Accredited representatives provide a key part of the line of communication between the HPA and its members. The extent of an accredited representative’s work varies depending on their interest and local need. At a local level, it may involve:-

• Attending Trust joint consultative committee meetings, where all the Trade Union representatives meet with management.
• Attending Trust pay and conditions meetings, where local pay is discussed with management. These meetings are interesting to attend and reveal how other groups are responding to local pay issues including on-call allowances etc.
• Attending sub-committees with management, dealing with issues such as employee relations, policies and procedures, and other topics of local concern. Examples would be hospital transport, parking and access issues.
• As HPA is an autonomous subgroup of Unite, the HPA accredited representative may be identified by the Trust as the local Unite representative and be asked to represent all Unite members. This may not be too onerous if your Medical Physics Department is a small one but if you are representing a large group of physicists, and the Trust or group of hospitals you represent is large, a number of other Unite representatives should be recruited to share the workload.
• After attendance at meetings, information should be passed on to each member. Circulating copies of minutes is effective, as is the use of noticeboards, and you can include your comments, appeals and suggestions.
• As an accredited representative, you are not on your own. You will receive regular mailings from Unite and a rapid circulation fax service to keep you up to date with current developments. The HPA is setting up mechanisms to communicate quickly with representatives.

Other activities include:

• Holding occasional meetings of local members. This may be to discuss a ballot on pay or to invite comments on an HPA or IPEM document. These are then passed on to Regional Delegates to bring up at the ADC (Annual Delegate Conference). This usually takes place in early to mid September. You may wish to consider attending the conference as a delegate.
• It is a good idea to attend a basic accredited reps course at Unite’s training facility in Whitehall College. The course lasts a week but Unite pays for all food, accommodation and travel and even includes an allowance for extra childcare costs incurred while you are away. Alternatively, crèche facilities may be available. Although your line manager may be reluctant to lose you for a week, you are legally entitled to time off to attend such training. A short (2 day) course aimed particularly at HPA reps will soon be available.
• The HPA Executive welcomes feedback from reps on current issues, and is seeking to develop the ability of its reps to communicate easily and quickly with the Executive and with each other.

As an accredited representative you are entitled to sufficient time to perform your regular Union duties. The co-operation of your manager is therefore essential and should be provided.