Welcome
Welcome to the new style newsletter. If you have any difficulty in reading the newsletter please let us know and we can provide you with a stripped down version which can be read by all email clients. This newsletter is free, so please pass it on to your colleagues, who can sign on for their own copy by visiting our website at www.ukqcs.com and completing the brief details requested. In order to keep the newsletter to a reasonable length, we are now using more hyperlinks to external articles and information. Simply click on these to see them, or paste the link into your browser. This is the first copy of the new format, so if you are experiencing problems please let us know so that we can improve and/or fix it Your editor was unexpectedly admitted to hospital in March, and had only just been discharged. I will be working part time for some time, and anticipate being fully fit by late May. So please accept apologies for any delays in service which may have resulted from my not being able to hand everything over to the office in a planned fashion. Normal service is now resumed. Those of you who have seen us at various care shows recently collaborating with Venalink, the UK’s leading supplier of Monitored Dosage medication packs (blister Packs) may have requested the free Medications Policy and Procedure available to Venalink customers. This is one of the projects which have been delayed by your editor’s hospitalisation, but the matter is in hand and you will all be receiving your free pack soon. In the meantime if you have any questions or a need for an urgent draft copy, contact us on 08707 489 899 The version of the Medications Policy which will shortly appear on the online system will include specific references to the Venalink system, and their training manual. An interesting case reported in the Press a few days ago. An academic applied for a job at a University. She was interviewed together with other candidates. The University selected another candidate. On challenging the decision, it was found that she was by far the best qualified for the post, and that the University could not demonstrate that they had done anything other than select on the basis of who came across best at the interview. They could not demonstrate that they had used objective criteria for the selection. That cost the University GBP35000 at a Tribunal. The lesson to be learnt is that it is absolutely essential to decide on the personal, professional and skills criteria for a job before you interview anybody, objectively score each candidate against the criteria, and select the candidate with the highest score. If you are uncomfortable with your highest-score choice, either the criteria you set were wrong, or the assessment process you carried out was flawed, so improve your procedure next time. You have no other way of avoiding what can be very costly discrimination claims othet than to rigorously follow this procedure. In other words, follow to the letter the Recruitment Pack A and B and Recruitment Policy and Procedure which you have in your UKQCS quality Management System, and train all staff involved in recruiting to follow the procedure. For any of you who do not use our system, go to www.ukqcs.com and download the PowerPoint demonstration. You know it makes sense! We now offer a Personnel/HR support package which indemnifies you against Employment Tribunal case preparation costs and awards. We or the insureres represent your case for you. The costs are very competitive compared to other products of a similar nature. Contact us on 08707 489 899 for more details, or download our information sheet at http://www.ukqcs.com/useful_docs/file1178304270.pdf. Last month, the Director of the Equality Tribunal in the Republic of Ireland published a decision on age discrimination likely to be relevant in the UK because the underlying legislation is EU based. In the case, the complainant was asked questions about his age at an early stage of the interview process, including questions on the application form such as "living with parents/ renting/ mortgaged accommodation", "number of children", "age" and "date of birth". The complainant provided incorrect information, objecting that the questions were "irrelevant and invasive". He was not given the job, despite being suitable for it. The Equality Officer held that he had been discriminated against on grounds of his age, and awarded him 5,000 Euro Make sure you use our Recruitment Pack B, and train interviewers in avoiding age discriminatory questions at interview. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is keen to give money away to small employers across the country. All they have to do is file their 2006/07 Employer Annual Return online now, to receive a £150 tax-free payment. Open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, online filing is the quickest and easiest way for all employers to meet their obligation to inform HMRC of the tax and national insurance (NI) payments made by their employees in the last financial year. Employers with 50 or more employees must file their returns online or face a penalty of at least £100. Only employers with fewer than 50 employees who file a valid return online can get the £150 tax-free payment. Don MacArthur, Director of HMRC’s Employer Programme, said: “Filing online is the fastest and simplest way to submit your return, and smaller employers who do so can receive a £150 tax-free payment. We are accepting online returns now, so don't wait for the 19 May deadline, send it as soon as it’s ready.” Employers who file online via HMRC’s Internet PAYE service are also able to benefit from a range of practical help to ensure they file their returns correctly. These include tools such an error alert that highlights mistakes in their returns, reducing the chance of a penalty for filing incorrect information. Any employers who would like help, tips and the latest expert advice on online filing for 2006/07 can visit the HMRC website at http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/. CSCI launches dedicated provider and council website: www.csci.org.uk/professional CSCI is encouraging people who work in social care to bookmark their new website CSCI Professional which can be found at http://www.healthcarerepublic.com/news/PressRelease/652638/CSCI-launches-dedicated-provider-council-website/ The Code of Practice, published on 23rd April, is available from TSO Books [TSOBooks@products.tso.co.uk] ISBN: 9780117037465 Price: £15.00 A balance is needed between, on the one hand, looking after people (and protecting them from harm), and, on the other, ensuring that they can make their own decisions about how they want to live. CSCI wants to hear about people's views and experiences - the problems when older people are restrained without consent and the solutions that people have found.CSCI suggests that there is a need to look beyond common understandings of physical intervention, to broader, more subtle forms of restriction. The study will include a focus on physical restriction, chemical restraint, environment, electronic surveillance, medical procedures, and culture and staff style. The survey is one of the methods CSCI is using to complete the study, and includes examples of the sort of situations which sometimes occur. The survey is online until May 31 and takes around fifteen minutes to complete. It can be found at http://www.csci.org.uk/about_csci/news/give_us_your_views_on_restra-1.aspx Copyright UK Quality Care Solutions Ltd. 2007 PO Box 2129 Wrexham LL12 9ZD Tel: 08707 489 899 Fax: 08701 316 817 Email: info@ukqcs.com
Unless otherwise stated, © UKQCS Limited
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