Firm wins contract to ensure council workforce stays healthy (From Wirral Globe)
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Firm wins contract to ensure council's workforce stays healthy
11:54am Wednesday 13th February 2013 in News By Leigh Marles
A private sector company has won a Wirral Council contract to provide counselling and health advice to town hall staff.
The move is revealed in a report that shows the local authority expects to spend around £300,000 on occupational therapy this year.
This is more than last year's £291,000 - but considerably less than the 2010 figure of £420,700.
People Asset Management Ltd - based in Warrington but with a practice at St Catherine's Hospital in Birkenhead - successfully tendered for the work.
The cash is considered money well spent as failure to have effective occupational health provision would leave the council at risk from litigation.
It would also mean Wirral could not meet its own policy requirements to support staff’s well-being.
The council's health, safety and resilience manager Mark Camborne says in a report that the auithority is about to undergo a significant period of change.
Several hundred staff will be made redundant next month and those who remain can expect major changes to their terms and conditions of employment.
Mr Camborne's report states: "In previous years the council had contracted various external occupational health providers including the NHS, Norwich Union/Aviva and more latterly Capita Health & Wellbeing, who provided services based on a price per unit/appointment basis.
"This has proved not only less effective in terms of proactive occupational health provision, but more importantly, has seen unit costs increase considerably over the previous 12-24 months."
A range of options were considered, including sharing other public sector bodies' occupational health resources.
But the report claims: "While there was potential for savings, these arrangements would take some time to put in place and for savings to be realised."
The contract will be discussed at tomorrow night's employment and appointments committee.
Comments(11)
Positive thinker
says...
12:34pm Wed 13 Feb 13
ginger26
says...
12:43pm Wed 13 Feb 13
WirralAl
says...
1:22pm Wed 13 Feb 13
Big question? How many sick days is the average per person at this council.
When they are talking about saving money at the council is this the top priority?
smabo
says...
1:39pm Wed 13 Feb 13
What an absolutely non-story, cynically plucked from the depths of a committee agenda purely for use as a stick to prod you reactionary sociopaths into snarling back again.
Positive thinker
says...
3:20pm Wed 13 Feb 13
Paulca isn't in a mental hospital for the abuse suffered
bigfoot
says...
3:21pm Wed 13 Feb 13
PaulCa wrote:Its even better when one goes before you and the others drop off the branch when you've gone and you can gloat from the sidelines-I did.
My health took a real turn for the better when Dave Green's trumped up bullying charges fell apart and I took great pleasure in resigning from Wirral Council.
Some staff may find being removed from a serial abuser's control and never again having to bend to their will is the best thing that's ever happened to them.
PaulCa
says...
6:10pm Wed 13 Feb 13
Positive thinker wrote:That's probably the most insightful comment you've ever accidentally made to these pages PT.
You couldn't make it up,it's a wonder
Paulca isn't in a mental hospital for the abuse suffered
But true to form, you're wrong - again.
Hugo1008
says...
9:59am Fri 15 Feb 13
Not only must the staff feel valued for the work they do, it is most important that they are also assisted in areas of complete Honesty, Integrity, Clean Open Transactions, and upmost fair play to those who foot the bill for their wages, etc.
So it is abundantly obvious that this valuable work starts from the very top downwards at the same time of starting from the bottom upwards, with no exceptions.
Take Note Graham Burgess, you must show by example and make it very clear to your management that this is for real.
Positive thinker
says...
7:51pm Tue 19 Feb 13
Positive thinker
says...
7:51pm Tue 19 Feb 13
PaulCa says...
12:18pm Wed 13 Feb 13
This private company may have a professional outlook, based on honesty, dignity, the Hippocratic Oath and the correct evaluation of staff's health issues. The problem is they're dealing with a broken council that is yet to usher in accountablity for its past failures.
For this process to protect staff it would be informed not just by getting "unit costs" down, but by past failures: the council's woeful history of proven bullying, failure, power abuse and systemic top-down crookedness.
Presumably, not having had any measure of accountability, we have the same failed people in situ. These managers are renowned for a long litany of internal bullying and harassment.
If they're still focussing on costs, then regardless of the private company doing the assessments, these will be "interpreted" to suit the twisted requirements of the bullies, and staff can expect to carry on being blamed and vilified for falling ill.