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Aberdeen Voluntary Sector Providers Forum

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Aberdeen Voluntary Sector Providers Forum

Aberdeen Voluntary Sector Providers Forum exists to enable voluntary organisations providing care homes and housing support services in Aberdeen to maintain, develop and improve the quality of their services. It encourages and promotes good practice and enables its members to work collectively and co-operatively.

  • share information, training and resources
  • assist its members to develop ways of working together, recognising that their Collective voice has more influence and authority than their individual voices.
  • represent the interests of its members, while acknowledging their right to represent their own individual interests.
  • influence social care policy and decisions concerning the provision of residential care and supported accommodation, at both a local and national level.
  • develop and improve the quality of residential care and supported accommodation provision in Aberdeen.
  • enable service users to exercise their right to be consulted and to influence decisions concerning the services they receive.
  • work collaboratively with statutory and voluntary agencies and with other representative and umbrella bodies.

The current issues on the Agenda for the Forum include Standards for Care and Support Services, Employment Initiatives, Recruitment and Retention of Staff, Health & Safety and much much more.

Meetings Schedule - 2010
  • 3rd February
  • 28th April
  • 16th June
  • 4th August
  • 22 September
  • 10th November

All meetings will take place at ACVO's Offices, Greyfriars House, Gallowgate, Aberdeen from 10.30am to 12.30pm.

The Convenor of the Forum is Sam Sinclair and he can be contacted at Camphill Scotland at sam@camphillscotland.org.uk

 
The HR Forum (Subgroup of the AVSPF)

The HR Forum is a sub group of the Aberdeen Voluntary Sector Providers Forum (AVSPF) and exists to enable voluntary organisations in Aberdeen to share expertise and knowledge in all areas of HR.  A Forum member attends the main AVSPF meeting to ensure exchange of information between the two groups.

The increasing demands of Care Commission and SSSC bring new challenges every year, and group members meet informally every month. Members include HR and non HR professionals – while some Charities have people with a dedicated role, others have non specialists who deal with HR issues alongside an Operational workload. Discussions tend to be topical and relevant to current issues, and speakers are invited to attend as appropriate. The emphasis is on participation and the sharing of ideas and discussion, particularly in problem areas of HR policy and practice. We want to avoid members re-inventing the wheel whenever possible.

In addition, the Forum has a lively e mail network, and members share documents e.g. procedures regularly, considerably lightening the workload of all the membership who are then able to use these as a template for developing their own documents.

The Forum also facilitates a local Benchmarking exercise once a year which is administered by ACVO in strictest confidence to preserve anonymity.

Issues such as those listed below have been addressed over the working life of the forum:

NETWORKING MEETINGS
  • SSSC registration – timescales and systems
  • Care Commission reporting requirements
  • Criminal convictions and contractual responsibilities with the Local Authority
  • Changes to Employment law and their application to Policy and Procedure
  • Funding for Training and SVQ
  • Recommending reputable, good value training providers
  • Childcare Voucher systems
  • Benchmarking
  • Absence Management Procedures
  • Application of the Working Time Directive in the care setting
  • The Minimum Wage and its application in the care setting
  • Equal Opportunities monitoring
  • Rewards and Retention
E MAIL NETWORK
  • Daily access to support, guidance and expertise of colleagues
  • Job Descriptions and Policies and Procedures
  • Employment law – available web sites and other contacts
  • Meetings which may interest the membership
HR Forum - Meeting Dates for 2009

All meetings are held on a Thursday at 10am in the ACVO Training Room:

  • 5th March 2009
  • 23rd April 2009
  • 11th June 2009
  • 30th July 2009
  • 17th September 2009
  • 5th November 2009

If you are interested in becoming a member of the AVSPF (which includes a small membership fee) or the HR Forum, please contact Sarah Irvine,  Administration Assistant at ACVO on (01224) 686058 or at sirvine@acvo.org.uk or complete and return the membership form and you will be issued with an invoice.

 

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