20 – 21 September 2021
Virtual Event
2021 Virtual Special Health Conference
UNISON’s lay democracy is at the heart of everything we do. In the past year the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant effect on how we organise our union. Although we are unable to hold our Health Service Group Conference in the normal way, UNISON’s Health Service Group Executive Committee has agreed to hold a Special Health Service Group Conference online on Monday 20 September to Tuesday 21 September 2021.
Special Health Service Group Conference may look and feel very different to what we are used to, but the Executive Committee feels that it is important to give our members and activists a platform to discuss the issues the Service Group faces and use our democratic processes to shape how we work in the future.
The theme of the special conference is: Supporting staff after the pandemic and motions should be submitted via the OCS on the following four topics:
- Ensuring safety at work and supporting health and wellbeing
- Treating staff fairly and tackling discrimination
- Protecting members from the impact of the pandemic through defending and improving pay, terms, and conditions
- Securing work-life balance, managing workload, and restoring staffing levels
Motions will be debated on a virtual platform. Speakers will need to be identified and nominated in advance – please give some thought to who this may be.
Further information on speakers will be sent to relevant branches when priorities have been agreed.
The conference bulletin will have further information on motion submission from the SOC and submission deadlines.
Delegates should be registered as normal through the OCS.
The pandemic continues to place significant pressure on our branches and activists and in these unprecedented circumstances it is understandable that attendance at the Special Health Service Group Conference may be affected.
After the deadline for branch registration has passed, an assessment will need to be made. If the quorum and/or our rule book obligations on proportionality and fair representation are unlikely to be met, the National Executive Committee, in consultation with the Service Group reserves the right to postpone the event until such time we can comply with these obligations.
Health Service Group Special report 2021
The Health Service Group ordinarily reports to the annual UNISON health conference on progress made against the objectives set by conference. In this extraordinary year, in between health conferences, the Health Service Group Executive produced a special report to provide additional information and reporting to UNISON health branches on the work done to support members in health employers during the course of the pandemic, particularly the strands of work not planned for at last health conference.
A full annual report, tabled as part of the full conference agenda, will be provided to the next full UNISON health conference.
Please click on the link below to download the document.