Support for reps and activists

You are not alone in your efforts to organise and service in your branch. NATFHE takes the support of representatives and activists very seriously and prides itself on providing a range of useful support materials including publications, training, campaign advice and specialist departments.

Support materials

NATFHE publishes a wide range of support materials on this web site (www.natfhe.org.uk).  Many materials are also available in hard copy. These materials cover everything from national agreements and industrial relations updates, detailed equality policy, advice on dealing with the media, guides on bargaining and facilities issues and information on government education policy.

Training

NATFHE has a comprehensive range of training courses available through the TUC across the country and highly recommends all branch representatives to undertake, at least, Stage One Representative Training. NATFHE encourages those that have done the stage one training to proceed to advanced Stage Two Representatives Training. Both courses help you to develop the range of skills required to be an effective branch activist or officer and can be taken in a variety of flexible formats.

NATFHE also encourages all reps, activists and members to do NATFHE’s specially tailored organising courses designed to give you the skills you need to enthuse others, recruit, identify and develop activists and build your branch.

Additionally NATFHE has courses on almost every union, work and employment issue including topics such as equality, pensions and health and safety.

All training is free for members, with all reasonable expenses paid (ie travel, food and accommodation) and you have a right to reasonable paid time off from work to attend. 

Training courses are advertised in The Lecturer, on the web site and periodically in other NATFHE publications. For more information about training contact your regional office or NATFHE’s training administrator on 020 75203228 or via the web site on www.natfhe.org.uk/?id=tool0001.

Campaign advice

NATFHE offers general campaign advice in the Branch Resource area of the web site. It also produces specific guidance for branches on all campaigns that it runs.       

NATFHE lay structures

Policy and decision making in NATFHE are guided by branch, area, regional and national structures consisting entirely of elected lay members. These lay members are available to help you on a range of issues at area, regional and national level.

In addition at regional and national level NATFHE has sector committees that deal with HE and FE industrial matters separately. Nationally NATFHE also has separate HE and FE advisory committees that deal with issues of education policy and an equality committee that deals with equality issues. Members of these committees are available to help you if you have queries relevant to their work.

Elected members and their contact details can be found on NATFHE’s web site or by contacting your regional office. For a further breakdown of these structures see NATFHE structures.

Regional office

The full time staff you are most likely to have contact with are those in your regional office. Each regional office has an administrator, regional officers and access to a full time organiser. The regional office is there to assist and support your work in the branch, provide you with information you may need and can refer you to the appropriate national department should it be necessary.

The regional officers and organisers can provide you with information and assistance on how to organise and run the branch, represent members and conduct negotiations. The administrators can give you basic advice on branch and union matters, send you information and help you access the membership records.

The regional officers can also provide you with in depth advice and assistance on negotiations and individual representation issues. Where these are complex, involve issues of discrimination, where the branch representative is inexperienced or where the case directly concerns a NATFHE representative, regional officers will get more involved and at times will conduct some of the representational work for you.   

Head office

The head office of NATFHE provides central support to regional offices, deals with national negotiations and media relations, administers the membership records, supports the national lay structures and lobbies and meets with national employer bodies, government departments, politicians and other union bodies. It has a number of specialist departments including:  

Communications & Membership Department

Keeps membership records up to date, processes applications and resignations, helps members with arrears, address changes or changing work details.
Supports campaigns, co-ordinates the union’s media relations and organises political lobbying.  Produces NATFHE’s newspaper, The Lecturer, and a wide range of publications including recruitment and organising materials.  Runs the NATFHE web sites.

Colleges Department and Universities Department

Deals with national employer bodies on industrial relations issues and with government, funding and other bodies on policy and education issues, runs campaigns on education and industrial relations issues.  Produce support material and branch guidance notes.  Supports regions and branches. 

Equality Section

Runs equality campaigns, produces guidance on equality issues, lobbies government and employers bodies on equality issues and assists regions and branches with equality issues.  

Legal Department

Provides advice and assistance to national and regional offices on industrial relations legal matters. This department can not be accessed directly by members. Assistance to individuals can only be accessed through your regional office.

Head Office also includes a Personnel, Finance and Administration Department and IT section.

Trades Union Congress

Most unions affiliate to the Trades Union Congress (TUC). It is the key representative body for unions in the UK. It has a wide range of departments to help and support unions and their members. For more information see their web site at www.tuc.org.uk.

Facilities provided by your employer

Both legislation and the ACAS Code of Practice provide that employers should furnish you with a range of facilities, including paid time off, to enable you to perform you duties effectively. Facilities for NATFHE reps outlines the basics.NATFHE’s publication Trade Union Facilities provides more detail and suggests ways to maximise these benefits. It is available on the NATFHE website in the Branch Resources area.

Labour Research Department

The Labour Research Department (LRD) is a not-for-profit organisation that specialises in providing accessible worker friendly publications. It produces regular updates on issues of interest to trade union officials and activists. It produces booklets on new changes to employment and work-related law (including health and safety, pensions, tax and benefits entitlements), useful current research and the annual Law at Work publication that provides a brief summary of the law as it stands each year.

The publication Law at Work is an excellent resource and NATFHE strongly recommends that branches purchase an up to date copy. Copies are available for a fee by calling 020 7928 3649 or through the LRD web site www.lrd.org.uk. A substantial discount is given if you mention that you are purchasing on behalf of a NATFHE branch.    

ACAS

The Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) is an independent body that can help to resolve disputes between employers and unions and produces codes of practice that clarify and provide detail on a range of legislation. These codes of practice are not considered law but are very persuasive as they can be tendered as evidence in tribunal hearings. They are available through the ACAS web site on: www.acas.org.uk.

NATFHE toolkits provide advice for branches and links to other sources of information. Anyone seeking specific advice in respect of the issues covered by this toolkit should consult their branch officers in the first instance, who in turn may need to take advice from NATFHE regional officials. Important time limits often apply; for further information about these or if you are seeking to pursue a legal claim on the issues covered in this toolkit, you should not rely on the toolkit alone but should seek additional advice from the union.