Fi at two of their sites. SCRA have been


Page 9

investigating suitable Wi-Fi solutions that can provide the necessary security required to offer Wi-Fi as a service to those within the localities Children Hearing Suites. SCRA intend to use a Wi-Fi hub that has both a public and private zone. Each zone will have its own Wi-Fi identity and different passwords will be used for each zone. The public zone will have a landing page in which SCRA can insert their Wi-Fi User Acceptance Policy (UAP) with an acceptance check box. To gain access to the public zone users must know the password and verify acceptance of the Wi-Fi UAP. A draft of the Wi-Fi User Acceptance Policy (UAP) is given in Appendix 4.

7. Response Level System An Email was received on 5 Feb 2015 from Callam Fowler (see Appendix 5) enquiring if SCRA, as a Scottish public body, would like to become a copy recipient for The Scottish Governments Response Level System. It was agreed by Neil Hunter that we should participate in this scheme and Bruce Knight will be the nominated contact for this.

8. Appendices Appendix 1: Letter from Scottish Government Appendix 2: Government Communications and Common Trust at OFFICIAL

Government Communications and Common Trust at OFFICIAL.PDF

Appendix 3. CESG’s Cyber Security Consultancy newsletter

cyber_security_consultancy.pdf

Appendix 4. Wi-Fi User Acceptance Policy Appendix 5. Email - Response Level System


Appendix 1: Page 1

APPENDIX 1: LETTER FROM SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT

Director-General Communities

Sarah Davidson

T: 0131-244 6021 E: [email protected]

To: All Senior Information Risk Officers

In 2014 Scotland Welcomes the World

___ 28 January 2015 Dear Senior Information Risk Officers Purpose The purpose of this letter is to inform you of changes to the way in which we manage information held electronically in shared drives (g drive and h drive). Background The Public Records (Scotland) Act 2011 places upon the Keeper of the National Records of Scotland, the duty of raising the profile of records management across the public sector in Scotland, and introducing improvements and efficiencies in public record keeping. The Act mandates all public bodies to write and submit to the Keeper a Records Management Plan (RMP), which details how it stores and disposes of its information. To fully comply with the demands of our RMP, and so meet our legal obligations, a new retention and disposal policy has been developed for information created and stored on shared drives (g drive and h drive). Details of the new policy are set out below: In regard to h drives

From 1 April 2015 information held on the h drive, which has not been modified in the period one year or older, will be archived for two years. You will not experience any change when accessing this information whilst it is archived.


From 1 April 2017, full deletion of the archived information will commence on a daily basis using Enterprise Vault. There will be no recovery facility.

From 1 April 2016 and every year thereafter, information held on h drives, which has not been modified in the period one year and older, will be archived for two years, before deletion using Enterprise Vault.


Appendix 1: Page 2

In regard to g drives

From 1 June 2015 information held on the g drive, which has not been modified in the period 5 years or older, will be archived for two years. You will not experience any change when accessing this information whilst it is archived. This will be done on a rolling programme. Business areas will be notified at least 4 weeks before their areas are targeted.


From 1 June 2017, full deletion of the archived information will commence on a daily basis using Enterprise Vault. There will be no recovery facility.

From 1 June 2016 information held on g drives, which has not been modified in the period three years and older, will be archived for two years before deletion using Enterprise Vault.

From 1 June 2017, management of the information held on the g drive will be subject to review to determine size and growth, with a view to reducing the selection period.

Public Folders and .PST files Further consideration and work is being undertaken to determine the best approach for the disposal of these folders and files. It should also be noted that Public Folders and .PST files are not supported, and are prone to corruption. In the event of these files and folders becoming corrupted, there is no recovery process and all information would be lost. Access Databases This new retention and disposal policy will not apply to Access Databases. As these do not perform well with eRDM, they are held on an exclusion area of the g drive. Users who have access to eRDM, should, on a regular basis, take a ‘snapshot’ of their Access Databases and store the ‘snapshots’ in eRDM as part of the corporate record. If you require further information on the exclusion of databases, you should contact Rab Watson, Project Manager, at the address below. Organisations which buy in IT services from the Scottish Government Some Agencies and Non-Departmental Public Bodies (NDPBs) which buy in IT services from the Scottish Government may use the g drive for storing their corporate record. Organisations which use the g drive for their corporate record will be excluded from the new retention and disposal policy. However, it is not possible to exempt the h drive, which should contain transient material only, and so will be included within the new policy. Rab Watson, Project Manager, has been in contact with those organisations which buy in IT services only, to determine their exemption status. If you believe your organisation falls into this exemption category, and have not already met with Rab or requested exemption, please contact him as soon as possible, at the address below. Scottish Government policy relating to Public Folders and .PST files This is also an opportune time to re-state the Scottish Government’s current policy on the use of these folders and drives. Whilst shared drives (g drive and h drive) are still considered essential to the business, either as drafting tools, for holding quick reference copies, or as storage for transient material, these Public Folders and .PST files, are not, and have never been, repositories for official records.


Appendix 1: Page 3

As mentioned above, however, these folders and files are not supported, so in the event of these files and folders becoming corrupted, there is no recovery process and all information would be lost. Further Information For enquiries about the new policy, please contact Rab Watson, Project Manager, either by telephone, 0131-244-8455, email him at [email protected]. For further information about records management and related issues please contact Maureen Henderson, either by telephone, 0131-244-6921, or email her at [email protected]. Saltire articles will be published providing further information on the new retention and disposal policy along with supporting guidance. If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact Rab at the address above. Yours faithfully

mailto:[email protected]


Appendix 4: Page 1

APPENDIX 4: WI-FI USER ACCEPTANCE POLICY

WiFi User Acceptance Policy

This free WiFi service is offered to members of the public who are waiting in the SCRA <Locality> Hearing Suite.

Policy Acceptance

By ticking the Policy Acceptance Checkbox I am confirming agreement and acceptance of this policy.

• I agree and accept that the wireless service is used at my own risk. • I agree and accept that my equipment is used at my own risk. • I agree and accept that no technical support will be provided. • I agree and accept that this wireless service is not to be misused. Examples of misuse include

but are not limited to: • Illegal / Criminal activity • Security Violations / System Sabotage • Introduction of viruses, Trojans, malware, spyware and time bombs • Obtaining unauthorised access to any services. • Breaches of Software Licensing Copyright Act, Computer Misuse Act, or Data Protection

Act. • Sending threatening, abusive, rude or defamatory messages via email, IRC or any

other means • Obtaining or attempting to access pornographic or other offensive material. • Transmission of unsolicited emails or advertising (SPAM) • Hacking or attempted hacking. • Disabling or overloading the Wi-Fi network, or circumventing any system intended to

protect the privacy or security of another user. • I agree and accept that any information sent or received as clear text maybe intercepted. • I agree and accept that SCRA has the right to monitor access to ensure users comply with their Wi-

Fi User Acceptance Policy. • I agree and accept that SCRA has the right to put parental controls on the access as the service is

being used by children and young persons. • I agree and accept that SCRA’s Wi-Fi service must not be used to violate the laws and regulations of

the UK or any other nation. SCRA will co-operate with any legitimate law enforcement activity to prevent and/or detect illegal and criminal activities.

• I agree and accept that any misuse detected could result in termination of the services being offered to me and may result in prosecution.


Appendix 5: Page 1

APPENDIX 5: EMAIL - RESPONSE LEVEL SYSTEM

For the attention of senior management/chief executive.

I’m writing to enquire if Scottish Children’s Reporter Administrator, as a Scottish public body, would like to become a copy recipient for The Scottish Governments Response Level System.

Response Level System (RLS)

The Scottish Governments Response level system alerts Scottish Government agencies and non-ministerial departments and some public bodies of changes to the UK Response level.

Background

WHAT DO RESPONSE LEVELS MEAN?

THREAT LEVELS:

The UK Threat Level is decided by the Government’s Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC). It is the system to assess the threat to the UK from international terrorism and provides an indication of the likelihood of a terrorist attack.

RESPONSE LEVELS:

There are three response levels: Normal, Heightened and Exceptional. The UK wide response level is currently Heightened, the current threat level is set at Severe.

The UK Government Response Level gives an indication of the protective security measures that should be applied at sites at each Threat Level. In simple terms, the higher the Threat Level, the more security measures should be in place.

There are three levels of response which broadly equate to threat levels as shown:

RESPONSE LEVEL

DESCRIPTION RELATED THREAT LEVELS

Normal Routine protective security measures appropriate to the business concerned

Low and Moderate

Heightened Additional and sustainable protective security measures reflecting the broad nature of the threat combined with specific business and geographical vulnerabilities and judgements on acceptable risk

Substantial and Severe

Exceptional Maximum protective security measures to meet specific threats and to minimise vulnerability and risk

Critical

Changes in the response level and related threat level are cascaded by government security services to The Scottish Government’s Security Control room and cascaded as an alert across contacts. The system will be regularly tested once all existing contacts have been fully updated.

Once the nominated contact has been confirmed can you please return the attached template to the following mailbox [email protected].

mailto:[email protected]