Welcome to the April blog. We have had a glimmer of sunshine and with the birds singing I feel spring is here. I hope that we are finished with the rain, wind, sleet and snow and can enjoy a bit of sun and warmth in the air.

Welcome to another update and in this blog you will hear about:

· The SLW

· NEST Pension

· ISO 9001 -2015

· Webroster Payroll

· Lead role

· Short Breaks

SLW: Fair Deal will not be increasing the current SLW [Scottish Living Wage] hourly rate from £8.75 to £9.00 until we receive confirmation from GCHSCP that we will receive an inflationary uplift. I will keep you updated regularly on the situation.

NEST Personal Pension Plan: I mentioned last month that from April 1st you will see an increase to 3% in the employer [Fair Deal] contribution to the NEST Pension scheme. Your contribution will rise to 5%. The increase will be applied automatically to members of the scheme in your April salary. You may want to check out the information on the NEST at their web site: www.nestpensions.org.uk

ISO 9001 2015: As I mentioned last month, we are working towards a review of our ISO standard with the assessor being on site on the 17th of April. There is more information about ISO within the recent newsletter. If you have any questions, please e-mail Anne Marie Borthwick on annemarieborthwick@fair-deal.org

Webroster payroll: We operate a data management system known as Webroster. We use this system for scheduling and providing you with a rota. We also manage the support and record absence, training and annual leave within the system. We are planning to change the way in which we prepare the information that we give to our pay roll provider Alexander Sloan. The plan is that we will move from providing the information on an excel spreadsheet to taking the information about the hours worked etc from Webroster via a report that will go directly to Alexander Sloan. It is important that we have accurate information including any changes to shifts on the system in order that you receive the correct salary each month. We will be piloting the new system in May with one of our services and we will report back following this. If you have any questions, please speak with your line manager.

Lead role: Following a review of the lead role earlier this year the leadership team are meeting with EVH to review the role and the responsibilities associated with it. The next meeting is scheduled for May and I will update you following the session. We have received feedback from staff who have a lead role, their colleagues and their line manager with a view to clarifying the role, responsibilities and job title going forward. If you have any questions, please e-mail me on annmariedocherty@fair-deal.org

Short break: Today we saw a group of 17 people head off to Ardentinny for a fun filled week of activities. The group are supported by: Ally Connolly, Nicola Mulheron,

Graham Smith, Kimberly McCormack and Jim Cloughly. We are working with Key Community Lifestyles and 4 people are supported to go along by their team Alan, Paul and James. Follow us on:

 @FairDealG45         or

  Facebook @FairDealCharity

If you would like to find out more about the short breaks, please e-mail James Thomson on: jamesthomson@fair-deal.org

Ann Marie Docherty

Chief executive

April 8th 2019