Remuneration and staff report

The Remuneration Committee is a formal committee of the Board. The purpose of this committee is to advise the Board

on all aspects of the remuneration and terms of conditions for the chief executive and executive directors reporting to the chief executive making sure these properly support the objectives of the trust, represent value for money and comply with statutory requirements.

The committee’s members are the non-executive directors of the trust and the committee is chaired by the trust’s chair. Between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022 there were five meetings of the Remuneration Committee.

Salaries and allowances for the year ending 31 March 2022 (subject to audit)

1. Pensions related benefits are based on the NHS Manual of Accounts methodology and the pension data is provided by the Pensions Agency. The benefits calculated incorporate 20 times the annual real increase in pension and do not represent actual payments made. Non-Executive Board members do not receive pensions as part of their remuneration.

2. Pension Restructuring Payments column added as: The NHS Pension Scheme allows for individuals who have opted out of the scheme due to pension tax issues to use the employer element as additional payments to salary

3. Since July 2019 Mr Morgan has been on secondment at United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust (ULHT). The costs of his employment are recharged to ULHT and therefore the net cost is nil. Mr Morgan opted out of the pension scheme in 2019 and permanently left LCHS in July 2021. There is a difference in presentation due to his secondment ending in year.

1. Pensions related benefits are based on the NHS Manual of Accounts methodology and the pension data is provided by the Pensions Agency. The benefits calculated incorporate 20 times the annual real increase in pension and do not represent actual payments made. Non-Executive Board members do not receive pensions as part of their remuneration.
2. Pension Restructuring Payments column added as: The NHS Pension Scheme allows for individuals who have opted out of the scheme due to pension tax issues to use the employer element as additional payments to salary
3. Mr AJ Morgan joined United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust as Chief Executive on secondment from 01/07/2019 and opted out of the pension scheme in 2019, the costs are recharged to ULHT and therefore the cost to LCHS is nil. This cost is omitted from the Median pay table shown in this report.

Dr Y Owen also provided Out of Hours practitioner services to the trust as an independent contractor to 31st May 2019, disclosure of the value of these payments can be found in the related parties disclosure of the Trust Annual Accounts 2021/22.

6. Dr Owen is not a member of the NHS Pension Scheme in relation to employment with LCHS

5. Dr Owen is not a member of the NHS Pension Scheme in relation to employment with LCHS

NHS Pensions are using pension and lump sum data from their systems without any adjustment for a potential future legal remedy required as a result of the McCloud judgement (this is a legal case concerning age discrimination over the manner in which UK public service pension schemes introduced a CARE benefit design in 2015 for all but the oldest members who retained a Final Salary design). We believe this approach is appropriate given that there is still considerable uncertainty on how the affected benefits within the new NHS 2015 Scheme would be adjusted in future once legal proceedings are completed.

• A Cash Equivalent Transfer Value (CETV) is the actuarially assessed capital value of the pension scheme benefits accrued by a member at a particular point in time. The benefits valued are the member’s accrued benefits and any contingent spouse’s pension payable from the scheme.
• A CETV is a payment made by a pension scheme or arrangement to secure pension benefits in another pension scheme or arrangement when the member leaves a scheme and chooses to transfer the benefits accrued in their former scheme.
• The pension figures shown relate to the benefits that the individual has accrued as a consequence of their total membership of the pension scheme, not just their service in a senior capacity to which disclosure applies.
• The CETV figures and the other pension details include the value of any pension benefits in another scheme or arrangement which the individual has transferred to the NHS pension scheme.
• They also include any additional pension benefit accrued to the member as a result of their purchasing additional years of pension service in the scheme at their own cost. CETVs are calculated within the guidelines and framework prescribed by the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.

Real Increase in CETV

This reflects the increase in CETV effectively funded by the employer. It takes account of the increase in accrued pension due to inflation, contributions paid by the employee (including the value of any benefits transferred from another scheme or arrangement) and uses common market valuation factors for the start and end of the period.

In respect of the relationship between individuals in the remuneration report and links to exit packages, severance payments and off payroll engagement disclosures, the following information is applicable:

• Exit packages – no relationship
• Severance payments – no relationship
• Off Payroll Engagements – Dr Y. Owen has previously provided Out of Hours practitioner services to the trust as an independent contractor until 31 May 2019. The value of this can found in the related parties disclosure of the Trust Annual Accounts 2019/20.

LCHS has a Remuneration Committee. The purpose of the committee is to agree appropriate remuneration and terms of service for the chief executive, executive directors and other directors including all aspects of salary, provisions for other benefits, arrangements for termination of employment and other contractual terms working to the NHS Improvement.

The trust has not made any compensatory payments on early retirement for loss of office in 2021/22.

The trust has not made any payments to past directors in 2021/22 (2020/21: also nil).

Reporting bodies are required to disclose the relationship between the remuneration of the highest-paid director in their organisation and the median remuneration of the organisation's workforce.

The banded remuneration of the highest paid director in Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust in the financial year 2021-22 was £155-160k (2020-21: £155-160k). This was 5.05 (2020-21: 5.2) times the median remuneration of the workforce, which was £31,549 (2020-21: £30,681).

In 2021-22 and 2020-21 no employees received remuneration in excess of the highest-paid director. Remuneration ranged from £767.97 to £159,343.59 (2020-21: £11,500 to £159,575).

Total remuneration above includes salary, non-consolidated performance-related pay and benefits-in-kind. It does not include severance payments, employer pension contributions and the cash equivalent transfer value of pensions.

The following table notes exit packages agreed from 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022.

Staff sickness

Overall sickness absence across the Trust has fluctuated across the year. Total sickness absence was around the 4% target during the early summer months, although began to steadily increase from July onwards, peaking at 5.87% in October and remain high during the winter months around an average of 5.2%. The increase during the autumn period was mainly attributable to absences due to infectious diseases (mainly Covid-19) and this trend has continued throughout winter and into early 2022.

Long-term sickness absence has been decreasing during 2021-22, to a low of 2.58% in January 2022, and has remained below the 3% target in the last quarter of the year. However, short-term sickness absence has consistently been above the 1% target throughout the year and has seen an upward trajectory during this period, in particular throughout the winter months. This is a seasonal pattern that occurs every year, although this year was significantly impacted on by Covid-19 with a high number of short-term absences attributed to this. Anxiety/stress/depression has consistently remained within the top reasons for both long-term and short-term sickness absence.

The Holistic Health offer has continued to be reviewed and adapted to support employees during this time with the introduction of a system wellbeing hub and comprehensive health and wellbeing offer. Significant mental health support is available to staff which includes; promoting emotional wellbeing support services available to employees (local, system and national offer), revising our approach to promoting virtual platforms to connect with a champion/mental health first contact to try and encourage greater usage by

employees, Mental Health Fir

st Aider training, peer support group for existing Mental Health First Aiders, Health and Wellbeing conversation sessions for leaders, Holistic Health Champions and Mental Health First Contacts to help build the capability and offer tools to be able to hold these conversations effectively. In addition, the use of the Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) continues to be available to staff, through our provider, Health Assured.

Our Physio for You service has continued to support staff both virtually and with the re-introduction of face-to-face clinics and maintaining a presence on all forms of communication including Facebook.

The LCHS leadership offer has been refreshed with the launch of the 2022 Leadership Tube Map and introduction of ‘Leading the LCHS Way with Compassion’ which encompasses the Leadership Development Programme – Behaviours (LDP-B). This has a strong focus on leading with compassion, which spans over four core modules: Self Compassion and Leadership, Leading and Embedding Compassionate Cultures, Compassionate Team Leadership and Compassionate Leadership Across Boundaries.

The enhanced health and wellbeing (HWB) Covid-19 responsive offer has continued and now become ‘business as usual’ and the role of a non-Exec Director as a ‘Wellbeing Guardian’ has been embedded into the Trust.

Staff turnover

The graph below shows the total staff turnover based on a rolling 12-month period. This has been steadily increasing throughout the year from 10.7% in April 2021 to 12.8% in March 2022, although this is still below the Trust threshold of 15%.

NHS Digital publishes sickness absence and workforce data for NHS bodies via their website. Links are noted below for these.

Sickness absence data is published here.

Staff turnover data is published here.

Proportion of temporary staff

With the exception of the months of April, December 2021 and February - March 2022, temporary staffing costs have remained below the 5% target throughout the period 2021/22. There has been an increasing need for temporary staffing shifts during the latter part of the year as the Trust continues to be agile in response to the pandemic, winter pressures and supporting the Lincolnshire System. The increasing short term staff sickness absence at times has also resulted in additional requirements for temporary staff. This spend is now decreasing again.

Appraisals

The Trust’s usual appraisal window of 1 ^st April – 30^th June each year was extended to the end of July 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic response. At the end of the official reporting period LCHS achieved 94.83% (against a target of 95%), although by the end of September (to give time for all appraisals to be logged and documentation returned) this had increased to 96.14%, which exceeded the target and is another strong performance.

Staff Wellbeing

Our health and wellbeing offer, developed in 2020/21, continued to be delivered virtually within 2021/22 to support our people at various phases of the pandemic to encourage connection and create a sense of belonging.

• ‘Coaching for Resilience’ – A facilitated session for those new to and experienced in coaching, an opportunity for our people to explore, reflect and practice the benefit of adopting a coaching approach in order to supporting resilience in self and others.
• ‘Supported Conversations’ – A facilitated session, determined and led by the group with the intention of exploring situations, sharing experiences, reflecting and recognising impact and working with each other to generate insight and ideas.
• ‘Health and Wellbeing Conversations’ – a nationally-driven programme delivered by our Organisational Development Team to enable leaders and others to support their people to make decisions about their own Health and Wellbeing through facilitated conversations.
• Introduction of a Health and Wellbeing Helpline to act as a point of contact a triage and advisory support services, hosted by LCHS and available to staff in the Lincolnshire Health system.
• Innovative ways of communicating with staff using social media platforms including an LCHS Facebook page continued to keep people up-to-date with information and to share experiences.
• ‘Talk to TLT’ was introduced as a virtual platform for our executive and senior leaders to communicate with the organisation on a weekly basis.
• Our quarterly ‘Responsible Together’ events, were delivered virtually through Microsoft Teams consisting of a variety of guest speakers, enabling up to 100 leaders to connect and engage with each other.

Staff numbers and costs

The following tables provide an overview of staff distribution across staff groups and seniority grading within the trust for the full headcount for the trust, however, the number of whole-time equivalent (WTE) staff the trust has is post is 1812.

NHS Staff Survey results

The results from the national NHS Staff Survey are gauged against the other 15 community trusts and where applicable, results from previous years.

The survey response rate was 62%. This is a decrease of 1% from the 2020 survey and is 1% higher than the average national response rate for community trusts at 61%.

The overall Staff Engagement Score is 7.2 (out of 10) which is a decrease from 7.5 in 2020. This is the same as the average score for our national benchmarking group of community trusts.

The overall morale score is 6.1 (out of 10) which is a decrease from 6.4 in 2020. This is the same as the average score for our national benchmarking group of community trusts.

In comparison to benchmarking group, LCHS was above or the equal to the average in six of the People Promise elements and marginally below the average in the element of ‘We work flexibly’.

Health and safety at work

The accident figures for 2021-22 were consistent with a normal operating year. This is good considering the resuming of normal operations and pressure on services from ongoing covid outbreaks and backlog due to the pandemic. There were 123 staff accidents in the year as opposed to 91 last year (was very low that year due to restricted services and homeworking in the pandemic) and 117 the year before.

The types of injury are consistent with previous years, the majority resulted in no or low harm, and included:

• slips trips and falls
• needlestick (a needlestick injury is the penetration of the skin by a needle or sharp object), these have much reduced over the year.
• musculoskeletal (mainly sprains and strains and soft tissue damage), remain remarkably low.

There were 87 patient injuries reported that were almost all low harm. 11 resulted in moderate (short term harm). This was down on the 99 of last year and 116 of the year before. The majority of incidents were slips, trips and falls and work continues to assess patients and implement control measures as they come into LCHS’s care. The statistics indicate that staff performed extremely well under very difficult circumstances.

There were no RIDDOR (reportable to HSE) accidents in the year. This is outstanding. In previous years there are typically 2 or 3.

The health and safety input this year was focused on maintaining the control measures for COVID-19, (working closely with Infection Prevention and Control), and estate and contractor management.

Key activities included:

• Water quality - regular sampling of outlets and implementing controls to ultimately engineer out risks from legacy pipework and systems.
• Review of mandatory fire training resulting in a new online presentation.
• Gainsborough, John Coupland Hospital, Scotter Ward - advising on the monitoring of structural defects and the design of a new ward in the location of Morton Suite.
• Creating a “maximising control” risk assessment for premises to minimise the risks of transmission of COVID.
• Providing health and safety advice and assurance for the opening of Sexual Health Clinics in new premises in central Lincoln and Gainsborough.
• Advising/monitoring health and safety standards and compliance in Lincoln, Boston, Skegness and Louth Urgent Treatment Centres as improvement works progress and new facilities opened.
• Review of nine hospital estate fire procedures including the requirements to meet the Fire Service “call challenge" policy. This has commenced and continues to progress.
• Assisting in a fire audit undertaken by the trust’s Authorising Engineer Fire .
• The development of a new standard operating procedure and procedures for face-fit testing for respirators, worn to protect staff from airborne pathogens including COVID.
• The health and safety adviser attended a variety of online staff support groups. Take up of the groups and events remains very positive, especially for those who are vulnerable and those shielding/isolating. It has also provided invaluable insight to enable improvements to policy and procedures such as the COVID Staff Risk Assessments.
• The trust continued to support the Mass Vaccination Sites.

Maz Fosh, Chief Executive

Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust

Signature:

Date: 16 June 2022