|
|
The beauty of BOOST, still thriving despite lockdown
|
|
|
|
BOOST Barnet is a multi-agency taskforce working with Barnet residents on employment opportunities and training skills. Lawrence Graham manages the BOOST Barnet Team, which includes Gurinder Puar, who supports young people 16-24 with education, employment and training. They talk to First Team about how they have been managing a service where they usually help people in person. Right now they are engaging with clients solely virtually.
Launched in 2016, BOOST is a multi-agency project funded by Barnet Council and managed by Barnet Homes, who both work in partnership with the council’s Benefits Service, Education and Skills team and JobCentre Plus.
Tell us about the apprenticeships and how the virtual apprenticeship recruitment day went, online
Lawrence: It went better than expected, considering we’re used to delivering events like these face-to-face which allow you to see people’s body language etc. We registered 20 people by the end of it. It goes to show you what the future can be. Generally, the attendees joining the open day wanted a general overview. We’ve had strong interest for the BOOST apprenticeship role, we’ve also had a good response for apprenticeships with the Finance and Procurement and Income Collection teams. In fact, we got at least an application for each service area. There’s still nine days to apply for an apprenticeship. We’d like to help people into work as much as we can.
What will successful applicants get out of an apprenticeship with TBG?
Lawrence: Transferable skills. The way I explained it at the open day, don’t think of it as an apprenticeship, think of it as a career. It’s about working to your best performance and ability for the managers you are working with, as there could be the possibility to work more long-term in the group. We have an ex-apprentice, Nicola Lewis-Moses, joining us in this interview to tell us a bit about her journey…
Gurinder: It’s an opportunity for young people to learn while they earn. They could gain incredible customer service skills, office experience and social skills, plus learning to communicate with colleagues and managers. Barnet Council is a fantastic employer to work for, and The Barnet Group, and even to have those names on your CV. It’s a good salary, especially for young people.
You started your career with TBG as an apprentice and now you are working for the BOOST Team – in short how has that been and how did your apprenticeship prepare you/help you for the world of work?
Nicola: I started off as an apprentice in 2014 with the Neighbourhoods Team. I was impacted by the benefit cap, and as a single parent, it was a really daunting prospect to try and re-enter the job market. I had to learn something completely new and also go back into a college environment, which could have been really overwhelming, but I had a really good manager and mentor at the time. It helped me to gain confidence.
How have BOOST Barnet managed during lockdown? Click here to watch the interview in full. And click here to read a longer interview on Yammer.
Do you know someone who would be interested in an apprenticeship? More information on the seven vacancies is available here.
|
|
|
|
Focus on… Cassie Bridger, AD for Greenspaces and Leisure
|
|
Who’s going to be our next Customer Service Star this month?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Leisure centres are the latest venues to be allowed to reopen from this weekend, so this week we caught up with Cassie Bridger, Assistant Director for Greenspaces and Leisure, to hear about preparations. Edited highlights of the interview are below - click here to read the full interview on Yammer.
Q. There must have been a lot of work going on over recent weeks to prepare leisure centres for reopening. What has this involved?
A. Following the Government announcement, all our facilities were closed on 21 March and we worked to decommission the buildings, effectively ‘switching them off’ which is a little more straightforward than what’s required for re-activating. Throughout the pandemic we have been working with our partners, Better, who operate the facilities on behalf of the council to develop the remobilisation strategy so we can safely welcome residents back into the Centres. This has involved a range of key workstreams such as: COVID secure; Risk Assessments; Facility Management Plans; Utility Management; Cleaning Schedules; Operational Plans; Compliance, Workforce and Training; Programme, Access and Admissions; Customer Experience; Communication – lots of ground to cover!
Q. What differences will staff who are leisure centre members see if they visit our centres over the coming weeks?
A. We are excited to welcome users back, especially as we reach the one-year anniversaries of our two new facilities (at Barnet Copthall and New Barnet!) We have made adaptions to all the centres to ensure that as we progress towards opening on 25 July, customers can still enjoy exercising in a safe environment. Some of these changes include: the requirement for all users to book in advance and online, introducing one hour timeslots, turning up ready to participate in your chosen activity, reducing the capacities in all areas, changing the equipment layouts with personal activity zones clearly marked. The customer journey throughout the facilities will look different too as we have introduced circulation routes and separate
entrance / exit points throughout the facilities, all clearly marked by new COVID-secure signage which has been installed. Within each centre you will also find sanitising stations and cleaning products to support the safe use of equipment. Better staff will be on hand as COVID Secure Officers to provide support to customers alongside a dedicated Better COVID Hub which has been set up specifically to advise on the new measures.
Q. What does the future hold for leisure centres, and can you foresee a total return to 'normality'?
A. To ensure a safe re-open our initial plans are focused on delivering a core programme offer which includes; gym, group fitness, swimming and family swimming. We hope to re-introduce many other activities such as lessons, courses, health programmes later this year (from September onwards) as part of a phased approach. This is part of our remobilisation strategy and will be closely monitored by the Greenspaces and Leisure Team.
Q. Lots has been written about the impact of lockdown on physical and mental health. Do you think the reopening of park facilities and leisure centres can help tackle some of these issues?
A. The health benefits of exercise are indisputable ….you may be aware that an inactive lifestyle contributes towards chronic miseries such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease and many other health conditions. You may also (like me) be someone who has recently taken to exercise during lockdown(!), and we don’t always consider the contribution of physical activity on our mental health. The idea that physical activity might do something really fundamental for our mental health is less immediately obvious – however any type of activity, even in a short duration can calm us, energise us, encourage us to interact with others, get outside and improve our general mood. I can definitely vouch for the benefits!
|
|
Earlier this year, we launched a staff recognition scheme to shine a light on our frontline staff who deliver exemplary customer service to our residents, day in, day out.
So far, we have had three Customer Service Star of the Month winners and now after a brief break from the campaign during the COVID-19 response – we are relaunching it and asking for you to start sending in your nominations for July’s Customer Service Star of the Month.
For further inspiration, let’s look back on the previous winners of the Customer Service Star of the Month awards.
In January, Grainne Lawrenson, a Planning Assistant in Re, won the first Customer Service Star of the Month award. She won the award following a nomination which quoted a resident who she helped to make a planning application. The resident said at the time: "I was extremely impressed by Grainne's efforts in helping me with the process of my application. I have never experienced such great service from Barnet Council after living here for 30 years. She is truly an asset to your team."
In February, Karen Tuff from Adults and Health won the award. Karen was nominated for her hard work and perseverance to solve a range of issues for a client with progressive and complex medical conditions. In March, just before lockdown, Linda Samy, receptionist at Parkfield Children’s Centre, (pictured above) won Customer Service Star of the Month.
One of the colleagues who nominated Linda was Caroline Bischoff, Business Manager, 0-19 Early Help Service. Caroline says: “I think it means a lot for staff to be recognised with an award such as this, for their morale and self-esteem to know that they are doing a good job.”
Linda Samy says: “I was happy to win Customer Service Star of the Month. Since March, like most staff in Barnet Children’s Centres, I have been working from home. It has been challenging at the best of times, but I appreciate that I am one of the lucky ones! Workwise, I have mostly been completing referrals, updating data on new births and supporting families accessing their free early years entitlement into nursery provision as well as remote registers.
"I keep in touch with my colleagues from work, either through Skype or WhatsApp, which keeps me relatively sane. On a personal level, I have enjoyed getting to know London again, through cycling. Plus, binge-watching Netflix and dreaming of sandy beaches and margaritas!”
How to nominate a colleague for Customer Service Star of the Month
We want to hear from you about some of the great examples, across the organisation, of how colleagues are delivering great customer experience. We welcome nominations from council staff and our partners.
To nominate someone for an award, all you need to do is fill out this nomination form with the details of who you want to nominate and send it back to first.team@barnet.gov.uk.
Please submit your nominations by close of business on Friday 31 July. The winner of this month’s award wins £100 worth of high street shopping vouchers as well as their win being officially announced in First Team.
If you would like to see an example of a Customer Service Star of the Month nomination click here to see Linda Samy’s winning nomination.
|
|
|
(Virtual) Workplace Wellbeing Month planned for September
|
|
Planning a holiday? Updated advice on laptops when abroad
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Last year we held our inaugural Workplace Wellbeing Month in September, to celebrate our move to new offices in Colindale as well as to give staff across the council and our partners an opportunity to improve their health and wellbeing. This year, due to COVID-19, we are in a very different situation but plans are well underway to mark the occasion virtually – and we want to hear your views.
The COVID-19 Staff Survey identified that mental and physical health and wellbeing were third and fourth highest respectively on the list of concerns staff have (after their own and others’ exposure to coronavirus), and various research has shown that the impacts of lockdown can affect people’s mental health, fitness levels and sleep patterns.
As a result, we want to provide a range of ‘challenges’ that people can complete at home, which will help boost mental and physical wellbeing and encourage connecting with team colleagues and others across the organisation. We will be basing the challenges – to take place throughout the month – on the Five Ways to Wellbeing: Be Active; Take Notice; Give; Connect; and Learn. Options including virtual yoga and mindfulness sessions, as well as ways of encouraging healthy eating are being considered, alongside a range of physical sporting challenges that people can complete on their own or in existing bubbles or household groupings. Challenges that are inclusive for those with mobility issues will also be incorporated into the planning.
The Workplace Wellbeing Group is in the early stages of planning events, and has this week released this poll on Yammer to gather colleagues’ views, thoughts and ideas to help us plan activities. Please find a couple of minutes in your busy schedules to complete the poll so that we can incorporate everyone’s input in the final arrangements.
Mike Koumi, Head of Safety, Health and Wellbeing, and chair of the Workplace Wellbeing Group, said: “COVID-19 has had an unprecedented impact on all of us, and keeping fit and healthy in both body and mind is even more important than normal as we ease slowly out of the restricted lives we have had to lead over the past months.
“We felt it was important to mark Workplace Wellbeing Month despite the difficulties in place due to COVID-19, and want as many staff as possible to get involved. At this stage we want to hear your views and ideas so please complete our poll over the next few days. We will come back to you with the results and more detailed activity schedules in the next few weeks.”
Complete the poll here.
|
|
As lockdown measures are slowly easing, and Foreign Office advice now allows travel to and from certain countries without the need to quarantine, some staff may be planning a foreign holiday again over the coming months. While as a council, we would not recommend taking your laptop abroad, we do understand that there may be times when it would be beneficial to you to do so. This should only be done where it is absolutely necessary and only if you wish to do so.
Subsequently, this is our advice: working or using a device while abroad is permissible for the right reasons, but we would expect conversations to take place between the staff member and their line manager before going away, and line management approval given ahead of you taking your device abroad. Similarly, from an IT perspective, to minimise the risk of systems not working as they should, we would advise that staff make sure they are registered for Multi-Factor Authentication before going away, and that if a laptop or device encounters a hardware issue while outside the country, IT engineers will be unable to provide direct support.
From an Information Management point of view, the key legislation is around something known as the Wassenar Arrangement – an international agreement which governs the entry of encrypted IT equipment into certain countries. It is possible that in these or other countries, staff may be asked to open and power on the device and could potentially face questions. Further information relating to the Wassenar Arrangement can be accessed here. Managers should keep a record of what is discussed with staff members before going away in relation to laptop use.
Existing Information Management guidance around safe remote working continues to apply, particularly relating to not keeping documents on the C drive or desktop, and that no paper documents should be transported. Laptops should also always be kept in the cabin and not the hold if travelling by plane. Hotel and guest wifi can be used with our laptops as long as you are accessing the Barnet network via the VPN, which is secure. Remember to keep information safe at all times and ensure your working environment is appropriate.
If you have any further questions around the use of laptops or devices while abroad, contact the Records and Information Management team by emailing data.protection@barnet.gov.uk.
|
|
|
This email and any attachments may contain privileged or confidential material and is solely for the use of the intended recipient. If you have received this email in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete this email. Any views expressed are those of the sender and do not necessarily represent those of the company. The company does not guarantee that this email or any attachments are free from viruses. Unsubscribe
|
|
|
|
|