Agenda item

5.1  The Chair stated that the purpose of this item was to follow up on discussions the Commission had had with the Chief Executive and CFO of Homerton on 9 July 2020 about the then 5 year extension granted to ISS for Soft Facility Services at the Trust.  As the Covid pandemic intervened the Commission had not followed this up in the usual way and so it had asked for a verbal update. The Chair stated that at the recent INEL JHOSC meeting, Shane DeGaris (Group CE of Barts and BHRUT) spoke about Barts Health's positive experience of insourcing their Soft Facility Services.

5.2  He welcomed for the item

Louise Ashley (LA), CE of Homerton Healthcare  and Place Based Leader for City and Hackney, NHS NEL

Rob Clarke (RC), Chief Finance Officer, Homerton Healthcare

5.2  The Chair outlined the history of the contract with ISS for soft facilities and that when it last came up for retender there had been concerns about sick pay and staff terms and conditions. The Commission had been grateful that the Homerton had resolved those differences and they had been asked to give further consideration to the possibility of bringing the soft facilities services in house in future. The Homerton had said that this would require a lot of planning. In the interim Members had learned that Barts Health had insourced their soft facilities and while there were short term cost pressures the other advantages were seen to outweigh this. The Commission had concluded that if the Homerton was going to consider insourcing planning would need to begin soon.

5.3  LA gave a verbal presentation. She reassured Members that they were committed to including all partners who work in the trust in the staff wellbeing work they do. She added that there were Estates issues here to be considered as part of this but added that she was keen to explore how they might do things differently in future. She introduced Rob Clarke, the CFO, who was overseeing this process.

5.4  RC explained that he had come to the Homerton from Barts Health where he was Deputy Chief Finance Officer and so had first hand experience of the processes they had just gone through. They had brought Security services in first and staff were happier with the results. They were watching with great interest and would meet Barts Heath counterparts regularly. It would cost more money as the in-house packages were more generous than those in the independent sector. They would be going to tender in the first half of 2024 in order to meet the contractual deadline in advance of the contract ending in summer 2025.  He added that they had floated with Barts Health if they might be in position to bid for the contract at the Homerton. The Chair commented that this would keep it in the NHS family via Barts Health and might be a viable solution. LA explained that Value for Money was key but also cautioned that any additional spend would have to be found from somewhere else. She commented that because of the scale involved they might be able to get better value if it was done with Barts Health through a collaborative but further work would have to be done on this.

5.5  A Member asked what the unions’ view was and would the change not greatly improve staff morale and lead to a happier and more productive workforce.  RC replied that he’d met with staff and unions and they were very clear they wanted to see it brought in house.  It would cost more but they also needed to consider such aspects as staff retention and staff cohesion.

5.6  The Chair asked what point in the next year would be appropriate for this to come back to the Commission as they would like a discussion on it before any final decisions were made and they would like to understand the thinking behind whatever is being proposed. LA undertook to advise on this.

ACTION:

Proposals for future provision of soft facility services be added to the work programme for Jan 2024.

RESOLVED:

That the discussion be noted.