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Suffolk County Branch |
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UNISON Your Friend at Work |
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Suffolk County Branch |
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UNISON Your Friend at Work |
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Once this has been resolved the membership will be balloted on acceptance or rejection of the new agreement. This should take place sometime during April. We will advise you at that time whether we recommend rejection or acceptance of the offer.
PLD REVIEW
Paul Aldous met with management on the 17th and 18th March for discussions surrounding this review. This has been a long drawn out issue and has been subject to extensive consultation involving Erik Tyler, Sheila Reynolds and Paul Aldous.
At the meeting on the 18th March we looked at a new grading structure, new competencies to allow staff to move between grades and principles for resolving temporary staffing arrangements prior to assimilation to the new posts. It is hoped that all of these documents will be available for consultation with staff later this month. There is a very short consultation period in order that comments can be considered prior to the next ACS Forum meeting on the 10th April.
Please ensure that any comments on the proposed job description, progression scheme or assimilation proposals are sent to UNISON so that we can represent your views. Responses should be sent to unison@unison.suffolkcc.gov.uk by the 7th April.
Provided there are no major alterations to the proposals the posts will be evaluated in Mid April and the recruitment process will start towards the end of the month.
REVIEW CO-ORDINATORS
Paul Aldous and Stella Ball met with management and the staff group on the 19th March at Kerrison to discuss the changes management want to introduce as a result of the review. It appears from the meeting that there is broad acceptance of the proposed new job description with the caveat that any staff unhappy with the proposals, which seeks to remove direct review of client needs by telephone reviews, can seek a change of job by transferring to more face to face work as a Community Care Practitioner. Staff, as they will be office based will lose their essential car user allowance. This loss will be graduated between June and August. There will be training opportunities available for staff to enable them to cope with the change of role. These will take place in May and June.
If you have any problems resulting from this review please contact Paul Aldous or Stella Ball via the Branch Office.
At its meeting on 18th March, the County Council Adult and Community Services and Health Scrutiny Committee will be considering the issue of Individual Budgets for customers who require services The full paper is available at http://apps2.suffolk.gov.uk/cgi-bin/committee_xml.cgi?p=detail&id=1_10923
There is an issue which effects staff contained within the report and we would like your views on it so that we can represent you effectively.
The item within the report is "Staff involved in the delivery of assessment and care planning under the NHS and Community Care Act 1993, will be particularly impacted by these changes. The council's duties to assess and review community care needs and to ensure the provision of services to meet these needs under the Act will not change. However, the way in which these duties are discharged will change and this will have a big impact on the social work workforce. Transforming Social Care sees the role of social workers being focused on advocacy and brokerage, rather than assessment and gatekeeping. Assessment and review functions will remain, as will social work with the most vulnerable, which will include adult protection responsibilities. However, the professional role in assessment will be more focused, more of scrutiny, rather than information gathering. More time will be spent on support brokerage, helping people plan and decide and much of this can be provided through user-led and third sector organisations."
If you have any views on the way this may effect you please can you let the Branch Office know before the 18th March. This item will also be discussed at the ACS Staff Forum on 12th March and a report will be put on the website after the meeting.
The branch is interested in hearing evidence about the Customer Journey project and in particular how this has effected you as an employee.
We are particularly interested in your views on the transfer of staff between CSD and ACS and whether or not the six monthly transfer arrangements are successful or not.
We are also interested in your views on whether their has been any detrimental impact on our customers.
Please contact Sheila.Reynolds@socserv.suffolkcc.gov.uk if you have any concerns.
As you may be aware, especially if you work in Home Care, the authority is changing the basis on which we provide services to our customers. The Service will now be free for the first six weeks and the individual case will then be transferred to the private sector.
This is obviously going to impact on staff and a project group has been set up to take forward the changes, which will involve a full review of the Home First structure and all job descriptions. Unison is being consulted throughout this process.
Unison are meeting with Management on the 19 March. If you have any items you wish us to raise please can you let Paul Aldous or Sheila Reynolds know at the Branch Office before the 18 March.
The authority is currently reviewing the role of review co-ordinators in ACS. The employers have reviewed the job descriptions of staff and are proposing to remove the essential car user allowance. The employers are looking at providing training to ensure that you can undertake the new role.
If you have any comments or concerns please contact:
Paul.Aldous@libher.suffolkcc.gov.uk or Stella.Ball@socserv.suffolkcc.gov.uk
before the 19th March when we have a meeting at Kerrison with the employers.TUTOR CONTRACTS MEETING
Dear all,
UNISON have arranged a meeting for Tutors, Community Learning Managers and Curriculum Advisors interested in the new tutor contracts shortly to be imposed in the Community Learning and Skills Development Service.
Please note this is an open meeting and you do not have to be a UNISON member to attend.
Agenda for meeting:
Share information
Question
Discuss implications
Next Steps
Craig Forman, Helen Muddock and Sheila Page from UNISON will be in attendance and there will be an opportunity to meet with them at the end of the meeting. Please note: Advice on individual inquiries will only be available to UNISON members.
The meeting will be held on:
Date: Wednesday 19th March
Venue: Castle Hill Community Centre, Ipswich (room to be confirmed)
Times: 1600 arrival 1630 formal start to meeting
End no later than 1800
What next?
PLEASE FORWARD THIS MESSAGE ON TO TUTORS
Please confirm your attendance by emailing unison@unison.suffolkcc.gov.uk
Regards
Craig, Helen and Sheila
UNISON have arranged a meeting for Tutors, Community Learning Managers and Curriculum Advisors interested in the new tutor contracts shortly to be imposed in the Community Learning and Skills Development Service.
Please note this is an open meeting and you do not have to be a UNISON member to attend (more).