EUROPEAN COMMISSION Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion DG Employment and Social Legislation, Social Dialogue Health, Safety and Hygiene at Work Adopted at the 66th SLIC Plenary Athens, Greece 27 May 2014 Committee of Senior Labour Inspectors (SLIC) Guidelines and how to prepare and carry out a SLIC Campaign Checklist for leading countries Below is a process based description of the activities needed to lead a SLIC campaign. The document presumes that the budget allows for three meetings of a working group for preparation of the campaign. If the budget restricts the number of meetings to two, agreement about goals, target group, scope, materials and methods of the campaign is to be made already during the second working group meeting. Preparations Establish a national organization and project team It is important to decide the national organization of the project. There is need to designate a responsible leading person with mandate to decide economic, factual and organizational issues of the project. For preparation of a SLIC campaign, there is need to establish a national project team within the leading country consisting of persons with different competencies, e.g. One or two persons with deep knowledge in the specific area of safety and health at work One or two labour inspectors with specific competence One person with project leader competence One accountant One information expert Read the Terms of Reference document The Terms of Reference give the frame of the project. The document contains e.g. A list of the nominated members of the working group (project team). Member States that are interested in planning of the campaign have nominated members of the Working Group (WG) by sending in names and contact details to the SLIC Secretariat. A background description
Goals Resources, among them the financial resources and meetings Reporting arrangements References Additional remarks Except for Working Group members nominated by the Member States, it is recommended to invite a representative of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work. Plan in cooperation with the SLIC Secretariat Budget The budget of the project is indicated in the Terms of Reference. However, it is important to know what costs of the project, e.g. interpretation and translation, should be covered by the project budget and what costs could be covered within other budget lines. Especially the distribution of costs between MS and EU must be made clear at an early stage. Exact title of the project It s important to use the exact title of the project in all communications. Number of Working Group (WG) meetings Before making the work plan of the project, find out how many Working Group meetings are planned according to the overall SLIC budget. The WG meetings normally take place during one day. Date and venue for WG meetings Settle the date and venue for the first WG meeting. This meeting normally takes place in Luxembourg. For budgetary reasons, it is suitable to plan also for the other WG-meetings to take place in Luxembourg. It would be useful to preliminary reserve venue for all WG meetings. Make a provisional work plan The provisional work plan is the basis for the budget and for making a realistic planning of the project. In the overall planning, take national holidays and holiday periods into account. The work plan should include preliminary dates or periods and the activities to take place. Allow enough time for preparation, layout, translation, checking of translations and printing of materials and for performance and reporting of the campaign. Include time for tendering of services and conference facilities. It s recommended to plan for training of those who are to perform the campaign on EU-level and national level and for a summing-up conference. Include time for setting up a campaign website on EU-level.. Perform the first WG meeting for presenting the Terms of Reference and discussion of the provisional work plan goals target groups scope, legal aspects of the campaign and what stakeholders on a European level that could be involved in the campaign. It is recommended, during the meeting, to prepare the collection of documents needed to be included in the grant application, e.g. letters of commitment and CV:s of the partners.
The work plan shall be agreed to be included in the grant application. Make a project budget Read carefully the financial guidelines for EU projects. Of great importance is to know the size of the financial contribution of the applicant organization. There is need to include the national costs of the project in the budget of the applicant organization, especially as the project will induce staff costs during three budgetary periods. Plan for a great involvement of staff with the specific competence needed. The costs are normally divided into the headings: Staff costs (=normally the financial contribution of the applicant) Travel and subsistence allowances Costs of services (e.g. information, translation, publication and interpretation) Administration costs (e.g. hire of rooms and interpreting booths) Because of the limited Commission resources for translation, it is recommended to include translation costs in the project budget. Send in application for funding of the project Fill in the Application for funding template. The major parts of the application consist of the budget and the work plan. The main activities of the work plan should be described. It is important to plan the timetable of the project, so that all initial and summing-up and reporting costs will be included. Before sending the application, signed by the responsible person, it is recommended to send a draft application informally to the SLIC Secretariat for comments. Information to all MS Try to inform and get input from all MS during the planning process. This can be done by giving information at SLIC/WG Enforcement meetings. Perform the second WG meeting for decision of goals, target groups and scope of the campaign and for discussion of materials and methods. But also decision about stakeholders. Agreement on goals, target groups and scope of the campaign is a base for the further discussions on performance of the campaign. Materials and methods need to be presented and discussed at the meeting. It is recommended to send the documents concerning materials and methods electronically to the WG-members before the WG meetings or to use the CIRCA system. Perform the third WG meeting concerning decision of materials and methods. Agreement on materials and methods is necessary to allow time for preparation and translation of campaign materials. It is recommended to discuss a campaign logotype, the layout of the materials and what language versions are needed.
During this last WG-meeting, it is recommended to agree on the performance of the campaign and the contents of the training and conferences. But also about templates for both interim and final reports including indicators. The more precise indicators, the more useful they will be! After the meeting, send out an invitation to nominate contact persons of each Member State and invitation to propose contributions to the training session and the summing up conference. Make and send out a list of the contact persons of each Member State. Organize the logistics of training session and summing up conference The venue should be tendered and booked as soon as possible. It is most convenient to organize the event in a centrally situated hotel with conference facilities. Accommodation Book a hotel to accommodate all participants; this facilitates transit if the meeting is not held at the same place. Conference Facilities Consider how many rooms will be needed. A larger room is required for all delegates and to accommodate the interpretation booths. Also consider how many rooms are required for working groups and conference secretariat. Meeting room / translation booth The room should meet the rules of working conditions of the Commission to install the booths (see requirements from the Commission). Audio-visual requirements Consider and provide for audio-visual requirements. Have a computer with projection. Put all presentation into the computer in advance of the meeting and check the compatibility of software. Arrange for technical assistance during the meeting in case of any failure. Arrange for recording of the event. It is generally better to contract a communications company managing the various services needed to hold the meeting. Interpretation services during the meeting Simultaneous interpretation services normally in the 3 procedural languages English, French and German are to be provided for as well as Italian, Spanish and the language of the hosting country. Pass the texts of speeches and background documents to the team of interpreters at least one week in advance of the event. Documents for participants If the meeting will include parallel sessions i.e. working groups during the meeting ask participants to confirm which working group they are going to attend in advance. Allow 2 weeks before the date of the meeting, to photocopy the documents needed e.g. program, list of participants, presentations and background documents. Prepare and translate campaign materials Prepare the campaign materials in English with an attractive layout. Consider what language versions of the materials are needed.
Translation of documents to English may be done by the SLIC Secretariat. Translation services in the European Commission need the documents two months in advance of the date of the meeting to allow time for the translation Tender and contract translation services. Send the translated materials for language checking to the contact persons of each country. Organize printing according to the work plan. Prepare and publish a campaign website Consider establishment of a campaign website for presenting campaign documents and current information about the campaign. This discussion should be initiated at least at the second WG meeting. Disseminate information about the website address to the contact persons of the Member States. Perform training Perform training of national project leaders in order to reach a common understanding of the objectives and means of the campaign. Take the proposals from the Member States concerning training program into account. Establish and communicate a timetable to the Member States specifying the time for key activities e.g. deadlines for contributions and translation of documents. Present the campaign materials and methods. Send the invitation to speakers as soon as possible. Invite active researchers and practitioners in the area of the campaign to give background presentations. Prepare the training materials in such a way as to facilitate further training in the Member States. Don t forget to evaluate the event according to the demands of the grant agreement. Prepare reporting templates In order to facilitate the planning, performance and reporting of the campaign, the reporting templates should be prepared at an early stage, preferably before the campaign starts. This includes the chosen indicators. It is recommended to discuss the reporting during the WG meetings and the training. Performance of the campaign Perform the campaign according to national priorities and conditions in all member states Depending on the economic situation and national priorities of the Member States, the activities of the campaigns vary between the years and countries. It is up to each country to plan and perform their national campaigns, but with support from the leading country. Support the member states during the campaign It s the responsibility of the leading country to support and advise the Member States concerning planning, performance and reporting of the campaign. Make short interim reports to be published on the campaign website
Consider organizing short interim reporting during the campaign year. These reports might help colleagues in other countries and give a possibility to follow the progress of the campaign. Reporting of the campaign Country reports according to templates The country report templates should be easily available for the contact persons. The representatives of the leading country should be available for giving advice and explanations during the reporting period. There is need to clearly state the deadline for reporting. Prepare a preliminary campaign report Compile the data of the reports from the Member States in a quantitative and qualitative way. The report may contain: Background description Preparation of the campaign incl. WG meetings Performance of the campaign quantitatively Performance of the campaign qualitatively Assessment (evaluation) Conclusions including success factors (internal/external) Recommendations When it comes to evaluation an agreement exists that it is not the responsibility of the leading country to assess the impact of the campaign. Perform a final (summing-up) conference Give the participating Member States an opportunity to make suggestions concerning the conference program. It s important to present experiences and good examples of the campaign and to enlighten the need for further activities in the area. Finalize the campaign report Finalize the campaign report by adding the experiences and recommendations presented during the final conference to the report. Take comments of the Member States concerning the report into account. Report according to the grant agreement Prepare the report according to the grant agreement incl. the financial report. Update the project website Update the project website by adding reports and materials presented by the Member States. The website should be kept available for a suitable number of years.
Appendix - timetable When What Responsible Year -1 Propose a theme All SLIC/WG Decide a theme and WG SLIC Plenary including a leading country Year 1 Preparations WG for the campaign Year 2 Performance of the MS campaign Year 3 Reporting the campaign MS, leading country