So this is the second day of my start at my placement, I
will be not be naming it here to lessen the chance of blowback. On my first day
I got in early not necessarily by choice that is just the train timetable
crumbles. I was the third person to get in before me were two other members of
staff both of whom had no idea I was coming and were definitely not prepared
for me.
Then the manager came in and things… pretty much stayed the
same. I spent hours just waiting for a tour of the office. At no point did they
sit me down and talk to me about what they expected me to do, they were
incredibly vague.
The manager barely acknowledged me the whole time when she
wanted me to do something did she come to me and explain? No she went to
another member of staff in my hearing telling them what I should do it was
incredibly rude and made me feel like I was worthless.
I was told that everyone would muck in on the less desirable
tasks and then got a taste of those tasks when I was taking some documents
downstairs to a classroom got handed the manager’s glass of water to take down
with me. Maybe I made too much of it but it just felt wrong.
Oh and here is where we get into the rules and regulation
stuff. To fully understand the import of this we need to go back to before the
placement last week Monday when I was at Seetec and the Manager sprang the fact
that I had a placement on me without warning. Now some of you out there have a
tingle of where this is going but let me lay it out for the rest.
If you ever get sent to a Work Programme or Community Work
Placement Provider or like me if you do the double because you did something
unspeakable in a past life THE MOST IMPORTANT THING to remember is DO NOT SIGN
the data waiver. The data waiver is this form in the case of Seetec that is at
the back of the booklet you get to keep that tells you all about the wonderful
things Seetec will do for you, if you read the small print you will realise
that if signed will authorise Seetec to do whatever they want with your CV and
personal information leaving little real comeback for you.
As far as I know you can revoke the data waiver later I
think it is in the regulations but you’ll learn that the DWP and Work Programme
Providers (WPPs) only ever use the rules and regulations that benefit them and
do the best to hide the ones that protect you.
So I did not sign the data waiver both times I went to
Seetec so that means that they cannot share my information with third parties,
that is a bit legalese so you probably want an example of what a third party
is, a placement for the Community Work Programme is a third party so when the
Seetec Manager handed me my letter/Job Seekers’ Direction and said “the manager
was very excited to have you at the placement after seeing your CV” I knew that
yet again Seetec had done something very, very wrong AGAIN.
Seetec should never have shared my CV with the placement I
got sent to, they broke laws in doing so, Seetec never should have kept a copy
of my CV I made it clear to them on a number of occasions in WRITING that I did
not consent to them holding a copy of my CV. What they should have done is got in
contact with me and asked me to send my CV to the placement, of course I could
have refused but wouldn’t as I find that 5 attempts at wrongful sanctions in
two years is probably as much as I can take without just giving up. However it
seems Seetec much like the DWP who referred me to the CWP without informing me
of my write to appeal just don’t do rules.
There is more to be said next time perhaps I will write more
about the actual experience of CWP and whether this placement is helping me to
learn new skills or is based around my preferred job type. Got questions about
something you didn’t understand then just leave a comment and I’ll get back to
you if I can answer or at least try to point you in a direction that can help.
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