Why I am here today

Why I am here today• During this session I will be taking you through the

services available from CUSN and what you will experience if you use them.

• Our services are available 24/7, every day of the year and are completely free and confidential.

• We will then do a goal setting exercise that will help you to order your thoughts and identify a course of action.

• Although I am not a trained counsellor or coach our support team have been briefed about this session and are aware that they may receive calls about it afterwards.

• They are trained to deal with situations such as this and have had experience doing so.

What is CUSN?• CUSN is the charity established by Teacher Support

Network, in partnership with UCU to improve the wellbeing and effectiveness of all working in the adult, further and higher education sectors.

• CUSN now provides free and confidential services to serving, former and retired staff plus employees and former employees of UCU, AUT and Natfhe.

• Your dependants and family are also able to access our services and can call the Support Line.

Our services• 24/7 Support Line – 08000 32 99 52

– Financial assistance.– Money and financial advice and support.– Counselling and emotional support.– Coaching and mentoring.

• Website - www.cusn.info– InfoCentre with over 700 factsheets.– Ask A Question.– Online coaching.– Regular e-newsletter.

Coaching process• Caller emails or calls the Support Line.• If they are assessed by the adviser as someone who would

benefit from ongoing work on an issue or make a request they will begin the coaching process.

• Coaching is suitable for issues where the individual needs assistance with changing the way they usually approach a particular set of circumstances.

• Coaching draws on an individuals own coping and conceptual skills to change their approach to situations.

• The coach will then send an initial email explaining coaching and to fix a time for an initial discussion.

Coaching process• The coach will then talk through the issue with the caller

and then ask them to set small goals and work on them between sessions.

• Our advisors will also work through the issue with you to make sure there are not other things you may need assistance with.

• For example if you are struggling to manage your workload this may be effecting your personal relationships and be making you feel stressed and depressed.

Counselling• When a caller presents with a major trauma they are

assessed on the basis of the content of the interview and against a 9-item screening questionnaire.

• If the results show that they require an intervention they will be referred to a counsellor.

• Counselling will be at a regular time either weekly or fortnightly through agreement with the counsellor.

• Counselling will be for six sessions and is always via the phone.

• Emergency counselling is available for critical cases.

Grants process• There are basic eligibility requirements for a grant. • No charity can provide funds for an item that should be

funded by the state. • To be eligible to apply you must:

– Be living in the UK.– Have less than £6,000 in savings.– Have worked in a University or College for a minimum

of 2 days a week and have been there for a term.• We cannot pay grants for:

– Debts.– Education and training costs.– Medical equipment or private medical care.– Where debts are over £5,000, money adviser must look

at the application. 

Grants process• The application form will require you to fill in an income and

expenditure statement and provide evidence to verify it. • The application will then be assessed. If we are unable to

approve it our committee will review the application and may then refer you to other sources of assistance.

• If this happens our advisors can still help you with budgeting and managing your debt or finding other sources of assistance.

• They are CAB trained and can talk you through things such as what benefits you are entitled to e.g. job seekers, how to prioritise your debts and how you should best approach your creditors.

• If you are eligible an award of the grant will be done in a number of ways depending on the reason for the application.

Grants and money advice• Those who are not eligible for CUSN support are

referred to Turn2Us in order to find alternative sources of support.

• Between July 2008 – July 2009 we gave over £50,000 in one-off grants to colleagues in extreme financial difficulties.

• Many more have received professional one-to-one money advice through the CUSN Support Line.

• None of this would be possible without UCU and its members.

• Over 15,000 members have donated to CUSN and without this support we would not be able to provide critical services to you and your colleagues.

Case study - Working relationships• Sarah is a 47 year old lecturer who has been in the

same post for the past 19 years. • A couple of months ago she was told by a close work

colleague that she was difficult to communicate with.

• She was called into her manager’s office to be told that a group of students had said the same thing.

• As a result of these two events Sarah was feeling very self conscious and was concerned about the way others perceived her.

• They explored the comments she was given and the coach asked what she could do to resolve the issue?

• Sarah felt that she couldn’t just forget this and needed to put some closure on it.

Working relationships• The coach went on to ask how this could be

achieved; exploring similar situations that Sarah may have experienced in the past and been able to resolve successfully.

• In the end Sarah said that she felt the only way to put closure on this was to address the matter further with her manager and talk it through rather than ignoring it.

• By going through the process Sarah felt she was now able to clearly explain her thoughts and feelings and was confident about approaching her manager.

• She was also able to reflect on her opinions and to decide what option she was most comfortable with to move forward and resolve the situation.

Case study - Financial issues• Julia is 39 and is a teacher at a sixth form college.

Her current salary was only just covering the cost of living so she also offers additional private tuition to supplement her income.

• Earlier this year she had an accident which resulted in a broken leg and ten weeks off work, meaning that her additional income from private tuition was cancelled.

• After struggling to keep up with payments on a loan she had taken out to repair her car and pay various bills, Julia had to take out more loans to keep up payments.

• She was now over £3,000 in debt with interest being charged at rates between 300 and 2,300 per cent.

Financial issues• Julia spoke to a specialist money advisor from

CUSN who helped her to accurately record her income and outgoings to see where she was spending money, if it was possible to make savings, and establish whether she qualified for a grant from CUSN.

• She was advised to contact her local Credit Union for a preferential loan to cover the cost of her payday loans and try to keep interest payments to a minimum.

• CUSN also gave advice on how to negotiate with her creditors to make her payments more manageable.

Financial issues• We were also able to give Julia a grant of £250 to

cover some of her immediate priority debts like the council tax and part of the mortgage payment.

• This enabled her to stop taking any further loans out and gave her some breathing space until the next salary payment at the end of the month.

• With the help of CUSN, Julia was able to negotiate with her creditors and organise a way to pay back the debt that she could manage and eventually become debt free again.

Goal setting exercise

MoneyChildren

Self esteem

Friendships

Relationships with colleagues

Relationship with partner

Physical health

Family

Label each part of the wheel with an aspect of your life that has been affected.

Draw a line across each section to indicate to what extent you have been affected.

Goal setting exerciseYour Goal: Best if expressed in positive language; the aim is identify the wanted outcome.

Specifics: What will you have to do to achieve the goal? (e.g. When? Where? How often? With whom?)

By when will you achieve your goal? Firm dates improve the chances of success

Confidence Level in Achieving Goal

Low 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 High

Measure: How will you know that you have achieved the goal? How can you measure your progress?

Outcome• By clearly identifying the area of your life you

would most like to focus on you should now feel more in control of the situation.

• You have set yourself clear tasks and deadlines to try and resolve this problem. This is a positive step forward and will enable you to feel more motivated to make a change.

• If you have identified an area that you know you need to work on but have indicated that you do not feel very confident our coaches can help.

• They will be able to talk you through the process and suggest ways in which you can tackle it.