Berneslai Homes and the new right to request time to train

Berneslai Homes is an Arms Length Management Organisation (ALMO) responsible for managing homes on behalf of Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council. Wemanage just under 20,000 properties and provide all the landlord services to the council tenants in Barnsley. Responsibilities include:

• Rent Collection;

• Arrears Recovery;

• Repairs and Maintenance;

• Dealing with Empty Properties; and

• All tenancy matters.

In 2009,we were awarded the highest possible rating of “ three stars excellent with excellent prospects for improvement” by the Audit Commission following an inspection.

Berneslai Homes is committed to ensuring excellence in coaching, training and learning activities and to creating a culture that will ensure that the organisation attracts, motivates, develops and retains the very best staff. We are proud to have been approved as an organisation that invests in its people, and we respect and appreciate the worth of all employees, and understand the importance of enabling and encouraging them to explore and develop their own potential. Our development activities ensure that we will deliver a continuously improving service to our customers.

Strategic training and development objectives are identified within the annual Learning and Development plan and we manage these and individual needs through a Performance Development Review process. Each employee meets annually with their line manager to formally discuss and agree their own performance against a number of agreed individual business objectives, and to set the latter for the next 12 months. At this stage any training needs are identified, and at any time, employees may request additional training via our electronic training management system.

The Right to request time off for training provides individuals with a further opportunity to request training to enhance their skills and knowledge, As with other training requests, managers will be expected to work closely with their learners in order to identify the most effective means of meeting training needs.

Once embedded it will be interesting to review the outcomes for the organisation and for individuals.

May 2010