Council Meeting 11/6/03 This was a fairly packed couple of days with three Council meetings, an Organisation, Terms and Conditions Committee meeting, a Group Delegates Meeting and an Annual General Meeting fitted into the schedule.
The first Council meeting was held to discuss whether the changes made last June to the way that Council carried out is business were working. Did they make Council meetings more or less effective and efficient? It was noted that some areas had been considerably improved, but some tweaking was still required. In some ways, the change had been too radical and some of the positive aspects of Council meetings had been lost. It was decided to trial a structure which combined elements of the previous way of working with the current way to reinstate those benefits which had been lost. A workplan for other improvements was formulated.
Group Delegates Meeting It was expected that there would be an announcement today by the DoH that the early implementers would go ahead. The two unions who had voted no, the Society of Radiographers and UCATT, had agreed to the early implementers going ahead and to have a second vote on the package next year.
It was agreed that some Chief Pharmacists need a bit of encouragement to do this. It was suggested that the Guild could carry out a survey on the problem.
Some work was to be done on recruitment materials. It was agreed later at Council that Caroline Wadsworth, Liverpool Group Secretary, would be invited to assist.
Annual General Meeting Although the AGM was inquorate, it was agreed to continue on that basis and conduct the full business of the meeting by a vote of 30 to 3. It was noted that any decisions made, though, could be challenged by a Special General Meeting under the constitution.
The Annual Report was received.
The Section General Secretary announced that membership of the Guild had increased by 399 members over the period March 2002 to April 2003.
The Treasurer informed the meeting that separate accounts for the Special Interest Groups had been approved by the bank.
The Vice-chair of Staffside Pharmaceutical Whitley Council said that the pay claim for 2003/4 had not been progressed, as it had been overtaken by Agenda for Change.
The formation of a new interest group, the Leadership & Management Interest Group was announced. This was to be a joint venture with UKCPA.
A motion to change the constitution to delete the requirement to hold a Group Delegates Meeting was deferred until the next AGM. However, it was agreed to suspend the GDM for a year.
Two other motions were tabled and discussed by the AGM -
There was discussion about whether cost-cutting was actually happening. If resources were required, they were forthcoming if a good case was presented. Although the amount of administrator time was less than some years ago, more money was being spent on the journal than had been spent on Guild News and if the amount of time on Agenda For Change being contributed to the Guild by Colin Adkins was taken into account, there was no evidence in a resource reduction. Instead, resources were being utilised differently.
Special Council Meeting It was announced that the 2004 Annual National Conference was likely to take place on 23-25th April in either Nottingham or Leicester
Council Meeting 12/6/03 It was reported that the President, Vice-President and Professional Secretary are to meet with Felicity Harvey, Jim Smith's manager at the DoH.
Knowledge and Skills Framework It was noted that the Knowledge and Skills Framework was likely to be introduced earlier than first thought for some staff groups. The first KSF profiles will need to be ready for October 2003, and early implementers are considering those professions which have professional standards documents.
Early Implementer Meeting Another Early Implementer reps training day is to be held in July. Problems have arisen with trying to profile pharmacy posts in AFC. The current approach and structures do not allow this to proceed in the way we would like. Some extra work needs to be done here.
New Amicus Rule Book The Section General Secretary reported that the new Amicus rule book was due to be voted upon at Conference within the next couple of weeks. Gail Cartmail was to consider all the resources available to the Health Sector. There had been an excellent response from pharmacy technicians about setting up a structure within the union for them. Most of the people responding would be prepared to be involved in a network.
Moribund Groups It was agreed that it should be investigated how to transfer funds from moribund Group bank accounts into the Section Fund. A note would be taken of the details of the transfer so that should the Group revive, the money could be returned. Otherwise the money could be used to help resuscitate other moribund Groups. There was also the possibility of merging Groups, where one was moribund.
VAT Policy Statement It was noted that work on a VAT policy statement had been halted, pending an announcement from an HM Customs & Excise investigation. This is likely to close some of the current loopholes. The investigation has been triggered by a large Trust moving HIV and haemophilia supplies into the private sector to avoid payment of VAT.
Pharmacist in Public Health Policy Statment There is to be a policy statement on the role of the pharmacist in public health.
Colin Rodden 18 June 2003