Amanda Hoyle: Case study of an award-winning case handler

Amanda Hoyle, a full-time rep at Prospect’s Sellafield branch, talks about the challenges and rewards of handling personal cases, and reveals the best thing about winning her Organising Award at National Conference in June.

Amanda Hoyle accepting her award for case handling from Prospect President Ele Wade at National Conference this year

I started at Sellafield in 2000, 26 years ago, and my first job was at the visitors’ centre as a guide back in the good old days when we used to do coach tours for the public around the site. All that stopped after 9/11.

From there I went into HR and worked as part of the recruitment team for a few years before going into Business Improvements, where I stayed for quite some time.

I’ve now come full circle and back into ‘employee relations’ in my current role as a full-time rep and Case Handling Lead.

Becoming a rep

At first, I was an agency worker before becoming staff around 2005/2006,  and on the induction we were given a talk about the unions and what the unions did, so that’s when I joined.

Later, I worked with somebody, while I was in Business Improvements, and they were a rep. They said, “Oh, you’d be a really good rep.” And I thought, “OK, I’ll give it a try; I’m always up for a challenge!”

I started as a safety rep about 10 years ago and then I got a bit more involved in the different meetings;  because I was a trained mental health first aider, I thought I could probably be OK with handling personal cases. That’s how I got started, and it’s developed from there.

Eventually, I was more interested in doing the case work more than my day job! So that’s when I knew it was time for a change.

So, I became a full-time rep a few years ago, predominantly focusing on cases and then worked up to being the case lead within the office.

I get a real satisfaction from being a rep.

When I was a safety rep, it was making sure everyone’s safe and that everyone gets home safely. Obviously, on a nuclear site, it’s really important.

Then the more I got into handling cases, it was around helping people and making sure procedures are followed to make sure fairness prevails.

I had the need in one of my previous roles where we needed support from the union, it was something where our whole team was affected, and I found the support we got from Prospect  really helpful. It was good to have somebody in your corner.

It was something I could see myself doing because I like helping people and making sure that things are done fairly and that processes are followed.

Handling cases

Our Sellafield branch has 5,000-plus members and we handled about 240 cases last year, which I think we’ll surpass this year. We’ve had one month already where we had 26 cases.

Obviously, I don’t do them all myself. We’ve got other full-time reps that handle some and we have some trained case handlers who take cases on as an aside to their day jobs.

In terms of the most common issues, I would say there are a number of things.

Performance management is quite a big one especially around April time when everyone gets their ratings for the year. Then, there are issues around shifts, shift pay, allowances, people coming back off sick leave and that kind of thing.

Redeployment is quite a big one right now because a lot of people are being redeployed as there are a few areas going through restructures etc.

It’s always nice when you’ve helped people out and the next time they see you, they’re like, “Oh, you were great and thanks for helping me.” It’s really nice to have that appreciation.

There are six of us as full-time reps and we’re a close-knit team. If we’ve got something difficult that we’re dealing with, the others are always there to lean on. We’ve got each other’s backs in here and if one of us has got a problem, it’s everyone’s problem. Having that support really helps as it can be quite a stressful role.

Finding more case handlers

I’ve found that a lot of the case handlers we have trained are people who have previously had cases with us. That’s how I started too because I had that case as part of the team.

I think somebody who has had that lived experience will make a good case handler and sometimes it sells itself, if you like.

I’ve got a case at the moment, I’ve been helping this member for quite a while, and it’s around discrimination. He said, “As soon as this is finished and we’ve got to the end of this grievance, I want to train to become a rep” That’s brilliant as they have the personal experience which they have learned from.

It’s not for everybody. It absolutely isn’t. There are people who do the training, they’ll do a case and then they’ll think “this isn’t for me.” That’s fine because it’s not everybody’s cup of tea.

At Prospect National Conference 2026 Amanda won an Organising Award for Case Handling

I couldn’t believe that. My colleagues nominated me for it because they’re always saying that I need to switch off. I don’t work on Fridays, but nine times out of 10, I do.

If there’s a case that needs attention, I’ll say, “Oh, well, I’m not in, but I’ll spare an hour.”

I have had good feedback from the newly trained case handlers, and I’m a mentor to them, that’s probably one of the reasons I was nominated.

I do try to help people but I don’t expect anything for it. I absolutely didn’t expect that award. They kept it a secret from me until it was announced at Conference!

I think the nicest thing for me was my daughter, she’s 19 and not very forthcoming with compliments! For her to say, “I’m really proud of you, mum” meant a lot to me.

I was like, like, “Wow, thanks.” You’ve never said anything like that before!

Being on the NEC

This was another challenge for me. I’ve heard Audrey Uppington talk a lot about the NEC and their role within Prospect and it got my interest.

When Audrey retired, I thought, it was something that I would potentially like to do and learned more about it being part of the Prospect’s Women’s Leadership group.

I was quite surprised when I was elected because I didn’t think I was that well known! It’s early days, I only came down to my first NEC in July. It’s going to be a learning curve for me but I’m finding it very interesting so far.