Women members
National Women’s Conference
Conference will be held 12-14 February 2026 at ACC Liverpool.
Registration is now open for the 2026 National Women’s Conference. Conference is your opportunity to shape UNISON’s policy on women’s equality issues.
To find out more, please read the Conference Bulletin and last year’s Record of Decisions. 2026 National Women’s Conference | Events | UNISON National
The deadline for submitting motions is 12pm 17 October 2025.
The deadline for registering delegates is 12pm 20 November 2025.
Parental leave
As part of the Employment Rights Bill, the government consulted on parental leave. UNISON’s response is clear – current entitlements fall short and reform is long overdue.
Read UNISON’s full consultation response here.
Parental leave survey
To inform our consultation response, UNISON surveyed members of childbearing age who had taken parental leave. Thank you to everyone who participated. Your insights have been shared with the government and will shape our future campaigning.
Look out for a follow up survey on this topic, delivered in conjunction with Maternity Action, which will help us to take this work to the next level.
Young Women’s Network
Join us at the inaugural young women’s network meeting on 3rd October to share your thoughts on how to remove barriers to participation for young women.
UNISON young women’s network meeting. Please complete this form to register.
Disabled members
Disabled members branch officer training November 2025
6 November 202510:00am–4:00pm
Are you a disabled members branch officer or contact or a disabled member who wants to get more active in your branch? Join us for the one day disabled members branch officer training.
This training is for disabled members and will focus on:
- Working for disability equality in UNISON.
- Role of branch disabled members officer or contact.
- Bargaining for workplace reasonable adjustments.
- Disability campaigning and organising in your branch.
- Support and resources.
- It’s also a great networking opportunity!
The course is delivered online via Microsoft Teams on Thursday 6 November and lasts one full day, 10am – 4pm, with short breaks.
Registration and more information
Young members
Young Members Conference is coming!
In November young members from across the union will assemble in Brighton to debate the issues that are important to them. The deadlines have passed for registering delegates to young members’ conference, but we’ll soon be opening nominations for delegates who want to represent young members at other UNISON conferences, the TUC young workers conference 2026, and for the Eric Roberts award – given annually in celebration of young members showing excellence in campaigning and organising. Check out the conference page at https://www.unison.org.uk/events/2025-nymc/
Retired members
Training
We are very pleased to provide another update on the branch retired training package. We ran online and hybrid pilot sessions in July and September, both of which were very well attended and engaging. The training package will be officially launched at the national retired members conference in October, and rolled out nationally and regionally in 2026.
Handbook
And yes, yet more good news! The branch retired secretary handbook is being revised and updated, and will also be launched at this year’s national retired member’s conference.
More information will follow on how to sign up for training sessions and how to order the updated handbook.
LGBT+ members
LGBT+ branch officer and contact online training October 2025
15 October 202510:00am–4:00pm
The course is appropriate for LGBT+ branch officers and contacts or for UNISON LGBT+ members who want to find out more about the role and LGBT+ organisation in UNISON.
By the end of the course, you will be able to:
- Define the role of a LGBT+ branch officer or contact.
- Know how to access resources, make useful links and develop strategies for supporting LGBT+ members.
- Identify how to organise and campaign for equality and get equality issues on the bargaining agenda.
This course is delivered online via Microsoft Teams on Wednesday 15 October and lasts one full day, 10am – 4pm, with short breaks.
Registration and more information
Black members
New resources
Please scroll to the bottom of the Black member’s equality page to access the most recently uploaded resources.