Following the success of the Time of Our Lives project in Bristol, PCS and other civil service unions and the Inland Revenue have set up an ambitious pilot in the Sussex area, using TUC expertise to develop a web-based best practice guide.

The Government expects Inland Revenue offices to become more ‘customer focused’, with some evening and Saturday opening for selected offices. The challenge is to do this with staff support – and in a way that gives staff increased options that suit their lives as well as make better use of IT resources.

An innovative feature of the pilot Our Time project is the introduction of learning centres* in three of the area offices, which will provide free on-line learning opportunities through the PCS Learning Services and learndirect. Staff will have:

• Free access to computers during the working day for both vocational and non-vocational courses. Agreed guidelines will set out the learning that staff can access in work time.
• Other courses will be available during the working day but access will be part of the flexi-time agreement – so for example staff could learn a language or even bee-keeping at any time during the day, subject to service needs.
• TUC Education through the local college providing additional opportunities for staff and through working with local PCS learning reps.

* for a sample plan on 'Setting up a learning centre', have a look at The Changing Times publication – order now