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Welcome to the West Midlands Branch Support Pilot Project.
UNISON West Midlands Region has obtained funding for a one year Pilot Project aimed at helping Branches make improvements to their administration and organisation. Three Branch Support Workers will be available from September 2000 to do "outreach" work with Branches. They will work to plans agreed with the Branch and their Regional Organiser to put in place systems and techniques, which can then be used by Branch representatives and officers. Whether the Branch wants help with sorting out its office procedures, producing newsletters, keeping Membership Records up to date, organising the recruitment of new members and activists, the Branch Support Workers will be available to help! Branch Support workers will not replace the role of branch officers or regional organisers but will work with them providing practical support that will be of lasting benefit to the branch. One of the criteria for national funding of regional projects such as this is that there must also be an element of Branch funding involved. A sliding scale of charges to Branches has therefore been devised with the charges pitched so that no Branch needs to be deterred from participating in the project for financial reasons. The details are explained below. The Project will be evaluated and if it proves successful, the Region hopes to be able to continue it after the first year. Please read on - if you have any queries or would like to have an informal preliminary discussion about how the Project could work with your Branch, contact Christine Rogers at Regional Centre, tel 0121-685-3119 or e-mail c.rogers@unison.co.uk
How could a Branch Support Worker help in your Branch? 1. Branch Administration A smooth-running Branch Office is a real bonus to overstretched Branch officers and representatives. A Branch Support Worker could help you to:
Of course, not all of our Branches have an office in the workplace - don’t worry, we can still help you with your admin – and if you have plans to get an office, we’ll help you set it up. 2. Organisation and Recruitment Not many of our branches have as many activists as they would like. Consequently it is often a very small number of people in the branch who have to deal with members problems and their requests for service, in addition to conducting negotiations with the employers. Drawing up and executing plans for recruiting new stewards, activists and members can easily become low priority tasks. A Branch Support Worker could help branches develop strategies for recruiting new members and activists, and start branches down the road of putting their plans into practice. Some areas that could be jointly worked on include
She/he could also help branches develop ways of increasing member participation and involvement in the Union. One way of doing this is through good and frequent communications - a Branch Support Worker could work with a group of branch representatives, or one-to-one, to develop the necessary skills and techniques, for example
Computer Skills Our Regional Education and Training Committee has taken a keen interest in developing branch use of information technology. Towards the end of last year a questionnaire was circulated to branches to gather information on current IT usage and requirements for training and other forms of assistance. This established a clear need for IT advice and support to be available not only to Branches, but also in branches. An extensive range of IT training courses are offered at Regional Centre and we need to make sure that this programme meets the real IT training needs of branches. One of the Branch Support Workers will therefore concentrate on providing IT assistance to Branches. In particular she/he will:-
It is important to note that there will be no charge to Branches for this IT development work.
The Branch funding arrangements Where Branch funds are sufficient, there will need to be a contribution from the Branch towards the cost of the Branch Support Worker placement. The basic charge is £50.00 per day of Branch Support Worker input, but where a Branch has insufficient resources, the table below will be used as a guide to determine an appropriate and affordable level of charging.
The charge will be agreed and incorporated in the Branch Support Worker Placement Agreement. How to access assistance from the Project Branches interested in making use of the Project need to have identified their main development and organisational objectives. This can be done quickly and easily with the help of Regional Organisers using the new Branch Development and Organisation materials which will be available from September 2000. So don’t be deterred if your branch hasn’t got a plan in place yet. This will help the Branch identify the main areas where a Branch Support Workers assistance would be of value. A meeting will then be arranged involving the Branch officers, the Regional Organiser and the Branch Support & Development Team Leader to discuss the Branch’s needs, to establish which areas a Branch Support Worker could help with and some practicalities of a placement with the Branch, eg where the Branch Support Worker would work from, possible timescales for the work to be carried out, Branch financial contribution if applicable and evaluation criteria. If agreement is reached the details will be drawn up into a simple document - "The Branch Support Worker Placement Agreement" Click here for a sample form.
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