Welsh Government rep who helped police the lockdown

Haydn Bradley-Davies, trade union side secretary at the Welsh Government and Prospect health and safety rep, writes about policing through the lockdown, helping members through the pandemic and his brushes with royalty.

Special constable Haydn Bradley-Davies

Outside of work, I’m a special constable, which means I’ve got the same powers as a regular police officer.

At the start of the lockdown, the Welsh government very kindly and generously offered to let me take two months of paid leave to go out and police my local community in Aberystwyth.

There was a plea from the Home Office and the National Police Chief’s Council for special constables to be released, not just from civil service departments, but private businesses too.

We gave out tickets where we had to and there was a little bit of cheekiness here and there, but otherwise people were very responsive and understanding.

At Aberystwyth, we’ve got a lovely beach and it was good weather throughout lockdown, but people weren’t allowed to be on the beach. The newly discovered loud hailer on our police van came in handy asking people to vacate the beach! One of my favourite excuses for breaking the lockdown was someone who needed to buy a fish tank.

I said to them, “Do you think that’s essential?” They replied, “Well, the fish have got nowhere to live…”

I let them go on their way, but to have put that excuse on a ticket would have been interesting!

Welsh government work

After two months, I came back to work at the Welsh Government and everyone was now working from home. It was a big culture change.

We’ve got a unique way of doing things in Wales. We’ve got a trade union side where all three unions – PCS, Prospect and the FDA/Keystone – work together in one umbrella body that delivers the trade union message across the whole organisation.

My day job at the Welsh Government is the trade union side secretary, so I organise all the trade union side meetings, all the meetings with management, and things like that.

A lot of my work lately, however, has been on health and safety and ensuring the safe return to our offices for colleagues. I’m also working with colleagues in inspectorates to ensure they can return to work safely.

I’ve always been either in the office or traveling to other Welsh Government offices, and it had all suddenly stopped.

I found new ways of connecting with people in Cardiff and across Wales, especially with Prospect members. We’ve all got laptops and Microsoft Teams now.

Before I was the only person on the screen in Aberystwyth and there was a room full of people in Cardiff. Now it’s equal because we’re all on the screen!

We really noticed that the wall between our main office in Cardiff and the regional offices has broken down as a result of that, which is a really good thing. It’s been noticed at the most senior levels and they don’t want that ‘wall’ to return.

That whole period, around July, adjusting to the new ways of working was a steep learning curve but I think, personally and professionally I have come out stronger. As an organisation too I think we are far better connected than we ever have been, this is replicated on our Prospect Branch too.

Prospect

As well as being the trade union side secretary, I’ve also taken over a lot of the Prospect facility time from my predecessor who moved into a business-critical post, so I’m doing a lot of personal cases at the moment. In addition, I am the Prospect Young Workers’ rep and health and safety rep.

I was doing a personal case with someone who was based in Dubai, where we have a Welsh Government office.

I don’t think Prospect or Welsh Government would have paid me to go to Dubai, but the way we would have connected previously, just on the phone, you wouldn’t have that face-to-face connection.

Haydn Bradley-Davies

We’ve got a very good relationship with the Welsh government and they’re keen to show partnership working inside their own organisation and for this to then be projected out into Wales.

All three unions will be attending a pilot social partnership training arranged by the business very soon and I am looking forward to that. It really shows how seriously our employer takes working in partnership with unions. This pilot will hopefully become a course that can be rolled out across Wales.

The branch does a lot over email, but we try to make sure we meet face-to-face regularly on Microsoft Teams meetings because it’s just nice to see everyone. Plus, it gives you that five or 10 minutes at the start, or the end, just to have that quick friendly catch up and see how everyone’s doing.

Childcare has probably been one of the biggest issues through the year because of people working from home. We all work on flexible hours, so if you couldn’t do your full hours over the first lockdown and you drifted into debit, the employer would just top you up if you had childcare issues. They’ve been very generous and understanding.

We’ve also been looking at the equipment for working from home. We were all shunted into our homes without all the kit. It took a while for our employer to get the equipment out but after we, as the trade union side, raised this with them, staff now have the opportunity to have the right desks and chairs at home. This all came out of partnership working between us and our employer. The whole situation of the pandemic has exemplified that strong partnership working we have in Welsh Government.

Prior to being elected as trade union side secretary in April, I had not worked in a full-time trade union post before. So, I started pretty much just as the coronavirus was becoming a major problem here.

Obviously, I had done some trade union things before, but never full-time and never previously taken on a ‘proper’ personal case. Finding my way around and helping members through these difficult times is something I’m really proud of.

Royal Experiences

I’ve had quite a varied career across the Welsh government before I became the trade union side secretary. I joined as an apprentice and started in our Museums, Archives and Libraries division. I was doing corporate governance work for them.

Then I moved into a strategic project for four years, where we were working on the First World War commemorations. It was an amazing opportunity; we organised lots of events across the UK, Wales and internationally. I’ve had lots of opportunities to travel abroad.

Prince Charles came to one of the events. It was a real privilege that he came along. The security aspects were a bit complicated, but we got through it!

I went to London for the national service of remembrance in 2018, which was very poignant. The Queen was there too. It was very sombre, but a unique experience that I’ll never forget.