MDs Blog Apr2023

Captain's BLOG

Stardate: April 2023 I'm delighted to tell you that after fierce competition and extensive voting between the 17 (yes 17!) different suggestions, the proposal that topped the poll came from Diane Wilson, Area Catering Supervisor in Dundee, (so a £30 Amazon voucher is heading your way Diane).

Hello everyone,

Keith McNamara, Managing Director

I'm sitting writing this on Easter Monday. The sun is shining outside (between the rain showers -well it is Easter after all !!) and with so many people enjoying a well-earned break from work, the incoming e-mail traffic, and meeting volume is less frantic than normal, therefore I'm taking this chance to bash out this latest instalment of my blog.

Importantly, the name of the initiative is (drum roll please)…

'Tayside Workforce Idea Gateway ' (or TWIG for short)

Firstly I want to wish you a very happy Easter and hope you had a good time - and if (like me) you can’t get enough of chocolate at any time of year, I hope the Easter Bunny brought you plenty of eggs to feast on… and if not, you can steal some from your kids when they go to bed (or is it just me that does that ?)

So, well done to Diane, and thank you very much to everyone who put forward a suggested name for the initiative, and all those who voted.

We will be developing communications on the newly-named TWIG initiative, and would really appreciate your support in both promoting this initiative to colleagues, and of course, coming up with any suggestions that you have, to improve the way we operate. The TWIG idea links very nicely with the well know phrase:

I also want to extend a warm welcome to our 14 new Resource Assistants who have transferred to us from Dundee City Council from the start of this financial year.

These colleagues provide an essential support service within a group of 8 community facilities throughout the city of Dundee, ensuring these facilities are safe, secure and fit to support the activities which take place within them, and are a most welcome addition to ‘Team TC’. So ‘hello’ to you all, and I hope to catch up and meet you properly in person soon.

Before I forget, there is something I've been meaning to give you an update on. In my last blog, I put out an invitation for suggestions to name ‘new ideas proposal’ initiative we are about to launch. This initiative aims to capture ideas and suggestions that you, and your colleagues, have - to improve our service, benefit our customers, or reduce our costs. You are closest to the action on what you do each day, and I’m sure you can see examples where improvements and cost reductions can be made. We want you to share your thoughts, so together we can provide the best services possible.

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Perhaps your ‘little acorn’ of an idea may be the thing to transform Tayside Contracts and improve what we do for our customers and our communities.

April 2023 On the subject of communities, we are very proud of the services we provide to our local communities each and every day. We also know it's very important to support our communities in Tayside, and here are three recent excellent examples of what our people in Tayside Contracts are achieving:

We have already approved nine Fast Track applications, with some of the works already completed – see below an example of a Community Fund application, achieved thanks to Stevie and the team at the Sign Shop. (Togs for Tots is a charity supporting families struggling to provide essential clothing and equipment for their children) :-

We’ve received extremely positive feedback from Remploy (an organisation set up to provide employment opportunities to disabled and disadvantaged people) for the work Suzanne and Rachael in our HR Team have done in helping people apply for roles in Tayside Contracts.

Remploy described Tayside Contracts as being ‘incredibly supportive of our participants and everyone who has secured work with them has loved it. They are a fantastic employer to work with.’ To read the whole article click here.

Dundee Bairns is children’s charity, supporting the most vulnerable children in areas of multiple deprivation. They recently wrote to us to say how much they appreciated Tayside Contracts for delivering their Tea Club, which provided meals to children who might not have had access to a hot evening meal, if it wasn’t for the service that we provided. They went out their way to say special thanks to Diane Wilson, and Susan Findleton for their help with this work - and especially to Heather McKay who ‘worked her socks off’ and has ‘done an outstanding job every week, making the food with great care’.

We have also had an incredible 27 applications for full funding (up to £3,000) for community groups across Tayside. I’m pleased to say that we were able to say ‘yes’ to the majority of applications – so we will be looking to schedule in the works for this, and help the community groups.

Some examples of successful applications are:Provision of a pathway round the building for a charity for the elderly in Blairgowrie, Laying a slabbed area for a charity for children with complex needs in Rumbling Bridge, Ground works to help a community garden in Dundee, Seated shelter for a Stroke Club in Montrose.

In my last blog, I mentioned we had just launched a Community Fund - our new initiative to support small community groups and charities, which do great work helping local people, and supporting the most vulnerable (please see our webpage on the Community Fund for more information).

We invite community groups to apply for things we can do for them (e.g. small construction works, signage, painting, meals etc) – we do the work, we get paid from the Community Fund and the community get the help they need.

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April 2023 The following quote from one of the successful applicants shows how much this help means to local groups: 'Thank you for the fantastic news – the works will make a significant difference to us, and more importantly the children and families who use the service!'

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to these successful examples.

So finally, thanks for reading this blog, and thanks so much for all you do for your customers and communities each day. And finally, if you’d like the chance to be a guest Blogger, to tell us a bit about yourself and what you do in the organisation, please let me know, I'd be delighted to stand aside (and I'm sure many of the blog readers would welcome a break from my mad musings!).

Best wishes

Keith

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2022

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