GMWRAG Stockport 18th June 2010

							GMWRAG Salford - 14th January 2011

Morning meeting

Present
Philip Coleman             Salford Welfare Rights - Chair
Ruth Cheesbrough           Tameside Welfare Rights
Kurt Kleinshmidt           Tameside Welfare Rights
Patrick Hill               HARP – Assertive Outreach
Sandra Fisher              Rochdale Advice
Mike Hughes                Salford Welfare Rights - Minutes
Belinda Barlow             Tameside Welfare Rights
Tracy Fallon-Topham        New Charter Housing
Jean Hart                  DIAL
Julie Doyle                DIAL
Robert Jenkins             Stockport Welfare Rights
Terry Patterson            Manchester Advice
Richard Bundy              Salford Welfare Rights (part, see minutes)

Apologies
Roger Thompson             Tameside Welfare Rights
Jane Hobson                Trafford WRS
Vicki Atha                 Manchester CAB
Don Williams               Bury SSD

Minutes of the Rochdale meeting and matters arising not already on the
agenda

Jean clarified info. on Cheshire WRS. Although it has been abolished, Jean
was informed when she managed the service that £90k would be grant
funded to Cheshire CAB to fund 2 ft WROs and 1 Support Worker.

Patrick and Terry extended thanks to everyone who was involved in making
Manchester NAWRA such a great success in December.

Patrick explained why recently planned HARP training didn’t happen and that
Appeals training was likely to happen in 3 to 4 weeks. Mike asked for info. for
GMWRAG web site when details known. Patrick agreed to provide.

Feedback from the Manchester Tribunal Users Group (TUG)

Rob and Mike fed back from the Manchester TUG on 11th January 2011. A
detailed version of this feedback and that from the Bolton TUG has been put
together by Mike and will be found separately at http://gmwrag.wordpress.com
in due course.

Feedback from Kidz Up North event and future plans for this and the
Disability Awareness Day in Warrington (see Rochdale minutes)

Philip gave a quick summary of the report back already posted onto the site.
Mike read out an email from Roger Thompson in Tameside to Carmel at Kidz
Up North to which he has received no formal response to date. The meeting
agreed that we would not attend in 2011 unless it was it was to run benefit-
related seminars or surgeries and at no cost to GMWRAG.
Possibly in place of this (dependent on whether Roger gets a satisfactory
reply) it was agreed that GMWRAG would attend the Disability Awareness
Day and in July and that Patrick would take the lead on this. There would be a
cost to GMWRAG of £25 based on previous years experience of Julie and
Jean. Patrick was happy to lead on staffing this. Mike agreed to send him the
site link so he could book a place for GMWRAG. For reference for members it
is http://disabilityawarenessday.org.uk. Mike would publicise this on the
GMWRAG site as soon as confirmation received that we’d got a stall. Note
that the number of exhibitors and attendees at the Warrington event
substantially outstrips that of the Kidz events.

Hospital inpatients and overpayments due to failure to disclose
stays in excess of 28 days – Patrick Hill

Patrick led a brief discussion on this. It was concluded that the onus to
disclose a hospital stay still lay with a claimant/appointee not the hospital and
it was noted that CPAG offered advice on this given that there was currently a
case with ECHR.

Treasurers Report – Richard Bundy

Richard Bundy kindly agreed to attend and presented accounts for the last
three years. It was emphasised that money has declined considerably
because of previous web site costs and Kidz Up North. However, the
fundamental issue was no current revenue stream.

Patrick raised an issue regarding training on DLA and sensory impairment by
Christine Ridyard, which he felt had been cancelled, and picked up by a LA
and therefore should not have been paid for by GMWRAG. Richard agreed to
look into this for clarity sake. Patrick agreed to email Christine and Mike
agreed to look at old minutes, but, it was emphasised that GMWRAG was not
going to recover money (if indeed any was owed) and that there was a need
for GMWRAG to properly document and adhere to processes re: training
provision for which GMWRAG took a cut.

It was agreed that GMWRAG would take the first £25 of any profit on training
run in the name of GMWRAG. Thanks were extended to Richard for
attending.

Mike explained that a copy of the accounts presented today was stored within
the site and currently password protected. It was agreed that this should
remain the status quo. Any member wishing to have sight of the relevant
document should contact Mike for the password but be aware that it will be
changed immediately after access has been confirmed.

It was agreed that Mike could remind people they could advertise jobs through
the GMWRAG site for free albeit that in the GM area there had been a move
to a centralised site - http://yourcounciljobs.co.uk. This may not be the case
elsewhere.

It was also agreed that Mike would look at contacting reputable training
providers to see if they wished to advertise through the site for a small cost.
Suggestions were made re: Mark Perlich, Google Ads, Chris Smith, John
Zebedee and Bob Prew. Mike to investigate.

Update from around GMWRAG members organisations/areas
Salford – Richard kindly agreed to briefly stay and reported that Salford CC
has to make a saving of approx. £45m over 3 yrs. which in our case amounts
to 30% over that period. There are issues over the reduction of admin. staff
who exist in a separate management structure; levels of management and the
consequences of a “cross-cutting” advice review.

Stockport – In new, temporary premises and will be joined by CAB in new
premises. Also facing admin. cuts and have gone paperless and nearly desk-
less!

Chester – WR provision now consists of CAB, DIAL House and Age Concern.
HB/CTB advice offering advice on full range of benefits although in practice
this is sign-posting.

New Charter – Team Manager (Dave Burdis) has had his post made
permanent and, at this moment in time, jobs appear to be safe.

Tameside – Alan Franco currently doing a 3 day week and completing a
service review in context of other advice service provision. 600 jobs to go in
general but specifics not known as yet.

Rochdale – Also part of a wide ranging review of all advice service provision
in the area. Meeting next week where they expect to be advised of the level of
savings to be achieved. Context is that £65m needs to be saved this year with
a further £35m over the subsequent two years.

HARP – Also party to a service review but assurances have been received
this may well lead to further staff addressing social inclusion as welfare rights
provision appears to be becoming more valued.

Manchester – 2,000 jobs to go in years one and two up from 1,200. There is
another broad service review and the next stage in the headline departmental
restructure. M People has been formed to act as a defence to this but how
this will work in practice will now be put to the test.

NB: Jean Betteridge will be appearing on BBC North West tonight. If anyone
records this please let GMWRAG have a copy as we can post it up on the site


Agree GMWRAG action on outstanding issues

Already detailed above.
Afternoon meeting

Present
Philip Coleman               Salford Welfare Rights
Ruth Cheesbrough             Tameside Welfare Rights
Kurt Kleinshmidt             Tameside Welfare Rights
Patrick Hill                 HARP – Assertive Outreach
Sandra Fisher                Rochdale Advice
Mike Hughes                  Salford Welfare Rights - Chair
Belinda Barlow               Tameside Welfare Rights
Tracy Fallon-Topham          New Charter Housing
Jean Hart                    DIAL
Julie Doyle                  DIAL
Robert Jenkins               Stockport Welfare Rights
Terry Patterson              Manchester Advice
Jane Hobson                  Trafford WRS

Apologies
Roger Thompson               Tameside Welfare Rights
Vicki Atha                   Manchester CAB
Don Williams                 Bury SSD

Introduction to afternoon session – Mike introduced the afternoon session
which was exclusively focussed on the beginnings of a GMWRAG response
to the DLA/PIP reform consultation.

DLA Consultation workshops – Four groups worked hard for an hour
addressing between 5 and 7 questions from within the consultation document.

Feedback from workshop sessions and agreed next steps for a
GMWRAG submission re: DLA reform – feedback was kept to a minimum
of asking whether anyone wished to comment on questions not addressed by
their specific workshop (they did not). A timetable for a first draft; circulation;
comments/amendments and final submission was agreed. This is already on
the site at http://gmwrag.wordpress.com/2011/01/21/gmwrag-response-to-
government-consultation-on-dla-reform.

Any Other Business/Information Exchange