Paramedic Training Course Cancellations
Thursday 27th May 2010 will be a day that will stick in the minds of a group of some 50 or so Student Ambulance Paramedics spread across the three training centres here in the East of England as being the day their employers dropped a bombshell upon their heads! It was also the day when any faith or confidence that these students may have previously had in the Trust’s Executive was destroyed in one fell swoop.
Whilst sat in a meeting at Bedford on this date, I received a message from our Essex County Lead, John Davey telling me that one of the Chelmsford-based SAP’s had just been told that the final week of their 8-week course was to be cancelled and they would be back on the road again from Monday 31st May onwards. Having legged it upstairs to our training suite, I found that these students were in the same boat and not long after this my staffside colleague Barry Jarvis received a call from our branch Chair, Ross Stanton who had just heard the same news from one of the Norwich-based students.
This entire sequence of events probably took little more than 15-20 minutes to evolve – somewhat akin to a Mexican Wave developing into a regional Tsunami! I’ve no doubt that there’ll probably be readers out there wondering why I’m waxing lyrical about this but let me explain the impact of the Trust’s decision to cancel this course at such a late stage..
Imagine having worked your socks off for 6 weeks and 3.5 days of an 8-week paramedic theory module which is due to culminate in a final written exam on the first day of the following week and rounded off by a practical session (an OSCE for those who know what one of those is!) on the second day. The remaining 2 days are set aside for exam re-sits if required or general housekeeping if not.
Then imagine being told at effectively the 11th hour that everything you have been building up to for these past weeks is now to be cancelled, albeit for an unspecified time at this stage. Hmm, well, I expect you can also imagine that “Oh bother” probably wasn’t the word that immediately sprang into the student’s minds (or mouths) at that point in time eh?
The invidious task of breaking the news about the course cancellation was left to the local course tutors and in turn by Essex-based training lead John Hewitt who drove to all three of the training sites that day to speak to the students and offer whatever reassurance he could. He did this, not because he was instructed to but because he personally felt it was right and proper to support the students and tutors in this way.
It is also right and proper to highlight the level of professionalism and integrity demonstrated by the students in the face of such news. Although very angry and upset, they did not take their frustrations out on their tutors. They chose instead to acknowledge the unenviable situation they’d been placed in, thanked them for their efforts to date and requested that they be given the same tutors when their course was reconvened. Added to which, all of them resolved to be back in again the following morning – despite probably feeling like they’d like to take the whole week off!
Let’s also not forget that this doesn’t just affect the group of students who had been psyching themselves up for what is effectively a “make-or-break” exam next week – there were more student cohorts due to start their Module 7 course on the 14th June but who will now have their start date postponed as part of the domino effect.
Initial speculation and rumour presented a number of possible reasons behind the decision to cancel, the most obvious being that this was based purely around the ever-present need to meet performance targets. Other suggestions included; inadequate resourcing levels, a REAP level escalation, HPC-related issues, and/or poor workforce planning. There were discussions around continuing with the CPD training but this was to continue as planned, other than during the half-term holiday week.
However, what was without question was that this decision was taken at Executive level and knowing that some of the Executive team members were actually “in situ” at Bedford Towers that day but didn’t/wouldn’t cross the road to deliver this news to the students in person simply added insult to injury. It wasn’t until the following day that the students were given an opportunity to speak to anyone when our Chief Executive, Hayden Newton did what his senior tier should have done the previous day and put his morning business on hold in order to go across and speak to the students and tutors at the Bedford annex.
During the half hour or so that he spent with the cohort, he specified that the course had to be cancelled due to a HPC-related matter. He also acknowledged that this whole matter was unpleasant for them, said that they were addressing the matter already and hoped to resolve it as soon as possible. He also advised them that he wouldn’t be able to answer all of their questions at this time or make any promises but agreed with the suggestion to collate a list of questions and concerns for his executive team to respond to. He ended by urging the students to continue studying in readiness for their exam when it came.
Although still angry by the cancellation and the impact it would have on them, the cohort appeared to be less uncertain than they had been for the previous 24hours. Unfortunately, subsequent to Hayden’s visit to see the Bedford students, additional information has come to light that requires further investigation and at the time of going to print the branch was awaiting a response from a member of the Executive in response to their request for clarity around what the actual basis for cancelling this and subsequent courses was. Updates will be provided on as regular a basis as possible during this time.
So is it worse to have (metaphorically) “loved and lost” or never to have loved at all? In this case it’s probably both because it’s all relative to what stage the individual students may have been in their career pathways. A large number of these students have already exceeded the 2-year time frame that the Trust set for the completion of this pathway programme through no fault of their own but are then doubly penalised because these delays also have financial implications; Students cannot enter into the bottom of the Band 5 pay tier until they have registered with the HPC which they cannot do until they have completed Modules 7 and 8.
There is without doubt an imbalance in the way that students undertaking these paramedic pathways are treated. Cast your minds back to a time not so long ago when the Trust took the hard line approach of initiating investigations under its disciplinary policy in respect of students not meeting their contractual requirements in relation to their progression. Unison were very vocal in their opposition to this action and the former Herts County Lead, Stuart Reeves really had his work cut out trying to co-ordinate and facilitate representation for these students.
I doubt if anyone would have a genuine issue with an employer enquiring why a student hasn’t completed their portfolio or met their deadline for completion but it should be an enquiry backed up with an intention to support them if the reasons are anything other than a simple lack of commitment on their own part.
Then there’s a recent training-related issue which arose recently where there was no such reticence when it came to addressing the students about the incident; in fact it seems that a member of the Executive appeared at the Bedford training centre to speak to them almost immediately the issue came to light!
So what now? Well, we are already dealing with a collective grievance that has been submitted by a group of EMT’s undertaking (or trying to at least) their UEA pathway and preparation is also underway in relation to submitting a collective grievance from this 3-centre cohort. Then of course, we need to consider what the students who have not even started tier course might want to do. Rest assured though - UNISON will not stop until we get the truth!
Jackie Robinson Divisional Secretary Beds & Herts
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