Dear Colleague,
In recent years this office stopped producing Bulletins,
preferring to concentrate on updating members via our web site, www.northernpolicefederation.com
. For reasons that will become apparent as you read on, I have decided to issue
this information in paper form. If you believe there is merit in reintroducing
the Bulletins, please advise your Representative. If significant interest is
expressed we will explore their reintroduction.
Insurance Update
I am pleased to enclose your updated copy of the Group Travel
Insurance Policy booklet.
As a result of recent legislative changes our Insurance
Broker has been working tirelessly to seek improvements to the Schemes we are
currently able to offer and has achieved some significant improvements for Members.
You will recall that previously both the Group Personal
Accident Scheme and the Group Life Assurance Scheme afforded the
opportunity for Members to include their spouse within the cover offered.
This option has now been extended to include ‘partners’ as
defined below and the opportunity now exists for Members who were previously
precluded from including partners to now do so. Members who previously elected
not to include their spouse within either of these schemes may wish to avail
themselves of the ‘window of opportunity’ that exists, to now do so.
A partner is defined as; a person to whom the Member is
married or if the Member is not married, a person who is openly co-habiting
with him or her and who has been so co-habiting for the six month period prior
to the date of their inclusion in the policy.
Canada Life, the providers of the Group Life Assurance
Scheme have also been persuaded to allow Members who elected not to join
the scheme to now do so without retrospective penalty.
Norwich Union, providers of the Group Personal Accident
Scheme will not, at this time, allow previous unsubscribing Members the
opportunity to now join.
Any Member wishing to take advantage of these improvements
should complete the enclosed forms PY04 and PY06 and return direct to the
Federation Office, in the envelope provided.
In the event of a claim under the provisions of these
schemes, or from the North of Scotland Death Benefit Scheme, payment will
only be made to the named nominee. It has become apparent that in a great
number of cases the nominees for the schemes operated by the Federation are
inaccurate as they have simply not been updated.
Inaccurate or invalid information can cause great distress
with payments being delayed or placed into a Member’s estate.
The importance of keeping this office updated in this
regard can not be over stated. In a bid to ensure accurate information is held,
I am asking all Members to complete the enclosed forms PY05(a) and
PY06(a) and return direct to the Federation Office, in the envelope
provided.
Members Survey
As a result of the wide ranging proposals contained within
the Official Side’s paper ‘Rewarding Skills and Performance’ for the
latest Pay Reform proposals, our National Office at Woodside Place is
undertaking a survey of Members for their views.
The last time such a survey was undertaken was at the time
of the Sheehy Inquiry and subsequent proposals on Police Pay and Conditions in
1993/4. Such are the implications of the new proposals from the Official Side
that we feel such a survey is merited once again.
All replies will go towards formulating the Staff Side response
to the proposals. It is important that as many Members as possible undertake
this survey in order to give the best and most detailed response.
The Official Side want agreement by May 2006 for
introduction of a new deal by September 2006. Even though the timescales involved
are ridiculously short, your response can make a difference. Many of the
unpalatable elements of the Sheehy Pay Reform Proposals were successfully
defeated as a direct result of the well responded to survey in 1993/4.
All Members should take the time to undertake this survey
which is available within the Members area of our National web site, www.spf.org.uk . The required username and
password are as below. They are case specific. Please ensure the password is kept
secure as its compromise could undermine the whole exercise.
USERNAME Contact
Federation Office
PASSWORD Contact
Federation Office
Triennial Elections
What has the Federation ever done for me? A question I
hear often. This is your chance to make a difference.
As you may be aware 2006 is an election year for
Representatives for the Joint Branch Board. If you are interested in standing
as a Representative for your rank, in your electoral area, please feel free to
contact either your current Representative or the Federation Office to find out
more about what is expected of you.
Pocket Diary
You should by now have received your 2006 Federation
Pocket Diary which I trust you find useful.
May I take this opportunity to reiterate the importance of
the advice contained on pages 16, 17 and 18 and ask that you familiarise
yourselves with it. The advice was drawn up and is agreed by The Scottish
Police Federation, The Association of Scottish Police Superintendents (ASPS)
and the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (ACPOS).
Retiral
The Secretary of the Joint Branch Board, John Finnie, is
due to retire in July 2006. John has dedicated many years service to the
Federation and is rightly regarded as one of the greatest Federationists of his
time. His knowledge and experience is sought throughout Scotland and he has assisted Members of all ranks, in most Forces at some time. His
departure will be a great loss not only to the Northern Branch but to The
Scottish Police Federation as a whole.
Finally, I was privileged to have been elected as John’s
replacement in the summer. May I offer my assurances that I will work
tirelessly in representing the interests of all Members in what continue to be
challenging times.
May I wish you and yours all the very best for a happy and
prosperous 2006.
Calum A Steele
JBB Secretary (elect)
