Agenda for Change (AFC)

For the attention of BAOT members employed on (old) Whitely pay scales

Meeting to Discuss Agenda for Change - Tuesday 1 Nov 05, 6pm - Council Chambers - County Hall, Exeter

I know your diaries must be full of meetings cancelled and postponed, so I apologise for yet another alteration.

A previous email was to alert you to a meeting on 18 Oct 05. Because of a major conference being held that week we cannot now have that date. Therefore the earliest opportunity for the meeting is the 1 Nov 05 at the above location.

At the meeting you will receive an update on current negotiations and a discussion will take place regarding what action is open for you to take to resolve the matter. It is possible that given this new date that management will be able to now re-arrange the 2 meetings they wanted to hold with you, we can only wait and see. If this happens I will inform you as soon as possible.

I'm sorry to mess you about like this, but this is a dynamic and fluctuating situation.

It is your pay we're discussing and all BAOT members should make every effort to attend this meeting.

Many thanks
Bernie Crean
SROT BAOT / UNISON steward

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10 May 05 update on negotiations with Management

You will be aware that we have received what we thought was an agreement with Senior Management Group (SMG) to implement AFC for all Devon County Council OT's employed on the old Whitley rates of pay.

As part of this agreement we had been led to believe that this would entail in full:

• use of the process of evaluating our 'existing' roles
  
  and
  
  
• to then identify if we matched against existing AFC profiles to determine the appropriate pay banding and rates of pay.
  
  
• Failing a matching exercise, that a Job Analysis Questionnaire (JAQ) would be jointly agreed. The agreed JAQ would then go to an 'independent' evaluation to assess scoring and banding.

The UNISON / BAOT Stewards involved in representing BAOT members on these negotiations are myself and Trish Tucker, East Devon BAOT steward.

There are also 3 frontline practitioners co-opted onto the group at the request of Management: Vanessa Whipp from North Devon Adults, Mike Feighan from Exeter Adults and Chris West from East Devon Childcare.

The Management side consists of Liz Robin, Exeter Practice Manager (OT), Elaine Wells, Childcare OT Practice Supervisor, Suzanne Frost, from Personnel & Performance, and Jenny Richards from Senior Management.

We subsequently met with Management on 4 Apr 05 to discuss how we would implement AFC and evaluate current roles.

At this meeting we were provided with Management's draft (draft 1) Job Descriptions (JD) and Person Specifications for both Adult and Childcare practitioners and asked to consider them and feedback our opinion by the 15 Apr 05.

Management side were informed that:

1. any JD needed to be based on what our current roles are and that they should contain sufficient detail to allow analysis under the AFC process of evaluation using the 16 'factors' contained in it.
   
   
2. It was also essential that any JD and Person Specification should be detailed enough to show the levels of complexity of work undertaken in current roles. This would allow for
   
   
   • identification of what level in each of the 16 factors we are currently working at;
     
     
   • a 'scoring' in each of the 16 factors and provide a total scoring to identify the appropriate banding / profile.

This is a brief summary of the AFC evaluation process and is well known to both sides.

Given such a short span of time to consider and feedback our views, there wasn't time for a full consultation with all BAOT members of their draft JD's. However, a few of you were given the opportunity to comment and even with such a limited consultation, the general view was that their JD's and personal specs

• were insufficient,
• didn't correlate with what we do,
• didn't show the complexity
  and
• didn't allow for evaluation under AFC against the 16 factors.

So we subsequently devised our own, and again a few of you were given the opportunity to pass comment on this BAOT draft (draft 2).

We subsequently fed back our comments to Management side on their draft and gave them a copy of ours before the 2nd meeting on 28 Apr 05.

During this meeting I became concerned with statements that implied SMG weren't fully committed to using the AFC process of evaluation in full.

As the Management representatives at this meeting were unable to clarify or give assurances about this important aspect of AFC, I said I would email Senior Management to seek clarification and assurances. I then sent an email to Mr Wooderson on the 29 Apr 05 seeking clarity and assurances about the evaluation process.

As I had not received a response to this, I sent him another on the 4 May 05. To date I have not received a response to either email.

I have informed Management on numerous occasions that following a meeting of BAOT members earlier this year, it is the intention of UNISON / BAOT to seek the implementation of AFC in full, including the evaluation process outlined within it. They are aware that we have not agreed to any variation from this.

It had been our perception that they had formally agreed to do this in a recent agreement.

I have been awaiting a response to my emails from Mr Wooderson before providing you with the latest update on AFC. Unfortunately, as haven't received one yet and as many OT's have been contacting me for news, I can only give you this limited update.

As soon as I hear, I will inform you straightaway of SMG's position on the process of evaluation.

Anyway, at the 2nd meeting on 28 Apr 05, Management side agreed to take away our comments and draft JD / Personal Specifications and to devise another draft (draft 3) for discussion at the next meeting on 13 Jun 05. Before that meeting the UNISON / BAOT side will receive copies of their latest draft to allow meaningful discussions on the day.

The matter of the JD's and Personal Specification is crucial in determining the level of complexity we work to and the profile / banding we will ultimately fall into. I want to assure all BAOT members that you will all have an opportunity to consider and comment on the final draft JD and Personal Specification. However, it is felt that in order to move things along, this will not take place until after the meeting of the 13 Jun 05 when, hopefully, we will have agreed a draft JD / Personal Specification.

Rest assured that we will not agree anything without full consultation with you. In the meantime, I would request that if asked by your line manager, you don't agree or sign anything regarding your JD / Personal Specifications.

Bernie Crean
SROT BAOT / UNISON steward

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