Secretary's Corner
October 2008
I recently attended a meeting of the Regional Health Committee in Cambridge, a group that is represented by nearly all of the Health Branches in the Eastern region. Part of the day was spent discussing communications and I was extremely pleased when our Branch was congratulated on its efforts to communicate the amount of information that we do over a very large and difficult geographical area. We were also singled out as having one of the best, if not the best, websites in the region, in some peoples view better than the regional and national sites and our Newsletter also stands out as being one of the best around. Therefore I must say enormous thanks on behalf of the Branch to both Darren and Eric for giving up so much of their own time and the huge amount of work and effort that they put in to making both the Website and Newsletter the success that they are.
We are always looking at ways that we can improve on our communications, so if anyone has any bright ideas that we could consider please let me know.
Following the success of last years PTS Seminar, Unisons Ambulance Sector will be holding another event this year (further details in this edition). Unison is the only Union representing Ambulance staff that holds an event of this kind, this is a clear indication that Unison values the work that our NES colleagues undertake and that they are considered as being just as important to our workforce as everyone else.
Now that the final pieces have been agreed on the Annual Leave and Relief policies, it is anticipated that a series of briefing sessions will take place around the Trust in the very near future, keep an eye out for further details. These briefings will be for all members of staff and Management to attend, but I would especially urge all staffside representatives to make an effort to get along so that they are well versed in the contents of these documents.
A lot of work and some very forthright discussions have taken place on the mealbreak policy so far. The group will be meeting again in early October in an attempt to negotiate a position that the policy can go out to staff for consultation.
The work that the T&Cs harmonisation group had been undertaking has been delayed slightly due to requiring some input from the Finance department on costing up some of the proposals. That input has now been established and work by this group will now continue.
And finally, we appear to have reached the milestone that is the first anniversary of “Secretary’s Corner” (yes it really has been a whole year). I hope that the information that I have tried to convey has been useful and has not always just been the ramblings of a madman. Don’t forget to come along and say Hi when we get around to our station visits this Month, mines white with 1 sugar. 
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