Compass gets the point of learning

Private health firm Compass Group is to formally recognise and support union learning reps, after negotiating a workplace learning agreement with public services union UNISON.

The move – which builds on the union’s work with Compass on English as a Second Language courses at five London hospitals – was facilitated by a 2005 national agreement to apply the NHS’s “Agenda for Change” pay and conditions system to staff in private health companies operating NHS contracts.

Welcoming the new agreement, which also provides for UNISON-owned training provider Careconnect Learning to run a learning resource centre in London’s Charing Cross Hospital, UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis said: “Learning reps will be able to assess the training needs of people in every job, although they will focus on staff who may have been excluded from learning and have low literacy or numeracy levels.”