Blackwood – Fair Work First Statement

Blackwood works with elected representatives from Unite who are our recognised Trade Union. 

Blackwood encourages employee to have their say through a mixture of individual and collective channels. This involves opportunities for employees to speak directly to management or indirectly through Unite. The organisation uses a number of approaches to employee voice, for example, consultation groups and surveys, as well as informal channels such as team meetings and social channels such as Viva Engage.

Blackwood is committed to investing in its workforce. Blackwood has an in-house Learning and Development team who are focused on identifying learning priorities across the organisation.

On an individual basis, the team ensure that individuals know how to access opportunities to support their personal development and on an organisational basis the priority is identifying and building the current and future skills that Blackwood needs to realise its vision of ‘helping people live their lives to the full’.

Blackwood utilises workers who do not have set hours (relief workers). The agreement with workers means that Blackwood has no obligation to offer hours and relief workers have no obligation to accept the hours offered. This type of agreement is used responsibly with many of our relief workers choosing to work this way to give them greater say in terms of when they work to fit around commitments such as education. 

Blackwood actively takes steps to create a more diverse and inclusive workplace. There are a number of employee representative groups, for example, invisible disabilities, unpaid carer groups and we are currently in the process of launching our Young People’s Forum. We actively support and encourage employees to create and participate in groups that support equality, diversity and Inclusion in the workplace.

We deliver Equality, Diversity and Inclusion training to our line managers as we believe this training is essential to creating an environment where all employees feel respected and treated fairly.

Blackwood has a number of accreditations that externally support our approach to improving equality and diversity, for example, Investors In Young People (Gold) and Disability Confident accreditation.

Blackwood is committed to paying the Scottish Living Wage as a minimum for all employees.

Blackwood prides itself on being a ‘flexible’ employer and we offer a number of flexible working options to our employees although these do vary depending on the suitability of the role. Many of our jobs are advertised on a flexible basis, for example, hybrid or options in relation to full time or part time hours which are available from day 1 of employment.

Blackwood does not use ‘fire and re-hire practices’.

Blackwood will continue to work with employees and Unite to identify where we can make improvements to fair working practices and our employee experience.

Blackwood has a clear and defined set of values that provide a framework for Blackwood’s culture and decision making, this framework is embedded into ‘the way we do things’ and as a result underpins our approach to the maintenance and development of Fair Working Practices.

For and on behalf of Blackwood Homes and Care

June 2024.