WSD District ER Informal

We met with Leicestershire & Northamptonshire district management on 5 February 2015 so here is a short report.  If you want more details please contact your rep.

We discussed 1-2-1s and both sides hoped that they are taking place each month.  If this is not the case please discuss it with your line manager let your PCS rep know.

We discussed unipods.  A learning needs discussion should have taken place in your January 1-2-1 if this had not been discussed before and everyone who needs it should have done the Adviser Skills Routeway and Solution Focussed Approach as a minimum. The DEA role is staying and, although they may be doing some other things, will take a lead and remain the office expert.  It is good practice for other named staff to take a similar lead role for the other former specialisms. We discussed how this could work in practice but came to no firm conclusion.

We discussed ESA claimants coming in for group sessions and interventions. We were pleased that a better invitation letter had been produced. We expressed concerns about the effectiveness of selecting only suitable ESA claimants and were told that a segmenting process took place to select only people who may be suitable and that claimants were rung to ensure that they understood their obligations and what we were trying to do.

We discussed informal and formal PIPs.  If you are given a PIP and believe that it is unfair please contact your rep for advice.

We discussed staffing levels and the potential problems that the remaining staff may have after the VES exercise and promotion exercise especially as we think our staffing levels overall will be reduced in 2015/16.  We will discuss this again when we have some better information.

We discussed stress as we believe that it is very high due to a combination of the issues above.  We offered to run stress sessions and it was agreed that we could do a presentation to the SLT to see if it was suitable.