“Sssh. Are they looking?”

So, we may have waited until all the members of NWMHWRAG were out at a meeting before posting this :).

Just wanted to let you all know that a small backlog of emails going back, ooh, “months” and containing minutes for this years meetings has now been addressed and those minutes have been uploaded to the NWMHWRAG minutes archive where they could be viewed were it not for the fact that there appears to be a small password issue. Well, quite a long password in reality but the issue itself is, hopefully, small.

Whilst we’re 100% confident we know what the password for the minutes is (because we’re privileged and get to see it), it has decided for some reason to not let us in. No obvious reason for this. It just is. Possibly a punishment for being tardy with web site updates.

In order to make sure this is not just an “us” thing, it would be appreciated if one or two members of the group could finish up their Franco Manco pizza; clean their sticky fingers and test out whether they can access the minutes and then let us know.

Please don’t volunteer for this activity if you can’t remember the password. It’s Friday for goodness sake. Only try and access if you’re one of those sensible people who has definitely remembered the password 🙂

On the other hand, if no-one steps forward, then yeah just email us and we’ll remind you of the password and wait for you to tell us that’s all fine and it is in fact just us.

Follow @GMWRAGtweets

Well we’ve been threatening it for a while

But there’s finally an agenda!

Wednesday October 4th at GM Law Centre, 669 Stockport Rd, 10 am kickoff. Admiring the new signage is mandatory…

10am Helen Saul, DWP ACSSL for Salford who’s going to update us on developments with the ACSSLs

11am Dee Lynch, Advice worker at Maternity Action. A few people have noticed that Maternity Action have been working in GM for a few months now (particularly at the Law Centre where one of their workers is squatting) and Dee’s going to tell us all about the project and what they’re delivering.

11.45, brew break.

12pm Dan Manville’s going to update us on developments since the illustrious visitor graced our masses last time and the background.

1pm (ish) Lunch. There are a wealth of various kebab and cheap curry houses within 10 minutes walk of GMLC but of special mention is Levy Bakery (yes it IS Levy… heathens) and Khan’s is another Law Centre favourite, or there’s Asda 3 mins away if you’ve no soul money.

2pm the blogger, activist and at least one attendant’s gaffer, Ames Taylor will be Zooming in from a remote tropical island (NAWRA doesn’t get all the glamour) to discuss Tom Royston’s comments at the last meeting about strategic litigation and the nexus between debt advisers and us Welfs.

2.45 Brew time

And finally… 3pm Ryan Bradshaw’s coming along to tell us about Leigh Day’s new northern Human Rights team.

And once Ryan’s finished we might find time for a chat.

GMWRAG Dates

Hi gang

We thought it was best not to hold a winter GMWRAG at the Law Centre after inflicting Frostbite on the great and the good earlier this year.

Oldham WRS have kindly offered to save our fingers and will be hosting us at Oldham Civic Centre on Tuesday 23rd January and knowing that everyone is keen to hear about developments after the Mayor’s visit, we will host a meeting here at the Law Centre on Wednesday 4th October.

We hopefully have another speaker following on from Tom Royston’s comments at GMWRAG last, but until they confirm we’ll keep that under wraps.

If you can email Dan: danmanville@gmlaw.org.uk if you intend to come to 4th October so we can keep an eye on numbers we’d be grateful.

You wait ages for a post then 2 come along at once.

“Wanted: experienced advice caseworkers for temporary cover

Manchester Mind delivers a comprehensive, high quality welfare rights service to people with mental health needs who are in hospital and directly on discharge. The service is delivered in a way that enables people to feel heard and to access their rights and entitlements, particularly with regard to weekly income, reducing debt and securing housing.

Due to staff absences, we are looking for people who could provide temporary cover. They would need to be experienced in welfare benefits, debt, and housing advice work, and willing to work in a hospital environment. You would be supervised and supported by the Advice Service Manager, and would also have the support of the wider advice team at Manchester Mind.

One role, based at Park House in North Manchester General Hospital, is normally 24 hours per week

The other, based at Laureate House in Wythenshawe, is normally 17.5 hours per week

In both cases we would be willing to entertain offers from people who can’t cover that many hours.

Both would be paid at a rate equivalent to an annual full-time salary of £ £27,852.

If you think you might be able to help, please contact Giles Elliott, our Advice Service Manager, to arrange an informal discussion, by email at giles.elliott@manchestermind.org or by phone on 0161 769 5732”

GM Law Centre are having a shindig

On 14th September from 4ish.

If you fancy coming and having a chat with the broader LC staff and volunteers; including award winning, swashbuckling* lawyers, you’re free to come along and see the workings.

We might even go for a pint after 6.

*they don’t look like pirates though, but it’s nearly talk like a pirate day so there might be an eye patch or two.

The minutes for last Friday’s meeting:

Are here

At least the morning’s session. We didn’t minute the presentations.

So this happened…

And this…

And a grand time was had by all. Minutes will follow soon.

Gareth’s slides are here

The Mayor asked that we come up with a set of suggestions and a working group was mooted after his speech.

In the morning Tom Royston gave us an impromptu run down of recent decisions in the morning and some recommended reading’s here:

Official error overpayment – Garden Court North Chambers (gcnchambers.co.uk)

Challenging Delay In The First-Tier Tribunal (gcnchambers.co.uk)

Thanks to the author Alex McColl of GCN for agreeing to save us all searching them.

The afternoon began by our friends at Housing Systems giving us a precis of the UC managed migration scheme; their unique training style is something to behold as you will see from their slides here.

We continues with Gareth Morgan of Ferret Information Systems gave us the low down on the Welsh DANGOS project; a framework for information provision and first tier training for community advisers.

Then finally our special guest, non other than the mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, who came to speak with us about the future generation of Welfare Rights Advisers, or rather lack of, and how we might resolve the lack of new blood coming in to the industry..

The next meeting of GMWRAG will be advertised soon. Probably on a Thursday due to scheduling problems at GMLC

One last push.

You might not have spotted the packed agenda for this Friday’s GMWRAG meeting at Garden Court North… https://gmwrag.wordpress.com/2023/05/31/the-day-is-here/

Book today to secure lunch.

Reports of our demise are greatly exaggerated

The elves at Eventbrite are not so thoroughly trained as GMWRAG’s very own toy factory. As such, although there were reportedly problems, they’re fixed now.

Don’t forget to book your place for next Friday, 16th May at GCN; at least if you want feeding.

Register on Eventbrite

Register on Eventbrite