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TUESDAY 20 APRIL 2004 @ 2:00 PM IN THE PICASSO ROOM St CLEMENTS HOSPITAL
Present: Cliff Dawson, Paul Taylor, Judith Wilson, Ray Hill, David Edginton, Margarita England, Julie Cracknell, Ian Talbot, Philip Bloyce (Chair), Arthur White and Annette Petty (Minutes) Apologies: Steve Cook and Julie Harrison
Philip welcomed David Beechener from UIA insurance and Linda Durrant, Regional Bullying & Harassment Officer to the meeting. 1. Presentation by UIA David gave a 20 minute overview presentation to the meeting on the services and products provided by UIA to Unison members (which include home/travel/pet/subsidiary products). It is a Union insurance company which is 100 years old, non profit making, and mutually owned by its policy holders, based in Stevenage, Hertfordshire. Their main business is home insurance (to include buildings/contents) and policy holders receive a discount for insuring the combination. For further information their website address is www.uia.co.uk or telephone 08000 322 223. Their mission statement is supportive/values/principles/360 degree communication.
2. Minutes of the last meeting The minutes of the last meeting held on 16 March 2004 were agreed as a true and accurate record.
3. Matters Arising a) Page 1 2 - Ray Hill is standing down as Political Officer as he will be retiring later this year. b) Page 2 3 - Britannia Road shows have been very successful countywide - Philip has emailed Debby Tedder at Britannia with the staff induction dates across the County as she expressed an interest in attending. Philip, Tolly and Annette to meet with Debby on 27 May to plan six dates for Autumn road shows. c) Page 3 5c - Tolly has made contact with John Levantis at Suffolk Coastal regarding the free pages for Unison benefits to be included in their staff handbook.
4. Urgent Correspondence a) Ratification of Stewards Nominations have been received from Anita Richardson - Steward - Learning Disabilities, Stourmead Close and Mark Hillis - Steward - Bartlet Hospital - Coastal PCT. The new stewards were ratified at the meeting and Annette to inform employer/send welcome letter & pack out respectively. b) Nomination Forms - Following the AGM held in March, the following stewards have not sent in a nomination form and therefore have not been re-elected for 2004/2005: Matthew Robinson (long term sick leave), Margaret Goddard, Marilyn Wright (left Trust), Sandra Smith (Retired), Jamie Starling (Resigned), Ken Abbott, Julia Hunt, Carl Dosoruth, Linda Bird and Louise Tym - Annette to write to stewards. Philip, Tolly and Annette have looked at the constituencies for the stewards/reps 2004/05 - Annette to write to each steward informing them of their respective constituencies and include a Notification of Workplace Representative form to be completed with their up to date personal details for Region. c) Geoff Reason, Regional Head of Health has agreed to hold six in-house training days for all stewards/reps to attend which will be held from 9am to 1pm before the Branch Meetings commencing in May, in the Martello Room, Bartlet Hospital, Felixstowe. The remainder of the training dates are July, September, October, November and December - Annette to notify all by letter in due course. If there are any training issues which anyone feels should be addressed please contact Tolly by email/mobile. In general, the Branch will be extremely busy in the coming 12 months especially with Agenda for Change imminent.
5. Linda Durrant - Regional Women’s Officer Linda introduced herself to the meeting and spoke on the issues of bullying/harassment within the Region. She is the Region’s Women’s Officer, but is mostly involved with complaints of bullying/harassment. Linda covers East Anglia and the Service Groups - in the past 7 years there have been more bullying/harassment cases than sexual harassment dealt with. She works with branches and employers negotiating policies, providing advice and implementing policies. In addition she undertakes consultancy work with employers and managers helping them to improve the management of the policy and guidelines issued. It takes one day to train every manager on bullying/harassment. Courses for employers are charged at £300 per day + costs to Linda on “How to investigate Harassment and Bullying” - numbers are limited to 16 maximum and 8 minimum. Investigations are also carried out on behalf of employers. UNISON says “Harassment and Bullying are separate issues”. Harassment is a one off situation usually but bullying can be ongoing. In the first instance, stewards should contact the Branch Secretary with any bullying/harassment incident - a lot of preparation needs to be carried out initially by the Branch. The Branch website www.suffolkhealthcare.com has a lot of information on bullying/harassment under “frequently asked questions” which Tolly has been working on the past few months. Linda handed out an “Extract BBC Business Bullying at Work Guide” for information. Linda to run a one day course for reps/stewards to attend at St Clements Hospital - Annette to confirm dates with Linda (l.durrant@unison.co.uk) and inform stewards/reps by letter - which will include investigation on bullying/harassment case and how to look after the member at Branch level. Philip to contact Human Resources to find out if there is any interest for the employer one day course.
6. Stewards Reports a) Arthur White - Patrick Stead Arthur re-iterated from last month’s meeting regarding the night staff at Beccles Hospital on the internal rotation. He was advised the Flexible Working Policy route should be followed and staff should be advised to say “No” to the rotation until managers have consulted with the Unions. Regarding the closure of the Livingstone Ashford Unit at Beccles, Human Resources have not answered all the questions put to them at the meeting held on 2 April - however most of the staff are quite happy about moving on to alternative areas. b) Paul Taylor - Walker Close Paul reported that he is currently dealing with a member problem at Eccles Road. He is also meeting with the Risk Manager tomorrow regarding a H&S matter on the fire doors at Walker Close. Paul and Ray to organise a follow-up inspection at Central Stores, Ransomes Europark. c) Judith Wilson - Sudbury CMHT Judith to speak to Tolly regarding a work colleague problem - she is also their manager and needs advice on how to deal with the situation. d) Ian Talbot Ian reminded the stewards that if a member contacts the branch and wants advice/support they should first go through their local representative even if the member has reservations speaking to them. He reiterated that the local reps/stewards have been elected to represent those members’ constituencies and therefore should represent their members accordingly.
7. AOB a) Women’s Conference Judith Wilson attended conference in February at Harrogate. In general the conference was very positive, many issues were raised and supported to include work/life balance, environment, domestic violence, cot deaths and other controversial issues including prostitution and female genitalia mutilation. b) Outstanding Officer Nominations
As there were no nominations for the above posts, they will be held open. c) Agenda for Change Following the questionnaire Philip sent out to all staff side reps regarding the facilities time involved in the A4C roll out - the PCT 1st steering group meeting has been held and the launch date for A4C will be on Friday 14 May to be held either at Suffolk House, SCH or the Board Room, Hartismere Hospital, Eye. Philip will be giving joint briefings with HR to staff following the launch. A project manager has been employed to oversee the project. 5 PCT’s will be rolling out the A4C collectively and are looking for 80 staff to help (40 staff/40 managers). Philip met with Mick Cook on 19 April on behalf of Suffolk Mental Health Partnership Team to discuss the new recognition agreement i.e. Facilities Agreement - time off for employees - with a view to using retired staff. The launch date for the Mental Health Trust is 17 May which will be followed by a week of events. It was agreed that any retired manager or staff who returns to work will be paid the same or equal value to A4C and time off is not an issue for staff undertaking training. A paper is being sent to the Trust Executive on 21 April. Human Resources are sending Philip a template of 20 Job Descriptions to include Qualified and Unqualified Nurses to be adapted/approved/agreed as requested. He reiterated that “we need to be on the ball” with regard to getting the JD’s correct - 60% of the mental health trust have appraisals in place and the JD is part of this procedure. However in LHP the appraisal/JD are not linked. Tolly to sit on the Communications Group. It is important that reps/stewards who work for the PCT’s attend the Trust Council meetings regarding the implementation of A4C. Unison will be balloting it’s members for the second time in the coming months - implementation of A4C is 1 October 2004. d) Healthcare Conference - Glasgow Ray asked for advice on how to vote on the 15 motions printed in the March issue of Focus. Ian advised him to vote “Yes” on the following items and to email him with any outstanding issues before he leaves for Conference:
Date/Time Next Meeting The next meeting will take place on Tuesday 16 May at 2:pm in the Picasso Room, St Clements Hospital. (lunch from 1:15pm) after the in-house training for stewards in the Martello Room, Bartlet Hospital, Felixstowe (Apologies Paul Taylor). 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.
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| IT/ADP 20/04/04 |