NHS Chairs Meeting: Minutes March 2025

Attendees and apologies

NHS Boards – Chairs

 

• Lesley Bowie, NHS Ayrshire and Arran
• Karen Hamilton, NHS Borders
• Marsali Caig, NHS Dumfries and Galloway
• Patricia Kilpatrick, NHS Fife
• Neena Mahal, NHS Forth Valley
• Alison Evison, NHS Grampian (Vice-Chair of Chairs)
• Lesley Thomson, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
• Gerard O'Brien, NHS Highland (Non-executive Director)
• Alistair Boyle, NHS Lanarkshire (Non-executive Director)
• John Connaghan, NHS Lothian
• Meghan McEwen, NHS Orkney
• Gary Robinson, NHS Shetland
• Lorna Birse-Stewart, NHS Tayside
• Gillian McCannon, NHS Western Isles
• Carole Wilkinson, Healthcare Improvement Scotland (Chair of Chairs)
• David Garbutt, NHS Education for Scotland
• Susan Douglas-Scott, NHS Golden Jubilee
• Keith Redpath, NHS National Services Scotland
• Angiolina Foster, Public Health Scotland
• Tom Steele, Scottish Ambulance Service
• Brian Moore, The State Hospitals Board for Scotland
• Suzanne Dawson, Scottish Health Council

Scottish Government

 

• Jenni Minto, Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health
• John Burns, NHS Scotland Chief Operating Officer
• Paula Speirs, Deputy Chief Operating Officer - Planning and Sponsorship
• Douglas McLaren, Deputy Chief Operating Officer - Performance and Delivery
• Amy Wilson, Director of Health Workforce
• Fiona Hogg, Chief People Officer
• Alan Gray, Director of Health and Social Care Finance
• Christine McLaughlin, Co-Director of Population Health
• Gregor Smith, Chief Medical Officer
• Anne Armstrong, Deputy Chief Nursing Officer
• Alison Strath, Chief Pharmaceutical Officer
• Angie Wood, Interim Director, Social Care Resilience and Improvement
• Fiona Bennett, Interim Deputy Director NHS Scotland Finance
• Robert Kirkwood, OCENHS Team
• Aislinn Ni Ghrainne, NHS Corporate Communications

Secretariat

 

• Laurie Whyte, Board Governance and Appointments Team
• Kat Dobell, Board Governance and Appointments Team
• Carol Hunter, Board Governance and Appointments Team
• Rhea Crighton, Executive Support to NHS Board Chairs and Chairs

Apologies

 

• Neil Gray, Cabinet Secretary for NHS Recovery Health and Social Care
• Maree Todd, Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport 
• Christina McKelvie, Minister for Drugs and Alcohol Policy
• Caroline Lamb, DG HSC/CE NHS Scotland
• Martin Cheyne, NHS 24
• Martin Hill, NHS Lanarkshire
• Sarah Compton-Bishop, NHS Highland
• Andrew Watson, Director for Children and Families
• Tim Mcdonnell, Director of Primary Care
• John Harden, National Clinical Lead for Quality and Safety
   

Items and actions

Welcome, apologies for absence and attendees

John Burns, NHS Scotland Chief Operating Officer welcomed the group, thanking everyone for attending the meeting. He noted the Cabinet Secretary’s apologies for today’s meeting.

The minutes from the previous meeting held on 29 January 2025 were approved. An update to the minutes was received from Susan Douglas-Scott and had been amended. No further amendments were received.

The three actions below, raised at the previous meeting, were now complete.

• CfSD to ensure all Chairs and boards understood the joint work being undertaken with CfSD in their board areas and then possible future actions/initiatives. Susan Douglas Scott confirmed all Chairs were given contact details of all board CfSD champions to make contact locally with those individuals and that a range of reports and newsletters are being shared. In addition CfSD are also engaging with boards through regular operational level meetings
• the following two actions would form part of the discussion for the item on the operational framework and operational plans for 2025
  • NHS Chairs to provide views on the operational framework and operational plan
  • NHS Chairs to consider the support that will be required and discuss with Scottish Government colleagues as required

A full list of attendees and apologies is noted in annex a.

There were no matters arising from the previous meeting.

Operational framework and operational planning for 2025 (NHSC/25/04)

John introduced the item by setting the context of how the operational improvement plan (OIP) is a part of a wider suite of documents including the population health framework and reform framework. He thanked Chairs for their input to date and invited Dougie McLaren, Deputy Chief Operating Officer: Performance and Delivery, to provide an overview of the work to date stating that the OIP will be published at the end of March 2025.

Dougie provided an overview of the work to date and emphasised the importance of new ways of collaborative working to guarantee reduction of waiting times while ensuring safe and effective care to patients. Chairs had been asked to consider how to support delivery of the OIP within their own boards and also collaboratively at regional and national levels.

Following the First Minister’s speech in January which outlined a set of specific deliverables, the focus is on immediate actions over the next 12 months. The OIP is currently being finalised with Ministers, this will be a short document with a package of commitments, augmenting what boards are already committed to and building on their own 2025-26 delivery planning. 

Work has been ongoing to ensure key stakeholders have had input to the OIP including stakeholder groups, NHS Chief Executives and Chairs, CRAG and staff side. This engagement is to ensure the plan is meaningful and accessible to different audiences and contains details around collaboration and implementation. The key principle underpinning the plan is to exercise person centred approaches, bringing in quality and safety as well as performance. There is an ever-growing focus on collaborative/cross-board working, maximising productivity with core funding and targeting investment where it is needed to clear backlogs.

Dougie noted there had been good progress with colleagues on Hospital at Home and Frailty Units and this will continue to progress after publication. Specific commitments have been made relating to pharmacy first and to dentistry, helping to shift the balance of care to community settings and to move away from the acute hospital setting.

Digital and technological innovation will improve access to health and social care services by: a new health and social care app; building on digital platforms to increase operating theatre capacity; by adopting new innovations e.g. genetic testing; and, proactive prevention by investing in general practice and community-based teams to enable more proactive outreach services. The 'national first' approach was agreed to in September last year with Chief Executives and that was being taken forward with the work on digital front door.

Colleagues were invited to discuss OIP and the ask for collaborative working, key points highlighted included;

• Chairs positively reflected on the engagement on this work and reflected that it would be helpful to understand how comments/input were captured, learning taken from this and how it translated into the OIP. Consideration of population planning needed to be implemented consistently across Scotland and not just around individual territorial areas. This will require support and leadership to make it a success
• issues were raised on dentistry and how to encourage student dentists to remain working for the NHS in Scotland. It was noted there has been an increase of students but, needing to ensure this equates to an increase in NHS dentists once accredited. Ms Minto, Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health, assured colleagues that work is continuing with the British Dental Association (BDA) to
  • obtain appropriate values and costs to encourage NHS work
  • to encourage dentists from overseas to join NHS Scotland
  • to look to ensure utilisation of dental therapists
• colleagues asked for clear messaging internally and externally in relation to collaborative working and implications for funding. John assured colleagues that the board responsible for undertaking activity will be funded to do so. It was noted that this is a new way of working and that there is a clear emphasis that Chairs need to lead this and look at their governance arrangements, accountability and messaging. Success of these arrangements is dependent on all boards working together. John indicated that if only a few boards show progress around collaboration then it will not be seen as a success. Coordination is necessary across all boards. The Scottish Government is working closely with clinical leads and Chief Executives to ensure clarity in the operational delivery expectations
• patients have been travelling across Scotland to receive treatments across boundaries for many years and have been supported through existing governance arrangements and processes. This may be newer for some boards but is not completely new and has a solid working base. Community engagement work done by Healthcare Improvement Scotland indicated that citizens are accepting of travel for treatment; however, it was acknowledged that for the period of backlog reduction there would need to be a considerable increase in patient movement
• for boards to be collaborating in terms of performance monitoring, this will require a level of rigour and discipline not seen before. Boards will need to consider information sharing and analysis beyond their own local systems

John thanked colleagues for comments and reflections, noting that it was essential to work collaboratively in order to succeed on an NHS Scotland basis to support delivery of care. The OIP needed to be seen in the context of wider Annual Delivery Plans (ADP).

Update from NHS Chairs private meeting

John invited Carole Wilkinson, Chair, Healthcare Improvement Scotland to provide feedback on the discussion from the Chairs private meeting.

The main theme of the meeting was on reform and transformation. Christine McLaughlin, Co-Director of Population Health and Jann Gardner, Chief Executive, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde updated the Chairs on the discussion from the NHS Chief Executives group, laying out timescales for plans going forward. The focus was on:

• the board Chairs Group received presentations from 3 territorial boards ( NHS Fife, Lanarkshire and Shetland) on the work they were doing in the reform and transformation space. The key messages were the need for dedicated people and resources to drive the change, clear plans and leadership from the board
• the need for a discussion on digital and a clear plan to tailor transformation in boards, identifying people and resources
• the Chair and Vice Chair of BCG have held separate meetings with Chairs of IJBs and representatives from COSLA to discuss how we might work together to progress the reform agenda and bring a whole system approach
• the importance of Chairs’ involvement in collaboration across systems

Any other business

A paper on performance information was distributed to colleagues for information prior to this meeting, which outlined current performance statistics across Scotland. Questions regarding this should be directed to the health planning team.

Ms Minto noted that this was the last meeting for Lorna Birse-Stewart, NHS Tayside and thanked her for her service as Chair of the board, wishing her well for the future. Carole Wilkinson would be taking on the role of interim Chair of NHS Tayside and Ms Minto looked forward to continuing to work with Carole in that capacity.

Ms Minto also advised colleagues that the NHS Dumfries and Galloway Chair role was currently open for recruitment and that the NHS Forth Valley Chair role would open shortly too. She encouraged Chairs to actively promote these roles, to ensure the best candidates apply.

There was no other business raised.

Date and time of next meeting

The next NHS Chairs meeting will take place on 19 May 2025.

Board governance and appointments team