CIPD Branches - London Consortium Proposal
The CIPD has been reviewing how Branches can best serve members and since April 2011, representatives from the West London Branch Committee have been regularly meeting colleagues from other London branches with a view to improving collaboration and providing a more joined up service to members.
As a result, the London Consortium has been formed by the following branches – Central London, North London, South London, South East Thames and West London. (South West London is considering joining, but is not currently part of the Consortium.)
West London Branch will remain with its current structure and the idea is not to create one large London Branch as there is general agreement that members are best served by retaining a local focus and local branch committees.
There is also general agreement that it would be beneficial for us to work together on certain of our activities, especially in terms of improving member communications and managing Branch events. The Consortium has therefore developed a business case which proposes that we establish 2 FTE Co-coordinator/Administrator positions who would be responsible for supporting branch committees and publicising and supporting branch events across the London region. We have had a number of administrators over the past few years and Francesca, the most recent one, has just resigned, so this arrangement should give us more continuity of service, improve the consistency of approach to event administration and enable us to offer members an even more proactive and responsive service.
In addition to continuing to offer locally focused events in each of our areas, the Consortium would be able to produce a London-wide programme of events which would be circulated across the whole area, probably twice per year, so making it easier for you as members to access a wider range of events and activities at locations across London. We hope that this will increase overall attendance at events and encourage more member involvement with Branches as well as being more efficient and potentially offering us economies of scale.
The posts will of course be advertised and the appointment of shared co-coordinators will be open to competition. Those appointed will be employees of the CIPD but will report to Branch Chairs.
We hope that you will share our view that this as an exciting development. Currently the proposal is being considered by the CIPD and we will be discussing it with them at the end of this month. We will come back to you after this with an update on progress and, if approved, we hope to have new administrators in place by April or May. In the meantime if you have any questions or queries about this proposal do please contact either of us for a chat.
Jane Pepe, Chair
Karen Partridge, Vice Chair