Health Sector Relationship Agreement Steering Group

The Health Sector Relationship Agreement (HSRA) Steering Group is a tripartite forum consisting of representatives from district health boards (DHBs), the Council of Trade Unions (CTU) and affiliated unions and the Crown represented by senior Ministry of Health officials. In late 2016 the HSRA Steering Group made a decision to sponsor High Performance High Engagement (HPHE) as a priority for the HSRA work programme in 2017. Read more about HPHE.


Updates

This web page will be updated as DHBs and unions move through various stages. There may be case studies, links to DHBs sites and a link to the central framework once consultation is complete and agreement reached.


August 2017

The HSRA Steering Group sponsored a forum held at the Ministry in February 2017. All 20 DHBs were represented at the forum together with senior union leaders from the CTU, E tū, the New Zealand Nurses Organisation, the PSA, the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, New Zealand Resident Doctors' Association, APEX, Medical Laboratory Workers Union, and Ministry officials. The HSRA Steering Group has determined that the ongoing project will be managed through a tripartite approach.

There were several presenters at the forum from groups already involved in High Performance High Engagement and all participants received copies of the forum presentations.

Following the Forum the HSRA Steering Group requested that Ministry and CTU facilitate visits to all DHBs that were willing. That resulted in visits at 17 out of the 20 DHBs. The meetings at DHBs were joint meetings with unions and provided a further forum for interested DHBs to follow up on High Performance High Engagement and how it might be introduced in the health sector.

Next steps

Now that the initial DHB/union meetings are complete some DHBs are looking at taking the next steps. The Ministry intends to work with DHBs and unions to develop a central framework that will underpin any High Performance High Engagement work undertaken in DHBs.

A forum will be held in Wellington on 12/13 September 2017 for the purposes of developing a central framework.  DHBs that have signalled an early interest in HPHE are being asked to bring several management representatives, a representative from the Ministry will attend along with four representatives from TAS who will undertake a “training the trainers” programme to eventually form an additional resource for DHBs.  The national union leaders will attend and will also support attendance from local organisers and/or delegates from the four DHBs.

Once the draft central framework has been developed it will be circulated for consultation among other DHBs that have indicated an interest in HPHE and the unions.  Finally it will be accepted by the HSRA.  The framework will form the basis for the overall HSRA sponsored HPHE initiative and DHBs wishing to participate in the HSRA sponsored initiative and access Ministry funding will need to commit to the principles of the central framework.

In this section

  • High Performance High Engagement (HPHE) is a way of working through engagement between management and unions. Although a partnership is sought between management and unions, all of the workforce will be involved, regardless of whether individuals are union members or not Read more
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