Branch Secrtary's Report 2021

During 2020 we saw many unusual occurrences for the Branch as well as the country. It was clear that the pandemic was going to change the way we all lived our lives but at the beginning in March I do not think anyone expected us to be where we are at this moment, in a third lockdown, an immunisation programme, homeworking on a grand scale and still with PPE issues.

In March our priority became ensuring care homes had adequate PPE supplies and staff were protected, an almost impossible task. We spent weeks shouting at anybody that would listen that care services were being left behind and in many cases being endangered by the policies the government was implementing to “protect the NHS”.

Eventually the government acknowledged that care existed in April but still did very little to change the way things were being done. We were fighting for members to have adequate PPE supplies, fighting for shielding and the new furlough scheme for members and trying to get to grips with homeworking for many of our members in underfunded charities who quite simply could not function. We saw the dusting off of long forgotten lay-off clauses in people’s contracts and found lots of our nursery staff left without pay for weeks.

We began to see in May the start of redundancies in many areas were there was no reasonable prospect of services being resumed. This is for me personally one of the saddest periods of the last year where many of those effected worked in day and respite services which were wholesale closed down by many employers. Not only did this effect many of our members with redundancy or redeployment but I belived, and still believe that this is a travesty for service users and families. We are not, even now, at a point where perhaps these services would have been restored in full but to lose them altogether, I think will lead to problems for years to come.

When the country came out of lockdown, I think there was a collective sigh of relief for many, but for the Branch this escalated the work we were doing. There was new guidance almost daily on what was and was not acceptable, there was emerging data regards the effects and risks of Covid-19 on our Black members and more employers had to put protocols in place to help workers return safely to workplaces.

The changes to the furlough scheme through July and August led to more redundancies as employers now had to contribute to furlough pay and many could simply not afford it. One national Charity advised me that from the start of lockdown they had a deficit of some £42,000,000. We continued to lobby our national office on these issues, and they were raised at some of the highest levels, but this was still not enough to prevent many losing their livelihoods despite our help, support, and representations to employers.

This theme continued through September and October as the anticipated end of the furlough scheme got closer. Many of our members were in restructure and redundancy processes that coincided with the end of furlough pay and lost their jobs just short weeks before the government extended the scheme again. A second lockdown in November bought back a lot of the issues from the first lockdown but at least we knew slightly more what to expect!

More recently we have seen a worrying trend for employers to use the pandemic as an excuse to cut costs and change the terms and conditions of a sector where staff were already on some of the most basic conditions possible. We have fought this wherever we can and have worked hard with the support of our regional office and others with some positive results.

Although I have tried it is difficult for me to cover in this report the extent of the work the Branch has undertaken this year. Caseworkers have been working tirelessly to adapt to the new way of working and to represent our members in an environment that has sometimes change daily. Our administration staff have dealt with unprecedented numbers of enquires form our members whilst also adapting to homeworking themselves. I would like to thank them all for their hard work and dedication.

To give this some context the Branch directly dealt with 1427 cases for advice and representation and numerous enquires outside of this. This is around 35% more cases than we would usually see without the numerous enquires added in as well.

I look forward to the next year potentially being different to 2020 but I think the repercussions of the global pandemic will affect the way our sector is shaped for many years to come.

One thing I know for certain is that if you had said to me in January 2020, I would end 2020 with any more respect for the members who worked in our sector and any less respect for the Government we are living under I would have said that was impossible.

What a difference a year can make!

James Hawker

Branch Secretary