Corporate report

UKHSA Advisory Board: People and Culture Committee minutes

Updated 20 November 2025

1. Recommendation

The Advisory Board is asked to note the minutes of 23 July 2025 meeting of the People and Culture Committee. The minutes were agreed on 29 October 2025.

2. Minutes (confirmed), UKHSA People and Culture Committee

Present at the meeting were:

• Sir Gordon Messenger – Non-Executive Member of UKHSA Advisory Board (Chair)
• Cindy Rampersaud – Non-Executive Member of UKHSA Advisory Board
• Mark Lloyd – Non-Executive Member of UKHSA Advisory Board
• Dyfed Alsop - Chief Operating Officer and deputy Chief Executive
• Jon Coking - Interim Director of People and Workplace

In attendance were:

• 8 attendees had their names and titles redacted

3. Welcome, apologies and declarations of interest

25/039 The Chair welcomed participants to the People and Culture Committee.

4. Minutes of the previous meeting and matters arising

25/040 The minutes from the previous meeting on 12 May 2025 (enclosure PAAC-25-015) were agreed.

25/041 The action list (enclosure PACC-25-016) was noted.

25/042 The Committee discussed action 24/101a) and emphasised the importance of identifying and managing risk in skills areas. A mechanism needs to be put in place to alert the agency of potential gaps to feed into decision making to reduce mitigation.

5. People and Workplace Directorate Update

25/043 The Director of People and Workplace presented Directorate Update (enclosure PACC-25-017).

25/044 The People and Culture Committee noted the report and the following points were discussed:

• there were three key areas of focus that were causing challenge; the Spending Review settlement and the anticipated impact this will have on staff, and the need to find potential savings. Despite being a long-term consideration, the relocation associated with the Science Hub is already a source of concern for staff. The final challenge was Surge and the importance to maintain workforce well-being amongst staff, while ready to respond to incidents when required. Leadership should foster an environment that enables staff to prioritise surge response.
• the challenge of unfilled budgeted roles (approximately 1000) was discussed and the need to align staffing plans with long-term affordability.
• the MaPS Programme gateway review was welcomed, and there were six recommendations that needed to progress. [Information redacted in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000]

25/045 The Chair welcomed the comprehensive update and encouraged full participation in Exercise Pegasus to expose real surge challenges, warning against shortcuts that mask operational risks.

6. Insights from People Survey

25/046 The Director of People and Workplace presented an update on the insights from the People Survey (enclosure PACC-25-018).

25/047 Key survey themes included a continued focus on leadership and managing change. Positive feedback was noted on the use of check-in surveys, and assurance that local plans are in place with some teams. However, improving engagement with these surveys remains important.

25/048 The People and Culture Committee noted the update and provided the following advice:

• the organisation-wide action plan received feedback suggesting a one-year timeframe may be too short. There was a question regarding extending it to two or three years and whether new priorities should be considered. Surveys should emphasise progress on known issues rather than reveal new issues. Multiple feedback channels (e.g. UKHSA Live, Pulse) should be used to guide action planning.
• The leadership development offer was updated, with a maturity assessment informing profession-specific detail aligned to strategic and workforce planning. It was recognised that leadership are looking at performance and SCS minimum standards across government to build an integrated learning approach.
• Learning and Development content was an important topic and performed well with strong staff engagement.
• the committee confirmed the next People Survey will launch on 21 September and run through to the end of the October. The Qualtrics platform contract has been renewed for one more year.

25/049 The committee recommended an update at the February PACC meeting of initial outputs from the People Survey.

7. Culture of Compliance

25/050 The Director of People and Workplace presented the update on the Culture of Compliance item (enclosure PACC-25-019).

25/051 ARC (Audit and Risk committee) had commissioned PaCC to review the Culture of Compliance within the organisation.  [Information redacted in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000]

25/052 The People and Culture Committee noted the report and provided the following steers and points to focus on: [Information redacted in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000]

25/053 It was recommended that POC (Performance and Operations Committee) should be provided with regular compliance reports relating to actions set out in the paper.

8. UKHSA Talent update including SCS talent and performance

25/054 [Titles redacted] presented the update on UKHSA’s Talent including SCS Talent and Performance (PACC-25-020). There will also be a closed session following the end of the meeting to discuss the talent approach and performance ratings of the SCS2 cohort.

25/055 The new talent management approach was presented, focusing on the  ”Own Your Talent” framework The importance of aligning talent management with organisational needs and the role of talent conversations in identifying top talent was noted. This approach has already been piloted with 500 staff in the Science Group. The next steps were to aim to implement a light-touch, organisation-wide approach to all grades.

25/056 The team informed that MaPS will be utilised to record talent ratings as a single point of talent data. This was being launched at the same time as the performance and development functionality on MaPs.

25/057 The People and Culture Committee noted and advocated the Own Your Talent’ management approach and raised the following points during discussion: [Information redacted in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000]

25/058 The Chair thanked the team and concluded that there was the need to distinguish between good and poor performance.

9. Forward look and topics for future meetings

25/059 The People and Culture Committee noted the Forward Look and suggested topics for future discussion (enclosure PACC-25-021). The following comments were made: - Early insights on Exercise Pegasus would be welcomed and a 3 week rhythm update from 18th September can commence.

10. Any other business and Close

25/060 There being no further business, the meeting closed at 3:38pm.