CPS Board meeting minutes - October 2022
Thursday 06 October, 14:00-16:45
Private Office Boardroom, Floor 9, 102 Petty France / MS Teams
Members
Monica Burch (C), Max Hill KC, Sue Hemming, Mark Hammond, Simon Jeffreys, Kathryn Stone (observer)
Guests
Steve Buckingham (attending all items), Baljit Ubhey (attending item 5 and 7), Scott Dawes (attending item 5), Rachel Zaltzman (attending item 5), Dawn Brodrick (attending item 6), Jamie Booth (attending item 6), Gregor McGill (attending item 8)
Secretariat
Max Looker, Harry Spooner
Item 1: Declaration of any conflicts
1. Board members had no new conflicts of interest to declare.
Item 2: Minutes of the last meeting and matters arising
2. The Chair welcomed Sue Hemming to her first CPS Board meeting as interim CEO. The Board congratulated Sue on her appointment. The Chair also welcomed Steve Buckingham, Chief Financial Officer (CFO), to his first Board meeting as a full attendee.
2.1 The Chair welcomed Kathryn Stone to her first Board meeting as a CPS Non-Executive Board member.
2.2 The Board agreed to appoint a new reporting line for the IAC once the new Non-Executive Board members had been fully onboarded.
Item 3: Update from the DPP and interim CEO
3. The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) provided an update on:
a. Interim CEO appointment
b. Senior Leadership Conference (SLC) and Hybrid Working discussions at the SLC
c. Civil Service 2025 commission
d. Spending Review 2022
e. Bar action outcomes
3.1 The interim CEO provided an update on:
a. Immediate priorities in the role
b. Retaining responsibility for RASSO and VAWG
c. Operational recovery and performance
d. Catch up with the HMCTS CEO to discuss Common Platform and court backlogs
e. Embedding a refreshed governance model in relation to Executive Group and Sub-Executive Group meetings
3.2 The DPP and interim CEO discussed the creation of an interim Director of Operational Change and Delivery role. The post-holder would ease the pressure of the two remaining Director of Legal Services by holding a focus on operational recovery and working with partners across the Criminal Justice System.
Item 4: Annual Review of Terms of Reference and Revised Board Operating Framework
4. Max Looker, Corporate Governance Manager, presented a revised Terms of Reference for the Board, the Audit, Risk and Assurance Committee (ARAC) and the Nominations, Leadership and Renumeration Committee. Max also presented a revised Board Operating Framework (BOF).
4.1 Max noted the BOF and ToR’s had been revised to consider the recommendations from the Board Effectiveness Evaluation exercise. The Board discussed the importance of the ToR’s joining up to reflect clearly the responsibility of each governance group and where matters would be delegated.
4.2 The Board agreed to provide editorial comments to Max by the 13th October. The BOF and Board ToR would go to the Board for agreement at the next Board meeting on 31st October. The Board noted the ARAC and NLRC ToRs would go to ARAC and NLRC for agreement.
Item 5: Quarterly Review of 2022/23 Business Plan
5. The Board welcomed Baljit Ubhey, Director of Strategy and Policy (SPD), Rachel Zaltzman, Deputy Director of Strategy and Policy and Scott Dawes, Senior Strategy Advisor. Baljit, Rachel and Scott provided an overview of mid-year progress against the Business Plan.
5.1 Rachel noted good progress had made with the Business Plan outputs, especially in relation to Spending Review (SR) 2021 commitments such as Operational Recovery, Casework Quality and the Joint National Action Plan. Rachel discussed 57 projects which were due in the second half 2021/2022, noting operational pressures had made delivery of outputs through partners and suppliers challenging.
5.2 Rachel discussed the Business Plan Assurance Group (BPAG) and the progress put in place to scrutinise the delivery of business plan outputs on a monthly basis. Rachel noted BPAG were considering the lessons learnt from the last Business Plan exercise to ensure the right level of ambition was in place for 2022/23.
5.3 The Board noted SPD should highlight which outputs have a partner or third-party dependency, what success means for each output, and how the organisation are responding to outputs which do not meet the criteria of success. The Board discussed the helpfulness of an overarching narrative on the progress of outputs and where the Board could assist.
5.4 The Board approved the Business Plan 2022/23 Mid-Year Review.
Item 6: 3 Year Strategic Workforce Plan
6. The Board welcomed Dawn Brodrick, Chief People Officer, and Jamie Booth, Head of People Analytics and Strategic Workforce Planning. Dawn and Jamie presented the organisation’s 3 Year Strategic Workforce Plan.
6.1 Dawn discussed how the plan was developed in consultation with senior leaders across the organisation, including analytic insight of the external job market and the key employment challenges faced by the CPS. Dawn noted the importance of building flexibility into the plan.
6.2 Dawn discussed the 6 key investment priorities for the workforce plan, noting the CPS were embarking on a period of significant workforce growth to meet demand associated with RASSO, operational recovery, the changing nature of crime and the police officer uplift programme.
6.3 Dawn noted the areas of action for workforce supply, including retaining talent, the CPS growing its own people, resourcing flexibly and deploying resource effectively. Dawn discussed the importance of a good supply of Crown Prosecutors for the longevity of the organisation. Dawn also spoke of the shift from a place-based strategy to a work-based strategy in the backdrop of hybrid working.
6.4 Dawn provided a three-year overview of how the plan would progress, with a frontload of resourcing in 22-23, building skills across the workforce in 23-24 and looking flexibly as to how resource would be used in 24-25. Dawn noted the plan would deliver real tangible benefits to the organisation in the next 18-24 months.
6.5 The Board discussed the organisations ageing workforce and a lack of entry in the legal sector for people of a particular age. Dawn discussed the proactive steps the People Function were taking to monitor the trajectory of the age at which people leave the workforce.
6.6 The Board discussed the importance of tracking the resource brought into the organisation as part of the strategic plan, noting how the quality of the workforces develop over time.
6.7 The Board discussed the usefulness of a strategic workforce dashboard to frame the metrics within the paper and provide a clearer focus for the Board on the core issues.
6.8 The Board discussed the success of recruiting graduates into the organisation and the challenges around Senior Crown Prosecutor recruitment. The interim CEO noted the importance of advertising the opportunities a career as a Crown Prosecutor can provide.
Item 7: RASSO update – Regional Variations
7. The Board welcomed back Baljit to the meeting. Baljit and the interim CEO provided an overview of regional variations for RASSO performance.
7.1 The interim CEO provided the following highlights on RASSO performance:
7.2 The Board discussed the production of a dashboard to monitor metrics such as RASSO timeliness and police file quality. The interim CEO noted the Performance and Risk Group, with the aid of academics, were evaluating the impact of the RASSO Programme Board and Op Soteria.
Item 8: Disclosures Update
8. The Board welcomed Greg McGill, Director of Legal Services. Greg provided an update on delivering change in the approach taken to disclosure in the Serious Economic, Organised Crime and International Directorate (SEOCID).
8.1 Greg discussed the progress and activity made in SEOCID, including the appointment of disclosure champions, practical training to upskill prosecutors, allocation of further resource for large cases and routine dip sampling to assess the quality of Disclosure Management Documents.
8.2 The Board agreed Greg would accompany the Non-Executives to a SEOCID Area visit. Greg noted he would facilitate the visit and provide a briefing to the Non-Executives beforehand. Greg discussed the positive impact the Board would have by visiting CPS Areas to discuss the challenges around disclosure.
8.3 Greg and the DPP noted that despite challenges around disclosure, there had been a significant improvement when it came to a culture of openness and sharing around disclosure. The Board agreed Greg would continue to provide assurance to the Board on disclosure progress.
Item 9: AOB
9. The Board sent their thanks and well wishes to the Secretariat, who had accepted a new role with MOJ.
Secretariat
October 2022