Wednesday 26 August 2009

Tuesday 25 August 2009

August 2009 Newsletter

Progress to Date

Update from Paul Kitson – Delivery Manager, Thurrock Thames Gateway Development Corporation

“The month of August has been dominated by the works to remove asbestos from the building, this work is complete and the building has now been given the all clear. These additional works, all essential to ensure the safety of occupants, have done nothing to help in getting the Learning Shop up and running as the refurbishment contractors have been unable to gain access to the building. Basildon based contractors, Haynes and Smith, will begin work on the refurbishment in early September, their work will take around 10 weeks to complete resulting in the shop being open for business in mid November. Keep visiting the blog for updates and pictures of the works underway and for details of visits and events”.


Layout of Learning Shop

The plans for the layout of the shop have been fully approved after consulation with partners and can now be viewed on this blog.

Learning Shop Tours

Many of you have now had the opportunity to take a look around the Learning Shop and have seen how much work needs to be done! Unfortunately the tours planned for the 8th and 22nd September have had to be cancelled and at this stage of the building works it is impossible to predict when we can safely gain access. However, I will let you know as soon as possible and hopefully we can rearrange within the next few weeks.


First Aid Courses


When the shop opens, it is essential that we have a qualified first-aider on site at all times, so we really need to get as many of us trained up as possible. There is a course running at UEL’s Docklands Campus on the 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th September. Further details on what the course covers can be found in the July Newsletter.

Please contact me if you would like to attend this, or any other course available locally.


Cross Training Days


The first cross training day was held on Tuesday 4th August at UEL’s Dockland’s campus and was well attended by the partner organisations. It was an opportunity to find out more about UEL, The Creative Way and Next Steps. We’re hoping that this will be the first of a number of these sessions as it’s important for those of us who will be working in the shop to have an idea of what each others organisations do. So we’re looking for volunteers to host the next session, possibly in September. Ideally it would be good for us to visit another organisation and possibly cover a number of places during one session as we did on the 4th August.. Please let me know if you’d like to host a cross training event or present at the next session.


Transformation Fund Bid

Ray Wilkinson has recently submitted a transformation fund bid to fund a number of exciting activities to take place on Saturdays at the shop. Further information can be found on a separate entry on the blog. We have not received any information as to whether this has been successful yet, but will let you know as soon as we hear.


Opening Hours

It has been agreed that initially our opening hours will be:

Wednesday – 9.30 am to 5.00 pm
Thursday – 9.30 am to 7.00 pm
Friday – 9.30 to 5.00 pm

Some of you have already indicated your availability but please can you confirm the regular days/times you will be able to work so that I begin working on a rota of cover. Due to health and safety, it is essential that we maintain a minimum amount of staff at all times so if you could let me know your availability that would be very helpful.


Common Procedures

As the opening of the shop approaches, I think it will be very important to develop common procedures so that we all work in similar ways. Examples of this include the following:-

- how we record clients who come into the shop
- how we refer clients who come into the shop
- how we deal with any complaints

Any ideas on this would be appreciated as it is helpful to share good practise. I am going to work on a number of these and possibly arrange a meeting nearer the opening of the shop so that we can review these together. Again, if you have any ideas before then, please contact me or post to the blog.


Action Required

Please contact me with the following at d.brisco@uel.ac.uk

- If you would like to complete a first aid at work qualification.
- If you would be prepared to host, or take part in a cross training session.
- Any ideas of good practise in developing common procedures.