department of social and family affairs annual report 2006 - Welfare.ie

Supports for staff with disabilities.
The Department’s Sectoral Plan under the
Disability Act was published in July. It includes
a range of commitments aimed at meeting the
needs of its staff with disabilities, in line with
the provisions of Part 5 of the Act. A Disability
Monitoring Committee involving representatives
from the Department and the agencies under
its aegis has been established as set out in the
Sectoral Plan. The role of the Committee is to
oversee and report on the extent of compliance
with Part 5 of the Disability Act by the public
bodies under the aegis of the Department,
to encourage such compliance and to discuss
progress of the human resource-related
commitments in the Sectoral Plan.
The Needs Assessment process is a central
element of the Department’s supports for staff
with disabilities. It includes on-site visits by
the Disability Liaison Officer, Health & Safety
Officer and a representative from Information
Systems Division in which physical access, IT and
HR requirements are discussed with the staff
member and their line manager.
A revised version of the Department’s Disability
Awareness Guidelines was issued to all members
of staff during the year. These guidelines were
developed in consultation with members of
staff with disabilities and particularly emphasise
communication with people with disabilities.
During the year the Department won a number of
awards under the O2 Ability Awards programme
for best practice in the employment of people
with disabilities.
> OBJECTIVE 3
Foster good industrial and employee relations
throughout the Department
A stable industrial relations climate was
maintained through the operation of the formal
industrial relations machinery and through
continuous communication and consultation with
staff unions and associations.
> OBJECTIVE 4
Ensure that each staff member has the knowledge,
skills and competencies to contribute effectively
to achieving the business goals of the Department
and develop the role of the manager as the
key facilitator in implementing change and
improvement.
> Integration of Performance
Management and Development
System (PMDS)
General Council Report 1452, which was published
in 2005, set out how PMDS would be integrated
with the increments, promotions and higher
scales HR processes and how it would also have
linkages with the probations process. Under the
Agreement, 2006 was to be a ‘familiarisation
year’ and from January 2007, the PMDS integrated
model would be used for actual decisions
in relation to increments, promotions and
assignments to higher scales. During 2006 the
Department implemented a range of preparatory
measures and communication/consultation
processes to ensure that the new arrangements
(including a new 5‐point ratings scale) were
operated effectively. The forms used in the PMDS
process were substantially revised to reflect the
integration agenda. The implementation of PMDS
is monitored by the Management Committee
and a PMDS Board which includes Partnership
representatives.
> PMDS Personal Development and
Training Plans
PMDS Personal Development and Training
Plans are the primary mechanism of submitting
training requests to Staff Development Unit (SDU)
During 2006, SDU received 3,119 PMDS Personal
Development and Training Plans.
> Training & Development Services
Supplied
Staff Development Unit (SDU) provides a range of
training and development services for staff of the
Department. During 2006, it delivered almost
300 training courses to 2,555 staff. In addition to
annual report 2006
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