CPS Board meeting minutes - November 2020

Monday 23 November, 09:30-12:30
Microsoft Teams Meeting

Members

Monica Burch (C), Max Hill QC, Rebecca Lawrence, Caroline Wayman, Mark Hammond

Guests

Dawn Brodrick, Baljit Ubhey, Mark Gray, Grace Moronfolu, Graham Ritchie, Grace Ononiwu, Helen Starkey, Parveen Hassan, Dave Beaumont

Secretariat

Board Secretariat, Head of Private Office

Item 1: Minutes of the Last Meeting and Matters Arising

1.    The Board reviewed and agreed the minutes of the last meeting. 
1.1    Progress was noted against outstanding actions. 

Item 2:  Update from the DPP

2    The DPP provided an update on the following: 
a.    The Ministerial Strategic Board 
b.    Recent meetings 
c.    RASSO
d.    Remote hearings and the Video Hearing Services (VHS)
e.    Covid safety in courts
f.    Temporary time-limited actions to support backlog response 
g.    COVID-19 vaccine
h.    The upcoming virtual Senior Leadership Conference 
2.1    Rebecca Lawrence, Chief Executive (RL) provided an update on the following:
a.    Backlog Pressures 
b.    Spending Review
c.    Common Platform 
d.    The internal collaborative review by Chief People Officer on internal governance and role clarity
e.    Senior Leadership Recruitment 
2.2    The Board asked for and was provided with further detail on the Spending Review outcome.

Item 3: ICE Assurance Board/NBCPA Race Disparity Report

3.1    The Chair of the National Black Crown Prosecution Association (NBCPA) introduced the work of the NBCPA, the background to the report and commended the report for the Board’s consideration. 
3.2    The board were updated on the external work ahead to look at race disproportionality in the Criminal Justice System, how to make community engagement business as usual and public perceptions.
3.3    The Board were asked to consider the tone of the strategy so that it confidently frames the work as a necessity.  
3.4    The Board stated its role was to hold the executive to account to ensure change was effected.  The Board was ambitious for the organisation, now was an opportunity for enacting real and lasting change to address the issues raised.  
3.5    The Board outlined its expectations for the work.
3.6    It was agreed as an action that ahead of the Inclusion and Community Engagement Strategy coming to the Board, it sees a further item on work detailing which recommendations are proposed for acceptance, the actions suggested and the plan for future data-led progress updates. 
3.7    The Board thanked the NBCPA for the report, and for all of the thought leadership and work done to date by the CPS team.

Item 4: Common Platform

4    Mark Gray (MG), Director of Operations, Digital and Commercial, provided a verbal progress update on the early adopters pilot 
4.1    An update was provided on the CPS workstreams 
4.2    The Board thanked MG for the update and noted the upcoming item from HMCTS.

Item 5: COVID-19 and Wellbeing Update

5    The pressures on teams were noted and the steps taken so far to address them were outlined. Key points included the need for specific actions for middle managers, and the ongoing work on what the organisation should look like going into Spring post-vaccine landscape. 
5.1    The Board noted:
a.    The need to ensure wellbeing issues are not underplayed as a result of their long-term prevalence
b.    Agreement that line managers need specialist support
c.    The need to challenge unreasonable working hours in lockdown
d.    A nil return on Whistleblowing, and whether this was an impact of lockdown.
5.2    It was agreed that the Board would be provided with an update on the line manager issue in 2021. 
5.3    The Board endorsed the recommendations in the papers.  The Board asked for further detail on the impact on Whistleblowing.

Item 6: Board Effectiveness Evaluation Recommendations Action Plan

5.4    The actions on governance set out in the report were being taken forward by the Chief People Officer in conjunction with the Directors of Legal Services. 
5.5    The Board noted:
a.    Its confidence in the Action Plan 
b.    The need for Senior Leader Update emails to align with existing Executive Group cascade mechanisms 
c.    Their support for NEBMs virtual visit involvement
5.6.    The Board endorsed the Action Plan with thanks. 

Item 7: AOB

9.1    The DPP noted suitable virtual CPS engagement events for NEBMs to join. It was agreed that further dates would be circulated to the NEBMs for participation.

Secretariat 
November 2020