Secretary's Corner
April 2009
The results of the Annual Staff Survey as carried out by the Healthcare Commission has recently
been released, and as far as this trust is concerned it
makes pretty grim reading.
On the 37 Key measures the Trust was worse than the average of other Ambulance trusts on 24, average on 11, and better than average on just two. Where the same question was asked in 2007, performance had generally got worse. Morale has fallen, and staff say they do not understand their roles and where they fit in.
Staff were more likely than average to say they were thinking about leaving, and just 6% said there was good communication between workers and senior management, compared with 10 % at other Ambulance trusts. Although this may all sound a bit bleak, it comes as no surprise to this Branch, as these were exactly the same points that we have raised with the management side consistently over the last year or so, and the report may have been more positive had our concerns been listened too. The full document can be read by visiting our Website at www.eeas-unison.com
In light of this and the current state of affairs within the trust, the Branch wrote an open letter to the Trust Board outlining our serious concerns on many issues, and inviting them to meet with us to discuss those concerns and seek improvements as to the Trust’s forward direction, the full text of the letter can be read opposite.
Having discussed our correspondence at the Trust Board, we have received a response inviting us to meet with the Chief Executive and Trust Chair, we have replied by agreeing to attend a meeting with them, but also expressing our deepest disquiet that none of the Boards Non Executive directors felt the need to be involved in those discussions, when taking into account the gravity of the issues we raised. I will keep members informed as to the outcome of any debate.
We have also issued the Trust with 2 Health and Safety improvement notices dated 18th February 2009. The first one was on the lack of Partnership Working in consulting and informing staffside Health and safety Officers of when serious incidents occur and a lack of commitment by the Management side on Health and safety issues in general.
The second was on the matter of some staff within the Trust being issued with stab proof body protection and some not. The Health and Safety committee feel that an acceptable debate has been had, and a way forward has been agreed on the first issue, but that a satisfactory agreement has not been established to the second. Therefore the Health and Safety Committee will be informing the Health and Safety Executive of the situation and seeking arbitration from them on our behalf.
The work that was being undertaken by the Mealbreak Working Group appears to have ground to a halt, with little or no commitment from the management side to seek a solution to this highly contentious situation. Therefore the Collective Grievance that was taken out by crews in the Cambridgeshire area and held in abeyance pending the outcome of discussions by the group, will now be re-invoked, and formal procedures will commence.
The Dynamic Deployment (DD) trial came to an end at midnight on the 31st March 2009. Unfortunately DD is with us for the foreseeable future, as part of the trial produced considerable data that response times have improved significantly, and patients are being reached much more quickly. However, it is important to note that a very clear agreement was reached with the Interim Director of Operations at a meeting on 6th March that any response post of DAP that has not been signed off or meets the requirements as set out in the SOG will not be used, If staff are tasked to standby at any such point, they should politely make it known to HEOC in the first instance, that this is not an agreed site. If HEOC insist that you attend, then do so for 45 minutes, making note of the times, names and conversations, then at the first opportunity inform your line manager and local staffside representative that you wish to take out a Grievance using the Trusts formal procedures.
The latest on the ECA/ ASW situation is that the Trust’s management have finally agreed with the suggestion made by the Branch officers some months ago, which is to wait for the release of the National Pilot Report. We have yet to see the report and we will keep members informed of the details when they become available.
One slight bit of good news amongst the gloom is that we have finally managed to reach an agreement on the final version of the Technician JAQ. The next challenge will be arranging for an evaluation panel to get together, especially as we are considering asking for at least two Independent, external panellists to assist us this would be to ensure that the JAQ gets a fair and unbiased hearing.
As you all can see there is much going on and we need your support. Don’t forget to vote in the local ballots for Branch
Officers that will be arriving at home addresses shortly, and for regular updates of current situations, visit our website.
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