Senior Management Team Meeting - Minutes - 27 August 2024

Attendees

  • Alison Irvine, Interim CEO - Chair

Aviation, Maritime, Freight and Canals

  • Gary Cox (GC)

Bus, Accessibility and Active Travel

  • Bettina Sizeland (BS) - Director

Finance and Corporate Services

  • Kerry Twyman (KT) - Director
  • Elaine Herd (Item 3-5)
  • Steven Wylie (Item 3-5)
  • Lorna Clark (Item 5)
  • Matt Millar (item 6)
  • Jason Connelly (item 10)

Ferries

  • Roddy Macdonald (RMc) - Director

Major Projects

  • Lawrence Shackman (LS) - Director

Rail

  • Bill Reeve (BR) - Director

Roads

  • Hugh Gillies (HG) - Director

Transport Strategy and Analysis

  • Fiona Brown (FB) - Interim Director

Non-executive director

  • John Matheson (JM)

People Directorate

  • Rachel McGregor (RM) - HRBP

CEO Office

  • Mark Dunlop
  • Pam Yorke

Apologies

  • Morna Cannon, Interim Director - Low Carbon Economy

Update

AI advised the OD paper had been shared with Directors and asked for any final comments.

KT provided an update on the current budget commissions.

SCS Performance Management

RM provided a short presentation on the new Performance Management and appraisal system for SCS.

Actions from last meeting

SMT provided updates on the outstanding actions from the last meeting.

Risk

SW advised that risk would discussed in more detail at the next meeting following the Audit & Risk Committee and the DG Assurance meeting. It was agreed that there needed to be more consistency in the scoring and regular review of the mitigations if the overall score is not reducing.  The deep dive on Climate would be postponed to another meeting following the good discussion which took place at the Climate Change Board last week

Corporate Dashboard

SW provided details of the correspondence stats. It was noted that they had been at a consistent level since last July and SMT were asked to pass on thanks to their teams.

SW advised that following recent guidance from SG EIRs should not have the clock stopped when questions around scope are made.

SW provided details of the business travel costs in TS.  AI requested SW bring this item to back to SMT and provide a comparison of spend on last year/month and to identify any trends.  SW advised that travel policies are being reviewed and an article would be published on expenses in next month’s staff news

A recent Audit report had highlighted that gift and hospitality offers which are declined should also be recorded on the system.  SMT were also asked to encourage staff to use pool cars rather than hire cars and to minimise the use of own cars.

Action - Comparison on business travel costs to identify trends be brough back to SMT - SW

Action - article to be published on expenses in staff news - SW

GDPR

LC covered the monitoring report and highlighted the storage audit and explained we are  running out of time before the move. Teams have a target of August for completion and Directors are asked to make sure they have plans in place for this.

A reminder that everyone should complete their mandatory Data protection training.

SMT advised they were happy to endorse recommendations in the report.

Comms

MM provided an update on the plans for PfG.

Action: HST fleet replacement - ensure Cab Sec Transport escalates to Cab Sec Finance - BR

Action: Road safety speed campaign - AO template to be escalated through the system for marketing spend - HG

Action: HG mentioned possibility of an opportunity at Brechin around the A90 bridge repairs to showcase both resilience response. Provide MM dates for opportunities - HG

Action: Places for everyone - advise on handling of sensitivities around this announcement with stakeholders - BS

Finance

KT asked everyone to review the finance report capital spending target. The Audit & Risk Committee is being held tomorrow and the accounts will be signed off following this.

HRMI update and Exit Interviews

EH provided an overview of the vacancies and staff numbers in TS and was asked to provide the following information at the next Corporate SMT.

  • Posts which are backfill or new vacancies, temporary or permanent.
  • Assurances from Directors that the vacancy is affordable.
  • Monthly total headcount check data in March.
  • Provide headcount rather than total posts.
  • Figures on how we compare to other parts of SG on AWDL.
  • Provide a bullet point summary monthly for Directors on Exit interviews

H&S update

The Mental Health Strategy - HR are leading on this along with internal comms. EH advised the wellbeing action plan is being drafted and will be sent to DS for sign off.

JC advised he attended Directorate team meetings as part of the H&S charter and regularly attended meetings with Roads and Major Projects but would like to attend others. AI advised JC to reach out to teams to organise this.

Action - H&S Risks assessments were still required for Rail visits. BR will pick up with Damian - BR

The H&S committee meeting require one other Director to attend along with BR.  JC was asked to create a rota for attendance and circulate round the SMT.

AOB

SMT were asked to feed in their comments on moving SMT to a Tuesday morning to PY.

The next meeting will be on 25 September.


Published Date 27 Aug 2024 Type Topic