ATTENDANCE: Neil Summers, Cas Rodriguez, Lawrence Henderson, George Barron, Carol Johnson, Kim Beeson, Kath Marshall and Shirley Ann Hunter.

APOLOGIES: Ken Brown, Helen Thompson Angela Fawcus and Sylvia Cowan.

MINUTES OF LAST MEETING

Minutes of the last meeting were recorded as a true record.

MATTER ARISING

Pay Award

Unisons’ position is slightly different to other organisations. Unisons stance is 2.5% is not a good enough pay offer, the staging makes this offer even worse. George informed the branch the PNC are meeting in July to see if there is an improved pay offer and this will determine whether Unison will ballot its’ members regarding industrial action.

Change of Pay for weekly paid staff

Staff Side are still in discussions with management and to date no offer has been made. If there is an offer made the branch will then take to staff to ask opinions. Some trusts have implemented without any offer but South Tees were given £100.

TRUST WIDE UPDATE

Sub Groups

Kim tabled e-mail for Energy Management working group and asked if any Staff Side Reps were interested in sitting on the Sub group. Kath and Shirley said they would like to attend the sub group meetings.

HR&OD Committee

Kim tabled the work plan for 2007. Issues were raised regarding appraisals and also the interpretation of the wording in the Sickness review policy and return to work meetings that should take place. A discussion followed.

Focus Groups

Focus group of the Staff Survey, Neil will try to attend the next meeting.

Changes to Protected Contracted Hours under Agenda for Change

The protection on FULL TIME Hours for staff who were conditioned to less than 37.5 on 01.12.2004 changes from 01.12.2007. Information is on the Payroll website.

Policy Sub Group

The dress code policy is in the final draft. It will go to the Partnership board then will be official. The issue of members of staff having to wear ties was taken out of the policy.

The Cedars

Shirley informed the branch that her department was moving from the Cedars into North Tyneside Hospital, ward 22 will be there base. Shirley feels the move will be beneficial for the department.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

Union Learning Reps

Shirley informed the branch that she had downloaded ULR information from the UNISON website and had distributed in her area.

Neil informed the branch he had put his name forward for to be a Learning Rep and it was advised he attend the next training session for ULR.

Carol updated on the meeting with Kath Eleanor and herself regarding New Reps and Training. It was decided to contact all new reps personally to encourage them as it is felt it can be quite daunting attending meetings for the first time. Eventually they would like current reps to update their training.

Kim enquired about the Learning agreement with the Trust but Carol and Kath said Jackie Kirsopp wasn’t interested. George said we need to sell this to Ann Stringer and maybe he could have a chat to her about it. Kim also said that Alison Chappell from Regional office will help the ULR team if they asked.

Meeting time changed

Sylvia requested that the branch change the time of the meetings to start at 5pm, some reps thought this was a bit early for finishing work and travelling to the meetings so it was decided to compromise and start the meetings at 5.30pm and monitor this to see how reps manage to attend.

Hexham Surgery

As there have been a few issues raised in Hexham regarding members not receiving information and no active Rep there for them to contact it was decided that the branch will hold a Surgery on the day of the branch meeting in September, George Kim and Cas will be in attendance. This time will also be used to hold a recruitment stall.

Meeting closed

Next Branch meeting to be held

9th July 2007
North Tyneside hospital

ATTENDANCE: Neil Summers, Cas Rodriguez, George Barron, Carol Johnson, Kim Beeson, Chris Reynolds, Sylvia Cowan, Andrew Redpath, Jill Green, Ken Brown and Stuart Hull.

APOLOGIES: Helen Thompson, Martin Hagman, Shirley Ann Hunter, Lawrence Henderson and Kath Marshall.

INTRODUCTIONS

The Branch welcomed and introduced themselves to the two new reps in attendance; Chris Reynolds from Hexham General and Jill Green North Tyneside Hospital.

MINUTES OF LAST MEETING

Minutes of the last meeting were recorded as a true record.

MATTER ARISING

Pay Award

George updated on the National Pay award and informed the Branch Alan Johnson MP for Health would like to re-open talks regarding the pay award and issues around it i.e. leapfrogging. The Service Group Executive will meet on the 25th July to discuss the outcome of the talks and whether they will go ahead with a ballot for there members.

Andrew stated that the T&G and GMB are now backing UNISON on this issue.

Change of Pay for weekly paid staff

Kim updated the branch on the offer from management regarding the change over from weekly to monthly pay; the offer included the payment of £100 to all staff who are currently on weekly pay. The branch are in the middle of meeting with staff in all the hospitals in the trust to get the views of the members and the feeling seems to be that staff are resigned to change although they are not happy about it.

Chris Reynolds said that feelings were running strong among staff in Hexham, mainly because of the lack of information being received.

Kim informed the branch there are a lot of questions staff would like answered before it is implemented, therefore we are compiling a question and answer sheet for management to answer before Christmas.

Stuart updated on issues in payroll regarding the problems they are having with the ESR system and how these problems affect staff. To try and assist staff with problems Payroll will be holding surgeries around the Trust.

HR&OD Committee

There was a special meeting held today Monday 9th July to discuss the sickness policy and the changes management want to implement. Kim tabled changes:

The branch felt one of the biggest problems is consistency from Human Resources.

Two things that the branch was asked to do is;

1) Be aware of what is happening in your area.
2) Look through the policy and return comments.

Changes to Protected Contracted Hours under Agenda for Change

Section 46.31 of the Agenda for Change agreement, this is the part of the agreement which begins the phasing in of the standard full time working week for those staff who currently work less than 371/2 hours per week (excluding meal breaks. Information is on the Payroll website.

This issue will affect part-time staff. Staff will be having 1-1meetings with there managers to discuss how they will be affected and then sign up to whatever they decide.

We will keep this item on the Agenda

Policy Sub Group

The dress code policy is in the final draft. It will go to the Partnership board then will be official. The issue of members of staff having to wear ties was taken out of the policy.

TRUSTWIDE UPDATES

Lone working

Ken informed the branch that he was dealing with issues regarding Security staff working on their own.

Lone Working

Chris informed the branch that communication in Hexham from UNISON was poor.

Kim asked how we could change this.

It was agreed to take up a computer and printer to the UNISON office in Hexham for Chris to keep in touch and for the branch to send information. There will also be a UNISON surgery to meet with members and hold a recruitment stall on the 10th September.

Newsletter

Andrew informed the branch that he would still like articles to be sent to him to put in the newsletter.

ESR

Stuart updated the branch about the problems in payroll and how the ESR system is not fit for the purpose it is being used, and the staff is driving to distraction. The fact that the Managers are now entering information on the system, payroll can’t always answer the questions from staff when their pay is wrong.

Kim asked if a Stress Risk assessment should be done to help the staff. Kim also said she had discussed with Michael in payroll to meet with David and Stuart over coffee to discuss issues.

Role of the Staff

Jill informed the branch that the biggest issue they had was who did what i.e. responsibility for cleaning bodily waste, was it Domestics, Support staff or Nurses. A discussion followed.

The General opinion from the branch was that it was all staffs responsibility.

Domestic Review

Ken updated on the domestic review.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

Retired Members

The branch was asked to support Kath Duncan to attend Retired members Conference. This was agreed

Len Morris has also requested to be a Retired member’s delegate. This was agreed.

Morpeth Cottage

There will be 1-1 meetings with staff starting 23rd July, because of the changes in Morpeth Cottage i.e. the moving of wards and beds to Wansbeck Hospital and Nursing Homes.

Kim asked if any reps could guarantee dates when they would be available to attend with staff. Ken and Neil said they would look at their availability.

Catering Review

Management forgot to invite staff to a meeting they had arranged regarding the Catering Review, therefore have rearranged for the 16th July.

Kim asked if any Reps were available to attend. Ken and Neil will check their availability.

New Representation

When the branch informed a manager of a new Rep in her department, the branch received a letter (the letter was tabled) asking why other members of her department weren’t allowed to ballot to decide if they wanted this person as a representative. A discussion followed and it was agreed to take the letter to Margaret Walker and ask her for a response.

Meeting closed

Next Branch meeting to be held

10th September 2007
Hexham General Hospital
6.00pm start

 INTERNATIONAL NURSES DAY 2007

UNISON - Northumbria Nurses Union held a members stall themed Not Just Florence on the Friday before International Nurses Day.

As well as distributing copies of Nursing News and other nurse information sheets we gave away a lot of freebies and exhibited badges from our sister nurse unions from around the world.

Our handout for the day is repreoduced below.

International Nurses Day 2007
Not Just Florence

International Nurses Day is not just about remembering Florence Nightingale, but is a time we should remember all those progressive nurses who have changed nursing throughout history.
Such as:
Elizabeth Fry, who founded the Institution of Nursing Sisters several years before Ms Nightingale set up her own nursing team. Ms Fry, another 19th century reformer, is known for her work for female prisoners. Her efforts also helped improve the treatment of the mentally ill and led to reforms in the hospital system.

Mary Seacole, was once one of the best-known women in England. She was a Caribbean doctress who had travelled widely, and was able to put her skills to good use in the Crimean War. Denied the opportunity to work with Nightingale, she travelled there on her own to minister to wounded British soldiers. Thousands of them remembered her with gratitude and affection.

Thora Silverthorne and Nancy Blackburn, nursed with the International Brigades in Spain and founded the first nurses trade union the National Association of Nurses. Both campaigned for the formation of the NHS.

Iris Brook, nurse and midwife, national officer with the radical Guild of Nurses and campaigner for the founding of the NHS.

All over the world every day nurses are struggling to improve people’s health, save and improve health services and win recognition for their hard work and professionalism

To join UNISON Northumbria Nurses Union Professional Advisory Committee please complete and return this form.

The Nursing Professional Advisory Committee exists to advise the Branch Committee on Nursing matters, to comment on local and national consultation documents and to provide specialist professional advice to the union when necessary.

We aim to use e-mail and the post to conduct our business, as we know how difficult it is to attend meetings.

Name…………………………………………. Job Title……………………………………………………..

Speciality…………………………………….

Ward Dept…………………………………………. Hospital`…………………………………………………
E-mail address……………………………………………….

Return to UNISON Northumbria nurses Union, UNISON Office, NTGH

To join UNISON Nursing e-mail group e-mail gail.adams@unison.co.uk