Accountability report menu
The maintenance and integrity of the Digital Health and Care Wales Special Health Authority website is the responsibility of the Accounting Officer. The work carried out by auditors does not involve consideration of these matters and accordingly auditors accept no responsibility for any changes that may have occurred to the financial statements since they were initially presented on the website.
As of 31 March 2023, there were 15 members of the Board, of which five were Executive Directors, three Directors and seven Independent Members including DHCW Chair and Vice Chair. There was movement within the year which is detailed in Appendix 1.
The People and Organisation Development Team works with the Directorates to support and manage the wellbeing of staff and sickness absence. Monthly performance reports are developed for Directorates and Executive colleagues to monitor sickness. Interventions to support managers are aligned to stated sickness reasons to ensure timely and effective interventions to support staff.
DHCW offers and provides staff with access to an Occupational Health Service and access to an Employee Assistance Programme, which family members can also access for free. The top reasons for sickness absence across the organisation during 2022/2023 were chest and respiratory problems (Covid-19). DHCW’s Health and Well-Being Group meet on a bi-monthly basis to ensure that we are continuously reviewing our well-being support offering for our staff.
The table 5 below shows the sickness absence levels during 2022/23. The current rate as at 31st March is 3.00% which benchmarks very favourably across NHS Wales.
All SHA policies and procedures are equality impact assessed against the nine protected characteristics, to ensure that they do not discriminate against people who apply to work in the SHA or are employed by the SHA. All policies and procedures are available to access via the DHCW website.
Additional policies were adopted and implemented throughout the year; they are as follows:
The new Strategic Equality Plan (SEP),which incorporated organisational anti-bullying and anti-racism commitments was developed in partnership with Staff Side Representatives, DHCW Staff and key external stakeholders and approved by the Board in March 2023.
This provided a key signal of the importance of equality, diversity, and inclusion for DHCW. The plan included a range of new commitments to be delivered over the coming years. As part of the SEP, EDI network will be established in May 2023 which will provide a new outlet for input and a voice for employees. The key commitments are detailed below:
The health and wellbeing of our people continues to be paramount.  In 2022/23, we successfully maintained the Gold Corporate Health Standard and have our Enhanced Status Check visit taking place on 29th April 2023 for re-accreditation for this year.  We also retained our certification for the BS76000 Valuing People and BS76005 Valuing People through Diversity and Inclusion Standards in October 2022.
During 2022/23, particular focus was on Financial Wellbeing where a dedicated space was created on SharePoint to signpost staff on various support features available, this jointly developed with trade unions. This was done in support of the cost-of-living challenges felt throughout 2022.
The organisation also took the opportunity during the DHCW Staff Conference in April 2022 to highlight external support such as Money and Pensions Service as well as compassionate leadership. Further resources were also made available to staff on a range of topics:
National Resources/Sharing best practice
DHCW also promoted and actively participated in a number of national campaigns, these are listed below.
Across Digital Health and Care Wales, several trained Mental Health First Aiders are available to talk to staff in confidence. In 2022 DHCW was proud to be a finalist in the Mental Health & Wellbeing at Work Wales awards in the category of Workplace Wellbeing.
During 2022/23 exit packages were approved for 1 staff with a value of £36,848 the exit costs were paid in 2022/2023 the year of departure. These packages were paid in accordance with recognised NHS terms and conditions of service/SHA Policy. None of the exit packages reported related to senior officers.
During 2022/2023 the SHA spent £0.742m of its revenue funding on external consultancy services. There is a small reduction in spend from £0.903m in 2021/2022.
For the purpose of the statutory accounts, consultancy is defined as time limited/ad-hoc assignments related to the provision of professional and strategic advice and not directly attributable to activities delivering digital products.
Examples include:
During 2022/2023 the SHA spent £1.290m of its revenue funding on temporary staff. This includes Temporary (agency) workers, Interim managers and Specialist Contractors. There is a reduction in spend from 2021/2022 is due to the use of an agency staff in the Datacentre Migration project in 2021/2022.
Following the Review of Tax Arrangements of Public Sector Appointees published by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury on 23 May 2012, departments must publish information on their highly paid and/or senior off-payroll engagements. The information, contained in the three tables below, includes all off-payroll engagements as at 31 March 2023 for those earning more than £245 per day for the core SHA and any hosted organisations.
Number (No.) of existing engagements as of 31 March 2023 23
Of which, no. That existed: less than one year10
for between 1 and 2 years11
for between 2 and 3 years2
for between 3 and 4 years0
for 4 or more years0
All the off-payroll engagements, outlined above, have at some point been subject to a risk-based assessment as to whether assurance is required that the individual is paying the right amount of tax, and where necessary, that assurance has been sought.
Number. of new engagements between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022 10
Of which...
Not subject to off-payroll legislation 10
Subject to off-payroll legislation and determined as in-scope of IR35 0
Subject to off-payroll legislation and determined as out-of-scope of IR35 0
No. of engagements reassessed for compliance or assurance purposes during the year 0
Of which: No. of engagements that saw a change to IR35 status following review 0
Number of off-payroll engagements of board members, and/or, senior officials with significant financial responsibility, during the financial year. 0
Number of individuals that have been deemed “board members, and/or, senior officials with significant financial responsibility”, during the financial year. This figure should include both off-payroll and on-payroll engagements. 0
I confirm that there is no relevant audit information in the Annual Report of which the Audit Wales is unaware. As Chief Executive, I have taken all the steps in order to make myself aware of any relevant information and ensure the Audit Wales is aware of that information.
Date: June 2023