UNISON, the UKs largest union, is launching a nationwide survey aimed at gauging the impact of the government’s cuts to local services on women and their families. The timing of the launch coincides with the start of the union’s women’s conference being held in Brighton between 13 -15 February.
Women are at the heart of public services, making up 77% of local government staff. In addition, women are more likely to use public services than men, so they are the first to be affected when services are cut.
Heather Wakefield, UNISON head of local government, said:
“Local councils have been under the cosh since the Conservatives came to power and bit by bit local communities are seeing their services cut or closed. The survey aims to drill down into the impact of these cuts on women across the country.
“We know that women are by far the biggest users of council services so they are the biggest losers when those same services are axed. It is often those with the least that are affected the most by cuts to services. It is a fact that the burden of care for children and the elderly falls mainly on women. When there are cuts to homecare services, children’s centres, libraries, rural bus services, street lighting women’s refuges, public toilets, they are the ones in the firing line.”
Notes to editors
The areas the survey covers includes questions on children’s centres, community centres, sexual violence support services, libraries, leisure services, swimming pools parks etc, as well as local bus services, museums, street cleaning etc. It takes 5-10 mins to complete and all answers will be completely anonymous.
It can be found on : https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/womenlgcuts .
