12 March 2020

Those present:           

• Mostaque Ahmed, Finance Director and Managing Director, Finance, Portfolio and Performance 
• Ian Ailles, Director General of the House of Commons and representing In-House Services and Strategic Estates (Chair) 
• John Benger, Clerk of the House [items 1-6] 
• Sarah Davies, Clerk Assistant and Managing Director of Chamber & Committees 
• Eric Hepburn, Director of Security for Parliament 
• Tracey Jessup, Chief Information Officer and Managing Director of the Parliamentary Digital Service  
• Edge Watchorn, Acting Managing Director of Participation 
• Penny Young, Librarian and Managing Director of Research & Information 

Apologies: 

• Mandy Eddolls, Managing Director of HR and Diversity 
• Marianne Cwynarski, Head of Governance and Central Services and Secretary to the Commission 

In attendance:  

• Maxine Albert, Deputy Head of Diversity and Inclusion [item 6, ParliCare]
• Lee Bridges, Director, Members’ Services Team (representing Mandy Eddolls) 
• Jennifer Crook, Director of Operations (representing Strategic Estates) 
• Rhiannon Hollis, Secretary to the Commons Executive Board 
• Clare Jennings, Director of Communications     
• Markos Koumaditis, Human Resources Director (representing Mandy Eddolls) 
• Ian Meekums, Senior HR Adviser [item 6, ParliCare]
• Ugbana Oyet, Serjeant at Arms [item 3]
• Sarah Petit, Cultural Transformation Director
• Patsy Richards, Moves Director (representing In-House Services) 
• Hannah Rumney, Cultural Transformation Officer
• James Savva, Diversity and Inclusion Programme Manager [item 6, ParliCare]
• Katharine Williams, Governance and Compliance Manager 
• Jo Willows, Director of the Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme [item 4] 

Meeting

1. Updates and culture reflection

The Commons Executive Board noted the following updates:

• Actions arising from its previous meetings and the work of its sub-groups. 
• Coronavirus: The Board heard an update on the developing situation and Parliament’s response. Board members agreed to collaborate on producing a set of proposals, possibly phased, for service and workload reduction to limit face-to-face contact and to relieve pressure on staff at this difficult time.
• The Commons Executive Board reflected on culture and behaviour. In particular:
  • The Board recognised that staff and the wider Parliamentary community were facing another period of uncertainty and stress, affecting personal lives as well as the work environment, and affirmed that the values and behaviour code should not slip but rather be a support during this period. The Board discussed how it could act to avoid overburdening staff and agreed to consult the Strategy Development Group on this and to explore how to share capacity across teams; the Board also affirmed that if colleagues felt work was unmanageable they should use their voices and be heard.
  • The Board noted positive feedback from Members’ staff who were pleased by the level of support with Covid-19 provided by the House Service to them as a group.

2. Cultural Transformation: quarterly progress report and next steps

The Commons Executive Board reviewed progress against the phase 1 values implementation plan, reflecting on its leadership role as a Board and as individuals, and taking feedback from the Cultural Transformation team. The values and reflection time were felt to have proven helpful as a lens or tool in surfacing issues and giving coherence to the work to improve culture, though the issues coming out could be challenging to deal with. In particular the Cultural Transformation Director informed the Board that:

• positive feedback on MDs’ blogs, the response to John Bercow’s book, and the handling of the Elizabeth Tower project all pointed to a positive shift in culture.
• the Cultural Transformation Director had noticed that the Board often referred to culture during its meetings.
• the Board could do more for Workplace Equality Networks; ParliREACH in particular had reported that the culture changes did not do enough for BAME staff.
• more could be done to demonstrate engagement from senior leaders at the management level below the Board, such as role modelling and using their voices.
• colleagues seemed still to be fearful of being identified when speaking out.

The Board asked the Cultural Transformation team for support in sharing across teams any learning about problems and solutions and in helping MDs to get initiatives within their teams off the ground. The Board also noted that some teams did not have enough voice champions.

The Board considered the values implementation dashboard alongside the full results of the Everyone has a Voice culture survey, agreed next steps, including the approach to actioning and communicating the survey results as part of a wider approach and the phase 2 implementation plan, and agreed how progress would be reported to the Commission.

The Board also agreed the note of the “red flags” discussion that took place at its workshop on 5 March.

3. New access rules update

The Commons Executive Board noted a briefing from the Serjeant at Arms on the progress of the access rules pilot. There had been feedback from a variety of groups including Members, House staff and journalists, based on which only two of the eighteen areas in the pilot were causing any tension. Further feedback and metrics would be gathered and recommendations brought back the Board at the end of the pilot. The Board thanked the team for their work on this and noted that if required to make further decisions on access its priority would be for House staff of all grades to be treated equally.

4. ICGS update

The Commons Executive Board noted an update on the bicameral Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme (ICGS) work, including plans for the 18-month review due in June. The Board also agreed the joint ICGS Memorandum of Understanding with an amendment to paragraph 19b as requested by the Lords Management Board that the arrangements for the Valuing Everyone training were as stated ‘pending any review’.

5. Draft HR strategy

The Commons Executive Board agreed that the draft HR strategy could be taken forward, subject to minor amendments to the wording to be more inclusive of staff who worked bicamerally. The draft covered top-level plans; the HR team would go on to engage with teams on greater detail.

6. Diversity & Inclusion

• ParliCare: Establishment of a new Workplace Equality Network

The Commons Executive Board considered and agreed a proposal to create a new Workplace Equality Network for carers, ParliCare. The Board advised that ParliCare keep a narrow focus and not overstretch by committing to additional work such as reviewing equality analyses. The ParliCare team said that it would develop an action plan to set up the new WEN. The Board asked to be given an update, including on success measures, once the WEN was established.

The Board also agreed the need for a wider discussion on the role and resourcing of WENs, aligned with the Lords Management Board. The Diversity and Inclusion team would produce data on resourcing to support the discussion.

• Race and Culture in Parliament: follow up

The Commons Executive Board discussed feedback that more needed to be done to address discrimination on the grounds of race at Parliament, both in terms of the experience for BAME members of the community and the House Service’s response to any incidents that arose. The Board agreed that the Clerk, the Managing Director of HR & Diversity, the Board Champion for ParliReach and the Cultural Transformation Director would meet with the Chair of ParliReach to consult on what steps should be taken.

• Gender identity guidance update

This discussion was postponed to a future meeting.

7. Whistleblowing update

The Commons Executive Board noted the update.

8. SROs

The Commons Executive Board was reminded of an action to nominate colleagues for the pool of Senior Responsible Officers (SROs) to lead projects and programmes. Information on next steps would be provided before Easter.

9. Safeguarding update

The Commons Executive Board noted the update.

10. Restoration and Renewal

The Commons Executive Board noted the following papers:

• Briefing note: guide to R&R “Substantive”
• Draft Parliamentary Relationship Agreement (PRA), including the revised draft PRA and a note on subsequent amendments agreed on 6 March, a cover note including the status of subsidiary documents, the draft data sharing agreement and a note on IPA advice regarding the previous draft of the PRA.
• Minutes from the board meeting of Shadow Sponsor Body, 20 January
• Quarterly R&R report to the Commissions (Q3)

11. Performance reports

The Commons Executive Board noted the latest reports:

• Financial monitoring reportQuarterly progress report from the R&R shadow Sponsor Body to the Commissions: fifthreport (Q2of 2019/20)
• Performance report
• Portfolio performance report

12. Culture reflection

The Commons Executive Board reflected on its performance as a board over the course of the meeting and invited feedback on the teleconference experience.