Public Board of Directors papers 27.01.22

recruitment, promotion, disciplinary and grievance situations. This is overseen by the EDI programme board and workforce committee • We have undertaken a listen to learn event to provide the opportunity for BAME staff to share their experiences with senior management using their filmed stories as illustrations • We have reviewed our exit interview questions and improved access to all staff leaving the Trust. We have further developed our exit interview reports to ensure that feedback from BAME staff is explicitly captured and specifically reported to the Workforce Committee • We have added questions on barriers to speaking up to the staff survey. The responses and those for other FTSU questions can be compared by ethnicity and other protected characteristics • The Chief Operating Officer has been appointed to be the executive sponsor for our Ethnic Diversity Group (EDG) staff network. • Members of the EDG have been invited to sit on the Trust’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Programme Board, giving them direct access to BoD members • We have developed our Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) action plan to address feedback from BAME colleagues about how they have been treated in recruitment, promotion, disciplinary and grievance situations. This is overseen by the EDI programme board and workforce committee No evidence of any financial irregularity in relation to the commercial partnership The report confirms that the allegations of bribery and embezzlement made publicly against individual’s employed by the Trust by a former employee were reported to the Counter Fraud service but that no evidence to support these allegations has been produced. The report also confirms that items of hospitality and travel (not involving any of the executive directors) were declared on the Trust’s Hospitality Register. Timely Board Oversight The report confirms that the full board was made aware of concerns raised in August 2020 at its meeting of September 2020. At its meeting of 25 th March 2021, the BoD reviewed the sequence of events to assure itself that escalation of issues was made appropriately with concerns being reported to the board at the first available opportunities. In reaching this conclusion the board considered: • The fact of the initial concerns raised with the FTSUG in February 2020 were reported to the board at its meeting in June 2020 (agenda item 23/20d) - it was not possible to report this to the board meeting in March 2020 as this was, by national instruction, limited to matters required for immediate regulatory compliance to allow essential business of the Trust to continue during the initial peak of the pandemic. This was also the case in April, May, and June 2020 (although no formal meeting took place in April). Boards were asked to determine their own approach to stepping back up virtual board assurance and other committees in an NHSEI letter dated 7 th July 2020. • July 2020 was therefore the first opportunity to report the issues raised in February to the full board of directors, although three executive directors, two non-executive directors and the chair had been aware of the issues raised and were addressing them according to our policies. • Further, additional and more serious allegations were raised in an email to the chairman (not via the FTSUG) in August 2020. This email contained additional serious (but unevidenced) allegations not raised in February and therefore not reported in July. • It was these more serious allegations that were also brought to the board’s attention in September, the first opportunity to do so. They could not have been reported beforehand as they were not raised until August.

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