Hello team,
Well, it's almost the end of October and we hope that you have reached for those cosy jumpers and hot drinks as you settle down for another edition of Staff Matters!
Who's who?
As we said in last month's edition of Staff Matters, we want to use this space to introduce some of the teams around Safe Families. This month we are focusing on... The Systems Team!
The team consists of Jez Hailwood, Head of Systems, Anthony Roderick, Systems Development and Support, Aaron Chauhan, Systems Development and Support, Ben Morriss, Systems Development and Support, Sarah Devlin, Systems Administrator, Micah Boulton, Systems Administrator and Sara Clark, Systems Developer (who is currently on maternity leave). This fantastic team are responsible for all things IT, including hardware, software, the database, accounts, training and support. Please get in touch with them if there's anything they can help you with. You can ask for help here.
Jez Anthony Aaron Ben Sarah Micah Sara
Menopause Awareness Month
October is Menopause Awareness Month. Why not commit to doing something in the next few weeks to increase your understanding of the menopause?
In June 2024 Safe Families shared their menopause policy with the staff team. The policy aims to promote awareness to all team members to create an environment in which the menopause is not a taboo. And to set out guidelines on how we will support employees experiencing menopausal symptoms. Two suggestions (there are many more ways aside these three!) of ways you could respond:
- If you haven't read the menopause policy - why not read it.
- Catherine Russell (Family Support Team Leader, and member of the menopause working group) has recorded a short book review on Pause, How to enjoy God, find hope and bear through through mid-life and the menopause by Sarah Allen. Give it a watch below
Annual Leave and Christmas
You will have seen that you Annual Leave Allowance has now been amended on the database and any additional leave you were owed (due to new terms and conditions) has now been added to your allowance 🎉
In addition to this and following feedback during consultations, we heard that some staff would like to be able to work during bank holidays and over the Christmas period. Therefore, for the next 12 months, we are piloting allowing all staff to request to work bank holidays, rather than use leave (other than Christmas Day and Boxing Day). Staff can also request to work one day between Christmas and New year. This will be reviewed by September 2025. This pilot is aiming to balance some team members desire to want to work with other feedback that the Christmas enforced break should be kept as it is the one time of year we are all on annual leave and so 'work' is not continuing internally. In turn, this means that the 'catchup' on our return is a lot less.
This year, between Christmas and New Year you can request to work one of the following days: Friday 27th December, Monday 30th December or Tuesday 31st December. For this to be approved you need to outline, in writing, to your line manager how you will do a productive days work that doesn’t require IT support, safeguarding support or an office space to work from (and in the Christmas period does not mean that other team members come back to a full inbox). In reality these days can be used for administrative tasks that you can do from home. Your line manager will confirm if you can work. (If you have the day approved to work you do not need to request it as AL through the staff database).
At the start of summer 2025 we will be asking for reflections from all staff members on the trial period.
At the start of summer 2025 we will be asking for reflections from all staff members on the trial period.
Other Types of Leave
As a reminder, there are some other types of leave that are available to staff. You can have a read about those here.
Working Groups
Last month in Staff Matters we gave you an overview of the working groups and we wanted to let you know how a couple of these are progressing. Flexi-time and TOIL - the group have met a couple of times since the last update and have now pulled together a draft policy and an FAQ document that will be discussed and refined. The group have also been gathering information from the teams across the organisation about what sufficient cover may look like in different areas and this will be shared too. We hope to share what we have found more widely from early November.
Another working group that have met recently is the place of work working group. A survey has now been circulated for you to complete with your views. Here is the link to Slack where you can find out more and complete the survey. The group are keen to hear your really honest feedback which will help to guide and shape what we do going forward. The group is also collecting data around footfall in the offices over the next four weeks so if your office lead puts a system in place for this, please do help by following it.
How to
This month we also want to highlight YuLife to you. If you haven't heard of YuLife, it is our Group Life Assurance Policy which aims to provide for members of your family if you were to die whilst you were employed with us. In these circumstances an amount equal to four times your salary at the date of your death would be paid to your next of kin.
There are also some other great things that you can access including:
- YuDoctor - access to a GP 24/7 and other health and wellbeing expertise such as mental health support, nutritionist consultations and an online fitness programme
- YuMatter - a confidential employee assistance program designed to support your mental and professional wellbeing including clinical counselling
- YuCoins - collect 'YuCoins' through the app and use them to buy vouchers for various retail, entertainment and wellbeing outlets
- Bereavement support - access to confidential telephone sessions with a qualified expert
- Probate helpline - guidance on legal issues after a bereavement
So how can you access all this? Download the app where all of these things are accessible to you.
For more information visit this link and if you have any questions or need help accessing it, do get in touch here.
Coming up...
In November we will be sharing some more information about Group Income Protection. So look out for that.
Thanks for reading this month's Staff Matters. As always, if there is anything you need help with or you think would be good to be included in Staff Matters please raise a ticket here and we will get back to you.
People and Culture Team