Agenda for this Friday’s GMWRAG meeting in Salford.

The agenda for this week’s GMWRAG meeting in Salford can now be downloaded from here.

The meeting will be hosted in Salford by their Salford Welfare Rights and Debt Advice Service on Friday the 4th of October 2019 in Committee room 3 of the Civic Centre, Chorley Road, Swinton M27 5DA. Doors open at 1:30pm for a 2pm start and we hope that this will enable those of you here for the day because of the a..m. GMWRAG GM UC meeting to at least be able to get a decent lunch. Details of the agenda for the UC meeting will also be coming out this afternoon barring a disaster.

Our speaker as per the post earlier today will be member Norman Beverley. Nowadays Norman is Head of Advice Service at Europia and he’ll be coming along to give us a comprehensive update on the European Settlement Scheme. 

Travel to Swinton is easy. Parking is not. We cannot overstate that parking in Swinton is hard to find; generally time-limited and may involve having to go out and move your vehicle part way through the day or meeting.

Trains to and from Swinton railway station are every 30 minutes and it’s a 12 minute walk from there to the Civic Centre. Entry to the building is along the left side of the town hall past the registry office. The 36, 37 and 38 buses will bring you right outside the town hall/civic centre but you can also get a 34., V1 or V2 to Worsley Road and then walk 10 minutes up Partington Lane.

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Salford GMWRAG meeting finally announced.

Hello happy GMWRAG followers. We trust you had an enjoyable Summer somewhere away from the B word; climate change; the silently creeping surveillance society and of course Harrogate and managed migration. No? Us neither.

Well, thinking about it we suppose there could be several B words right now.

Anyway, after much sitting on our hands we have found a room (in a city – one for the late 1980s music fans there) and the next GMWRAG meetings are sort of good to go. The next meetings will be hosted in Salford by Salford Welfare Rights and Debt Advice Service on Friday the 4th of October 2019 in Committee room 3 of the Civic Centre, Chorley Road, Swinton M27 5DA.

The morning meeting will be the GMWRAG GM UC Forum whilst the afternoon meeting will be yer actual bog standard cliquey GMWRAG meeting, possibly with added speaker but definitely with an opportunity to catch up on much GMWRAG business in the 12 months since we’ve hosted Neil Couling; Everyday Equalities and Brexit and Benefits.

Agendas for both meetings will be published as soon as they’re finalised. Minutes for previous meetings are already available on the Forum part of the site although there have been no formal minutes in 2019 so far because of the nature of the events we’ve hosted.

Travel to Swinton is easy nowadays, unless you own a car, in which case, no it isn’t. Parking is very limited but Swinton railway station is 10 minutes walk from the Civic Centre and well(ish) served by trains from Wigan, Southport, Salford and Manchester. It is not however a fully accessible station. There are only stairs to/from the 2 platforms.

Alternatively 36,37, 38 and various other buses stop right outside the Civic Centre or you could get a V1, V2 or 34/X34 along the East Lancs. Road to the Worsley Road stop from where it’s also only a 13 minute walk. Cyclists are also reasonably well served with storage facilities at a number of sites (to varying standards).

Swinton now sorta has “food opportunities” too. Well, one of the largest Costa Coffees outside of Manchester; an Asda café and even a Morrisons one for good measure. Some nice indie caffs are appearing and we’ll be happy to point you there on the day in the expectation that some of you won’t come back.

Anyway, more to follow as we have it and we’ll see you there.

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Minutes of the GMWRAG GM UC Forum finally available.

GMWRAG has taken our time getting minutes out from the first two very successful meetings of the GMWRAG GM UC Forum. This has largely been because of a need to ensure various parties are happy the minutes accurately reflect their participation and this, to be blunt, has been like herding cats. However, herding cats is not actually impossible (follow that link folks) and so here we finally are.

The minutes for both the January 2019 meeting in Oldham and the May 2019 meeting are now available for download from the GMUCF section of our site and they are of course password protected.

Regular GMWRAG users will be able to take a punt at our password but if not you can always DM us on Twitter or email to the usual address. If you don’t know the usual address then you’re possibly not a GMWRAG member or not paying attention.

The next GMWRAG meeting and GMWRAG GM UC Forum meeting was scheduled for Salford in July. That clearly isn’t going to happen so we’re now aiming for late August or early September. More news on this as we have it.

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NAWRA notes from the Salford meeting now available.

NAWRA hasn’t happened too many times in Greater Manchester over the years so we’re not going to let go easily.

The notes and presentations from the day are now available on the NAWRA website. If you don’t know the password then you’re probably not a NAWRA member so… we’re not going to tell you. Your manager will likely know and if not please contact NAWRA not GMWRAG.

The next NAWRA meeting will take place from 10am-4pm (registration from 9.30am) on Friday the 7th of June 2019 at The Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich. To be fair it looks spectacular but it’s not Salford is it! They’ll be back.

The agenda will be available here (and there) in early May.

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What do you think this is? A jobs web site? Oh, er…

GMWRAG could get used to this. Yes, more job vacancies…

Salford City Council
Salford Civic Centre
Chorley Road
Swinton, M27 5AW

Welfare Rights Officer (Health)
2 Posts:
– Full time (36 hours), Permanent
– Part time (18 hours), Fixed term (to September 1st 2019 in first instance)
Grade: 3B, £26,999 – £29,636(full time)/£13,499 – £14,818 (part time)
Closing date: 30th of April, 12pm
Entitlement to a casual car user allowance

We are looking for an experienced welfare rights officer to join our dynamic and well established welfare rights and debt advice team.

This post provides a comprehensive specialist welfare benefits advice service in GP practices and health centres.

Key responsibilities will include:
• Providing an advice service in a variety of health settings and home visits
• Duty cover of our telephone and email welfare rights advice service
• Contributing to welfare rights training delivery
• Acting as an expert consultant and providing support for GPs, health and social care professionals

You should have:
• Up to date experience and expertise in benefits case work including appeal representation
• Working knowledge of social security legislation
• strong written and verbal communication skills
• an ability to work on your own as well as part of a team
• a commitment to the promotion of anti-poverty and equality work

Please confirm in your application which post you are interested in.

Role Profile.docx

Please be aware that this post is subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check and that you will be required to meet the cost of the DBS check – currently £44.00. The payment for this will be deducted from your first four months’ salary payments at a rate of £11.00 per month.  If you do not commence employment for any reason but the DBS has been processed, you will be sent an invoice for the payment of £44.00.

Our core data protection obligations and commitments are set out in the council’s primary Recruitment and Employment Privacy Notice which can be found at https://www.salford.gov.uk/gdpr.

You can apply via https://www.greater.jobs/search-and-apply/job-details/SF-27381/

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Salford City Mayor welcomes ‘national heroes’.

A significant number of GMWRAG members enjoyed a fantastic day out in Greater Manchester on Friday the 1st of March 2019 at the 1st ever Salford NAWRA meeting hosted by Salford Welfare Rights and Debt Advice Service. at Swinton Civic Centre.

GMWRAG is hoping to provide a fuller report in due course but in the meantime we’d urge you to check out the great article about the forceful and passionate opening message from City Mayor Paul Dennett.

GMWRAG was unable to live stream any part of the event but we were pleased to see that social media was alive with great comments and uninspiring photography (we’re excepting the photo to our left and referring to the ones below). We’ve been assured that better images are on the way but then we’ve also been assured austerity is at an end!

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What comes after “unprecedented”?

Having advertised 3 jobs in a relatively short period of time and used the word “unprecedented” GMWRAG now find ourselves advertising job number 4 of 2019 and stuck for a superlative (although not lacking in alliteration :)). The internet tells us we have choices like “anomalous” or “freakish”; “aberrant” or “ground-breaking”. GMWRAG is going with “marvellous”.

As ever this post is permanently available on our Vacancies page. At least until it joins our Vacancies archive. Full information can be found at GreaterJobs.

Salford City Council
Salford Civic Centre
Chorley Road
Swinton, M27 5AW

Welfare Rights Officer (mental health)
Contract Type: Temporary to 1 September 2019 in the first instance)
Grade: 3B £26,470 – £29,055
Working Hours: 36 hours per week
Entitlement to a casual car user allowance

We are looking for an experienced welfare rights officer to join our dynamic and well established welfare rights and debt advice team.

This post provides a comprehensive specialist welfare benefits advice service for people with mental health problems.

Key responsibilities will include:
• Providing an advice service in a variety of mental health settings and in your client’s own homes
• Duty cover of our telephone and email welfare rights advice service
• Contributing to welfare rights training delivery
• Acting as an expert consultant and providing support for key mental health professionals

You should have:
• Up to date experience and expertise in benefits work including appeal representation
• a good appreciation of mental health and the benefit issues that relate to people with mental problems
• strong written and verbal communication skills
• an ability to work on your own as well as part of a team
• a commitment to the promotion of anti-poverty work

Role Profile.docx

Please be aware that this post is subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check and that you will be required to meet the cost of the DBS check – currently £44.00.  The payment for this will be deducted from your first four months’ salary payments at a rate of £11.00 per month.  If you do not commence employment for any reason but the DBS has been processed, you will be sent an invoice for the payment of £44.00.

Our core data protection obligations and commitments are set out in the council’s primary Recruitment and Employment Privacy Notice which can be found at https://www.salford.gov.uk/gdpr.

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It’s just one thing after another – NAWRA in Salford – yet another big GM event.

The next NAWRA meeting is that rarity of a thing – a NAWRA meeting in Greater Manchester i.e. Salford. The agenda of the meeting is now available for download from the NAWRA web site as well as from here and Salford Welfare Rights and Debt Advice Service looks forward to seeing you on the day; the night before and the evening after too. Full details of the event; social events and travel options are contained within the agenda document.

“The day” incidentally is Friday the 1st of March 2019. Full details are, guess, in the agenda.

Please note that this event, as per all other NAWRA meetings, is members only.

NAWRA is a membership based organisation for advisers and organisations across the UK. Membership of NAWRA is available to any group or individual working in the welfare rights field and/or who supports theiraims and objectives.

Find out more about joining NAWRA.

Speakers include

City Mayor of Salford Paul Dennett

Paul was elected Councillor for Langworthy in 2012 and held the Strategic Assistant Mayor position until 2016 focusing on equalities, cohesion, technology, change, urban transformation, innovation, prosperity, growth and workforce.

Paul has a long history of campaigning on social issues and since becoming the elected City Mayor has campaigned for equality, financial inclusion, the living wage, social value, to tackle poverty and critically providing the public/private environment to tackle the housing crisis.

In July 2016 Paul was appointed Greater Manchester Combined Authority Portfolio Lead for Low Carbon, Waste and Environment. In May 2017 Paul was appointed Greater Manchester Combined Authority Portfolio Lead for Housing, Homelessness and Infrastructure.

Professor Lisa Scullion – Professor of Social Policy, School of Health and Society, University of Salford

Social (in)security? Learning lessons from lived experiences of the benefits system across the UK.

Catherine Connors – Principal Officer, Salford Welfare Right and Debt Advice Service, and CPAG trainer

Welfare reform – the vital role of advice services in safeguarding vulnerable adults and children.

Workshops can be chosen from

Right to reside and universal credit– Glenys Harriman (Housing Systems)

Workshop Level: – Intermediate

Universal credit and mental health – Tom Messere (Big Book of Benefits & Mental Health)

Workshop level: Intermediate

Human rights and universal credit – Ryan Bradshaw (Leigh Day Solicitors)

Workshop level: Strategic

Dealing with deficit budgets: practical tips for welfare rights advisers – Anne Whittle and Sean Finnegan – (Salford Debt Advice Service)

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GMWRAG in unprecedented “advertising three GM roles inside a couple of weeks” scenario.

GMWRAG finds ourselves barely into the 2nd month of the year and advertising our 3rd post of 2019. It’s hard to remember the last time this happened so make the most of the opportunities being offered. We’ve no idea how long it will be until the next advert appears.

As ever you can find a permanent reference to this vacancy on our Job Vacancies page.

Welfare Rights and Debt Advice
Civic Centre
Chorley Road
Swinton
M27 5BN

Senior Welfare Rights Officer (Community Care)

Grade: 4A £32,233 – £35,229 the salary will raise to £32,878-£35,934 with effect from 1st April 2019 due to the 2019 National Joint Council pay award
Hours: 36
Contract Type: Permanent

This post manages and supervises a team of Charging Assessors and Welfare Rights Advisers in the Community Care Team. It also oversees the delivery of the charging assessment process alongside maximising the income of service users, their families and carers.

It would also include liaising and working closely with social work teams, finance officers, Client Affairs and other professionals involved in the commissioning and delivery of community care services.

You would need a firm grasp of the legislative framework for Community Care, charging and social security.

You would need to be highly motivated, ability to manage, inspire and lead a staff team and be an integral member of the management team delivering a professional Welfare Rights Service across the City.

The Service is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. This post is subject to a fully enhanced DBS check.

Our core data protection obligations and commitments are set out in the council’s primary Recruitment and Employment Privacy Notice which can be found at https://www.salford.gov.uk/gdpr

Job Role Profile.docx

The closing date is the 15th of February 2019 and further information on how to apply can be found at https://salfordjobs.engageats.co.uk/LoginV2.aspx?enc=vDVLPY6BrOnmx9szwB5icMU/Bp97ap1BlI/jb0LhRYVeoh/cn5bYgvW+9EbbSw7a

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