Success Story 1

CDNA has won an out of court settlement of nearly £5,000 for a member who was treated appalling by her employers. The problem was that she had a series of fixed term contracts which were dependent on funding being available and rather than treating her with honesty and respect, management did not follow proper procedures and then just tried to dump her. As part of the deal, our member had to sign a confidentiality clause so unfortunately we cannot identify the guilty Trust. The problem with that is that this particular organisation has treated and is treating others in a similar way – and with this secrecy, the organisation will not learn that it needs to change. Our member said “I really appreciate the help I’ve had from CDNA – everyone has been friendly and supportive. I also had great support from the CDNA solicitor.” She feels she is tip of the iceberg but felt very isolated. “If it wasn’t for CDNA and the supportive team it would have been much worse, even so it has all been a huge dent to my self esteem and confidence.” In these times of constant change, many organisations do well and many others are trying very hard to change – we need to work together to encourage the poorly performing organisations to get better.

Success Story 2

A CDNA member in Essex was suspended from her work for 13 months. Despite many protestations from CDNA to management, they insisted on holding a disciplinary hearing at which they were unable to present any evidence to back up their trumped up charges, and our member was totally exonerated. As you can imagine, this treatment was devastating for our member and she felt unable to continue working for an organisation which treated her with such disdain. She now has a new job, thankfully still using her excellent nursing skills for the NHS (we could so easily have lost her) and the Trust now has to try justify their treatment of her at an Employment Tribunal where they are accused of constructive dismissal.

Success Story 3

Beryl Ward, Continence Adviser in Burnley has finally, with CDNA support, won her 2 year battle for grading appropriate to her skills and responsibilities. With 2 years back pay, Beryl will get around £2,500 and is now on a G grade. Whilst very pleased with the outcome, Beryl is disappointed that her attempts to sort it out informally were unsuccessful. Fortunately, through lodging a Grievance, CDNA was able to help Beryl make her case. A classic case of ‘he (or she) who dares wins!’

Success Story 4

A CDNA member in Surrey was suspended recently by her management team and contacted the CDNA for help.

Despite many protestations from CDNA to management, they insisted on holding a disciplinary meeting at which we presented our evidence to show that on average the district nurse was doing almost 20% more hours than her contract to meet her workload. This has huge implications for the patient's and her own safety at work.

Management found that they had no choice but to review the workload levels and staffing levels within the Primary Care Trust in question. The PCT had to reduce the workload by a staggering 43% overall and take on extra staff to ensure Patient and staff safety.

After our representations the member now feels protected and valued and thankfully is still using her excellent nursing Skills for the NHS (we could so easily have lost her) and the Trust are Fully aware that CDNA will not sit on the sidelines watching poor managerial practices be blamed on innocent members of staff.