Health and Community Services external turnaround team (FOI)

Request

The Jersey Evening Post published the cover feature 'Fixers to be parachuted in to Health Department' on 25 January 2023. 

It mentions an 'external turnaround team' to be brought for a 'fix period of 12 months'. into the Health Department to repair the relationships between senior management and clinicians. Deputy Karen Wilson called them 'a small group of trouble-shooters' tasked with remedying some of the problems identified in a watchdog report issued the same week.   

The report 'Deployment of Staff Resources in Health and Community Services' published on 24 of January makes a series of 21 recommendations. It starts with a statement that 'The health and care system in Jersey is going through unprecedented demand pressure'. It was based on a review of a number of publicly available documents and on interviews with some 44 individuals - most with director, manager and lead titles. There were 10 non-manager and non-lead consultants interviewed (six of them with some current or prior leadership functions), One foundation doctor and not a single frontline nurse, no healthcare assistants or other allied professional listed in the appendix. Many of the recommendations relate to a structured, more strategic workforce planning including the job planning process and private patients strategy. The report lists numerous risks related to the growing reliance on locum and agency doctors combined with a lack of formal professional supervision for them.  

A

Please provide the structure (roles,  titles, names, Jersey residents or outside or prior NHS roles) of the members of the new turnaround team. How many days per week will they work? Will they be relocating?

B

What is the total budget allocated to the turnaround team? Where does the budget come from and who authorised the expense?

C

How was the recruitment process carried out? Were the roles advertised locally? If they were hand-selected by an external agency like in the case of the previous search for the £300k+ (total package) head of the new board invented by Professor Mascie-Taylor in his report (50+ candidates of whom only two met criteria for the job and final shortlisting), what process did the agency use to ensure the best talents got identified and that Jersey residents got an opportunity to apply? 

D

Regarding the watchdog report –

i) What is the evidence for an unprecedented demand for health service in Jersey?

ii) Please provide the total number of outpatient and separately inpatient referrals for 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 - as measured and published monthly.  

E

Please provide any structured or semi-structured interview guide or questionnaire used for the watchdog report interviews. 

F

i) Please provide measures of the baseline situation concerning problems with relations between senior managers and doctors. 

ii) How will the success of the 'external turnaround team of trouble-shooters' be measured? What are the specific, measurable objectives and when and how will they be measured?

Response

A

The press notice released on 27 January 2023 entitled “Appointments made to Health and Community Services Expert Change Team” provides details of the roles, names, backgrounds and leadership of the team which can be accessed via the link below. Article 23 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied to this information. 

Appointments made to Health and Community Services Expert Change Team (gov.je) 

Four members of the team will be working up to three days per week and one member will be working up to five days per week. The team are not resident but are required to be in Jersey for the purposes of their work.   

B

The Government Plan 2023-26, as amended and approved by the States Assembly on 16 December 2022, provided a total of up to £1.5m in 2023 to support Health and Community Services Turnaround – please see reference I-HCS-GP23-015 on page 106 of the Government Plan 2023-26 which can be accessed via the link below: 

Government Plan 2023 to 2026.pdf 

C

The search and outreach to potential candidates was undertaken by a specialist executive search agency prior to shortlisting and interview by the Government of Jersey’s Chief Executive Officer, Assistant Chief Executive Officer and Resourcing Project Director. All candidate CVs were reviewed by the fixed-term Chair of the Health Board and an external Senior Independent Health Executive prior to engagement. Given the specialist and short-term nature of the roles, advertising was not utilised as part of the search, however a number of Jersey based candidates were identified as part of the search and interviewed as part of the selection process.  

D

The report referred to is the Comptroller and Auditor General’s report on the “Deployment of Staff Resources in Health and Community Services”. The Comptroller and Auditor General (the Jersey Audit Office) is independent of the Government of Jersey and is not a Scheduled Public Authority under the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011, however this report has been published and can be accessed via the link below. 

Jersey Audit Office Deployment of Staff Resources (JerseyAuditOffice.je)

i)

This information is not held by the Government of Jersey. As stated above the report was composed by Comptroller and Auditor General. Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies.

ii)

Table 1 below details the number of recorded Outpatient referrals to Health and Community Services per annum from 2019 to 2022, in-line with data published on www.gov.je.

Table 2 below details the number of additions to the elective in-patient waiting lists (Listings) for Health and Community Services per annum from 2019 to 2022, in-line with data published on www.gov.je.

Tables.pdf

Some exclusions apply to this data, which are detailed in the document in the below link.

Waiting lists: outpatient (gov.je)  

E

This information is not held by the Government of Jersey. As stated above the report was composed by Comptroller and Auditor General. The Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (the Jersey Audit Office) is independent of the Government of Jersey and is not a Scheduled Public Authority under the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011. Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies.  

F

i)

It is understood that this question refers to information provided in the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General. This information is not held by the Government of Jersey. Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies.

ii)

The Change Team will be supporting the turnaround and transformation of Health and Community Services, as outlined in the plan published in 2022 by the Minister for Health and Social Services which can be accessed via the link below. Progress towards outcomes will be overseen by the Government of Jersey’s Assistant Chief Executive Officer on behalf of the Government of Jersey’s Chief Executive Officer. 

Health and Community Services Business Plan 2022.pdf (gov.je)

Articles applied 

Article 3 - Meaning of “information held by a public authority”

For the purposes of this Law, information is held by a public authority if –

(a)     it is held by the authority, otherwise than on behalf of another person; or

(b)     it is held by another person on behalf of the authority.

Article 23 - Information accessible to applicant by other means

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it is reasonably available to the applicant, otherwise than under this Law, whether or not free of charge.

(2) A scheduled public authority that refuses an application for information on this ground must make reasonable efforts to inform the applicant where the applicant may obtain the information.