August blog:

Welcome to another blog. I want to cover the following four areas:

• Scottish Living Wage (SLW) increase;
• Systematic instruction training;
• Reward and recognition; and
• “Connecting on Board”.

Scottish Living Wage: The Board met today and received an update that GCHSCP have confirmed that Fair Deal should receive the funding to increase the current hourly rate of £8.45 to £8.75 in line with the SLW. This means that the backdated payment to all relevant staff will be made in the September pay-run. I would like to thank you for your patience with this matter.

Systematic instruction training: I’m delighted to report that 5 Fair Deal staff members have indicated that they are interested in this personal development opportunity. I am in the process of arranging the training and will be linking with the relevant line manager. This is an exciting opportunity for the organisation and for the people we are working with who will be introduced to our independent travel programme. I will keep you updated on developments.

Reward and recognition survey: Thank you to everyone who contributed to the Reward and Recognition Survey. We had 51 people return their completed survey and a report was tabled at the Board meeting today. I will be in touch to update you on some areas that we would like your views on via survey monkey. This item will be one of the main areas at the Annual General Meeting [AGM] on Friday the 7th of September and your contribution will shape the final presentation.

Connecting on Board: For many months you have heard about the proposal to introduce an alternative to using taxis for people using Fair Deal’s Social and leisure programme at Nethercraigs. We have named this project “Connecting on Board” and we are going live with the 3-month pilot on the 3rd of September. I would like to thank the 5 staff who have put themselves forward to drive the new people carrier and get Connecting On Board moving forward. We will be updating everyone at the AGM on the 7th of September.

Thanks again to everyone for your continued support and if you have any questions please e-mail me on: annmariedocherty@fair-deal.org

Ann Marie Docherty
Chief Executive