TUESDAY 17 FEBRUARY 2004 @ 2:00 PM IN THE PICASSO ROOM St CLEMENTS HOSPITAL

      Present:  Annette Petty (Minutes), Elaiyne Jennings, Wendy Arbon, David Edginton, Arthur White, Ray Hill, Jamie Starling,         Steve Cook, Georgia Murray, Cliff Dawson, Philip Bloyce and Ian Talbot

      Apologies:  Sandra Smith, Kay Dawson, Val Dutton, Noel Maher, Glyn Reynolds, Judith Wilson, Ted Moore, David Kitchen (Frizzell),     Julie Cracknell, Gordon Morris and Paul Taylor

1.   Minutes of the last meeting

The minutes of the last meeting held on 20 January 2004 were agreed as a true and accurate record.

2.  Matters Arising

a)   Page 1 1a - Branch affiliation to all Suffolk Labour Party Constituencies within our County has now been submitted to Region (Central Suffolk & North Ipswich, Waveney, Central Suffolk, Bury St Edmunds, Stowmarket, Ipswich, Suffolk Coastal and Suffolk West. Ray Hill and Gordon Morris have been submitted as branch delegates to all constituencies which means that they will be able to attend any local party meeting within Suffolk.

b)   Page 1 2 - Risk Wise CD Rom’s received and distributed. Ian to order the IT Interactive CD Rom’s as requested.

c)   Page 1 2 - Regarding the HR reorganisation in the East - Stuart Wheeler, Acting HR Director is leaving the Trust on 25 February to join Anglia House in Norfolk (K Parker, Marie Roberts and Judith Alderton have all applied for the post interviews to take place on 8 and 9 March).

d)   Page 2 3d - Correction to minutes dated 20 January - Jamie has met with Carole Clarke who will be keeping Colin’s post vacant in the post room until Occupational Health have confirmed he is fit for work. However, if Colin is unable to resume his duties in the post room an alternative post will be found.

e)   Page 2 3e - Issues have been concluded at Sudbury CMHT and the maintenance contact has been handed back from West Suffolk to LHP.

f)    Page 3 4a - All winners have received their prizes from the recent prize draw held last month. 17 Non-member's who entered the prize draw have been sent a standard letter thanking them for taking part and enclosing a Unison recruitment pack encouraging them to join.

g)   Page 3 4c - Philip to contact Gill Lewis at Felixstowe in respect of staff induction dates.

h)   Page 3 4d - Judith Wilson attended Women’s National Conference and will be giving her report to the March meeting (there were a few issues around lesbian/gay members which were discussed at conference).

i)    Page 3 4e - Ian reminded the meeting that the new end of month reports should be sent into the branch on a monthly basis to comply with branch rules. Annette to email all as a reminder at the end of each month.

j)    Page 4 4f - Ray Hill to hold the Felixstowe sub AGM on Wednesday 17 March (change of date). The Branch AGM/Meeting to take place on Tuesday 16 March. Philip to hold the Bury St Edmunds sub AGM (date to be confirmed). Ian to email out posters/AGM notices ASAP (4 week deadline before AGM’s)

k)   Page 4 4h - Georgia thanked everyone for the lovely flowers from the Branch. Matt sent in a Thank-You card to the branch for the M&S vouchers we sent him. Ted Moore had a fall earlier this morning and has subsequently broken a bone in his shoulder.  Annette to organise a Get Well card and some vouchers.

3.  Urgent Correspondence

a)   Agenda For Change                                                                                                                                                                     Annette has posted to all the reps/stewards a report from Geoff Reason giving details of the roll-out of Introductory Training for branches/activists during February/March and possibly April. Annette also to email out the summary booklet in electronic format and has ordered 100 A4C posters to be distributed to reps/stewards countywide showing contact details of the reps for members of staff. Local Heath Partnerships NHS Trust Chief Executive, Stuart Wheeler has introduced an implementation plan which will include 3 PCT’s i.e. Waveney and Suffolk West. A report entitled “Implementation of Agenda for Change” by Stuart Wheeler has been sent to Harper Brown, Ana Selby and Lesley Watts on 9 February requesting them to make five key decisions to enable the launch of the project.

b)   Stewards Nominations                                                                                                                                                                   Andrea Boakes representing Lowestoft constituency and Elaiyne Jennings (nominated by Georgia Murray) representing LHP NHS Trust in Suffolk House, St Clements Hospital in Ipswich were both ratified as new stewards for the branch. Annette to contact their employer as appropriate.

c)   Case Forms                                                                                                                                                                                      These new forms are for stewards/reps to complete for each case. Ian re-iterated that stewards/reps should check member status before support is offered e.g. disciplinary. If the case is proving too difficult to handle, then the case is passed onto the Branch Secretary/Chair with the form to continue. Steve commented that the case form is difficult to complete and needs to be redesigned. It was decided that the form may be redesigned to be more “user friendly” if appropriate and the amended forms to will implemented from 1 April 2004 if required.

d)   Sandra Smith                                                                                                                                                                                 Sandra will be retiring from the Trust on 30 March and has organised a “farewell” at the St Clement’s Social Club from 12 noon. All are welcome to attend and say goodbye.

e)   Bullying & Harassment Lectures                                                                                                                                                         Ian, and Linda Durrant have been organising a series of small lectures for staff at Stow Lodge Centre - provisional dates are 28,29 and 30 April (date to be confirmed). The lectures will last approximately 2 hours. Hartismere is another area which would benefit from these lectures - Ian to contact Linda for dates. Philip to contact Avril Wright, HR Director for LHP interest.

f)    PC Training for Branch Representatives                                                                                                                                        Annette to contact Jenny Watson at Region to book some provisional dates in April for basic pc training which Ian will be running.  Annette to email reps for interest (up to 8 maximum). Initially there will be a one day course with a half day follow-upin May. Paul, Cliff and Arthur would like training at present.

g)   Walton on the Naze                                                                                                                                                                            The Trust’s Facilities Department is now taking booking for the holiday home for use by our resident patients, and our Trust staff and families during the 2004 season. Please contact Cathy Franklin on 01473 329323 or quangan.franklin@lhp.nhs.uk for further information.

h)   David Kitchen - Frizzell Insurance                                                                                                                                       Unfortunately, David has sent his apologies for today’s meeting (he was originally attending the AGM on 16 March) - Annette to contact David next week and arrange a mutually convenient date/time to call into the office.

3.     Steward/Officer Reports

a)   Jamie Starling                                                                                                                                                                                  Jamie reported that there is a problem with some of the Hotel Services Staff. The Manager wants them to change their breaks for those staff who work less than 6 hours a day. The other issue concerns the modification/changing of the catering office changing room into the staff room which is to be moved to the domestic room and consequently staff are not  happy. Jamie has emailed Carole Clarke/Barbara Kemp and has received replies. These proposals were discussed at the regular monthly meetings held and someone leaked the information to the staff. Problem is ongoing - no changes to take place until the staff have been spoken to. It is important that Unison is briefed first before the staff - no risk assessment has been carried out in the area. Andy Willcox is writing to Risk Management in respect of the proposed changes. Jamie is on A/L for the next 2 weeks - if any problems arise please contact the Branch.

b)   Steve Cook                                                                                                                                                                                         The bullying/harassment problem which had occurred on one of the ward’s has been resolved and the member returned to work today. However the protocol/procedures have not been implemented as per the Trust Directive. Val Dutton is looking at the Risk Assessment side and HR are advising the Manager on their responsibilities. The case is now closed subject to review. Annette had sent 2 forms for a potential new steward/H&S rep but no reply to date. The remainder of the staff on the ward are highly stressed and there is also a uniform problem to be dealt with.

c)   Georgia Murray                                                                                                                                                                             Georgia has currently been dealing with a Bullying & Harassment case regarding a member who met with HR on 6 February - but since Georgia has been off sick for the past few weeks she will be contacting the member at work to follow up the next stage.

d)   Philip Bloyce                                                                                                                                                                                     Philip has received some returned questionnaires which were sent out in January regarding concerns of available facilities/availability to support current employment relations/issues affecting us all in the workplace. Overall, the response has been poor - he has resent questionnaires to those reps who did not reply.

4.   AOB

a)   Presentation of Agenda For Change - David Edginton                                                                                                                    David has been selected as the Regional Trainer for A4C and will be training panels on job matching/job evaluation/job analysis within the various trusts. There are 10 sites for each panel and 3 days to carry out the training. The full presentation normally takes 2 hours but David showed the “cut down version” to the meeting which consisted of 19 slides. The Strategic Health Authority is leading on the project and that it is a “Joint Staff/Management” project. Following on from Geoff Reason’s report which has been circulated to all David needs to get volunteers/staff interested in joining 3 panels so that there is a 50/50 balance of staff/management on board working together. In total there will be 21 staff/21 management on the panels. He has attended the 6 day training course and will be  undertaking a PowerPoint presentation course at Region next month. Georgia Murray has volunteered in joining the panel. The meeting decided that a working group needs to be established to see exactly how the system will work. The first task being to write and evaluate 4 job descriptions before the next branch meeting in March. It was decided that Ray Hill (HCA), Georgia Murray (Admin), Steve Cook (Nursing) and Wendy Arbon (Ancillary) would draft these JD’s for evaluation at the first meeting to be held before the next branch meeting - Annette to organise. The final vote on A4C will be taking place  in September 2004.

b)   RMS - Regional Membership System                                                                                                                                                   The Branch went “live” on 9 February for RMS inputting which means that all new applications/changes of address/name will be processed in the branch rather than by Region. RMS stands for Regional Membership System and the branch will be able to access reports on current members/retired members and other information. The branch will be running alongside RMS the excel database which was currently in use before RMS. 10 new members have joined since 9 February and 3 members are now retired.

Date/Time Next Meeting

The next meeting will be the main AGM and take place on Tuesday 16 March at 2pm (Lunch from 1.15pm) in the Picasso Room, St Clements Hospital.

There being no further business, the meeting closed at 4:30 pm.

Any agenda items to be forwarded to Annette a week prior to the meeting.